9-9-2025 Besonen Breakdowns

Today's breakdown is for the audiobook of "We Don't Talk Anymore And Other Dark Fictions" by J P Behrens:

Went into this with no knowledge of the author nor this book's synopsis, but I knew from the introduction and first poem that it was going to be a journey. I enjoyed the first short story, then the proceeding tales, The Final Statement and The Vote, made me excited for the rest as it gave a strong social and political commentary. The next few stories were interesting and covered some familiar territories in new ways. Screams In The Night was set in a Lovecraft mythos and did a pretty good job of chilling the bones with cosmic terror. Immediately following this was a good post-apocalyptic story with a touch of frightening realism at the end. The journey continued on with more creative takes on classic creature features, one of which was a reversed Billy Goat Gruff retelling. An interesting take on the masks we all wear came next and it reminded of a certain Twilight Zone episode crossed with Dorian Gray. It ended with an assortment of fun tales with more smart commentaries, the final one was heartfelt and I love that it wrapped up on a positive note. Be sure to sure to stay after for the "post credits short" too! Liked this one overall, although I found some of the introductions unnecessary. I do declare that Behrens has a bright future writing of the dark.

The audio portion was narrated by Molly Gilman who nailed it as always.

4/5 stars.

ORDER HERE:

Amazon:

https://a.co/d/4Xm2Z4E