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Prodigal Son: 27 Short Horror Tales from Nightfire Books
In this darkly-comic retelling of the Prodigal Son parable, Jesus talks of a man who must overcome strange horrors in order to convince his family he is real.
"Prodigal Son" by Daniel M. Lavery is one of 27 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology.
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"
"Prodigal Son" by Daniel M. Lavery is one of 27 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology.
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"
- GenresAudiobook
1 pages, ebook
First published May 8, 2020
About the author
Daniel M. Lavery
20 books976 followersAlso see Mallory Ortberg and Daniel Mallory Ortberg.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 29, 2020
Read by the author.
The rich man tries to get his lost son to come home, but his answer is always ‘no dice’. Even when the rich man’s servants and lawyers move his limbs and his mouth to try to make him say ‘sorry’.
https://www.tor.com/2020/10/27/come-j...
He eats too much to listen, his mother wails. She wants her dead baby son back. She has even made a coffin for him… but he’s not dead.
The son who refuses to change who he is, and thus his parents cannot see him. Oh yeah… that resonates; esp for gay or trans people.
3 stars
The rich man tries to get his lost son to come home, but his answer is always ‘no dice’. Even when the rich man’s servants and lawyers move his limbs and his mouth to try to make him say ‘sorry’.
https://www.tor.com/2020/10/27/come-j...
He eats too much to listen, his mother wails. She wants her dead baby son back. She has even made a coffin for him… but he’s not dead.
The son who refuses to change who he is, and thus his parents cannot see him. Oh yeah… that resonates; esp for gay or trans people.
3 stars
July 29, 2022
Mehhhhh.
May 7, 2021
Reversal of Fortunes...
No spoilers. 3 stars. I was wondering how this well-known parable could be turned into horror... the answer is: it wasn't...
... rather, this retelling of The Prodigal Son was basically retold with the same characters... different personalities...
... different reasons that the Prodigal left home and different encounter with the pigs he's left in charge of feeding...
... attitudes of the various characters were altered from the original story and the end quite different from the Bible version we read as children...
... and the lesson to be learned: you can never go back home because you won't want to...
Clever, but since this was not presented as a tale of horror, I prefer the simple beauty of forgiveness and restoration of the original. Some things you just can't unlearn!
No spoilers. 3 stars. I was wondering how this well-known parable could be turned into horror... the answer is: it wasn't...
... rather, this retelling of The Prodigal Son was basically retold with the same characters... different personalities...
... different reasons that the Prodigal left home and different encounter with the pigs he's left in charge of feeding...
... attitudes of the various characters were altered from the original story and the end quite different from the Bible version we read as children...
... and the lesson to be learned: you can never go back home because you won't want to...
Clever, but since this was not presented as a tale of horror, I prefer the simple beauty of forgiveness and restoration of the original. Some things you just can't unlearn!
January 18, 2024
I have no idea what I should be feeling after reading ProdigalSon. I enjoyed the comedy of the arguments between parents and son. I even had a second listen. Surely I missed something that would reveal what this meant to others. I may even read a few reviews. But for me, figuring this out is just too much brain work right now.
November 10, 2020
Had no idea where this was going; felt like I was watching a movie so familiar I had memorized the lines, except now it was playing upside down, dubbed in a foreign language. I loved it. Especially how the archaic language of the ancient story was juxtaposed with the Prodigal's modern slang.
September 15, 2023
If you want an updated & weirdly told story from the Bible, this will do. It was something, I can tell you that. My devout Lutheran grandma would hate this story tho, so for that, this gets 3 stars instead of 2.
February 27, 2025
Not sure what I just listened to. This was weird and disjointed and made absolutely no sense. It’s a weird twist in the Bible story I guess? It was all over the place, weird, annoying, and pretty gross. Don’t recommend.
December 23, 2020
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.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews