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Dread: An Appalachian Horror Tale
The debut book of David Grayson is a short one-hour unique mix of mystery, horror and thriller that leaves readers anxious to turn the page.
Synopsis:
An infamous Sanatorium with a bad reputation hidden in the Appalachian mountains. A man who's wrongfully found himself there by the noble actions of his past. As he begins to witness strange events he cannot explain, he soon realises that the true horrors lie not inside his prison walls; but outside in the woods of the mountain. As time starts running out and danger starts to close in, he will have to fight for his freedom and, ultimately, his survival.
ROBINSON ★★★★★ - "It’s a good short read that you can finish in a few hours. The atmosphere outside the asylum is very intriguing and explained very well; you almost feel like you are there yourself. I also like how Ed observed a lot of the key events from his window, it really felt like the story was from his point of view and everything was described very strongly. Would’ve been great if it was a bit longer though."
Chris S.★★★★ - "Very intriguing atmosphere and storyline explained in great detail – I definitely sensed some elements of the movie Wrong Turn in the plot and I think some inspiration has been drawn from it. It’s a good balance of suspense and mystery that makes for an interesting read."
Mikey ★★★★★ - "The suspense in this book is written very well and built up gradually – which is exactly what you want. The storyline is very unique and he’s created a mysterious atmosphere which you feel at times as if you are in it, mainly because it’s very well described and the storyline is explained from the main character’s point of view, who comes off a relatable person in some ways. It makes for a great short horror read – although for me it was more of a suspense/mystery than horror, which actually came as a nice surprise."
Synopsis:
An infamous Sanatorium with a bad reputation hidden in the Appalachian mountains. A man who's wrongfully found himself there by the noble actions of his past. As he begins to witness strange events he cannot explain, he soon realises that the true horrors lie not inside his prison walls; but outside in the woods of the mountain. As time starts running out and danger starts to close in, he will have to fight for his freedom and, ultimately, his survival.
ROBINSON ★★★★★ - "It’s a good short read that you can finish in a few hours. The atmosphere outside the asylum is very intriguing and explained very well; you almost feel like you are there yourself. I also like how Ed observed a lot of the key events from his window, it really felt like the story was from his point of view and everything was described very strongly. Would’ve been great if it was a bit longer though."
Chris S.★★★★ - "Very intriguing atmosphere and storyline explained in great detail – I definitely sensed some elements of the movie Wrong Turn in the plot and I think some inspiration has been drawn from it. It’s a good balance of suspense and mystery that makes for an interesting read."
Mikey ★★★★★ - "The suspense in this book is written very well and built up gradually – which is exactly what you want. The storyline is very unique and he’s created a mysterious atmosphere which you feel at times as if you are in it, mainly because it’s very well described and the storyline is explained from the main character’s point of view, who comes off a relatable person in some ways. It makes for a great short horror read – although for me it was more of a suspense/mystery than horror, which actually came as a nice surprise."
- GenresFiction
44 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 3, 2019
18 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
David Grayson
207 books13 followersPen-name of Ray Stannard Baker
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 21, 2021
Dread: The Mountain Asylum
By David Grayson
Genre - Fiction/Horror/Short Story
Pages - 44
Format - Digital (Kindle)
Publication Information - Independently Published (March 15, 2019), ISBN-10: 1090635168, ISBN-13: 978-1090635167, ASIN: B07P8MY428
Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviewed by - William C. Bitner, Jr. https://booksinmylibraryblog.wordpres...
This short story by David Grayson (not Ray Stannard Baker, who goes by the pseudonym David Grayson), is absolutely brilliant. My only negative response is that it could have, nay should have been a full-length novel. I could have sat reading this long after I finished reading the last sentence. From the setting, a sanatorium hidden in the Appalachian Mountains, to the atmosphere, eerie and foreboding and the characters of questionable ethos this short story had me on the edge of my proverbial seat. Imaginative, fast paced and filled with one creepy scene after another. This, from my short search of this author, is his debut piece of work. If this is an example of what he can do, I would love to read more...
From the back cover - “An infamous Sanatorium with a bad reputation hidden in the Appalachian mountains. A man who's wrongfully found himself there by the noble actions of his past. As he begins to witness strange events he cannot explain, he soon realizes that the true horrors lie not inside his prison walls; but outside in the woods of the mountain. As time starts running out and danger starts to close in, he will have to fight for his freedom and, ultimately, his survival.”
By David Grayson
Genre - Fiction/Horror/Short Story
Pages - 44
Format - Digital (Kindle)
Publication Information - Independently Published (March 15, 2019), ISBN-10: 1090635168, ISBN-13: 978-1090635167, ASIN: B07P8MY428
Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviewed by - William C. Bitner, Jr. https://booksinmylibraryblog.wordpres...
This short story by David Grayson (not Ray Stannard Baker, who goes by the pseudonym David Grayson), is absolutely brilliant. My only negative response is that it could have, nay should have been a full-length novel. I could have sat reading this long after I finished reading the last sentence. From the setting, a sanatorium hidden in the Appalachian Mountains, to the atmosphere, eerie and foreboding and the characters of questionable ethos this short story had me on the edge of my proverbial seat. Imaginative, fast paced and filled with one creepy scene after another. This, from my short search of this author, is his debut piece of work. If this is an example of what he can do, I would love to read more...
From the back cover - “An infamous Sanatorium with a bad reputation hidden in the Appalachian mountains. A man who's wrongfully found himself there by the noble actions of his past. As he begins to witness strange events he cannot explain, he soon realizes that the true horrors lie not inside his prison walls; but outside in the woods of the mountain. As time starts running out and danger starts to close in, he will have to fight for his freedom and, ultimately, his survival.”
August 3, 2021
This isn't the usual genre I tend to pick up. From the cover art I was a little concerned about the gore and violence. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a bit of murder and mayhem in a book. But when it gets overly descriptive and disgusting it turns me away. You know the saying, never judge a book by its cover. So I plunged in.
Truth be told the story didn't get "violent" until 60% of the way through and only the last ten pages or so were bloody and scary. If you're okay reading about cranks in the Maze Runner series, you won't be bothered by this. If the cranks (both their physical descriptions and their murdering spree) made you uncomfortable then you should probably skip this one. Fear not, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
Overall a solid 3 rating. More backstory on the cannibals/creatures or whatever they were would be interesting. Behavior like that just doesn't happen over night, you know? I didn't like that the narrator kept referring to them as freaks.
To be fair I was (and still am) reading WAY too many books at the same time and this one didn't get as much attention as it should have. If you're in the mood for a short, fight-for-survival, zombie attack read and you don't mind some death and blood you might like this. I don't remember any language either.
Truth be told the story didn't get "violent" until 60% of the way through and only the last ten pages or so were bloody and scary. If you're okay reading about cranks in the Maze Runner series, you won't be bothered by this. If the cranks (both their physical descriptions and their murdering spree) made you uncomfortable then you should probably skip this one. Fear not, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
Overall a solid 3 rating. More backstory on the cannibals/creatures or whatever they were would be interesting. Behavior like that just doesn't happen over night, you know? I didn't like that the narrator kept referring to them as freaks.
To be fair I was (and still am) reading WAY too many books at the same time and this one didn't get as much attention as it should have. If you're in the mood for a short, fight-for-survival, zombie attack read and you don't mind some death and blood you might like this. I don't remember any language either.
May 29, 2019
I was given a free audiobook code by the author for an honest review.
I felt this story had potential, but it just didn’t do it for me. Perhaps I was just too distracted with the narrator? Perhaps it was the fact there wasn’t much back and forth (dialogue) between the characters. Instead, this is a story in which the reader is “told” what’s going on as opposed to experiencing it. I don’t know, but I had a hard time “getting into” this story.
One area about the writing that stuck out to me:
I don’t know about other readers, but I feel if a writer wants their story to take place in a specific country, the US in this case, they should use terms that are common in that region as opposed to terms they use in their country (not the US). For example, talking about “lorries.” In the US, we just call them trucks.
I had a lot of issues with the narrator. I don’t know where the narrator is originally from, but he definitely isn’t American. There were many times when he’d mispronounce a word. Sometimes it seemed like the word might have been misspelled(?), while the majority of the time, he just pronounced it differently. For example, he would say “hours” as “ours” and “corridor” as “carridor.”
“Towers” was a strange one because the majority of the time, he would pronounce it as “tars,” while the other times, he’d pronounce it correctly. Then there was “scription” as opposed to “description.”
Questions/Comments:
I had a hard time believing that given Ed didn’t drop his “bomb” on the enemy, the general had him discharged, only for him to end up in a mental hospital for two decades. Did he have no family? Friends? Were there no other military folk that could have helped him in this situation? Being in the mental hospital(s) for that long when he didn’t have any mental issues going on was strange.
At the end, Ed and the other guy decide to make a break from the hospital and head to the sewer in which the mutants had arrived. There was mention of Ed being worried that there could be more mutants in the woods…why wouldn’t he have thought the same for the sewer?
Lastly, unless I just had a brain fart and had originally misheard the “two decades” that Ed had been hospitalized, at the end, there’s the line: “…so close to freedom, not just from those animals but from the prison where he’d spent the past decade.” Now technically, that could just be referencing the time length he’d been at that specific hospital, but it would seem that he'd only reference his latest bought of hospitalization. I don’t know.
I felt this story had potential, but it just didn’t do it for me. Perhaps I was just too distracted with the narrator? Perhaps it was the fact there wasn’t much back and forth (dialogue) between the characters. Instead, this is a story in which the reader is “told” what’s going on as opposed to experiencing it. I don’t know, but I had a hard time “getting into” this story.
One area about the writing that stuck out to me:
I don’t know about other readers, but I feel if a writer wants their story to take place in a specific country, the US in this case, they should use terms that are common in that region as opposed to terms they use in their country (not the US). For example, talking about “lorries.” In the US, we just call them trucks.
I had a lot of issues with the narrator. I don’t know where the narrator is originally from, but he definitely isn’t American. There were many times when he’d mispronounce a word. Sometimes it seemed like the word might have been misspelled(?), while the majority of the time, he just pronounced it differently. For example, he would say “hours” as “ours” and “corridor” as “carridor.”
“Towers” was a strange one because the majority of the time, he would pronounce it as “tars,” while the other times, he’d pronounce it correctly. Then there was “scription” as opposed to “description.”
Questions/Comments:
I had a hard time believing that given Ed didn’t drop his “bomb” on the enemy, the general had him discharged, only for him to end up in a mental hospital for two decades. Did he have no family? Friends? Were there no other military folk that could have helped him in this situation? Being in the mental hospital(s) for that long when he didn’t have any mental issues going on was strange.
At the end, Ed and the other guy decide to make a break from the hospital and head to the sewer in which the mutants had arrived. There was mention of Ed being worried that there could be more mutants in the woods…why wouldn’t he have thought the same for the sewer?
Lastly, unless I just had a brain fart and had originally misheard the “two decades” that Ed had been hospitalized, at the end, there’s the line: “…so close to freedom, not just from those animals but from the prison where he’d spent the past decade.” Now technically, that could just be referencing the time length he’d been at that specific hospital, but it would seem that he'd only reference his latest bought of hospitalization. I don’t know.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 12, 2025
Something is stirring in the woods
Ed awakes to deranged screams outside his cell in the Sanatorium. Fortunately his lunatic cellmate Joseph is still asleep. Ed remembers a different kind of torture in Fallujah.
The first few paragraphs describe Ed’s life in the Sanatorium, but the Opening features interchanges between Joseph and other patients, making it more personal and more compelling.
On page 16, we get the first hint of some horror, the mention of ‘lights in the woods’. The suspense builds from there. First, the monthly supplies of food and medicine didn’t arrive. The truck is discovered empty, the driver missing. The guards are behaving strangely. A series of events begins, which might otherwise be just normal glitches in the daily routine. But they build. Meanwhile, Ed flashes back to Fallujah.
I was rather annoyed that the bad guys were never explained. Were they zombies? Why were they attacking the Sanatorium?
Otherwise, this is an easy-to-digest novella, a lovely bit of horror just before bedtime.
Ed awakes to deranged screams outside his cell in the Sanatorium. Fortunately his lunatic cellmate Joseph is still asleep. Ed remembers a different kind of torture in Fallujah.
The first few paragraphs describe Ed’s life in the Sanatorium, but the Opening features interchanges between Joseph and other patients, making it more personal and more compelling.
On page 16, we get the first hint of some horror, the mention of ‘lights in the woods’. The suspense builds from there. First, the monthly supplies of food and medicine didn’t arrive. The truck is discovered empty, the driver missing. The guards are behaving strangely. A series of events begins, which might otherwise be just normal glitches in the daily routine. But they build. Meanwhile, Ed flashes back to Fallujah.
I was rather annoyed that the bad guys were never explained. Were they zombies? Why were they attacking the Sanatorium?
Otherwise, this is an easy-to-digest novella, a lovely bit of horror just before bedtime.
September 13, 2025
Perfect for Halloween
The Novella covered a subject I love - Psychology. I would have loved a little more backstory for the main character as it was confusing that he was in an Asylum, but the author writes as if it's a Prison. Why was he there and was it an Asylum for the Criminally insane? The book was very fast paced and tense with a lot of gore in between. I couldn't really ascertain who the 'attackers' were and why they were so violent. The escape was also too short and the solution rushed, but overall I liked the story and it kept me glued to the pages so to speak. Looking forward to the next one.
The Novella covered a subject I love - Psychology. I would have loved a little more backstory for the main character as it was confusing that he was in an Asylum, but the author writes as if it's a Prison. Why was he there and was it an Asylum for the Criminally insane? The book was very fast paced and tense with a lot of gore in between. I couldn't really ascertain who the 'attackers' were and why they were so violent. The escape was also too short and the solution rushed, but overall I liked the story and it kept me glued to the pages so to speak. Looking forward to the next one.
August 23, 2025
What the what???
This story grabbed my attention at the beginning. Written from the point of view of a very observant and mostly sane asylum patient, this story is character driven. At first, anyway. Then things get really strange. A light flickering at night, supplies cut off, the out of nowhere, a blood fest. Everyone dies at the hands of a mob of very morbid Appalachians for no apparent reason other than to kill. This felt like a Frankensteined story. Certainly worth the read if you like this sort of thing.
This story grabbed my attention at the beginning. Written from the point of view of a very observant and mostly sane asylum patient, this story is character driven. At first, anyway. Then things get really strange. A light flickering at night, supplies cut off, the out of nowhere, a blood fest. Everyone dies at the hands of a mob of very morbid Appalachians for no apparent reason other than to kill. This felt like a Frankensteined story. Certainly worth the read if you like this sort of thing.
November 11, 2025
Cuckoo's Nest Meets Apocalypse
This was a unique approach to a common theme. Using the "imprisonment" of a sanatorium to set the stage was clever. After all, who would heed the warnings spoken by mentally ill patients? The monsters appeared to be a slight deviation from the popular zombie movies and television series.
This was a unique approach to a common theme. Using the "imprisonment" of a sanatorium to set the stage was clever. After all, who would heed the warnings spoken by mentally ill patients? The monsters appeared to be a slight deviation from the popular zombie movies and television series.
March 30, 2019
i really enjoyed this story - it made me think of wrong turn (which is one of my favourite horror movie franchises). i look forward to reading more from this author!
July 27, 2019
Audible:Good story.It had potential to be a much longer book. David Hunsdale was a good narrator. was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'
September 25, 2025
Eerie and deeply psychological
This is a fast little read, perfect for novella fans. The setting is an asylum and the atmosphere of dread builds in layers. So good.
This is a fast little read, perfect for novella fans. The setting is an asylum and the atmosphere of dread builds in layers. So good.
February 19, 2026
I feel that this story had potential, but it just fell flat. There were also many typos in the written text which is very distracting to me as a reader.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews