Midnight Caller

by Stephen Graham Jones, Saskia Maarleveld (Narrator)

Who will answer a desperate call for help?

Time: 10 minutes

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Audiobook, Fiction, Adult

1 pages, Audiobook

First published October 14, 2019

About the author

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author thirty-five or so books. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

SPOOKTOBER DAY TWENTY-NINE

welcome to my spooktober audio advent calendar, where, each day during the month of spooktober, i will be celebrating by listening to a free audio short from nightfire's Come Join Us by the Fire series, and you can join ME by following the links. let's all be scared together!


10 minutes

this is just 100% pure fun. it's more audio drama than book recitation, which automatically ups my thumbs, but add to that the sgj-brand dark-humor slasher film meta-horror of it all, and we have a yesssssssss.

i'm too under the weather to make words work, but if i die from this illness, my last wish is that you listen to this story.

koff.

listen to it here:

https://play.google.com/books/listen?...

THE STORIES:

OCTOBER 1: 57 REASONS FOR THE SLATE QUARRY SUICIDES - SAM J. MILLER
OCTOBER 2: SOME BREAKABLE THINGS - CASSANDRA KHAW
OCTOBER 3: EMERGENCY LANDING - SEANAN MCGUIRE
OCTOBER 4: THE CHANGELING - SARAH LANGAN
OCTOBER 5: THE BEASTS OF THE EARTH, THE MADNESS OF MEN - BROOKE BOLANDER
OCTOBER 6: THE FIREPLACE - CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN
OCTOBER 7: BONE - TADE THOMPSON
OCTOBER 8: IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING - MOLLY TANZER
OCTOBER 9: DREAM HOME - KAT HOWARD
OCTOBER 10: SPAWNING SEASON - NICHOLAS KAUFMANN
OCTOBER 11: THE GIRLS FROM THE HORROR MOVIE - GWENDOLYN KISTE
OCTOBER 12: IT WASHED UP - JOE R. LANSDALE
OCTOBER 13: BLACK NEUROLOGY - RICHARD KADREY
OCTOBER 14: WHEN THE ZOMBIES WIN - KARINA SUMNER-SMITH
OCTOBER 15: WASP & SNAKE - LIVIA LLEWELLYN
OCTOBER 16: THIS GUY - CHUCK WENDIG
OCTOBER 17: THE POND - PAUL TREMBLAY
OCTOBER 18: A LIFE THAT IS NOT MINE - KRISTI DEMEESTER
OCTOBER 19: GREENER PASTURES - MICHAEL WEHUNT
OCTOBER 20: THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL YOU - LUCY A. SNYDER
OCTOBER 21: COLD, SILENT, AND DARK - KARY ENGLISH
OCTOBER 22: WAS SHE WICKED? WAS SHE GOOD? - M. RICKERT
OCTOBER 23: THE DAYS OF FLAMING MOTORCYCLES - CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE
OCTOBER 24: FLAYED ED - RICHARD KADREY
OCTOBER 25: MAMA TULU - JESSICA GUESS
OCTOBER 26: THE VAULT OF THE SKY, THE FACE OF THE DEEP
OCTOBER 27: EL CHARRO - JOHN LANGAN
OCTOBER 28: STANDING WATER - CAITLIN R. KIERNAN
OCTOBER 30: TOOTH, TONGUE, AND CLAW - DAMIEN ANGELICA WALTERS
OCTOBER 31: THE QUIET BOY - NICK ANTOSCA

come to my blog!

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars for Midnight Caller (audiobook) by Stephen Graham Jones read by Saskia Maarleveld.

This is a dark and twisted revenge story with a fun twist. It’s a short story and it quickly gets to the point.

[Ben Denison · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY short novella/audio but it was classic SGJ.

Horror with a twist of humor.

[The Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess if you call 911 when you're in danger and the person on the other end doesn't seem to take your urgency into account, you might wanna suspect something.

[Madhurabharatula Pranav Rohit Kasinath · Rating 1 out of 5]

I get it. This is satire. But it is bad satire. Midnight Caller is a story that tries to satirise slasher flicks but comes off as too cocky and self aware to really work. The ending amplifies this severalfold. This feels like it is being written by a teenager who is enamoured by his own cleverness than by a genre writer who knows the value of subtlety.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice twist with the classic "teenage camp counselors get murdered while alone preparing for camp" theme and revenge for a childish prank gone dangerously wrong, where the last survivor places a 911 call in desperate need of help to escape the killer who has killed all of her friends. But why is the dispatcher asking so many questions, and such specific ones, before sending out someone, anyone to help?

[Liz (Quirky Cat) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have quickly learned that I love the way Stephen Graham Jones tells a story. Midnight Caller is a delightful and disturbing twist on one of the most classic horror movie tropes, and he does it with so much style and intrigue. It's a slow-building read, with an intense ending.

[Marc D. ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 estrellas.

A masterpiece.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cheeky and hilarious!

[unstable.books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, wtf SGJ?? The king of modern-day horror!

[michelle ࣪ ִֶָ☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5💫

[Robin Case · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrifying short story, well worth a chance.

[Kendra Raptor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another well written short story with a very interesting plot.

This was seemingly about a home invasion of sorts. Not gonna lie, the receptionist was P. Me off until I found out why...

[crypt reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate to say it about a SGJ story, but this was just not it for me. It gets a second star for creative formatting—telling it through a 911 call was fun—but that's about all I enjoyed from this. It was like it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a horror parody or fully committed Goosebumps-esque campfest that takes itself seriously. Either way, it missed the mark. Every author has flops, of course. They can't all be for me! Hoping better for the next one.

[Courtney Doss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of the Nightfire short horror story anthology on Google Play, Midnight Caller is presented in the form of a 911 call from a desperate girl whose friends have all been killed. It was a fun little story, but as a police dispatcher the inaccuracy in the dispatcher's methods bugged me. Still, it was entertaining enough for 10 minutes, and it is free.

[Danni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who does Mr. Jones think he is? This story was hilarious, and I found myself laughing and needing to rewind the story. It's scary and scary and it written with the same mocking and tender sentiment as the movie Scream.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should have known the ending. LOL. Honestly I’d like to say this was predictable but good heavens it sucked me in so hard that all my thinking stopped.

If you have less than ten minutes to read or listen to this, do it now. Worth any amount of time.

[E. Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more proof that Stephen Graham Jones can write a great slasher. Here, we get a frantic caller and an operator who go back and forth while the killer is lurking. This short is genius, creepy, and makes me wish this were a whole novel.

[Jeff Wait · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick 10-minute audio story with a final girl talking to a dispatcher, trying to figure out what kind of slasher they're dealing with so they can send out the right unit. Naturally, it's slasher metafiction. Perfect for any fan of SGJ.

[Jessi Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just a Friday the Thirteenth rip off. Normal 911 does not talk like that.

[Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was quite an entertaining short story. It reminded me a lot of these pulpy 90s horror movies that I was too scared to watch.

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the trope turned on its head.

[Big Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course the story is jacked up...it written by S.G. Jones! I thought it was a combo of Friday the 13th and The Mother In Law.

[Kelly⁷ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes to this.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS! The audio is only 10 minutes but it is perfect!

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it!!!

[connorishere · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt like a scene from a comedy/slasher film. It didn't work for me.

[Chelsea B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun! Audio was done very well. A nice little twist. I enjoyed.

[Darryle B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an unexpected plot twist to a short story. It is truly one of those types of campfire stories that had me saying, What is going on? Very clever spin on a horror story and unexpected. Well done.

[LexiLovesBooks34♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually pretty funny!


I'm trying really hard to make my 2021 Reading Goal.
I feel like I'm cheating a bit. But.....