Reviews

Come Join Us by the Fire by Theresa DeLucci

kieralesley's review

4.0

So close to 5 stars, I found the last few stories weak though.
Excellent sampler of a range of established and emerging horror voices covering lots of creepy, unsettling and scary ground. A very diverse and contemporary collection!
Faves: No Matter Which Way We Turned, The Girls from the Horror Movie, These Deathless Bones, Midnight Caller, When the Zombies Win, Beware of Owner, Greener Pastures, And when she was bad, El Charro.
Two I previous faves, Ponies and 57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides, also got excellent treatment here.
Kudos to the audio team, the production is a light touch but really evocative for each story.

kittykult's review

4.0

I was not expecting a free audiobook to be this enjoyable or impressive, but it absolutely was. I found some new authors I want to read more of and there were more than a few stories I might like to listen to again in the future. The background noises really amplified these stories and didn't distract from them at all, and almost all of the stories had themes which made me think past the story's end. Because there are 35 short stories in this collection and you can skip around on Spotify or wherever you may be listening to it, I'm going to start with my recommendations for the best stories.

5 stars:

“These Deathless Bones” – Cassandra Khaw, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld- wow yes. The entire time I felt like I was watching Game of Thrones (specifically, Joffrey) in a mash-up with a Disney Princess (specifically, the scenes were they communicate with animals, no spoilers!). This tale was delicious. Yes yes yes.

“Midnight Caller” – Stephen Graham Jones, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld - this is a play on the slasher genre, and had me laughing quite a bit.

“Spawning Season” – Nicholas Kaufmann, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo - although I predicted where this was going about halfway through, I still really enjoyed this tale and would have liked to have seen more of the mythos and culture of the people of the town

4 stars:

“That Which Does Not Kill You” – Lucy A. Snyder, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld - breakups are hell.

“It Washed Up” – Joe R. Lansdale, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo - I don't want to say anything about this because I'm afraid it will spoil it. Just listen to it.

“When the Zombies Win” – Karina Sumner-Smith, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo - an interesting look at what happens after the zombie apocalypse

“Ponies” – Kij Johnson, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld - What lengths will we go to in order to fit in? The ending made me sad.

“In Sheep’s Clothing” – Molly Tanzer, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld - felt it dragged a bit in the beginning but the story was very good

“The Design” – China Miéville, narrated by Gerard Doyle - wow this could have been a five if it had not been unnecessarily long. Repetitive and drawn out, it is more than twice as long as the rest of the stories in this collection. Even though I gave it 4 stars overall, it is also perhaps the most disappointing in the series.

“57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides” – Sam J. Miller, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo - This reminded me of a YA book, with a character who discovers they have secret powers and decides to use it against bullies. It was pretty fun, but I didn't quite get the logic that the main character was "a bad guy" just like the bullies simply because he got tricked by one of them. I think I would have liked it even more if the two main characters had stuck through the entire thing.

“The Anatomist’s Mnemonic” – Priya Sharma, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo - This was fucking weird. I figured out where it was going pretty quickly, but I really, really enjoyed it.

“Daddy” – Victor LaValle, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo - A doting father discovers someone is watching - and talking to - his child from the roof outside his bedroom. The twist at the end was unexpected.

“A Life That Is Not Mine” – Kristi DeMeester, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld - atmospheric, creepy, and the commentary about dead-end routines and jobs really upset me.

3 stars - Overall, there were parts I enjoyed about these, but I probably wouldn't need to give them a re-read:

“This Guy” – Chuck Wendig, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“Her Body, Herself” – Carmen Maria Machado, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
“The Girls in the Horror Movie” – Gwendolyn Kiste, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
“Black Bark” – Brian Evenson, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“Rabbit Heart” – Alyssa Wong, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“The Beasts of the Earth, The Madness of Men” – Brooke Bolander, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
“Cold, Silent, and Dark” – Kary English, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
“Harold the Spider Man” – Paul Tremblay, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“The Vault of the Sky, The Face of the Deep” – Robert Levy, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
“Don’t Turn on the Lights” – Cassandra Khaw, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
“Wasp & Snake” – Livia Llewellyn, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
“Greener Pastures” – Michael Wehunt, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“And When She Was Bad” – Nadia Bulkin, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
“El Charro” – John Langan, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“Dream Home” – Kat Howard, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
“Was She Wicked, Was She Good?” – M. Rickert, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo

2 stars - don't have much to say about these, they were anticlimactic or just not that enjoyable:

“The Pond” – Paul Tremblay, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“Flayed Ed” – Richard Kadrey, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo - I would have liked this a lot more if it were about a fictional serial killer than a real one
“No Matter Which Way We Turned” – Brian Evenson, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“Stemming the Tide” – Simon Strantzas, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“Black Neurology” – Richard Kadrey, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
“Beware of Owner” – Chuck Wendig, narrated by Ramon de Ocamp0

1 star - none, really, this collection was pretty strong and even the ones I didn't like weren't unbearable or awful to listen to.

re_leyendo's review

3.0

This audiobook was pretty good. I had a hard time with some stories, but because I'm now realizing maybe audiobooks aren't for me?

I especially loved Cassandra Khaw's stories, as well as the one written by Stephen Graham Jones. To me they were the absolute best!

libris_leonis's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

the_disreputable_dog's review

3.0

Some of the stories were compelling, but only one or two really scared me. I really enjoyed a couple but felt like they got cut short, and my favorite, also my favorite campfire story, was "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights?"

jhay06's review

2.0

1. No Matter Which We Turned - 5★
2. Daddy - 5★
3. This Guy - 1★
4. Flayed Ed - 2★
5. The Pond - 1★
6. My Body, Herself - 1★
7. The Girls From the Horror Movie - 4★
8. These Deathless Bones - 5★
9. It Washed Up - 1★
10. Steaming the Tide - 1★
11. Midnight Caller - 1★
12. Black Bark - 4★
13. The Anatomist's Mnemonic - 1★
14. Rabbit Heart - 3★
15. The Beasts of the Earth, The Madness of Men - 1★
16. Cold, Silent, and Dark - 4★
17. When the Zombie Wins - 1★
18. Harold the Spider Man - 1★
19. Ponies - 1★
20. Black Neurology - 1★
21. Beware of Owner - 4★
22. The Vault of the Sky, the Force of the Deep - 4★
23. Don't Turn on the Lights - 2★
24. Wasp and Snake - 1★
25. Greener Pasture - 3★
26. And When She Was Bad - 2★
27. El Charro - 2★
28. Dream Home - 1★
29. Spawning Season - 3★
30. In The Sheep's Clothings - 1★
31. 57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides - 4★
32. Was She Wicked. Was She Good? - 2★
33. A Life That Is Not Mine - 1★
34. That Which Does Not Kill You - 1★
35. The Design - 1★

curlybooks's review

3.0

This was fun to listen to, I liked some stories way more than others, which is usually the case for anthologies, and I liked that they had multiple narrators for different stories. However some of the sound effects felt cheesy at times and I'm not sure about listening to this genre in audiobook format. Like romance, I think some genres are better read than listened to, the dun-dun-dun reveal moments of horror, felt more times than not anti-climactic and cringey as opposed to shocking. I loved Ponies and the stories by Brian Evenson (one of which I had already read) I also really liked China Mieville's story (even though I had already read that one as well). A fun fall Halloween read.

iamltr's review

5.0

This was hands down, the best anthology I had listened to this year.

As with any book with different writers, some stories were better than others. But for the first time for me, none were bad stories.

Daddy and In Sheep's Clothing were my favorites out of the bunch.

literally_laura's review

3.0

This was a fairly good anthology. The audio has just enough sound effects to keep this interesting and up the creepy factor just a bit, but not enough to distract from the story. There are a ton of shorts here, and some very definitely better than others. Horror overall, IMO, is better done on a wider scale- suspense needs time to grow. Some of these were slashers- all jump scares and no suspense. Some were fantastic teasers for (hopefully) longer works by the same author. Overall, this was a good, but not great, book..

invisiblemonster's review

dark tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0