What do you do when a story is shorter than your average gym warmup but still manages to get under your skin?
I was editing a video at like 2AM - ring light on, timeline zoomed in, headphones blasting - and I threw this on because my queue was dry and I needed something quick between projects. Twenty-six minutes. That's it. I figured I'd knock it out before my next cut. But here's the thing about Matt Haig - the man who wrote The Midnight Library also writes these tiny, sharp little horror pieces that hit different when you're alone in a dark room with LED strips as your only light source.
Oscar's Family Vacation From Hell (Literally)
So the setup is deceptively simple. Oscar's stuck on the worst family holiday - you know the kind, where your parents drag you through gift shop after gift shop and you're slowly losing your will to live. When his dad suggests a haunted ghost walk through York, Oscar's like YES, anything but another souvenir mug. And honestly? Same energy. I would've jumped at that too.
But Haig does this thing where the tourist-trap ghost walk starts bleeding into something actually sinister, and the line between "fun spooky tour" and "wait, this is real" gets blurry fast. For a story that's basically the length of a TV episode, the tension ratchets up quick. I'm not gonna spoil the twist, but it earned an actual eyebrow raise from me - and I consume horror content like oxygen. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue gave me that same "wait, is this actually unsettling?" creep where the genre bends on you mid-read.
The thing that works is Haig's restraint. He doesn't need 12 hours to build dread. He picks York - a city that's literally ancient and dripping with real ghost tour history - and uses that setting to do half the heavy lifting. The cobblestones, the narrow streets, the sense that something old and wrong is just... there. Compact horror done right.
John Telfer Understands the Assignment
Okay so Telfer's narration - it's solid. He's not doing theatrical voice-per-character gymnastics, but that's not what this needs. What he IS doing is locking in the atmosphere with his pacing and tone. There's this shift that happens as the story gets darker where his delivery tightens up, gets quieter, more deliberate. For a sub-30-minute listen, that control matters. You can't waste a single beat when you've got this little runtime to work with, and he doesn't.
I will say - at 26 minutes, I didn't even bother with my usual 2.0x speed bump. This one benefits from regular pace because the atmosphere needs room to breathe. (Yes, I said it. Me. The person who speed-runs audiobooks like they're speedruns. This one earned its real-time listen.)
The production is clean, no weird audio artifacts or volume drops. Simple, focused, gets the job done.
But Can It Really Scare You in 26 Minutes?
Here's my honest take - this is a snack, not a meal. And I mean that as a compliment AND a caveat. If you're coming in expecting The Haunting of Hill House levels of psychological horror, that's not what this is. It's a quick chill, a palate cleanser, something you listen to in one sitting and go "oh, that was creepy" and move on with your night.
The target audience feels younger - like YA-adjacent or even middle grade horror - but it doesn't talk down to you. Haig respects the reader enough to let the creepy moments land without over-explaining them. And honestly, some of my best horror experiences have been short ones. There's something about a story that knows exactly how long it needs to be and doesn't overstay.
My one gripe? At this length, the characters don't get much development beyond their function in the plot. Oscar is relatable but thin. His family exists mostly as setup. You're here for the atmosphere and the twist, not for deep character work.
Who's Adding This to Their Queue (And Who Should Skip)
If you want a quick spooky listen - maybe something to throw on during October, or between longer books - this delivers. It's also genuinely good for younger listeners who are dipping their toes into horror. But if you need substance, character depth, or a story that stays with you for days? Skip it. This is a ghost story campfire tale - polished and professional, but still a campfire tale.
The 2AM Verdict
I finished this before my video export was done. Twenty-six minutes, no regrets, moved on. That's the highest compliment I can give something this short - it didn't waste my time, and it gave me a genuine little shiver in my dark room at 2AM. Not every listen needs to be a 20-hour epic. Sometimes you just need a quick haunting and a good narrator to deliver it.
