Have you ever found something in a relative's house that made you physically recoil, not because it was gross, but because it felt... wrong? That's the vibe here. I started listening to this after a long shift at the library, surrounded by the smell of old paper and dust, thinking I was safe. (Mistake. Huge mistake.)
When the Dog Steals the Show
Let's be real for a second—narrators usually ruin animals. They make them sound like cartoons or weird babies. But Hillary Huber? She understands the assignment. She voices Bongo the dog with this goofy, lovable energy that actually raises the stakes. Because now I'm not just scared for the protagonist, Mouse; I'm terrified something is going to happen to the dog. (Shirley, my cat, was visibly unimpressed by my anxiety, but she hates dogs on principle.)
Huber captures Mouse's internal monologue perfectly. It's that specific blend of "I am terrified" and "I am so done with this hoarder mess." It's rare to find a horror performance that can pivot from genuine dread to dry sarcasm without giving you whiplash. She nails the "I'm laughing because if I stop I'll scream" tone that T. Kingfisher writes so well. Huber brings that same emotional range to My Brilliant Friend, where she navigates decades of friendship with equal precision.
The "Clicking" That Ruined My Sleep
If you've read Arthur Machen's The White People (which this book riffs on), you know the kind of weirdness we're dealing with. If you haven't? Buckle up. This isn't slasher horror. It's folk horror. It's "the woods are wrong" horror.
There's a sequence involving rocks and clicking noises that Huber delivers with such steady, creeping pacing that I actually had to pause the audio and turn on the hallway light. At 2 AM. Like a coward. The way she whispers the terrifying parts rather than shouting them? That's craft. That's someone who knows that fear lives in the quiet parts.
Is it perfect? No. Some of the regional accents for the side characters felt a little... thick. Borderline caricature. It pulled me out of the trance once or twice—like seeing a zipper on a monster suit. But honestly, for a single-narrator production carrying this much dialogue? I'll forgive it.
Who's This For (And Who Should Run)
If you love folk horror with a sarcastic protagonist and can handle slow-burn dread, this is your jam. Skip it if you need fast-paced scares or can't stomach the idea of anything bad happening near a dog.
Closing Time at the Stacks
This is The Blair Witch Project meets The Andy Griffith Show, but if Andy was a neurotic editor cleaning out a dead woman's house. It's weird, it's funny, and it genuinely unsettled me.
Kingfisher writes like Shirley Jackson's cooler, weirder niece, and Huber channels that voice without filtering out the grit. That same unfiltered intensity shows up in Story of a New Name, where Huber captures raw, messy emotion without prettying it up. If you scare easily, maybe listen to this one during the day. If you're like me and think fear is a food group? Put on your headphones, turn off the lights, and good luck.
