Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2

by Cassandra Khaw (Contributor), Sarah Langan (Contributor), Shaun Hamill (Contributor)

Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio-only horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites.

The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries including Laird Barron, Indrapramit Das, Shaun Hamill, Daniel M. Lavery, Matthew Lyons, T. Kingfisher, Seanan McGuire, Nibedita Sen, and Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

The full Table of Contents is as follows:
Cassandra Khaw- "Some Breakable Things"
Sarah Langan- "The Changeling"
Shaun Hamill- "Music of the Abyss"
Caitlín R. Kiernan- "Standing Water"
Tade Thompson- "Bone"
T. Kingfisher- "Origin Story"
Silvia Moreno-Garcia- "The Sound of Footsteps"
Laird Barron- "Jōren Falls"
Damien Angelica Walters- "Tooth, Tongue, and Claw"
Sunny Moraine- "If Living is Seeing I'm Holding My Breath"
Matthew Lyons- "Blood Daughter"
Jessica Guess- "Mama Tulu"
Daniel M. Lavery- "Prodigal Son"
Seanan McGuire- "Emergency Landing"
Indrapramit Das - "You Will Survive This Night"
‘Pemi Aguda- "Things Boys Do"
Kelly Link"The Specialist's Hat"
Clay McLeod Chapman- "The Fireplace"
Nibedita Sen- "Pigeons"
Camilla Grudova- "Ghost Bread"
Catherynne M. Valente- "The Days of Flaming Motorcycles"
Brian Evenson- "The Cabin"
Maria Dahvana Headley- "The Krakatoan"
Craig Laurance Gidney- "Spyder Threads"
Mariana Enriquez- "Things We Lost in the Fire"
Gabino Iglesias- "The Song of the Lady Rose"
Nick Antosca- "The Quiet Boy"

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

Audiobook

First published October 15, 2021

About the author

Cassandra Khaw is an award-winning game writer.
Their recent novella Nothing but Blackened Teeth was a British
Fantasy, World Fantasy, Shirley Jackson, and Bram Stoker
Award finalist. Their debut collection Breakable Things is now
out.

Reviews

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if I have it in me to review this collection in any proper way so I'm throwing a 3.5 at it (bumping up for GR) It is huge and there so many stories and though I'm thankful for all of them, these things are a bitch to review. Most of the stories are fantastic. There were a few that didn't personally thrill me but with so many stories that's always going to be the case. You may love them. You may hate the one's I love. That's okay. I highly recommend giving this audio a listen. It's free on GooglePlay and will likely be added to Spotify like the previous one was so you have nothing to lose but a little bit of your time.

I'll leave you with my mini reviews of my favorites which were mostly in the front half of the book:

Some Breakable Things by Cassandra Khaw
A woman grieving the death of her father, who always demanded too much, finds no relief even after his death 👻. This story is filled with dad guilt, regret and family dysfunction. It will probably haunt you long after you finish. This one hurts 🖤 Khaw is such a great writer.

The Changeling by Sarah Langan
This tale is dastardly, dark and pure perfection. I loved it! Occasionally people do get exactly what they deserve 😆.

Origin Story T. Kingfisher
An arty fairy puts her talents to use creating creatures that torment the town to soothe her guilt over her horrendous day job. I could fall into this world forever. It holds such tempting dark beauty.

Tooth, Tongue and Claw by Damian Angelica Walters
Walters paints a disturbing vision of a world ruled by monsters where humans throw their second born daughter up as a sacrifice to keep the peace. One unlucky young woman must now find her own secret way to fight back when her life becomes intolerable. I loved this one so very much!!

Mama Tulu by Jessica Guess
A young woman visits Mama Tulu to take care of her abusive father and by take care of I don’t mean cooking the man dinner, haha! Unfortunately she doesn’t realize there's a price to pay. This was another fabulous story with an excellent narrator.

The Specialists Hat By Kelly Link
Two strange little girls spend the summer in a haunted manor as their dad writes a book and entertains a new lady love. Little girls with big imaginations get up to all kinds of no good when left to their own devices. . .

Pigeons by Nibedita Sen
Ooh I loved this sinister tale of smart little girls using their power to the fullest!

Things We Lost In The Fire by Mariana Enriquez
This one is powerful, and painful and filled with disturbing truths. Listen to it!

The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca
A good hearted teacher goes above and beyond to help out a talented student who has a big scary secret. This was full of on-coming dread. I saw parts of it coming but I enjoyed it so much I'm not even going to complain.

Go give this lovely gift a listen. I'm pretty certain you'll find something here to love.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another free group of short stories from Google Play Books. There are definitely some strong stories but more than a few duds.

[Chlorine · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as I understand Come join us by the Fire Season 2 is primarily audio short stories. I don't like listening to audio much (particularly in English) so I picked the ebook version which contains only a subset of the stories, unfortunately.
These were mostly OK but there were few standout stories.
My favorite one was Ghost Bread by Camila Grudova about the concept of Ghost Emigration: people fleeing from their country obtain visas to go abroad and commit suicide there, so that their ghost will be in a nicer place.
I also liked You will survive this night by Indrapramit Das. The prodigal Son by Daniel M. Lavery had something to it but I think I missed its main essence because I was not familiar with the original myth.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second free audiobook anthology from the Google Play store, which I loved as much as the first one.

Granted, there are a few duds in this collection, but my two favorites were Emergency Landing by Seanan McGuire, an author who was always a master of post-apocalyptic fiction, and The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca, about a schoolteacher who risks her life to protect her young student from domestic abuse . . . only to discover his family members are GENUINE monsters.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really interesting concept. Like all anthologies though, I had some favorites and some misses. My favorite by far was The Song of the Lady Rose by Gabino Iglesias. This was such a captivating novella and really made use of those 23 minutes. Another one I liked is Spyder Threads. I ended up skipping Ghost Bread so I can't say anything about that, but the others were still interesting.

3.25 stars

[Darrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Come Join Us by the Fire has released Season 2 just in time for Halloween. It’s available for free on the Google Play Books app. There’s a bit less stories than the first season, but with 27 horror stories, there’s still hours of spooky entertainment. Since the first season contained a lot of flash fiction, and season 2 only has a couple five minutes pieces, they’re probably about the same length.

Most of the stories in this collection are between 15 minutes to half an hour long, which feels like the right length. There’s a mixture of original stories and reprints. The narrators all do a great job reading the stories. As with any anthology, I liked some stories more than others. Since art is subjective, you may like/dislike different stories than I did.

Since this is a horror collection, I found it odd that a couple of the stories had content warnings, but most didn’t. I think they only put content warnings on stories involving self-harm, but they easily could have given a content warning for all the stories.

I didn’t care for the 5 minute stories myself. I think it’s just hard for me to really get into a story that short. I also generally don’t care for revenge stories, but fortunately, there were few of these. My least favorite in this collection were “If Living is Seeing I’m Holding My Breath” by Sunny Moraine and “Emergency Landing” by Seanan McGuire.

“If Living is Seeing” takes place in a world in which people die if they see another person, There was too much about the scenario that didn’t make sense, and at 45 minutes long, it took too long to get to where it was going.

“Emergency Landing” takes place aboard an airplane that lifted off right when terrorists kill pretty everybody in the world. I didn’t understand the point of this one. Our point of view character decides to spend the last few hours of her life keeping the truth from her fellow passengers in order to keep them from panicking, even though they already know most of the truth and they already are panicking.

In both “The Changeling” by Sarah Langan and “Things Boys Do” by ‘Pemi Aguda, parenthood is a punishment. Parents are forced to raise monstrous babies for doing something monstrous themselves. I originally heard “Things Boys Do” in Nightmare Magazine. There are three different fathers being punished in this story, but none of them are named which makes it easy to confuse them with each other.

I was disappointed in “Standing Water” by Caitlín R. Kiernan since the last story of hers I read was so amazing. In this story, a bored bookstore employee encounters a mysterious mud puddle. Eh.

Some of the stories contain humor. “Jōren Falls” by Laird Barron, about an elderly couple who think they have a squirrel in their attic, does have one horrifying scene, but it ends on a punchline. “Prodigal Son” by Daniel M. Lavery is a humorous retelling of the Biblical story. It’s a stretch to call it horror, but it was fun. “The Days of Flaming Motorcycles” by Catherynne M. Valente, about a woman living through the zombie apocalypse, has its funny moments as well.

Friends play with a Ouija board in “The Sound of Footsteps” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which was pretty good. I also liked “Mama Tulu” by Jessica Guess in which a teenager in Jamaica uses magic to kill her abusive father. It turns out not being a simple revenge story, however. “Spyder Threads” by Craig Laurance Gidney involves a model who encounters a fashion designer whose models tend to mysteriously disappear.

Some other stories I really liked include “Things We Lost in the Fire” by Mariana Enriquez which concerns an epidemic of women burning themselves and “The Fireplace” by Clay McLeod Chapman in which a man finds something stuck in his chimney.

In “Some Breakable Things” by Cassandra Khaw, “you” are haunted by your dead father and consider hiring an exorcist. Some poetic lines in this one such as “the kelp tangle of your hair”. Chilling.

Perhaps because I’ve read and watched so much horror, I’ve become pretty jaded, so most of the stories didn’t work as horror for me. However, “Blood Daughter” by Matthew Lyons in which a man creates a surrogate daughter out of pieces of himself was truly horrifying.

A teacher attempts to help a troubled student in “The Quiet Boy” by Nick Antosca. At an hour, it’s the longest story in the collection. Antosca uses the extra time well to slowly build tension. Another favorite from this collection is “The Krakatoan” by Maria Dahvana Headley in which a child helps a man make a volcano so he can point a telescope at it and see the stars beneath.

“The Song of the Lady Rose” by Gabino Iglesias makes the best use of the audio format. Students have an audio-editing assignment and choose an incident involving a disaster aboard a ship as their subject. Their teacher comments upon the different choices they made with regards to sound.

My favorite story in this collection is “The Specialist’s Hat” by Kelly Link. Originally published in 1998, winner of the World Fantasy Award, and appearing in numerous best-of anthologies, I think it’s safe for us to call this a classic at this point. Twins whose mother died recently and whose father is obsessed with an obscure poet, like to play “the dead game” with their babysitter until one day, they find a hat made out of teeth. I’ve heard it before, but it’s still as good the second time.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Averaging out the individual ratings results in a 3.66/5 rounded up
This second season, the individual stories tended to be shorter than the first season, with most clocking in around a half hour or so. They also seemed to be a lot more hit-or-miss for me, as you can see there are a handful of 2* but also a few 5*. Some of them, I could have waxed literary in my reviews, others I probably missed the deeper meaning, but isn’t that how reading and reviewing go? You latch on to what gets you in the moment, and respond to that. So that’s what I did. Below are the compiled reviews from each individual story, as originally posted on each story’s individual Goodreads entry.

The Song of the Lady Rose – 11/12/2020 – 2*
Well-read by Fajer Al-Kaisi, beneficial sound effects which enhanced the atmosphere of the story, and while Iglesias' story is solid, by the time we were getting close to the "original audio" in the story, it was easy to tell what was going to happen, so the vivid details didn't really seem necessary/seemed like too much.

Things We Lost in the Fire – 11/13/2020 – 4*
A kind of atmospheric build, one piece being placed on top the next until suddenly there’s a bonfire and you’re not quite sure where all that wood came from, let alone how it got lit, but it sure is impressive.

The Krakatoan – 11/13/2020 – 3*
Solid build up, and things are not what they seem when astronomers turn their telescopes to what lies beneath the earth, as a young girl soon discovers.

Spyder Threads – 11/16/2020 – 4*
An angle into fashion and beauty and their crossroads for those who don't fit nicely into any of the accepted box combinations, and just how far someone might be willing to go to have just one moment on the catwalk where they are seen as beautiful by everyone watching.

The Cabin – 11/17/2020 – 4*
Excellent build up into very creepy territory. Sometimes the scariest things are those which remain partly hidden and open to interpretation.

The Days of Flaming Motorcycles – 11/18/2020 – 4*
Nothing quite like a new take on zombies and zombie “culture.” Slightly reminiscent of “I am Legend” with a dash of “Warm Bodies” but with more attention spent on the zombies whom the narrator observes and even, yes, lives with.

Ghost Bread – 11/25/2020 – 3*
People in the country of M are so repressed, they often try to commit suicide. If they survive their attempt, the government makes their life a living, suffering hell. But if they succeed, then their family is punished. So there is a business of getting people out on visas so they can go to a new country, and instead end their life there. The story follows one such young woman, the care with which she goes about ensuring that her ghost will have everything she could possibly need when she finally ends it. I found it a very interesting, methodical take on this sort of…suicide tourism, and the underlying political and social repressions that drove the people of the country to do it. Definitely provides food for thought.

The Fireplace – 11/25/2020 – 4*
Incredible narration by the author – it really sounded like he was reading this story to you at the fireside, acting everything out, and putting his heart into it. I like the insidious nature of the horror, how the main character gets slowly consumed and overcome by the creepiness/horror element, and where it all leads to (though I think it could have used just a tiny bit more to the ending). Definitely a great campfire horror story. Or even better as a fireside horror story around a fire crackling in an old 1850s Victorian fireplace…

Pigeons – 11/25/2020 – 2*
It has such a promising and intriguing start, and the revelation is well done, but I think it could have used a bit more length to it. It feels like the first installment, a teaser, of something that is bigger, and much darker. Just like Kat practices her magic on small pigeons, this story seems like practice for a bigger one, and I’d like to see what the next step is, exactly. It’s implied, but I’d like to see it played out.

The Specialist’s Hat – 11/29/2020 – 3*
While I thought I could tell where it was going, it kind of slid in sideways and just off-kilter from what I deduced. Enjoyable, but I think I would have preferred to read it on paper to catch the nuances better (though the narrator did a very good job overall - this is more because I'm more visual than auditory).

The Quiet Boy – 11/29/2020 – 4*
I was on the edge of my seat (figuratively) to see what would happen next, thinking it might be one thing then it was not quite that but not quite another, either. A good teacher just wants to help out a quiet kid she sees has promise but comes from a very difficult homelife, but ends up getting in over her head. Sometimes the stories kids write are not quite so different from reality after all…I’d be quite intrigued to see the movie adapted from this, to see what they’ll do and how they’ll extend it to full-movie length. (Aside: I like the story’s title better than the movie title of “Antlers” – enough with these one word movie titles already! Plus there was already “Horns” from 2013)

Things Boys Do – 12/20/2020 – 2*
Maybe it’s because I was listening to it, but it took me a while to figure out just what the “first man” “second man” and “third man” referred to – the same person at different stages in life? Three alternate versions of the same man? Or three separate yet linked together men? Other than that it was an interesting take on how our past can come back to haunt us, or worse.

Prodigal Son – 12/23/2020 – 2*
That…was weird. Like a strange remix of the story of the Prodigal Son from the Bible, infused with some modern vernacular and attitude and a twist of bizarre literalness in what is said/done.

You Will Survive This Night – 12/23/2020 – 4*
This brings rape in India back to the forefront, in how it’s viewed and how it is defined, not to mention the question of the necessity (or not) of consent within a marriage and/or a relationship. Additionally there are the roles of men and women – patriarchal or matriarchal power – in family and society to consider. Add a dash of Indian witch magic, and let’s just say, there are severe consequences to taking a flippant attitude towards consent, feminism, and rape.

Emergency Landing – 12/27/2020 – 3*
Well-written and suitably tense for the situation, though given what the event was, it was hitting a little close to home given that we’re currently living in a pandemic. So it made for a rather uncomfortable read, even though the main character handled the situation with a calmness and level-headed/reasonableness which at times feels sorely lacking in what is actually going on in our world. (Go figure, I can handle the pandemic in Survivor Song just fine, but not this. Maybe because this one is not restricted to a small affected area?)

Mama Tulu – 12/28/2020 – 4*
Girl’s father beats her mother one too many times, so she goes to the local “witch” (not sure that’s the right word) Mama Tulu to ask for her help in…removing him. But for every service there is a price, so be careful to know what exactly you are giving/paying to ensure you get what you ask for, especially in what I think is Jamaican voodoo magic.

If Living is Seeing I’m Holding My Breath – 12/28/2020 – 4*
Good length to build up the atmosphere and give us a very clear idea of the evolution of Riley’s views in this world where looking into someone’s eyes brings madness and death. So what happens when you’ve spent so long alone, avoiding people and the news, and suddenly there’s a new person in the neighborhood to talk to? Will you take any chances, or stay ruled by the fear?

Some Breakable Things – 12/29/2020 – 4*
There’s more to this than just the father’s ghost is hungry – it deals with a past of emotional abuse, and how even when one gets away from the abuser, that past can continue to haunt.

The Changeling – 12/29/2020 – 4*
The way we slowly learn the story of this girl who steals children is chilling, and vivid in its descriptions. It seems to blur the line between fantasy and supernatural, with a dash of something that almost feels a bit inspired by Peter Pan: a child spirited away to a new life, one which is more suitable to the child than the one they came from, yet they still expect the window to always be open for their return, their bed waiting for them.

Bone – 12/30/2020 – 3*
At five minutes, this is more of a vignette than a short story. A moment in time, which relates not only the current events, but the clues of what led to them. There’s more left unsaid than said, and sort of gives me Dexter vibes.

Standing Water – 12/31/2020 – 4*
Ah, the chill you get seeing a mysterious mud puddle when there hasn’t been any rain in over 16 days. And that’s before you even try to put anything into it to see how it came to be there.

Origin Story – 12/31/2020 – 5*
The last of three fairies works in a slaughterhouse, finishing off animals who have outlived their usefulness. But there is a balance to keep, lives taken and lives given, so this fairy uses the cast-off pieces to create new creatures. Just don’t cross her, or you might find yourself making an unwilling contribution. I really liked how this story was built up, piece by piece, including the fairy’s history and character.

Blood Daughter – 1/2/2021 – 4*
The steady build up peels away one layer at a time of just what Stan is doing, to what lengths he is willing to go to “get back” what he lost…or is that really what he is hoping for through all of this?

The Sound of Footsteps – 1/2/2021 – 2*
Teenage promises forgotten, friendships fallen by the wayside through the passage of time. The different hands life can deal, success to one and misery/loneliness to another. More of a slice-of-life short than something on the horror/scary side of things.

Music of the Abyss – 1/2/2021 – 4*
Vaguely reminds me of the short from the first season of this, Spawning Season by Nicholas Kaufmann – a strange relationship between the men (or in this case, more general natives) of a coastal town and a monster in the sea, one which assures the human community’s survival but not without some sort of payment to the sea monster. Not to mention the acknowledgment that there is no way to ever escape the cycle, so it’s best to just work with it and resign oneself to the promises of the arrangement.

Jōren Falls – 1/3/2021 – 4*
There’s a lot of build up to the punch in this one, with small details hinting at what is to come. Details which, given how much build up there is, might be easily missed especially when listening to the audio and not having words at ones fingertips. It’s only in the final punch that the relevance of these clues becomes evident, and it becomes scarier only after seeing the end and being able to put it all together.
In other words: don’t steal signs from Japan. The kami and spirits in general don’t mess around with thieves…

Tooth, Tongue, and Claw – 1/4/2021 – 5*
A twisted fairy-tale retelling of Beauty and the Beast (with the threads that link to the original tale). The girl’s thoughts and actions are nicely built up, with the right clues seeded throughout. It was only when she found that sharp rock that I realized where exactly it was going, and while it meant from that point on it wasn’t surprising, it was still … satisfying, I guess, to see it play out anyways, and see the end become the beginning, the cycle begin anew.

[Janet (iamltr) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the stories included this year.

I do hope they do put out these anthologies every year.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites: These were by far the best stories of this collection (in my opinion) and the only ones to truly scare me...5 emphatic stars each.
The Cabin by Brian Evenson
The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca

Liked:
Music of the Abyss by Shaun Hamill
Origin Story by T. Kingfisher
Tooth, Tongue and Claw by Damien Angelica Walters
The Days of the Flaming Motorcycles by Catherine M Valente
You Will Survive This Night by Indrapramit Das

Duds:
Some Breakable Things by Casandra Khaw
The Sound of Footsteps by Sylvia Moreno Garcia
Standing Water by Caitlin R Kiernan
The Fireplace by Clay Macleod Chapman (caveat: the story was ok, underdeveloped but still ok. It was the delivery of the narrator for this one that was painful. Acting choices were made and they were bad.)
The Krakatoan by Maria Dahvana Headley

All around this was a great listening experience. The production quality is amazing (minus a few poor/cringey narrator choices) and most of the stories were engaging and well written. There are some exceptions to this like every anthology, but I had a wonderful time this October listening to these tales. I highly recommend this and Season One of this series!

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy this series. The narrators were just as good, if not even better this time around, and I enjoyed how the stories were more diverse and weird. I really enjoyed when the author read their own work - Daniel Lavery and Clay McLeod Chapman added such enthusiasm to their works. Not all winners, and probably closer to a 3/4 as with the last collection, but the sound effects, variety, and of course the cost all make this a winner for me.

favorite stories: Bone; Tooth, Tongue, and Claw; If Living is Seeing, I'm Holding My Breath; Prodigal Son; Things Boys Do; and Spyder Threads.

[Amy Mills]

(Recording thoughts on each story as I go; closing thoughts once I've finished)

Some Breakable Things by Cassandra Khaw (4 stars, 4 tentacles) - Beautifully written tale of a father's ghost haunting a daughter. I did not particularly care for the ending, but I don't think I was supposed to.
The Changeling by Sarah Langan (2 stars, 2.5 tentacles) - Well-written, but problematic. I was not particularly interested in Changeling tales to begin with, and now that I am aware the original tales were to explain away autism, I am even less interested. Also, I can think of a much creepier ending that I would have found more satisfying: She recruits her brother and they kill the parents together.

Shaun Hamill- "Music of the Abyss"
Caitlín R. Kiernan- "Standing Water"
Tade Thompson- "Bone"
T. Kingfisher- "Origin Story"
Silvia Moreno-Garcia- "The Sound of Footsteps"
Laird Barron- "Jōren Falls"
Damien Angelica Walters- "Tooth, Tongue, and Claw"
Sunny Moraine- "If Living is Seeing I'm Holding My Breath"
Matthew Lyons- "Blood Daughter"
Jessica Guess- "Mama Tulu"
Daniel M. Lavery- "Prodigal Son"
Seanan McGuire- "Emergency Landing"
Indrapramit Das - "You Will Survive This Night"
‘Pemi Aguda- "Things Boys Do"
Kelly Link"The Specialist's Hat"
Clay McLeod Chapman- "The Fireplace"
Nibedita Sen- "Pigeons"
Camilla Grudova- "Ghost Bread"
Catherynne M. Valente- "The Days of Flaming Motorcycles"
Brian Evenson- "The Cabin"
Maria Dahvana Headley- "The Krakatoan"
Craig Laurance Gidney- "Spyder Threads"
Mariana Enriquez- "Things We Lost in the Fire"
Gabino Iglesias- "The Song of the Lady Rose"
Nick Antosca- "The Quiet Boy"

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Thoughts:
An eclectic and varied selection of stories with unfortunately more than a few that are forgettable.

Personally there were two standouts; Tooth, Tongue and Claw by Damian Angelica Walters which features a young woman being sacrifice to be the plaything of a monster and The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca which is the story of a school teacher trying to help out a reclusive boy in her class.

[Fayelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a horror person. Well, at least not much. But this was great. Sure, a few stories are meh, but there are many short stories and many of those are really good. Some are straight up gory, but all of them make you think, some more than others. Twisty and weird, most are in the 20 min range (they're all audio), a few under 10 mins, a few over 30. Just a great set of short stories; I'm glad I stumbled upon it.

[Emily Wrayburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little creepy collection! There was one description of fingernails being pulled out that I had to turn off for a bit, and when I got home at 10pm after finishing the last story, I was rather quick to get inside out of the dark. But it was just the right level of scary for wimpy ol' me.

[R.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent array of short horror and dark stories. It definitely has something for everyone.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are really good, I like this type of short stories that actually gives you chills.

[Sjoerd · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, some fun stories but nothing special (I only have access to the 18 story version), considering it's short and free it's worth giving it a listen if you're into this stuff

[Natazzz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some stories were pretty good, but I am not a big fan of short stories and I learned I don’t really enjoy listening to horror.

[Deb O rah · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyed Evenson's tale

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am only rating Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez 4.5 stars

25 minute audiobook. Strong message about women reclaiming their power.

[Big Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but not as good as Season 1. I'm not sure some of the tales included in this installment made sense.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounding this up to 4 stars since there is no half star ratings. Stories where varied. Ranging from horror for oneself to sci-fi. If I listened to some of these when it was quiet & dark, they would have scared me a bit.