Play: A Novel

by m. patrick furry, Spencer David Blair (Narrator)

A slow-burn psychological horror audiobook about insomnia, grief, and the terrifying cost of nostalgia.

Jack Plummer hasn't slept in months. Doctors can't help. Pills don't work. Nights stretch endlessly until exhaustion becomes a way of life. Then, at two in the morning, he finds something a fully stocked, 24-hour VHS rental store in San Francisco — a relic of the past that shouldn't exist anymore. The tapes work. Jack sleeps — deeply, completely — for the first time in years. But the sleep comes with side effects. Lost hours. Blackouts. Memories that don't come back the same way they left. Faces blur. Words vanish. Phone calls are made that Jack can't remember placing. And the more he returns to the store, the more it seems to know exactly what he's lost — and what he's willing to sacrifice to forget.

For fans of slow-build literary horror with atmospheric dread and unreliable narrators.

Audible Audio

Published May 28, 2026

Reviews

[Fetzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the print edition when it came out, full disclosure. When I saw this in n audible I wanted to listen while driving. The story is even trippier when listening to it, and I swear you can actually hear a vcr playing super faintly. SO GOOD!