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North American Lake Monsters

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North American Lake Monsters

By: Nathan Ballingrud
Narrated by: Travis Young
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About this listen

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. Sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, brothers, or ex-wives, and sometimes they wear the faces we see in our mirrors. The people in these stories - ex-cons, single parents, unemployed laborers, kids seduced by extremism - are stranded by life, driven to desperate acts by love and a longing for connection. Sometimes they’re ruined; sometimes redeemed. They are always recognizably, wonderfully, and terrifyingly human. Even at their most monstrous.

©2013 Nathan Ballingrud (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Family Life Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Short Stories Emotionally Gripping Scary North American Indians
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I haven’t given this full marks due to me preferring Wounds his other book of stories. But this is a work of a master all the same.

The real face of horror?

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This was an excellent, ground-breaking collection. Ballingrud has a distinct authorial voice I immediately warmed to: earthy and naturalistic, he portrays perfectly, and with great compassion, characters dealing with poverty, grief, homelessness, loss, anger etc.: it is realism of the highest quality. Into this he then adds elements of horror/supernaturalism, to greater and lesser degrees depending on the story. This mix is never jarring; the weird elements work to magnify and embellish the psyches of the characters, whilst also suggesting things monstrous and bizarre just out of reach of our senses. I can't say that I have read any weird fiction quite like it before.

Special mention must go to Travis Young's narration; his tone suited these stories perfectly, and his reading was exemplary.

Do not hesitate to listen to this if you enjoy horror/weird fiction, but I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates good literature. This writer really deserves greater exposure.

Realism and horror

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This is exactly what I've been looking for all my life. A book which is scary and unsettling but completely real. The depth of character and trueness of their stories is almost unbearable at times.

This isn't throwaway scares. You are in the hands of a great writer with this collection.

There are a few odd level issues with the recording where one or two lines will suddenly be louder. It bothered me when it first happened but its so infrequent and the narration is so good that I forgot it happened after a while.

Can't recommend this enough!

Fantastic!

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