The Dark Musings Collection

By: Josh Hilden

Narrated by: Michelle Marie

The Dark Musings Collection contains six stories of horror and suspense.

One Way Ticket - Flight or Fight? When Emily Paulson was first confronted with that ancient imperative she chooses fight. She lost and was subjected to cruelty that nearly fractured her soul. Now an adult and a successful reporter with a wreck of a personal life, she is returning to her childhood home accompanied by the demons from the past. On her journey along the rails between the cities of Atlanta and Detroit she will meet a young mother and her innocent child fleeing in fear from a monster that darkly mirrors the demons of Emily's own past. In the end she will be forced once more to decide between fight or flight.

Short Run The world of the professional truck driver can be a lonely one. For Roy Harper, a man for whom loneliness coupled with emotional baggage and a series of life failures, it all may be too much to handle. It all comes to a head when he is tormented by a younger driver who is the quintessential "bully" on the road.

The Residue - Revised & Expanded Edition Mindy Jellico never believed in the supernatural. But on a dark and stormy night, she will be confronted with an ancient horror that will change her life forever. Or end it.

Best Friends Jimmy and Tiffany have been best friends since before they were out of diapers. One night, Tiffany calls Jimmy begging for her best friend's help.

Family Business Sixteen-year-old Jennifer knows she is a psychopath and burgeoning serial killer and she's cool with that. Life is going good until her mother marries a man named George. At first, she assumes George is just another one of the sheep who share her world. Then one day she catches a glimpse of another side of her stepfather.

My Dance with an Angel Seth is a shy freshman at the local University with a troubled family life. One night at a Halloween party he meets Sarah and his universe changes forever.

Squeal In an unnamed Ivy League University, a group of poor, overweight scholarship students are enslaved and tortured by the Coterie, the children of the Ultra Elite. When things go too far, the children of privilege are taught a lesson they will never forget if they survive.

©2015 Josh Hilden (P)2016 Josh Hilden

Sweet revenge

Revenge of the evil. Serial killers vampires angels pigs brutal sex and revenge. I really enjoyed this book until the last story I felt that that really took you to a dark place with overweight people being treated as pigs but the pigs get their revenge.
I received this free for an honest review from the author or narrator.

Revenge stories so good, you can taste them!

One of the things I love about Stephen King stories is the way he handles the vengeance that always comes down on the bad guy or bully. Author Josh Hilden must also be a fan of this type of comeuppance because he is artfully talented at dishing out revenge so cold and so sweet, you'll think you're eating ice cream when you finally taste it, or rather, listen to it.

In these stories, when the bad guy (generic, sometimes it's a bad girl) is bad, and I mean really bad, you rest easy knowing that he will get what's coming to him, almost to the point where you wish you could warn him to back off NOW, before it's too late, because he will wish he had never been born -- THAT'S how bad the revenge is going to be that's coming for him. After the first story of bullying, I was hooked, and trusted that this author had my back. If you've ever been wronged and fantasized, even for a minute, of straying onto the wrong side of the law to ensure that justice, in the grans scheme of things, is properly served, you will love these stories.

Not a spoiler here, but a fair warning about content. Make sure you're not a prude regarding violence, language or sex. These books aren't gratuitous by any means, but there are adult themes and situations, so be ready for sprinklings of murder, incest, rape, profanity and...let's see, what am I forgetting? Oh, vampires. Evil, rapist vampires, not romantic sexy vampires.

Only one story, the last one, left me wondering if it possibly took place in an alternate reality due to the extreme improbability of the premise to begin with, and the equal improbability of the outcome/ending, but so as not to spoil it, I'll let you decide if it's sci-fi or just that everyone went nuts.

Michelle Marie, the narrator, is an audio book rock star and goes beyond what I thought possible for a reader's range in such a wide variety of gender, age, class, and social status. With her voice, I could tell that a character lacked confidence or education, even if they were only saying "Thanks" or "Yes." To be able to communicate so much about a character and his or her background in just a word or phrase is unbelievable and requires a level of acting ability that I didn't think possible in an audio book reader. I became an instant fan of Ms. Marie and plan to seek out other books now that I've had the pleasure of hearing this one.

And even though I was given this book at no cost by the publisher, author or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review, that won't stop me from going out to purchase other works by both this author and narrator, especially in the hopes that they have paired up again in other projects.

Highly recommended for some great story-telling.

Warning Triggers

I knew this was rated S, V, L but this was grotesque and could make a sailor blush.

Definitely adult material with topics including domestic abuse, sexual assault/rape on a minor, et al, an extreme reaction to unwanted homosexual advances, strange devotions and an obscure common thread with a new step parent, weird fantasy and a twisted friendship.

Beyond horror, some of the topics are best not spoken. Language is extreme - definitely avoid listening around young ears.

Narrator tamed the story lines and I would listen to michelle marie read other, lighter books.

Revenge at its highest hour

What about Michelle Marie’s performance did you like?

Strong, unique and powerful narration for the book.

Any additional comments?

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost."

Tame to Oh My God

I enjoyed that each story had a revenge/justice aspect within the moral rules each exacter of revenge has for themselves. The situations requiring revenge ranged from kind of tame not super twisted to wow this is bizarre. I liked the pace of the book as well as the mixture of plausible and fantasy stories with a finale of pigish proportions.
I enjoyed the calmness of the narrator's voice and found myself so engrossed many times that I realized I wasn't even paying attention anymore, just listening to her voice. At first I didn't care for her male voices but quickly got used to them and then wondered why I didn't like them to begin with.
I would say this book is a blend of horror, thriller, and suspense, with each story being a little more of one than the other. This isn't for someone who is faint-hearted, but if you like good revenge stories and have a strong stomach this book is for you.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

The Dark Musings collection

I enjoyed most of these stories.Michelle Marie was a fine narrator.The author is a fine writer of the weird and vengeful side of people.I feel the first story was the best.I was provided this book free for review,by the author,narrator or publisher.

mixed short story collection

Any additional comments?

This book contains a mixed-bag of genres, with violence being a common theme.

There seven stories in this audiobook and I definitely felt that some were more interesting and compelling than others. I enjoyed the twist at the end of the second story ('Short Run') and I felt that the fifth story ('Family Business') was BY FAR the best in the book. The final story ('Piggies') was quite hard core regarding sex; it almost seems out of place in this volume because of its graphic rape/torture content.

My two least favourite were the ones about vampires and angels, which is too bad because I normally enjoy paranormal/urban fantasy novels. My impression is that these two paranormal stories were teaser short stories for future novels, since the characters and their worlds weren't well fleshed-out and I didn't really understand the point or direction of those stories.

The narration was okay, although I thought she spoke a bit too slowly. I also didn't like some of the voice characterizations, which sounded a bit forced and faked. Her normal tone had a nice cadence to it, and was easy to listen to (albeit at a slightly faster playback speed).

I provided my opinion in exchange for a complementary copy of the audiobook from the author, narrator, or publisher.

Spooky, Unique and Totally Twisted

Any additional comments?

I am an absolute sucker for a good horror story. These stories have it all - from the paranormal, to cult lore, to sociopathic children, to good old fashioned serial killers, this book runs the gamut of the horror genre. Each story is tight, well written, intriguing and quite original. Some of the stories (namely the final one) felt like a Twilight Zone episode on steroids and I totally loved that! Michelle Marie delivers a great performance and Josh Hilden sucks you in and keeps you listening (there is also a good diversity in characters as far as gender and minority representation - always appreciated). I would highly recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys horror, stories that include justice, or just like being spooked out! 10/10

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Revenge

Any additional comments?

This is a very good collection of short stories. Not much to say other than I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys revenge stories. The narrator did a great job.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Truly Dark Tales That Go Places You Won't Expect

NO SPOILER REVIEW. This was my first Josh Hilden audio book and I really enjoyed his collection of horror stories. They pulled me in quickly and I really enjoyed narrator, Michelle Marie. She just gets better with every story I listen to with her as the narrator. Her tone of sarcasm really fits these stories, which are all about justice and revenge.

The tales start off somewhat tame and build until the last story, which will shock you from beginning to end. They have topics such as rape, physical abuse, child serial killers, vampires, psychopaths, and extreme sexual fetishes. Some of the stories are extremely graphic so if you are faint of heart, I suggest staying far away.

As for me, I really enjoyed each story. My favorites were the first and last. The story about the child serial killer, found in the middle of the book, reminded me of Dexter Morgan and I really enjoyed it. The last story ended with a bang so to speak and took me by surprise from beginning to end.

I highly recommend this audio book to anyone who loves horror with a splash of paranormal and enjoys stories about revenge. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.