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The Secret of Ventriloquism

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The Secret of Ventriloquism

By: Jon Padgett
Narrated by: Jon Padgett
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About this listen

Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism, named the Best Fiction Book of 2016 by Rue Morgue Magazine, heralds the arrival of a significant new literary talent. With themes reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti, and Bruno Schulz, but with a strikingly unique vision, Padgett's work explores the mystery of human suffering, the agony of personal existence, and the ghastly means by which someone might achieve salvation from both.

A bullied child seeks vengeance within a bed's hollow box spring. A lucid dreamer is haunted by an impossible house. A dummy reveals its own anatomy in 20 simple steps. A stuttering librarian holds the key to a mill town's unspeakable secrets. A commuter's worldview is shattered by two words printed on a cardboard sign. An aspiring ventriloquist spends a little too much time looking at himself in a mirror. And a presence speaks through them all.

©2016 Jon Padgett (P)2016 Jon Padgett Horror Scary Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant  
Amazon seemed convinced that this was the book for me. Trust your algorithmic overlords! It’s a gem. Strange places and events await you. You visit a twisted tourist attraction, you are compelled to explore a poisonous old factory, a homeless man hands you a disturbing sign. You chance upon a book which offers the secret to Greater Ventriloquism.
It’s like Ligotti (the author is friends with Ligotti). But really it has its own style. Padgett is a great reader of his work. I would also love to hear him reading Ligotti.
It’s not long but seems longer as there is so much that’s interesting. I want to listen again but they are so creepy... and surely there is a cost to learning Greater Ventriloquism.... it’s just a trifle though... if I just get my puppet and stare in the mirror just a while longer... ? Right???

Wonderfully unsettling

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I was transported, during this book, to strange lands just out of reach, places at the very edge of what we can see, populated by people just like us but not at all like us. The narration itself is otherworldly, and the horror that lurks there is the kind that wakes you at night and stands brazen, daring you to pull back the covers or climb out of bed.
If you love Lovecraft, Ligotti, or even Poe - and who doesn't - you'll love this collection.

Tales that get beneath the skin.

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Unsettling nightmares In the same phantasmagoric vein as Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Ligotti.

Harrowing Horror

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Reads like a college student trying to impress their teacher with everything they learned in the first semester.

The reader's nasal voice doesn't help either.

Amateur writing and reading

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