Along Comes Scary

Rock & Roll Nightmares: '60s Edition Short Stories

By: Staci Layne Wilson, Jeff Strand, Marco Mannone, Renee Mallett, Darren Gordon Smith, Shane Bitterling

Narrated by: Jennifer Knighton

Along comes scary....

Tune in, turn on, and drop in to the rock 'n' roll rabbit hole! Along Comes Scary is set in an alternate spooky ’60s where vampires play screaming guitars, hell-bound hotrodders start a new trend on AM radio, and there are groupies who will do anything for a piece of their favorite band. Stories include "Papa’s Got a Brand-New Body Bag", "Hell-A Woman", and "She’s Got a Ticket to Die".

Ten stories by Staci Layne Wilson, Jeff Strand, Darren Gordon Smith, Marco Mannone, Renee Mallett, and Shane Bitterling.

©2021 Staci Layne Wilson (P)2021 Staci Layne Wilson

Great for some chills while driving and cleaning

Quite the collection of rock'n'roll horror stories! I really enjoyed "Papa's Got a Brand-New Body Bag" and "Do You Believe in Tragic.?" These versatile stories made L.A. Traffic seem to move faster. I do promise some chills and laughs with these. With such a mix of authors you will be getting a different dose of Rock'n'roll Nightmares! After finishing, maybe it is a good idea to leave your light on. The story, "Eye can't get no Satisfaction" really had me shuddering. (I have had eye issues, so I do want to give you a heads up) but the twist at the end of that one was worth it.

The narrator (Jennifer Knighton) was wonderful and did so many voices it blew me away. Her pacing was wonderful as she juggles each and every one of these crazy stories! She is very talented! She had me laughing aloud more times than I count with her delivery. Well done!

Highly recommend for when you are in the nightmare of traffic, or the horror of cleaning. A+

I was provided a free copy of this audiobook and this is my unbiased review.

Fun Listen

I totally enjoyed these short horror stories, they were imaginative some scarier than others but good listen on the take of the 60’s. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Thank you

A nice assortment of horror stories

Disclaimer: This audiobook was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. This book has a very interesting assortment of horror stories, and I love them they are told in different perspectives, offering a view of the glamour of the lifestyle, the behind the scenes of these musicians, as well as views from the musicians, the fans and everyone in between. Sprinkled with horror and humour, this book was definitely a joy a listen to. Jennifer Knighton did a great job narrating these stories, especially stories where there are many characters in a single setting, as it is easy to get confused in settings like that.

3.5* - good mix of stories

Like most short story compilations, it's not unusual to enjoy some more than others. My personal favourites, in order of appearance in the audiobook: "Hell-A Woman" (interesting 27 Club theme), "Stake Another Piece of My Heart" (I enjoy reading modern paranormal romances with supernatural heroes so I was delighted at the surprise twist in this story, and the narrator also did a great job voicing the heroine's reactions - I chuckled out loud), "Daydream Bereaver" (although I did not understand the final two minutes at all, even after listening to the ending a few times), "Eye Can't Get No Satisfaction" (although reference jokes to vision/eyes, while very clever at first, got a wee bit too obvious after a while), and "She's Got a Ticket to Die" (I liked the ending on this story, a last-sentence hook).

3.5* for narration: The narration was good during non-dialogue portions of the story but I felt that the voices used for male (and even some female) characters during conversations often - but not always - sounded artificial. I've written over 200 reviews so far on this site and this would be the biggest reason why I don't give full stars for narration. I can understand that narrators deliberately change their voices to indicate dialogue. I get that. It is an easy signal to the reader that this is something a character is saying, rather than description or exposition. But for listeners like me, who really get immersed in a story, the voices used for characters will either immerse us further (deftly nudging our emotions and reactions as the story proceeds) or they will disengage us (which, one might say, does a disservice to the author). Resonance or dissonance, suddenly spiking during the dialogue portions of the story. In a nutshell, I would have given a higher rating if the character voices in more of the dialogues sounded more a bit more authentic.

On another note, the 1.0x playback speed seemed to me to be very slow for this audiobook. It's just an observation, I don't reduce rating stars for performance on this criteria. I easily increased the playback speed and found a pace that was comfortable for me. (Fellow listeners - if you're new to audiobooks, fiddling around with that playback speed button can sometimes be the difference between loving an audiobook or being utterly disenchanted by it....)

This isn't a five-star review, but I really did enjoy many of the stories on this audiobook. I have no regrets investing the time to listen and would definitely listen to a similar compilation of stories set in a different decade. Love the retro theme!

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."