Something Truly Dreadful

De: Matthew Salinas

Narrado por: Joe Hempel

On October 13th, Wes Andrews and his friends set out to explore the local, rundown haunted house. Despite it being geared toward children, they figured that, with nothing better to do, it might be fun to heckle the low-budget attraction. But after that night, no one ever saw or heard from them again. The haunted house itself vanished without a trace, taking Wes, his friends, and a significant portion of their town with it.

All that remained at the scene of their disappearance were scattered Polaroid photos, a shattered camera, and unsettling traces—teeth, strands of hair, and fragments of bone.

The events that followed unfolded over seven chilling hours...

©2024, 2025 Matthew Salinas (P)2025 Matthew Salinas

Creepy, grisly haunted house story

'Something Truly Dreadful' is a story about a group of friends who visit a haunted house attraction geared for kids. We are told at the start that none of them were heard from again so we know that things won't turn out well for them.

Overall I found this to be a creepy story. There's an element of found footage present (we are given descriptions of grisly photographs discovered afterwards) which gives the story a sense of foreboding that it might not have otherwise had. There's a variety of scares and it can get surprisingly gruesome at times; the story isn't recommended if you have a phobia of dentists.

The narrator does a good job reading the story and delivering the right amount of emotion and variations with the characters' voices. At less than two hours it's short enough that you can listen to it one sitting.

Nightmares come to life

Something Truly Dreadful by Matthew Salinas was a quick but effective non-stop thrill ride of a horror novel. With the audiobook clocking in at one hour and 45 minutes, you would easily be able to finish this in one sitting. At the speed I listen at, it was actually closer to 55 minutes.

When 5 friends are bored one day, they decide to go visit a pop up haunted house attraction. But when they enter they soon discover their worst fears come to life.

With the short run time the author was still able to bring the kids to life and to scare the reader with terrors from everyone's nightmares.

Narrorated by the incredibly talented Joe Hempel this audiobook is for anyone who has a commute or decent length drive. Hemple is an instant buy for me. If I see he is the narrorator for a book, it's already in my Audible cart.

Overall I give this story 4 stars.

Short and sweet!

the author has a great grasp on characters, the flow of the story, and leaving the tale free of frills.

Something Truly Dreadful

Well, this was horrible in the most terrific way! Very uncomfortable and claustrophobic. It was GREAT! I look forward to reading/ listening to more from Matthew Salinas. And, as usual, Joe nailed the narration.

What happens in a kiddie haunted house?

Short 1 1/2 hour audiobook about a group of teenagers going into a kiddie haunted house. They face their worse fears as this was no kiddie setup. It was very short, it is a novella, but would have liked it to have been a tad longer with more details. Maybe also leaving out saying this was a dramatization and instead going into the story telling it as it actually happened with more details. Definitely worth the read and a different type of a story. This could be continued into another novella which I’d definitely read.

How would you face your worst fear?

A group of friends going to a kid's haunted house, how bad could that be?
The story is told in an "investigation" style and narrated by the talented Joe Hempel.
This is a creepy, paranormal/occult quick listen.
A good haunted story!

Amazing book

story was very well written. The narrator was very easy to listen to. I was able to visualize the story as it was being read. I Highly Recommend This Audio Book.

perfect combo of my favorite things

this felt like true crime meets occult paranormal! I loved every minute of this book. Joe was the perfect narrator for this book!

Dreadful indeed

This gave me hell house movie series vibes - a quick & creepy read that gave me visual nightmares. Justice for Sydney a final girl to the end