Oh, The Horror! - For Your Ears [1]

This is the first post in a series of blog posts I plan to periodically revisit where I recommend some of the more scarier horror audiobooks I've listened to recently. 

Horror, as a genre, is incredibly diverse and my selections for this inaugural post reflect that with a creature-feature in The Nest, a teen slasher in The Last Final Girl, and a ghost story in Cold Moon Over Babylon. 

Without further preamble - here's the horror for your ears! 

The Nest (written by Gregory A. Douglas, read by Matt Godfrey)

Set on an isolated island with a small community, The Nest follows the speedy evolution of a subspecies of cockroaches, leveraging off other well known insect characteristics such as the hive minds of ants and the worker/soldier classes of termites. Without going into too much detail, there's some rather tasty evolutionary goodies which ups the horror ante, but I'll leave that scary surprise for readers. 

In true to genre theme, the cockroaches venture out of their little self contained nest to cause havoc on the human population, essentially turning this creature feature into a survival horror with some scientific rationalisation for plausibility. 

There's a steady stream of blood, plenty of overtly graphic gore, and a surprisingly good level of character development, which makes The Nest one of the better and well written horror novels from the market saturated 80's genre. I highly recommend this one! 

My rating: 5/5 stars. 

The Last Final Girl (written by Stephen Graham Jones, read by Eric G. Dove)

The Last Final Girl is a teen slasher with some saucy satire. The book oozes sexuality and is brimming with brutality; all the teenage women are attractive, while the the antagonist is pure typecast teen horror movie. 

Sure there's not a lot of depth but that's not what you pay for - load up the pop corn and don't answer the phone at night. 

The unique script storytelling methodology contributes to the distinctly b-grade feel which makes the Scream/I Know What You Did Last Summer-like spoof all the more alluring for fans of the slasher sub genre. 

And that ending...formulaic but fun! 

My rating: 4/5 stars.  

Cold Moon Over Babylon (written by Michael McDowell, read by Scott Brick) 

Cold Moon Over Babylon is a moody and evocative murder mystery with supernal elements that hits all the right chords for horror enthusiasts.  

The small town setting fits the intimate nature of the story with nobody discounted as a suspect; motives a-plenty for a murder most macabe. 

Yet the best parts lay at the bottom of a river run wild with horrors too dark to be seen in the light. The result? A scarily good gory ghost story which punctures the depths of despairs and puts a strangle hold on the reader. 

My rating: 5/5 stars.