You Don’t Need 400 Pages to Be Scared
5 out of 5 stars
Unidentified by Michael McBride, other than being one of those words that my brain doesn’t want to ever spell right the first time tells a story from two different times. When it originally happened when they were kids and again when it appears to be starting again.
This had the feeling of Super 8 or Stranger Things with the added edge that McBride can add. It also had that feeling of Jaws – where you never really got a head-on look at the monster. You heard it and definitely knew there was something there, but you weren’t ever really shown or explained it in full.
What I really liked about this was its length. Sure, some people don’t like shorter books like this, but I didn’t need 400 pages to be scared into submission. McBride does it under 100. He made me look around my room before going to bed without utterly scaring me so bad I couldn’t sleep. It was that perfect medium. The books you think about before bed but can still sleep.
I don’t want to write anything that would anything away, just know, especially if you pick up the audiobook narrated by Joe Hempel you’re in for a treat. One of those “fun sized” candy bars (but the satisfying ones). Hempel should be known as the voice of horror. He was able to set the thick atmosphere that McBride wrote for Unidentified and keep me on the edge of my seat the entire 2 hours.
Book Description:
Unidentified by Michael McBride Narrator: Joe Hempel
Length: 2 hrs and 24 mins
Published by Tantor Audio on July 10th 2018
Genres: Horror, Science Fiction
Pages: 91
Format: Audiobook
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Four teenagers awaken in a scorched cornfield with no memory of how they got there. All they know is that there were five of them when they found the carcass of the mutilated cow.
Forty years later, Eric Devlin sends a cryptic email to the other three survivors: I remember everything.
Karl Doering has spent the majority of his life trying to understand what happened that night and learn the fate of his missing friend. He responds to the mysterious message and finds that Eric has killed himself in a decrepit barn, behind which is a cornfield filled with mutilated cattle.
When a local girl goes missing, Karl realizes he and the other two survivors are her only hope. To find her, they must confront repressed memories so traumatic they'd driven Eric to take his own life...and creatures straight out of their worst nightmares.
I received this book for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Also by this author: Snowblind, Subhuman, Subterrestrial
- No Rules of Engagement by Tracey Richardson (Narrated by Joana Garcia) - September 28, 2023
- Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan (Narrated Narrated by Lori Prince) - September 26, 2023
- New and Notable Audiobook Releases for the Week of September 23rd on Brian’s Book Blog - September 23, 2023
