Darkness on the Edge of Town
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Narrated by:
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Chet Williamson
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By:
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Brian Keene
About this listen
One morning, the residents of Walden, Virginia, woke up to find the rest of the world gone. Just...gone. Surrounding their town was a wall of inky darkness, plummeting Walden into permanent night. Nothing can get in - not light, not people, not even electricity, radio, TV, internet, food, or water. And nothing can get out. No one who dared to penetrate the mysterious barrier has ever been seen again. Only their screams were heard. But for some, the darkness is not the worst of their fears. Driven mad by thirst, hunger, and perpetual night, the residents of Walden are ready to explode. The last few sane prisoners of this small town must prepare a final stand against their neighbors, themselves, and something even worse...something out there...in the darkness.
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- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 42 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Greed, terrorism, and simple bad luck conspire to bring mankind to its knees as a viral infection spreads out of control, reducing those infected to undead horrors that feed upon the rest. It's a time of misery and death for most, however there are some who are lucky, some who are ruthless, and some who are just too damned tough to go down without a fight. This is their story.
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Worst writing and VO in HISTORY
- By kd on 11-25-20
By: Peter Meredith
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The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4
- By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Rebecca Mitchell, Michael Healy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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With tales from Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan, Peter Straub, and many others, and featuring Datlow’s comprehensive overview of the year in horror, now, more than ever, The Best Horror of the Year provides the petrifying horror fiction readers have come to expect - and enjoy.
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Only a few decent stories in this bunch.
- By Jerry on 12-06-14
By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, and others
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Blood Oranges
- A Siobhan Quinn Novel
- By: Kathleen Tierney
- Narrated by: Amber Benson
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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My name's Quinn. If you buy into my reputation, I'm the most notorious demon hunter in New England. But rumors of my badassery have been slightly exaggerated. Instead of having kung-fu skills and a closet full of medieval weapons, I'm an ex-junkie with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time. Or the right place at the wrong time. Or…whatever. Wanted for crimes against inhumanity I (mostly) didn't commit, I was nearly a midnight snack for a werewolf until I was "saved" by a vampire calling itself the Bride of Quiet.
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Great Narration, Subpar Book
- By Mel Thomas on 12-17-14
By: Kathleen Tierney
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Gone
- Gone Series, Book 1
- By: Michael Grant
- Narrated by: Kyle McCarley
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young. There are teens, but not one single adult. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no Internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents - unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers - that grow stronger by the day. It's a terrifying new world.
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Please rerelease this book w new narration
- By Kim on 02-12-17
By: Michael Grant
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Croak
- By: Gina Damico
- Narrated by: Jessica Almasy
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Fed up with her wild behavior, 16-year-old Lex’s parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than shoveling manure. He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach Lex the family business. She quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next.
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Juvenile
- By Mark Faine on 09-23-13
By: Gina Damico
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The First Days
- As the World Dies, Book 1
- By: Rhiannon Frater
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde. Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni's stepson, Jason, from an infected campground.
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Not for my demographic
- By Garth on 02-08-12
By: Rhiannon Frater
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Half-Resurrection Blues
- Bone Street Rumba, Book 1
- By: Daniel José Older
- Narrated by: Daniel José Older
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Carlos Delacruz is one of the New York Council of the Dead's most unusual agents - an inbetweener, partially resurrected from a death he barely recalls suffering, after a life that’s missing from his memory. He thinks he is one of a kind - until he encounters other entities walking the fine line between life and death. One inbetweener is a sorcerer. He's summoned a horde of implike ngks capable of eliminating spirits, and they’re spreading through the city like a plague.
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I liked it. A lot. But...
- By Leo on 01-13-16
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Trail of Lightning
- By: Rebecca Roanhorse
- Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse have destroyed most of the planet…yet out of these waters, Dinétah, a former Navajo reservation, has been miraculously reborn. Listen along as Tanis Parenteau's impeccable narration, capturing the rhythms of Navajo speech, fully envelopes you into the Sixth World. Trail of Lightning follows our heroine as she walks the land alongside gods, heroes of legend, and monsters alike.
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The person you hire when the heroes fail
- By Cynthia on 08-09-18
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Suffer the Children
- By: Craig Dilouie
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Suffer the Children presents a terrifying tale of apocalyptic fiction, as listeners are introduced to Herod's Syndrome, a devastating illness that suddenly and swiftly kills all young children across the globe. Soon, they return from the grave, and ask for blood. And with blood, they stop being dead. They continue to remain the children they once were, but only for a short time, as they need more blood to live. The average human body holds 10 pints of blood, so the inevitable question for parents everywhere becomes: How far would you go to bring your child back?
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Brilliant, Well Done!!!!!
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-08-16
By: Craig Dilouie
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The Dead Cat Bounce
- By: Sarah Graves
- Narrated by: Lindsay Ellison
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Since she bought her rambling fixer-upper of a house, Jacobia Tiptree has gotten used to finding things broken. But her latest problem isn't so easily repaired. Along with the rotting floor joists and sagging support beams, there's the little matter of the dead man in Jake's storeroom, an ice pick planted firmly in his cranium. Jake's unknown guest turns out to be local boy turned billionaire Threnody McIlwaine.
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too slow of a story...
- By Annette on 03-13-18
By: Sarah Graves
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I love a good monster book!
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love Keene
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A must listen
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Highly recommended!
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I love a good monster book!
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love Keene
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Sound the trumpet
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There was no warning. No chance to escape. They came suddenly. Naked. Bloodthirsty. Sadistic. They descended upon the Pine Village Apartment Complex, relentlessly torturing and killing anyone they could find. Fearing for their lives, the residents of the complex must band together. Eleven strangers. The only thing they have in common is the unstoppable horde that wants to kill them. If they are to make it through the night, they must fight back.
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Keene in fine form & Williamson is sublime
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The Rising is the story of Jim Thurmond, a determined father battling his way across a post-apocalyptic zombie landscape, to find his young son. Accompanied by Martin, a preacher still holding to his faith, and Frankie, a recovering heroin addict with an indomitable will to survive, Jim travels from state to state and town to town facing an endless onslaught of undead hordes and the evils perpetrated by his fellow man.
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Different type of zombie story
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In this sequel to The Rising, cities are overrun with legions of the undead, intent on destroying what's left of the living. Trapped inside a fortified skyscraper, a handful of survivors prepare to make their last stand against an unstoppable, merciless enemy. With every hour their chances diminish and their numbers dwindle, while the ranks of the dead continue to rise. Because sooner or later, everything dies. And then it comes back, ready to kill.
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Better than the first book.
- By Natalie @ ABookLoversLife on 01-19-18
By: Brian Keene
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The Seven
- The Labyrinth, Book 1
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The Labyrinth - an interdimensional construct that binds all of reality together. Now, the Labyrinth is threatened. A group of malevolent cosmic entities, known as The Thirteen, have been loosed upon the universe. Ob, Leviathan, Behemoth, Nodens, Meeble, Shtar, Kandara and the rest of their kind have one goal: The complete destruction of all Creation. Seven unlikely warriors from across time and space have been called upon to stop them. If they fail, reality itself will crumble. And the collapse has already begun.
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Frankie is the goat
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By: Brian Keene
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The Rising: Deliverance
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Hell has come to earth as sadistic zombies rampage and massacre the human population. Reverend Thomas Martin has lost his congregation to the chaos but has found two wayward survivors to protect—Becky and John. The three of them have holed up in Martin's church in a desperate attempt for survival. But as supplies run low and civilization crumbles around them, Martin must come to a realization—God has abandoned them. But why?
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A good horror quick listen
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Castaways
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They came to the deserted island to compete on a popular reality television show. Each one hoped to be the last to leave. Now they're just hoping to stay alive, because the island isn't deserted after all. Contestants are disappearing, but they aren't being eliminated by the game. They're being taken by the monstrous, half-human creatures that live deep in the jungle. The men will be slaughtered. The women will be kept alive as captives. Night is falling, the creatures are coming, and rescue is so far away....
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Awesome story!
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Terminal
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Tommy O’Brien once hoped to leave his run-down industrial hometown. But, marriage and fatherhood have kept him running in place, working a job that doesn’t even pay the bills. And now, he seems fated to stay for the rest of his life: He's just learned he’s going to die young - and soon. But he refuses to leave his family with less than nothing - especially now that he has nothing to lose. Over a couple of beers with his best friends, John and Sherm, Tommy launches a bold scheme to provide for his family’s future. One man’s war with God may impact us all.
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Incredible book
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When modern-day occultist Aaron Pace discovers the secrets of inter-dimensional travel via a mystical pathway called The Labyrinth, he wastes no time in exploring a multitude of strange new worlds and alternate realities. But then, Aaron finds himself trapped in the most bizarre dimension of all - a place where dinosaurs coexist with giant robots, where cowboys fight reptilian lizard people, and where even the grass can kill you. This is a world populated by the missing and the disappeared, a world where myth is reality and where the extinct is reborn.
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One of my favorite authors
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By: Brian Keene
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Earthworm Gods II: Deluge
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As the last of the mountains sink beneath the waves, the survivors make a desperate final stand. But the worms aren't the only enemy they face. The worldwide ocean is host to a legion of monsters, each more terrifying than the last, and mankind is vastly outnumbered by these new horrors.
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Hopeless
- By G. Parlee on 10-15-24
By: Brian Keene
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Alone
- By: Brian Keene
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When Daniel Miller wakes up one morning, something has gone terribly wrong. The power is out. The phones are dead. The house is silent. The street is shrouded in fog. Both his partner and their adopted daughter are missing. So are their neighbors. And so is everyone else in the world. Daniel Miller is the last person left on Earth...or is he?
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Hello Darkness My Old Friend
- By Spooky Mike on 01-31-20
By: Brian Keene
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Last of the Albatwitches
- By: Brian Keene
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Fan favorite ex-Amish occult detective Levi Stolzfus, the star of Ghost Walk and A Gathering of Crows, returns in two novellas of demons and monsters!
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Amish paradise
- By timj26 on 01-28-20
By: Brian Keene
What listeners say about Darkness on the Edge of Town
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-07-22
Excellent
Brian Keene delivers an excellent story with Darkness on the Edge of Town. While definitely not a new idea (what really is these days?) his telling of a town (world really) plunged into permanent darkness and the struggles for survivals by those that remain is tight/suspenseful story. The main characters are believable, flawed but sympathetic, making you want to cheer them on and hope for them to overcome their struggles and survive. Chet Williamson's narration is excellent and he does a great job breathing life into the people as well as the dying town, and while I read tis book a long time ago, hearing Chet's narration made it feel fresh and new all over again. Definitely worth a listen for people who enjoyed Stephen King's The Mist.
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- Bernadette
- 08-21-24
No heros here.
Every now and then you get brutally reminded how thin the vaneer of civilization is. This story did that quite nicely. It had hints of "The Mist". Our hero are no heros, there are no good choices and no happy endings. And I held out for one till the bitter end.
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- Chris Miller
- 09-25-19
Really terrific little novel...
I’ve read quite a bit of Keene’s work over the years. Nowhere near all of it, but a fair amount. Something I’ve learned along the way with him is that there is a REASON he’s a legend in the horror community. His characters connect with the reader, come across less like the ideas from someone’s imagination but rather like real individuals. He’s got some grand ideas about multiple worlds and different dimensions and God and the devil and other gods and creatures and so on.
Of the books of his I’ve read, I still say Ghoul is my favorite, but much of that is the fact that I just love coming-of-age stories, especially when they’re set back when I was growing up. So Ghoul has that going for it ON TOP OF being just a terrific novel. But…I have found what I would consider my favorite Keene this side of Ghoul, and that would be DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN.
We have that awakes to find that some sort of darkness has surrounded it from above and at all sides, and anyone who ventures into the darkness never returns, but their screams can be heard from time to time. The darkness also seems to be showing things to people when they get close; things that scare them sometimes, other times loved ones enticing them to come just a little closer. But whatever the darkness is, it’s evil, and a strange homeless man in town seems to have kept the darkness from coming inside of the town. He’s held it at bay with magic. But the darkness can still play with their minds.
I wasn’t so sure about the premise here when I started, though Keene has never let me down. It seemed a lot like The Mist by Stephen King to me, but once I actually started reading, I saw that it was entirely its own story, having little to do with King’s story. This was really a terrific powerhouse of a novel, pulsing with increasing dread throughout all the way to the bitter, breath-stealing ending.
Let’s talk about that ending for just a second, without giving anything away. The novel builds a little slowly, but I wouldn’t call it a slow burn. We’re dropped right into the craziness from page one and hear about how it came about. We watch as people in town are growing more and more paranoid, their morals are deteriorating, their sanity is crumbling. It’s leading to what I was expecting to be an apocalyptic finale. But it takes a different turn, and I really think it was the right choice. It’s more of an unknowing ending. There’s a sprinkling of hope, but there’s also gallons of forboding doom as well. The fact is, we don’t know what’s going to happen. And there’s no need for a sequel to come along and tell us (though I’d read it in a heartbeat if one came along), because in the context of this story, it’s just a perfect ending.
Stephen King said this book was a terrific short novel. I have to agree. For some, the ending seems anticlimactic. But I disagree. The battles being waged in the characters’s minds is where the suspense came from and the ramping up of tension from the situation of the darkness is nearly secondary. Because of this, I thought it was a terrific book with a terrific ending that would have been cheapened if done any other way, and I’m thankful that Brian has such a Keene (pun intended, wow, that joke came out of nowhere) eye for such things.
Chet Williamson absolutely SLAYS the narration here, as he always does. Excellent reading.
If you like horror, get this. If you like Keene, get this. If you like character-driven studies in human psychology during a stressful event, get this. For me, it hit all the right notes. In fact, it was so good I immediately went out and got another Keene novel to rip into next. I rarely do that, reading the same author multiple times in a row. But Keene’s books are something special. Read this, and find out why.
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- Ajsandy27
- 08-14-21
Solid Horror/Mystery/Magic; it’s all here
If you’re a fan of the author; this lovely Horror/Mystery novel will be a nice addition to your Brian Keene reads
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- Valerie
- 02-07-24
Darkness and Despair
The story is certainly bleak. Mr. Keene has a knack for leaving little to no hope in his stories. But I like his world building and mythology. The performer’s voice was a little off-putting at first, but I got used to his presentation after a bit and came to enjoy his characters.
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- Myers
- 06-23-20
I guess at some point the author just didn’t feel like writing anymore?
I guess I would have to agree with the “don’t like the lazy ending” reviews.
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- maria
- 12-30-22
What can I say?
Well, the story was like a good F***, without I good ending….I need more, what happened? Otherwise 4/5.
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- Deedra
- 08-29-22
Darkness at the edge of town
This was really good!A town wakes up and finds that everything else is gone,it is dark and people are going mad really fast. Chet Williams was a terrific narrator.
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- Benjamin
- 11-19-23
Meh...
The concept is pretty cool, but the execution is lacking. Dumb decisions, aimless plot, mediocre characters. Lots of promise but absolutely no depth.
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- Brian B
- 04-06-20
WTF
Enjoyed the story, HATED the ending.... a lot. Exceptional performance by Chet Williamson as always.
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1 person found this helpful