Lullaby

by Jonathan Maberry, Scott Brick (Narrator)

The fears and horrors of being a new parent take on a shocking dimension in in this heart-stopping original story, only from Audible. A young married couple, Matt and Gillian have just bought a gorgeous house located next to a lake in the Catskills. They want to escape the hustle and bustle of the city to raise their baby girl, Hope, in relative peace and quiet. When night falls, however, their dream home becomes a house of nightmares. Matt and Gillian soon learn that darkness takes many forms. And sometimes, darkness is hungry.

New York Times best-selling author and Bram Stoker Award winner Jonathan Maberry delivers a haunting Audible Original that will give listeners the Halloween creeps all year round. Scott Brick, the man with the golden voice, perfectly captures the experience of hearing a classic ghost story told around the campfire.

This product features adult language and themes.

Listening Length: 37 minutes

©2018 Jonathan Maberry (P)2018 Audible Originals, LLC.

Genres: Horror, Audiobook, Fiction, Short Stories, Thriller, Ghosts, Supernatural

1 pages, Audible Audio

First published October 14, 2018

About the author

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com

Reviews

[Aerin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audible.com has recently started offering subscribers 2 free "Audible Originals" selections each month, from a selection of about a half dozen. They tend to be short (a few hours or less) and don't always follow the format of an "audiobook" - Dennis Kelly's incredible Girls & Boys is a one-woman play, and Esther Perel's Where Should We Begin? is a set of couples-therapy recordings. So far, my experience with them has been hit-or-miss, and this one was a definite miss.

It's a short story - very short - about a young couple that moves into an isolated old house. They are warned the house is haunted; they ignore the warning. Everything is fine until they have a baby, at which point a moderately creepy thing happens. Then, the moderately creepy thing reoccurs a few times. At the end, the same moderately creepy thing happens yet again. The story concludes with the protagonists screaming and me being annoyed that I wasted half an hour.

I will never understand the appeal of these totally incurious horror stories. The house is said to be haunted - but no one bothers to ask by whom or what happened there. The characters see a scary image - but they have no interest in learning what the entity is or what it wants. The scary thing happens again - and nobody tries to find out what's causing it or how to stop it. The author clearly doesn't care about this story, so why should I?

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

A free Audible Original for October 2018.

A dark little story about a haunted house. The narration was excellent, (Scott Brick), and the story was okay-it just wasn't dark enough to please this dark heart.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
Audiobook narrated by Scott Brick 37m An Audible original selection for October, Lullaby was a nice spooky treat but I felt more sadness at the end than terror.

[Carole (Carole's Random Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good haunted house story. I thought that the narration was very well done and added to the suspense of the story. I found it rather entertaining and well done for a short piece.

Book source: Audible freebie

[donna backshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it's no Bird Box, but it's stylish and creepy. It was an excellent companion on my hellish drive to work, because anything that takes my mind off the utter terror of my commute is a welcomed distraction.

[Rachel Aranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m shocked at how much I liked this book. It was a perfect pick for what I was looking for: short ghost story with the bonus of a spooky sounding narrator.

[Soo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short story on Audible Original. The narration was great but the story did not pull me in or feel haunted.

[Rafael · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 to be fair, this short story is a spooky one about a hand that rocks a cradle, a dark entity habits their house and seams to be fond with their first born giving this family a thrilling experience, wasn’t that bad for a short story for Halloween and one worthy to tell in front of a camping fire.

[Latasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

At just 37 minutes, this story is great and really creepy. Scott Brick reads it so you know he is great. all around a good listen :)

[Mary Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a fan of Audible, Scott Brick needs no introduction. For twelve short chapters, his narration is the perfect blend of calm before the storm, leading you to believe there's nothing to fear. Suddenly, his voice is filled with chilling horror and goosebumps cover your arms. I assumed this would be a great October read and chose LULLABY as a late night listen. As the tropical rains poured against our windows, Maberry's frightening story, combined with Brick's brilliant storytelling, had me pulling the covers over my head and searching for my husband's warmth beside me in bed. If you're looking for a dark campfire story, look no further.

*Audible Original

[Elysa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't remember how this book came to be in my Audible library - I'm guessing it was a free choice I made a couple of years ago. It's short though, so I thought it would be an interesting listen during my walk today.

This story is about a couple soon-to-be parents who move into a beautiful and cheap house with a warning that it's haunted. They seemingly don't believe in hauntings and are pretty content with living in the house by the time their baby is born a month later. That's when things change. It's tough being new parents and these were very loving and protective parents, installing a baby cam so they can keep an eye on baby Hope at all times. However, creepy things happen. The crib rocks, tree shadows form on the walls, there's a big storm outside, etc.

Frankly, I'm pretty convinced this isn't actually a ghost story. There wasn't anything concrete enough which led me to believe paranormal activity was occurring. Instead, it seemed more like a psychological thriller. Like, we were listening in on a tragedy occurring and the characters struggling with intense stress, convincing themselves that it's the fault of the house and a "ghost" because the reality is too devastating.

[Tania · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh... It was short, it was free but it offered nothing new and made no impact.

[Karen’s Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Audible Original story narrated by Scott Brick was one that I'm glad I listened to in the daylight hours. I'm sure I would have been seeing creepy hands in the dark if I had waited until bedtime. At one point, I was whispering outloud, "don't go there, please don't go there!". Maberry went there. Scott Brick was brilliant as always! This was a good spooky tale just in time for Halloween.

[Michelle Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt the ending to be rather weak, but the audiobook was perfectly performed, and it would have been 5* if the very end was tweaked a bit.

Reread: Still like the atmosphere, but wish it was a bit longer.

[Brian McCrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short audio book that had some creepy parts in it. It did give me the chills when they looked on the baby monitor to see .....
Good listen if you have 30 minutes to kill.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose this was a decent little short short that was maybe a wee too short. The narrator did a great job and the story would have suffered without it. Ended up being just ok.

[Sabi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the premise but that's just it. The book only has the premise...


There is no other horror scene other than the ghost rocking the cradle and it feels like there is no conclusion. The book just ends...

[TJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick really creepy great read!

[Anniken Haga · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the free books from Audible this month.

I haven't read anything from the author before, and now I'm not sure I will.
This short was like a collection of cliche expresions and descriptions, which ended up making me roll my eyes a lot.

I also had trouble keeping up with the timeline. Not the story arc, that was really simple and not really surprising at all — part of that was the narrator. Talking in a calm voice when nothing happened and then a "creepy" voice when he started a chapter where something scary was going to happen, spoiling it — but I'm not sure over what timespan it used, as a baby usually don't start laughing before 3—6 months, but it was said the story started when it was maybe a week old?

So, yeah. I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it, at the same time as it was ok—ish

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the free Audible originals for the month of October. The premise sounded interesting, but it wasn't terribly engaging. Despite the short length, I found myself tuning out quite a bit. It wasn't frightening, disturbing, or really successful in evoking any emotion in me whatsoever. Probably would have chosen something else if given the chance.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Audible's new Audible Originals, this is an okay ghost story by horror author Jonathan Maberry. I've read a bit of Maberry's stuff before and thought it was okay, but it didn't blow me away, and that's how I felt about this haunted house story. A couple of new parents find a beautiful, secluded house in the Catskills which the realtor has to disclose to them is "haunted" (only because there's this silly law requiring disclosure about hauntings, hahahah) which is why it's priced far below market value. Well, who could resist a deal like that?

Obviously, it turns out to be a pretty bad deal. This brief horror story is no Edgar Allen Poe classic, and isn't going to leave a lingering impression, but it's a nice bit of October listening.

[Dianna (SavingsInSeconds blog) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This appealed to me because it was only about 45 minutes long. I’m going to have to look for more short stories like this! I got Lullaby as a free Audible book a few months ago. It reads almost like an X-Files story without Scully and Mulder. The writing is perfect. It’s descriptive without being unbelievable, and refined without requiring a dictionary. The narrator was perfect for this book. His voice and rhythm made the story absolutely mesmerizing! I enjoyed every moment of the book and wanted more at the end.

This is a great option for those who want just a little bit of a scary story. Whether you don’t have time to read a lot, or you just want a small dose of fright, try it out! Ghost stories are my favorite, and this was just the perfect amount of spooky for me.

[Barbara (The Bibliophage) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 37-minute haunted house story gave me more creepy feelings than the much-longer similar novella I read in the same week. Maberry creates both strong ambiance and interesting characters in few words. It's a good thing I listened during the day rather than right before sunset! I'll definitely seek out more of Maberry's work now. And the narration from Scott Brick is terrific.

If you love horror and don't want much of a time investment, this is a fun way to connect with the genre.

[Katie (DoomKittieKhan) · Rating 2 out of 5]

A haunted house story that leaves you wanting more. The best part about this was Chapter 3 - Maberry's description of the elements and terrors of the night slowly creeping into the house was exquisite. Otherwise, it is simply not enough..I understand some of that is formatting, but it comes across as major plot holes.

1) Hope seems to be the only target of "the cold"?
2) I guess weather (?!) is the ghostly element?
3) Is the ghost taking care of Hope or did it come in with "the cold"?
4) Did the paranormal activity continue when Gillian and Matt were at the hospital with Hope for 6 weeks? I am sure they didn't stay at the hospital the whole time..so what was going on at the house?
5) Supernatural terror that just doesn't make sense - who is this ghost? Why this house? I need to know!
6) Maybe that is the message? Sometimes bad things (like babies dying) just happen?
7) Negative points for using the line "the hand that rocks the cradle".

[Christine Arella (nee Clack) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it! Scott Brick did a great job narrating this short story about a young couple who buys a house they were forewarned was haunted. 3.5 stars.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure that I was supposed to be scared. The couple seemed irresponsible and silly to me, and the writing reminded me of the RL Stein books my daughter read in middle school.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lame. Glad it was free and under an hour long. Maybe I'll go home, churn out a story just like this in an hour, and see if Audible [un]originals will buy it.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Haunted House Story Falls Short

This is of interest as an exercise to understand what doesn't work in a haunted house story. When the logic failures and the plot holes pile up you just lose faith in the story and it begins to lean into parody territory. I actually missed the twist the first time through as I was tuning out of the story by that time and I had to go back to listen to the last few chapters in order to understand what there was to scream about at the end.

The narration by the always reliable Scott Brick is the only thing that gets this an extra star for a 2 star "it was ok" rating.

This is an Audible Original that is part of their new monthly free giveaways but it wasn't impressive enough to attract me to further works by this author.

[SheriC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entirely predictable haunted house story, but still very enjoyable. The author does a fine job of creating the spooky atmosphere and mood and imagery, even if the plot and characters were a little thin. I think Scott Brick's excellent narration elevates it.

Audiobook short story, free for download as part of their new 2 freebies/month Audible Originals perks for members.

[LaGaryce · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars