The Tightening Spiral

By: Tara Fox Hall

Narrated by: Jennifer Fournier

Tara Fox Hall's second collection of short suspense and horror stories, ranging from novella to microfiction in length. Chock full of demons, serial killers, social climbers, zombies, activists, ghosts, and the occasional happy ending...of sorts.

©2013 Tara Fox Hall (P)2018 Tara Fox Hall

The Tightening Spiral review

A fantastic assortment of dark fiction tales. Interesting from the beginning to the end, with good writing and narration.

Twisted horror tales

The Tightening Spiral is a book full of abnormally twisted horror tales. They are creepy and just straight out yikes. The tales are very descriptive and well written. The narrator Jennifer truly did a spectacular job. I highly recommend this book if you love twisted horror stories.

Great collection

Lots of variety that gives you a good sample of the authors work
I could recommend this solely on the story end of days about a attack on the US that turns adults into mutants
The rest of the stories are icing on the cake
Well narrated with interesting concepts I would also suggest picking up her other audiobook Latham’s landing
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

Clever and Original

This clever and original set of stories range in length from micro to short novella. All fit in the horror genre, though the novella also has elements of science fiction. I thought Fournier was an excellent narrator.

The tightening spiral

Good collection of suspenseful style stories.I enjoyed it.Narration by Jennifer FourniI was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.er was very good.

Solid Anthology

This is an entertaining and eclectic selection of very short, short fiction. The variety of settings and characters and plots keeps things interesting without seeming rehashed and the horror while not beating you over the head is still ever present. The narration is great as well giving the stories extra dimension.

I received the review code for this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.

A decent collection of short stories

I like collections because I can take them in little bites during my day. Unfortunately, they're also usually filled with a mix of hits and misses. That's no different here, but the overall trend was positive.

The last story is not only longer, but is also a two-parter that tackles the zombie apocalypse from a different angle. I enjoyed it, though sort of like the stories before it, it felt unpolished and rushed. I think it would make a great novella.

Overall, a decent collection of stories. I think with some editing/polishing, some of them can be even greater.

I was provided this audiobook free of charge in exchange for my honest review.

A Spiral of Stories

** This Audiobook was provided to me for free, in exchange for my personal honest review **

The Tightening Spiral was definitely an interesting listen. For a collection of short stories, many of the ideas presented were really interesting and some memorable. I really thought the prison story was pretty interesting. However, with my 3 star review for story, a lot of these stories don't really flesh out a lot of little details that would really drive home the impact of the "horror/dark short story" genre. Like the mailing story early on or the computer killer story; it has an interesting premise, but a little more fleshing out would go the real distance to making it memorable.

As for Jennifer's narration. She did a good job all around. I personally would like for Jennifer to try out experimenting with more character voices to add to her collection, but overall it was fine. For her Narration, I really didn't feel the dark fiction or almost-horror like elements that we're presented in some of the stories. I didn't feel some of the emotions presented in some of the characters at some key moments in many stories.

Overall it was a good listen. I'd definitely recommend this audiobook. Great job Tara Fox Hall and Jennifer Fournier. I look forward to seeing the both of you grow in your respective professions!

Interesting Collection

I love short stories, especially when they come in batches. I think this is the largest batch I’ve ever read/listen to by the same author. On that note, I had several issues with some of these stories. I felt some were too short. Some I had to relisten to in an attempt to figure out what was going on (I don’t like having to do that) or I was left with questions (which is bad, in my opinion, for a short story) or there were questionable parts that didn’t make sense to me. The majority, I felt, didn’t have enough detail or action to really pull me in. So, the story began, it ended, and I simply moved on to the next one. I don’t think they weren’t developed enough to allow a connection to be made between reader and character. So I was left feeling no real emotion for the story which is sad in of itself when obviously the author wants the reader to feel something. Only a few of the stories did I actually like or deem entertaining. Those included: “Grandma’s House, Cat’s Cry, The Tunnel, The Second Floor,” the story about the cricket, and “The Memory of Trees.” The rest of the stories I would have given a 1 or 2. That’s not good given there were around thirty different stories.

I wasn’t a fan of the narrator. Right off she reminded me of a primary school teacher. I could easily imagine her sitting on a little chair surrounded by a group of kids reading them a story. I’m not sure if it was the writing style (per the amateurish-sounding dialogue that went with some of the stories) or the narrator herself, but for some of the stories, she came off as sounding very robotic while reading, while other times, she sounded more natural. If she tried more character voices that would be great too.

I received a free audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.