Spooky Stories from BBC Sounds

 

October is the best month for spooky stories and ghostly goings-on! As BBC Sounds has a great selection of seasonal audio-drama for Halloween, I thought it would be timely to showcase my favourites for your aural pleasure.

All of these audio dramas are available to listen online from the BBC Sounds website (I've linked the titles to their appropriate page), or you can listen/download to your digital device using the BBC Sounds App.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

I'm currently listening to this serialised drama of James' gothic classic in preparation for the release of The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix!

This spine-tingling novella about a governess and two children on a haunted estate is read by Sam Dale and Clare Corbett.

Weird Tales

Weird Tales is an ongoing series of intimate and chilling plays. Currently there are three seasons, with a handful of serialised plays in each. The most recent is Night Terrors by Lizzie Nunnery:

The pressure's getting too much for clever clogs Victoria. She can't sleep at night. She has nightmares. But it's okay because they're just bad dreams.

Until one day the dreams become terrifyingly real...

The Whisperer in Darkness

Inspired by Lovecraft's novella of the same name, this audio drama blends horror and sci-fi in a modern re-telling:

Henry Akeley, an ex-student from Dr Eleanor Peck’s folklore and witchcraft course, has gone missing, and Heawood and Kennedy decide whether or not to investigate. But first, there are threads to tie up from their last mystery podcast 'The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward.'

All ten episodes are currently available, plus additional content including the duo's previous adventure: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The classic Gothic masterpiece, based on the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson,  in which a doctor experiments with the duality of human nature, and in doing so creates a monster.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The original Gothic monster story, which I'm sure needs no introduction! 

This complete audiobook contains 24 chapters and is narrated by Shaun Mason.

The Hotel

The Hotel is a series of interlinked short stories by Daisy Johnson (author of Sisters and Everything Under). At the time of writing, only the first three (of fifteen) short episodes have been released, with a new episode available each Monday.

By far, this series is my favourite! The Hotel is creepy, unsettling, and deeply delicious!

What are your favourite spooky audio stories?

Do you have a favourite spooky story on BBC Sounds or elsewhere? Be sure to let us know in the comments section or tag me on Twitter to share your choices with further readers!

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Penguin' Season of Stories Begins Anew

Sign up to The Season of Stories this month to receive bite-sized tales delivered daily direct to your inbox.

Season of Stories returns in September, with three more months of hand-picked short stories from acclaimed authors such as Lee Child, James McBride, Jenny Zhang, Charles Yu, Denis Johnson, and Aimee Bender.
Each week, you’ll get a new short story delivered to your inbox in four instalments sent daily from Tuesday until the conclusion on Friday. The bite-sized newsletter will give you just the right amount to read while commuting, waiting in line, or during your lunch break.
Summer might be over, but a whole season of awesome is coming your way.

Once you have signed up and confirmed your email address, you should be able to read any instalments you may have missed using the link in the emails sent from Season of Stories. Head on over to the SoS website to learn more.

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Download Flore! - A free short eBook by Adria J. Cimino

If you enjoy stories set in Paris, you may want to check out the work of Adria J. Camino, who has recently released her fourth novel, Paris Rue Des Martyrs.

Those who subscribe to Cimino's email newsletter can currently download her short story, Flore, for free.

Apolline goes to Café de Flore in her chic Parisian neighborhood every week with her mother and grandmother. But today, after the teatime routine, she dares to return alone… for an intriguing encounter.
"Flore" is the first in a series of Café Life stories by Adria J. Cimino. In this volume, it is accompanied by "Love Unlocked", one of the author’s stories from the anthology That's Paris. 

Visit Adria J. Cimino's website to learn more or subscribe.

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Some of the Best from Tor.com - Free eBook

Tor.com has published the 2016 edition of Some of the Best from Tor.com, which is available from now until January 17th on the website, and available wherever ebooks are sold for the duration of 2017.

The table of contents includes:

• “Clover” Charlie Jane Anders
• “The Art of Space Travel” Nina Allan
• “The Destroyer” Tara Isabella Burton
• “Traumphysik” Monica Byrne
• “The High Lonesome Frontier” Rebecca Campbell
• “Lullaby for a Lost World” Aliette de Bodard
• “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” P. Djeli Clark
• “Breaking Water” Indrapramit Das
• “Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage” Alix E. Harrow
• “The City Born Great” N. K. Jemisin
• “Everything That Isn’t Winter” Margaret Killjoy
• “The Weight of Memories” Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu
• “The Maiden Thief” Melissa Marr
• “The Caretakers” David Nickle
• “Your Orisons May Be Recorded” Laurie Penny
• “meat+drink” Daniel Polansky
• “The Three Lives of Sonata James” Lettie Prell
• “The Great Detective” Delia Sherman
• “Finnegan’s Field” Angela Slatter
• “The Weather” Caighlan Smith
• “Terminal” Lavie Tidhar
• “Her Scales Shine Like Music” Rajnar Vajra
• “La beauté sans vertu” Genevieve Valentine
• “That Game We Played During the War” Carrie Vaughn
• “A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers” Alyssa Wong

The ebook is available in both mobi and epub formats.

To get this free anthology, you will need to enter your email address on the "Giveaway" section of Tor.com. A link to download will be sent to you by email. Unlike other Tor.com ebook giveaways, this anthology is available outside the U.S and Canada!

Remember, the download page on Tor.com will only be available until January 17th, so be quick to ensure you receive your own copy!

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Samsa in Love by Haruki Murakami - Read Online

Haruki Murakami's sequel (or prequel?) to Kafka's Metamorphosis is available to read for free on The New Yorker website.

This strange and surreal short story provides the tale of a beetle who finds himself transformed into a human man. Gregor Samsa discovers the human affliction of love when a hunchbacked young woman comes to repair the lock on the door of the man whose body he inhabits.

Read online now at the New Yorker website.

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The King of Rats by Melinda Salisbury - Free Short Story eBook

Melinda Salisbury is the author of sinister YA fantasy novels The Sin Eater’s Daughter and The Sleeping Prince.

Today, fans lucky enough to meet her at the Young Adult Literature Convention will be treated to an exclusive mini-book featuring her short story, The King of Rats.

Luckily, Waterstones have come to the rescue for those of us unable to attend: this short story is available to download as a PDF exclusively from the Waterstones website!

Download your copy of The King of Rats and let us know what you think in the comments below.

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The Moth and the Flame - Free eBook

The Moth and th Flame is the second short story released as an ebook by Renee Adieh in anticipation of the release of The Rose and the Dagger.

It is available for download in a variety of digital formats via Penguin Random House.

Here is the description from the website:

It started as playful, if barbed, banter before rising to a fateful wager with a most notorious rake—the Captain of the Guard, Jalal al-Khoury—who may have finally met his match in a lovely, if haughty, handmaiden, Despina. But she, too, seems to have met her match in the handsome Jalal. What begins as a tempestuous battle of will and wit in short order becomes a passionate affair spurred on by tragedy of the worst kind.

Download The Moth and the Flame for your digital device.

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The Crown and theThe Crown and the Arrow for your digital device Arrow by Renee Adieh - Free eBook

The Crown and the Arrow is a short story by Renee Adieh to accompany her novel, The Wrath ad the Dawn. It is available to download for free for a variety of e-reader devices from the publisher, Penguin Random House.

Here is the description from the website:

Seventy-one days and seventy-one nights had come and gone since Khalid began killing his brides. This dawn, Khalid would mark the loss of the seventy-second girl, Shahrzad al-Khayzuran. Khalid didn’t know how many more of these dawns he could take. And there was something about this latest girl that piqued his interest. Not only had she volunteered to marry him, but at their wedding ceremony, she had seemed not the least bit afraid. In fact, what he had seen in her eyes was nothing short of pure hatred. She was about to lose her life. Why wasn’t she afraid? Why did she hate him so? He had never before gone to his wife’s chambers before her death at dawn. Tonight would be different.

Download The Crown and the Arrow for your digital device.

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The Best of Tor.com 2015 - Free eBook

The 2015 edition of Some of the Best from Tor.com is now available to download for free to view on your digital readers.

To download in PDF, ePub or MOBI format, visit this page on Tor.com

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Read Kino by Haruki Murakami

The man always sat in the same seat, the stool farthest down the counter. When it wasn't occupied, that is, but it was nearly always free. The bar was seldom crowded, and that particular seat was the most inconspicuous and the least comfortable. A staircase in the back made the ceiling slanted and low, so it was hard to stand up there without bumping your head. The man was tall, yet, for some reason, preferred that cramped, narrow spot.

Read this new short story by Haruki Murakami on The New Yorker website.

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The Rose of Fire - Free eBook!

The Rose of Fire by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - download the ebook for free!
(via Harper Collins)

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Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2014 – Books on Google Play

Link: Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2014 – Books on Google Play

A free collection of original short stories from Tor.com, including Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen’s Where the Trains Turn (the title I most look forward to reading!).
Also available for Kindle devices on Amazon.
Enjoy!

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Where the Trains Turn - Read it Free Online!

Read the novella Where the Trains Turn by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (author of The Rabbit Back Literature Society) free on Tor.com (or download to your device for a very small price!).

Love this author: his odd, unsettling and mind-boggling take on the theme of magic-realism. Really hope some of his other works are translated to English soon!

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A Death by Stephen King - Read free online

From the master of the macabre comes A Death - a short story by Stephen King, which you can read online for free via The New Yorker.

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The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains - Read it free online

Image via Neil Gaiman

Unfortunately not the glorious illustrated version, merely the text. Regardless, this should not disappoint! This is a dark tale, reminiscent of legend, old knowledge, and truth.

Read The Truth is a Cave in the Dark Mountains by Neil Gaiman on Fifty-Two Stories.

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Lost Sherlock Holmes Story..?

Read the lost Sherlock Holmes story, found in an attic.

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Evil Book Club Giveaway

Such a beauty of a book exists, and Evil Book Club of Evil are giving copies away for All Hallow’s Read!

evilbookclub:

Evil Book Club of Evil October Giveaway!

The Evil Book Club of Evil, in celebration of the empirically best month of the year (October), will be giving away books! Two books! In two separate giveaways! Because books! And because we’re a book club - what else would we give away? We considered a fabric softener giveaway because Evil likes soft, non-static-y clothing and they have those special dark clothing blends now, but in the end we decided that books were the way to go.

Because books.

Here are the rules:

• A “heart” (we’ll pretend it’s a dark heart) gets you an entry.


• A reblog gets you an entry.


• We won’t count multiple hearts or reblogs so just do the clicky bits once please.


• This giveaway is open to Evil Book Club of Evil members only so you’ve got to be following Evil Book Club of Evil.


• We are running two giveaways for two glorious editions of books read by Evil Book Club of Evil in its inaugural year. You are welcome to enter in both giveaways by hearting and/or reblogging both posts.


• Winners will be selected and notified on Wednesday, October 1st!

From the official book description:

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein is a twisted, fresh, and utterly original full-length, full-color graphic-novel adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original text, brought to life by acclaimed illustrator Gris Grimly. The first fully illustrated version to use the original 1818 text, this handsome volume is destined to capture the imagination of those new to the story as well as those who know it well.

New York Times bestselling illustrator Gris Grimly has long considered Frankenstein to be one of his chief inspirations. From the bones and flesh of the original, he has cut and stitched Mary Shelley’s text to his own artwork, creating something entirely new: a stunningly original remix, both classic and contemporary, sinister and seductive, heart-stopping and heartbreaking.

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