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The Croning

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The Croning

By: Laird Barron
Narrated by: Emily Zeller
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About this listen

Strange things exist on the periphery of our existence, haunting us from the darkness looming beyond our firelight. Black magic, weird cults, and worse things loom in the shadows. The Children of Old Leech have been with us from time immemorial. And they love us....

Donald Miller, geologist and academic, has walked along the edge of a chasm for most of his nearly 80 years, leading a charmed life between endearing absent-mindedness and sanity-shattering realization. Now, all things must converge. Donald will discover the dark secrets along the edges, unearthing savage truths about his wife Michelle, their adult twins, and all he knows and trusts. For Donald is about to stumble on the secret... of The Croning.

From Laird Barron, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of The Imago Sequence and Occultation, comes The Croning, a debut novel of cosmic horror.

©2012 Laird Barron (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Fantasy Fiction Horror Scary

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Editor reviews

Laird Barron's debut novel plays to his strengths as a short story writer by fragmenting the chapters with a mind suffering from senile dementia. Flashbacks and forgetfulness build character of Don, a doomed man walking the edge of cosmic horror that the listener alone perceives, like a killer waiting in a closet.

The delicate-voiced Emily Zeller highlights how expertly and carefully Barron chooses his words, and also allows The Croning's horror to sneak up and stab the listener when it unexpectedly rears its hideous head. The quiet, exacting sweetness of Zeller's performance offsets the coldness of Barron's universe, its indifference to human suffering, and the sureness of its ultimate victory.

Critic reviews

"It’s a rare year in which a superabundance of fine horror novels — novels that reward rereading — appears. That said, most years bring at least a handful of novels whose titles can stand to be mentioned alongside Matheson’s I Am Legend, Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and King’s The Shining. To this year’s list, add Laird Barron’s The Croning." ( Los Angeles Review of Books)
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The narration was absolutely awful - they clearly didn't know how to pronounce certain words (such as "chasm"), and simply guessed, and the accents and voices of characters were excruciating.

A fan of Barron, but not this

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I love this performer and she did great with the characters as always but I found this very hard to listen to it seemed to jump all over the place

Seemed all over the place

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I really enjoyed this title. The story is a great journey featuring cosmic horror and terrifying adversaries. It is slow in parts, but is a great slow-burn. I hope you'll feel rewarded if you persevere to the end - I was very pleased I did.

A thoroughly enjoyable journey to cosmic horror

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Loved the book - found the narration not up to scratch. Misspent words and a voice that doesn't really do the cosmic horror justice.

Truly horrific! (narration)

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I was pleasantly surprised by the story. It was rich and highly enjoyable. It twists and turns through reality and fantasy until you don’t know which way is up!

A surprising tale of twists and turns

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Extremely well written with rich fascinating characters and credible realism. Excellent.

I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Super creepy

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This book had interesting ideas but unfortunately just seemed like a snippets of random points in the lives of a married couple, most of which are very dull and drawn out.
The intro is a 1 hour retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, and then it's a mish mash of memories from the lives of the main characters.
The end payoff is decent, but it comes in the last hour and is quite revelatory. There really isn't much in the way of clues as to what's going on for the first 7 hours.
The narrator did a good job but was the wrong person for me. The main character is a man so it seems strange that a female was chosen.
It was part of the plus catalogue so I can't complain, but I definitely would have returned it if I used a credit.

There is a payoff, but it's a long old slog

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Not my usual genre but enjoyed the mystery and surreal story telling and was a satisfying story arc.

Entertaining

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The apex and unifying masterpiece of his old leech Mythos, a must listen or read for any fan of lovecraftian horror.

Modern cosmic horror masterpiece

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The middle third of the book is an absolute slog but largely worth the perseverance.

Persist

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