
Goodreads Best Short Stories 2021
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Narrated by:
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Alex Lee
About this listen
This collection of stories from Goodreads bares the truth of the pandemic in 500 words and more. It exposes the ugly face of the epidemic and the havoc it unleashed on our collective minds. Enjoy the works of eight authors as they depict their version of the epic times we have lived in and survived to tell the tale.
©2021 Grasshopper Bot (P)2022 Grasshopper BotListeners also enjoyed...
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A heartbreaking letter. A girl locked away. A mystery to be solved. 1956. When Ivy Jenkins falls pregnant she is sent in disgrace to St Margaret's, a dark, brooding house for unmarried mothers. Her baby is adopted against her will. Ivy will never leave. Present day. Samantha Harper is a journalist desperate for a break. When she stumbles on a letter from the past, the contents shock and move her. The letter is from a young mother, begging to be rescued from St Margaret's. Before it is too late.
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When Apollo Kagwa's father disappeared, all he left his son were strange recurring dreams and a box of books stamped with the word improbabilia. Now Apollo is a father himself - and as he and his wife, Emma, are settling into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo's old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd.
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In the near-future United States, a one-child policy is ruthlessly enforced. Everyone follows the Rule of One. But Ava Goodwin, daughter of the head of the Texas Family Planning Division, has a secret - one her mother died to keep and her father has helped to hide for her entire life. She has an identical twin sister, Mira.
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What's Real?
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The Girl in the Letter
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A heartbreaking letter. A girl locked away. A mystery to be solved. 1956. When Ivy Jenkins falls pregnant she is sent in disgrace to St Margaret's, a dark, brooding house for unmarried mothers. Her baby is adopted against her will. Ivy will never leave. Present day. Samantha Harper is a journalist desperate for a break. When she stumbles on a letter from the past, the contents shock and move her. The letter is from a young mother, begging to be rescued from St Margaret's. Before it is too late.
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The Changeling
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When Apollo Kagwa's father disappeared, all he left his son were strange recurring dreams and a box of books stamped with the word improbabilia. Now Apollo is a father himself - and as he and his wife, Emma, are settling into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo's old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd.
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The Rule of One
- The Rule of One Series, Book 1
- By: Ashley Saunders, Leslie Saunders
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In the near-future United States, a one-child policy is ruthlessly enforced. Everyone follows the Rule of One. But Ava Goodwin, daughter of the head of the Texas Family Planning Division, has a secret - one her mother died to keep and her father has helped to hide for her entire life. She has an identical twin sister, Mira.
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By: Ashley Saunders, and others
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Tricks Treats & Zombies
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- By: Jeffrey Clare, Chris Philbrook, Eric A. Shelman, and others
- Narrated by: Eric A. Shelman
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Hordes of gnashing, chipped-tooth mouths and grabby hands...anticipating Halloween treats. This time they aren't wearing masks. This time...you are the treat. And they. Are. Hungry.
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Scary?
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We’re all afraid of things that go bump in the night. Shadows in the graveyard, wind moaning through the trees, a creaking door in a sinister old house. There are things hiding in the darkness. And sometimes, what you can’t see can definitely hurt you.... Scare Street is proud to present Night Terrors: Volumes one to three in a single collection. A menagerie of macabre nightmares, featuring 39 tales of supernatural horror for your listening pleasure.
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Too much terror to contain.... Shadows reach out with darkened claws. The floorboards creek as your greatest fears stalk the halls. And no matter how much you tell yourself it is just a dream, you know the truth. Evil hides in the darkness. And now, it has finally been unleashed.... Scare Street gathers volumes one to three of Terror in the Shadows in a single edition. Over 30 tales stalk this macabre collection. And just when you think you’ve experienced the most chilling horror of all, a new story unfolds within this massive tome of fear.
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Lucy King is only an hour away from embarking on the most incredible vacation of her life: White sandy beaches in a tropical paradise, snorkeling and sunbathing in peaceful tranquility. But as Lucy looks forward to her trip, a sinister plot is unfolding that will demolish the world as she knows it. An unknown bioterrorist group unleashes a virus that virtually wipes out the earth's population-leaving Lucy, and a small faction of survivors, trapped inside her high school to wait out the apocalypse.
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Big Machine
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Story
Ricky Rice is a middling hustler with a lingering junk habit, a bum knee, and a haunted mind. A survivor of a suicide cult, he scrapes by as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York, until one day a mysterious letter arrives, summoning him to enlist in a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom had at some point in their wasted lives heard what may have been the voice of God.
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Victor LaValle is good. Real good.
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Invisible Ellen
- By: Shari Shattuck
- Narrated by: Shari Shattuck
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For Ellen Homes, not only does she wish it - she actually lives it. She spends her days quietly observing but unobserved, watching and recording in her notebooks the lives of her neighbors, coworkers, and total strangers. Overweight, socially stunted, and utterly alone, one night Ellen saves a blind young woman from being mugged. Then everything changes.
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Invincible Ellen!
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Contagion
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A small mountain town is isolated by a snowstorm as an ancient evil, gone pandemic, turns the residents into the living dead. Almost overnight the town becomes a snowy tomb of the roaming, hungry infected. Stranded by the weather, hiding, a small group of survivors follows the progress of the disease as society around them and around the world begins to break down. Determined to escape, they find that the normal rules of civilization don't apply anymore. Will they be able to adapt to this strange, hungry new world?
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Contagion
- By ~Sandra~ on 09-22-18
By: L. I. Albemont
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Last Car to Annwn Station
- By: Michael Merriam
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Mae Malveaux, an attorney with Minneapolis Child Protective Services, is burnt-out, tired, and frustrated. Passing on an invite from Jill, her flirtatious coworker, Mae just wants a quiet night in. Leaving the office late, she's surprised to find the Heritage Line streetcars up and running and hops aboard, eager for a quick trip home. But this is no ordinary streetcar....
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Ding Ding
- By Dandylion on 07-09-13
By: Michael Merriam
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Cockblock
- By: C.V. Hunt
- Narrated by: Ramona Master
- Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Sonya and Callie discover it’s not just the men who verbally assaulted them on the street who’ve lost their minds; men everywhere have gone insane. And they believe they’ve found the origin of the mayhem. A radio in the kitchen is playing a hate-filled message against women, and it’s being delivered by the president. There’s only one way to stop the men from attacking women, and logic tells them they need to terminate the chaos at its source.
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Sex zombies
- By timj26 on 01-17-20
By: C.V. Hunt
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Birthday Girl
- A Thriller
- By: Matthew Iden
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Eight years ago, Elliott Nash’s daughter was murdered. Since then, everything the brilliant former criminal psychologist had is a memory - his child, his career, his wife, and his home. Now he lives on the streets around Washington, DC, with only a bottomless well of guilt and nightmares to make him feel alive. Until Amy Scowcroft solicits his help.
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Great Author, Great Book...
- By shelley on 03-21-18
By: Matthew Iden
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Video Nasties
- By: Duncan Ralston
- Narrated by: Rick Gregory
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Italian director Nicolo Funelli's lost film comes alive when the maven of the macabre is released after 20 years of VHS imprisonment. New hire Annie Watkins' pre-emptive obituaries at Live @ Five New Orleans News seem to be killing off famous people. A used delivery van causes Katie and Gavin's life to take an unimaginable wrong turn into very dark territory. A teen orphan with a unique ability is held captive in a secret government lab, forced to submit to their whims. Vacationers become a grotesque part of the Easter festivities in a small English town.
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Audible Niceness for Video Nasties
- By LITRPG Audiobook Reviews on 09-22-18
By: Duncan Ralston
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Haunted Collection Series, Books 1 - 3
- Supernatural Horror with Scary Ghosts & Haunted Houses, Volume 1
- By: Ron Ripley
- Narrated by: Thom Bowers
- Length: 22 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this collection of three stories, after the brutal murder of his wife, Victor Daniels is thrust into a supernatural world he struggles to comprehend. Seeking answers, he teams up with paranormal expert Jeremy Rhinehart. They race against time to stop a man who’s spreading chaos and violence by way of deadly, haunted objects.
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Excellent series.
- By Natalie @ ABookLoversLife on 10-29-18
By: Ron Ripley
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The Line
- By: William Galaini
- Narrated by: Allyson Voller
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Suspended in the nothing between timelines, the station Janus is an unseen marvel: the greatest technological achievement in human innovation. From Janus, Gustavo and his hand-selected team of historians and engineers venture into the past and observe history, unseen and unnoticed. But they are not alone. Another traveler is shattering history. Unhindered by desires to remain scientific and uninvolved, the intruder’s technology is far advanced with methods more brutal and a present more terrifying than anything Gustavo and his team are prepared for.
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The Line
- By Deedra on 06-09-19
By: William Galaini
What listeners say about Goodreads Best Short Stories 2021
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Anonymous User
- 11-21-22
Poor performancePoor performance
Very breathy voice to difficult to understand to follow the story. Gave up mid-second one
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