When Things Get Dark
Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson
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About this listen
A chilling anthology in tribute to the genius of Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson is a seminal writer of horror and mystery fiction, whose legacy resonates globally today. Chilling, human, poignant, and strange, her stories have inspired a generation of writers and listeners.
This anthology, edited by legendary horror editor Ellen Datlow, brings together today’s leading horror writers to offer their own personal tribute to the work of Shirley Jackson.
Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Carmen Maria Machado, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand, Kelly Link, Cassandra Khaw, Karen Heuler, Benjamin Percy, John Langan, Laird Barron, Jeffrey Ford, M. Rickert, Seanan McGuire, Gemma Files, and Genevieve Valentine.
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No one could understand why Colin and Roy were best friends. Colin was so shy; Roy was so popular. Colin was fascinated by Roy - and Roy was fascinated by death. Then one day, Roy asked his timid friend: “You ever killed anything?” From that moment on, the two were bound together in a game too terrifying to imagine - and too irresistible to stop.
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The narration changed my interpretation
- By jaspersu on 10-28-12
By: Shirley Jackson
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While their short stories, they’re also non-ending stories
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The Long Way Home
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Performance
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Each tale is a magic trick, luring you toward the light while leading you down an ever-darkening path. There is hope mingled with horror, and that s Chizmar s secret power. His storytelling always beats with a huge, passionate heart. Stephen King says he writes terrific stories served with a very large slice of disquiet pie, and with The Long Way Home, Richard Chizmar has taken his evocative and compelling storytelling to an entirely new level.
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Loved it
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The Masque of the Red Death
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Performance
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Story
This is a story from the Fall of the House of Usher collection. The horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, with its dungeon of death, and the overhanging gloom on the House of Usher demonstrate unforgettably the unique imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. Unerringly, he touches upon some of our greatest nightmares: Premature burial, ghostly transformation, words from beyond the grave. Written in the 1840s, they have retained their power to shock and frighten even now.
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Good if you like Poe, otherwise skip it.
- By Jack on 07-14-14
By: Edgar Allan Poe
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- By: Bridget Collins, Imogen Hermes Gower, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, and others
- Narrated by: Rosalind Eleazar, Rory Kinnear, Juliet Stevenson, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before Charles Dickens and Henry James popularized the tradition of supernatural horror, the shadowy nights of winter have been a time for people to gather together by the flicker of candlelight and experience the intoxicating thrill of a spooky tale.
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excellent
- By Kindle Customer on 07-15-24
By: Bridget Collins, and others
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Lovecraft's Monsters
- By: Neil Gaiman, Ellen Datlow - editor
- Narrated by: Bernard Clark
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Prepare to meet the wicked progeny of the master of modern horror. In Lovecraft's Monsters, H. P. Lovecraft's most famous creations--Cthulhu, Shoggoths, Deep Ones, Elder Things, Yog-Sothoth, and more--appear in all their terrifying glory. Each story is a gripping new take on a classic Lovecraftian creature. Contributors include such literary luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Karl Edward Wagner, Elizabeth Bear, and Nick Mamatas.
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PURPLE WARMTH
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-04-17
By: Neil Gaiman, and others
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North American Lake Monsters
- Stories
- By: Nathan Ballingrud
- Narrated by: Travis Young
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In this striking and bleak, yet luminous debut collection, Nathan Ballingrud, winner of the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award, uses the trappings of the Gothic and the uncanny to investigate a distinctly American landscape: The loneliest and darkest corners of contemporary life. Ballingrud’s stories are love stories. They’re also monster stories. Sometimes the monsters collected here are vampires or werewolves.
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Superb collection of truly original stories
- By C. Bland on 01-11-16
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Wounds
- Stories
- By: Nathan Ballingrud
- Narrated by: Corey Brill, Danny Campbell, Matthew Lloyd Davies, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Wounds is a confounding, strange, and utterly entrancing collection of six stories, including one new novella from Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Nathan Ballingrud. From the eerie dread descending upon a New Orleans dive bartender after a cell phone is left behind in a rollicking bar fight in The Visible Filth to the search for the map of hell in “The Butcher’s Table”, Ballingrud’s beautifully crafted stories are riveting in their quietly terrifying depictions of the murky line between the known and the unknown.
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Amazing collection
- By V on 04-18-19
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Haunted Legends
- By: Ellen Datlow - editor, Nick Mamatas - editor
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Darkly thrilling, these 20 new ghost stories have all the chills and power of traditional ghost stories, but each tale is a unique retelling of an urban legend from the world over. Multiple award-winning editor Ellen Datlow and award-nominated author and editor Nick Mamatas recruited Jeffrey Ford, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, Kit Reed, Ekaterina Sedia, and 13 other fine writers to create stories unlike any they've written before.
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Scary stories & best part is THEY ARE ALL TRUE!
- By Old Man Parker on 01-11-16
By: Ellen Datlow - editor, and others
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Creature Feature
- Spooky Tales to Keep You Up All Night
- By: Joe Hill, Grady Hendrix, Josh Malerman, and others
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff, Michael Crouch, Lauren Ezzo, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Gather round as today’s most diabolically clever authors twist simple moments into otherworldly horrors. An empty baby stroller. A scratching underneath the bed. A farmhouse in the moonlight. With an unnerving sense of the macabre, these stories transform our greatest fears into bone-chilling realities.
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Scary
- By Christopher on 10-18-23
By: Joe Hill, and others
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Monsters at Midnight
- 29 Horror Stories
- By: Nick Clausen
- Narrated by: Spencer Dillehay
- Length: 37 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Spanning everything from vampires and werewolves to ghosts and wendigos, this collection of supernatural horror stories brings you the finest thrills and chills from the bestselling author of Dead Meat and Cadaver. Dive into the depths of the dark imagination that spawned these highly entertaining and fear-fueled adventures.
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An Awesome Collection
- By Laura on 02-12-24
By: Nick Clausen
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After the People Lights Have Gone Off
- By: Stephen Graham Jones
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The 15 stories in After the People Lights Have Gone Off, by Stephen Graham Jones, explore the horrors and fears of the supernatural and the everyday. Included are two original stories, several rarities and out-of-print narratives, as well as a few "best of the year" inclusions.
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No no no...
- By T. E. on 04-26-19
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The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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John Langan has, in the last few years, established himself as one of the leading voices in contemporary horror literature. Gifted with a supple and mellifluous prose style, an imagination that can conjure up clutching terrors with seeming effortlessness, and a thorough knowledge of the rich heritage of weird fiction, Langan has already garnered his share of accolades. This new collection includes nine of his substantial stories.
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Forgot the Horror
- By Dylan on 10-04-18
By: John Langan
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The Nameless Dark
- By: T.E. Grau, Nathan Ballingrud
- Narrated by: Armen Taylor
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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The Nameless Dark debuts a major new voice in contemporary weird fiction. Within these minutes, you'll find whispers of the familiar ghosts of the classic pulps - Lovecraft, Bradbury, Smith - blended with Grau's uniquely macabre, witty storytelling, securing his place at the table amid this current Renaissance of literary horror.
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absolute gem
- By T on 07-01-16
By: T.E. Grau, and others
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Twice Cursed
- An Anthology
- By: Joe Hill, Neil Gaiman, Joanne Harris, and others
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley, Antonia Beamish, Mark Peachey
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Take a trip to a terrifying carnival and uncover the secrets within, solve a mysterious puzzle box and await your reward, join a travelling circus and witness the strangest ventriloquist act you've ever seen. In this follow-up to the bestselling Cursed: An Anthology, you'll unearth curses old and new. From a very different take on Snow White, to a new interpretation of The Red Shoes, the best in fantasy spin straw into gold, and invite you into the labyrinth.
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Needs A Trigger Warning!!!
- By Ronda on 12-13-23
By: Joe Hill, and others
What listeners say about When Things Get Dark
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- MamaBear
- 10-15-23
Excellent collection
While I don’t think there was a bad story in the bunch, “Tiptoe,” by Laird Barron, deserves a special mention as the best of the best.
Barron’s ability to describe tension becoming terror, against a background of nostalgia, is incredible.
I didn’t want the story to end, and I’d have happily listened to a novel based on this theme. That’s not to say that the writing feels spare. Barron uses exactly as many words as needed to deliver this gut punch of a story - which is exactly what Shirley Jackson did so perfectly, in story after story.
Wonderful collection, inspired by one of the most insightful and incisive writers of the last century. Well worth the credit if you enjoy short fiction, or stories from just outside the border of what we usually call “reality.”
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- Jarod
- 04-13-24
The last story is the best one.
Overall I found it quite bland but there were a couple of stand out stories. If I was reading a paper copy, I probably wouldn't have finished it. As an audiobook it's an ok listen.
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- Donea Clancy
- 01-28-23
The Stories Are Good
Good stories written in Shirley Jackson style...some better than others.
The narration is ok...some of it is wooden and dry.
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- vurnt22
- 09-12-23
Weird, lovely, odd, stories
It feels like these stories are less about the fantastic unknown , than more about the weirdness that can up & envelope us, unbidden, at any time.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-19-22
Exceeded expectations
Most stories are decent or above average. Some were incredibly good! I was genuinely surprised by the quality
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2 people found this helpful
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- Yimi Tong
- 01-12-22
So good...
I'm always impressed by Ellen Datlow's edited anthologies. Every single story was just so good. Narration was also great. Some of the stories linger longer than others; for me, it was "For Sale By Owner" and "Skinder's Veil."
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- Barbara
- 09-08-22
Such a great collection!
There is not a single story in this collection that I didn’t love. The performances were top notch but the quality of the stories was so good!
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- DP
- 03-17-23
A bit uneven, but a lot of good material
As usual for anthologies, the individual stories can be hit or miss. Fortunately for this one, they skew towards the enjoyable side of the scale more often than not - there are no especially bad ones, and the good ones are often very good. Several of them even left me wanting more, a slightly wistful compliment that's a praise for this type of collection. Definitely worth checking out.
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- Kindle Customer
- 10-20-23
A solid 3.75 stars! I need more than just 1-5.
So almost all of these stories pulled me in to keep my interest - some more than others, but that's inevitable with anthology collections.
BUT, outside of maybe 3 or 4 of the stories, none of them had an ending. Like, at all.
It's fully possible that I'm just not creative or insightful enough to be able to 'see' what the author was trying to impart, but my lowly mind just felt like we'd be around 80% through the story and then it would just end. Incredibly abruptly.
Regardless, they were entertaining, and maybe you're more discerning or have a better imagination than me and you'll be able to fully interpret the endings =)
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- Lena Leigh
- 01-04-22
TipToe was my favorite offering!
TipToe by Laird Barron ★★★★★
That sent shivers all the way up my spine and down again for more. I listened to the end three times.
Take Me, I Am Free by Joyce Carol Oates ★★★★½
That story was so short yet so painful. A little girl is put out with the trash by a mother with severe postpartum depression. Not everyone was meant to be a mother but that’s a bell you can’t unring.
Hag by Benjamin Percy ★★★★☆
Oooh, that took its time but had payoff! Every family needs a little mother-daughter vs monster bonding time.
A Trip to Paris by Richard Kadrey ★★★★☆
Whether it was the ghosts of her murdered family, toxic mold, or guilt, a family annihilator eats her own pie.
In the Deep Woods; The Light is Different There by Seanan McGuire ★★★★☆
Gorgeous little story about a recently divorced woman who moves into her deceased father’s lake house and befriends her fey neighborhoods. Woodfolk take care of their own and fey repay their favors with violent interest.
Funeral Birds by M. Rickert ★★★½☆
A home health care worker with a murderous secret is haunted by her last client.
Something Like Living Creatures by John Langan ★★★½☆
You can’t stop there! I want to know everything about these spooky pagan girls living in Maine. What did the organs say?!?!?
Refinery Road by Stephen Graham Jones ★★★½☆
Jones has this sturdy way of writing ghost stories - they are meaty and meaningful. It’s unique.
Skinder’s Veil by Kelly Link ★★★½☆
A doctoral student housesit’s for Death. There were several stories-within-the-story. The extra half star is for Turtle story, which was not the worst story she had ever heard about marriage. Man that made me laugh!
For Sale By Owner by Elizabeth Hand ★★★☆☆
Older snoopy ladies decide to slumber squat in a fancy house abandoned in the woods. Things get a little spooky.
The Door in the Fence by Jeffrey Ford ★★★☆☆
A boy’s memory of the odd widow next door who became “her own kind of woman.” This was quite odd but entertaining.
Pear of Anguish by Gemma Files ★★★☆☆
Ouch those preteen years are tough, for me they were harder than all of high school. Not everyone makes it, I remember the funeral. It’s best not to pick at those scars.
Special Meal by Josh Malerman ★★★☆☆
More of a tribute to Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron than anything I have read or heard of from Shirley Jackson.
The Party by Paul Tremblay ★★½☆☆
With shades of The Masque of the Red Death we enter a party with dislikable characters. But by the end you are just at some awkward office party - lame.
Quiet Dead Things by Cassandra Khaw ★★½☆☆
This is about a town with ugly secrets I know not where or when. It was entertaining but it did not go anywhere.
Money of the Dead by Karen Heuler ★★½☆☆
No, bringing back the dead is never a good idea. This was sad and boring.
Sooner of Later, Your Wife Will Drive Home by Genevieve Valentine ★★☆☆☆
Not sure what this was meant to be other than depressing.
A Hundred Miles and a Mile by Carmen Maria Machado ★☆☆☆☆
As usual with this author, I wonder why I wasted my time.
I finished all 18 stories for a total of 3.2 stars.
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9 people found this helpful