
The Bog Wife
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $30.09
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Shannon McManus
-
By:
-
Kay Chronister
About this listen
A “haunting, brilliant” Appalachian folktale evoking the Southern gothic suspense of Sharp Objects and the eco spine-tinglers of Jeff Vandermeer (Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts)
Five siblings in West Virginia unearth long-buried secrets when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured
Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.
Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.
At once a gothic eco-horror, a psychological drama, and a family saga, The Bog Wife is a propulsive read for fans of Shirley Jackson, Karen Russell, and Matt Bell that speaks to what is knowable and unknowable within a family history and how to know when it is time to move forward.
©2024 by Kay Chronister. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
My Darling Dreadful Thing
- A Novel
- By: Johanna van Veen
- Narrated by: Jess Nesling
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.
-
-
Holds Out Until the Last Minute
- By Andy on 12-19-24
By: Johanna van Veen
-
Victorian Psycho
- By: Virginia Feito
- Narrated by: Anna Burnett
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family—Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze.
-
-
meh
- By Pamela Y. S. on 02-13-25
By: Virginia Feito
-
Monstrilio
- By: Gerardo Sámano Córdova
- Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal, Johnny Rey Diaz
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago's lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family's decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family's communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
-
-
Not exactly what I expected….
- By kisa on 10-06-23
-
Diavola
- By: Jennifer Thorne
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.
-
-
Witty, Original, VERY satisfying ending
- By Andrea S on 04-26-24
By: Jennifer Thorne
-
Graveyard Shift
- A Novella
- By: M. L. Rio
- Narrated by: Jess Nahikian, M. L. Rio, Max Meyers, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story. One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?
-
-
Honestly, what was this even about?
- By The Dutchess on 09-25-24
By: M. L. Rio
-
The Unmothers
- By: Leslie J. Anderson
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marshall is still trying to put the pieces together after the death of her husband. After she is involved in a terrible accident, her editor sends her to the small, backwards town of Raeford to investigate a clearly ridiculous rumor: that a horse has given birth to a healthy, human baby boy. When Marshall arrives in Raeford, she finds an insular town that is kinder to the horses they are famous for breeding than to their own people. But when two horribly mangled bodies are discovered in a field—one a horse, one a human—she realizes that there might be a real story here.
-
-
Beautifully raw writing
- By Sophia Camphorst on 11-20-24
-
My Darling Dreadful Thing
- A Novel
- By: Johanna van Veen
- Narrated by: Jess Nesling
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.
-
-
Holds Out Until the Last Minute
- By Andy on 12-19-24
By: Johanna van Veen
-
Victorian Psycho
- By: Virginia Feito
- Narrated by: Anna Burnett
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family—Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze.
-
-
meh
- By Pamela Y. S. on 02-13-25
By: Virginia Feito
-
Monstrilio
- By: Gerardo Sámano Córdova
- Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal, Johnny Rey Diaz
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago's lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family's decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family's communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
-
-
Not exactly what I expected….
- By kisa on 10-06-23
-
Diavola
- By: Jennifer Thorne
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.
-
-
Witty, Original, VERY satisfying ending
- By Andrea S on 04-26-24
By: Jennifer Thorne
-
Graveyard Shift
- A Novella
- By: M. L. Rio
- Narrated by: Jess Nahikian, M. L. Rio, Max Meyers, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story. One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?
-
-
Honestly, what was this even about?
- By The Dutchess on 09-25-24
By: M. L. Rio
-
The Unmothers
- By: Leslie J. Anderson
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marshall is still trying to put the pieces together after the death of her husband. After she is involved in a terrible accident, her editor sends her to the small, backwards town of Raeford to investigate a clearly ridiculous rumor: that a horse has given birth to a healthy, human baby boy. When Marshall arrives in Raeford, she finds an insular town that is kinder to the horses they are famous for breeding than to their own people. But when two horribly mangled bodies are discovered in a field—one a horse, one a human—she realizes that there might be a real story here.
-
-
Beautifully raw writing
- By Sophia Camphorst on 11-20-24
-
Private Rites
- A Novel
- By: Julia Armfield
- Narrated by: Hannah van der Westhuysen
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s been raining for a long time now, so long that the land has reshaped itself and old rituals and religions are creeping back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father, an architect as cruel as he was revered, dies. His death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father’s most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revelation in his will.
-
-
Beautifully Written, But Mainly Fluff and Filler
- By Megs on 02-26-25
By: Julia Armfield
-
Hungerstone
- By: Kat Dunn
- Narrated by: Perdita Weeks
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the height of the industrial revolution and ten years into Lenore’s marriage to steel magnate Henry, their relationship has soured. When Henry’s ambitions take them from London to the remote British moorlands to host a hunting party, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into their lives. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night. Carmilla, who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger . . .
-
-
11/10 for both the novel itself and for the narration
- By britney giraffe on 03-10-25
By: Kat Dunn
-
Guillotine
- By: Delilah S. Dawson
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Ashby
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thrift fashionista Dez Lane doesn't want to date Patrick Ruskin; she just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine. When he invites her to his family's big Easter reunion at their ancestral home, she's certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship someone with her pedigree could never nab through the regular submission route. But once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed, things take a dark turn.
-
-
SO FUN AND SURPRISINGLY GORY
- By Bradley on 09-27-24
-
Something in the Walls
- A Novel
- By: Daisy Pearce
- Narrated by: Ana Clements
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Newly-minted child psychologist Mina has little experience. In a field where the first people called are experts, she’s been unable to get her feet wet. Instead, she aimlessly spends her days stuck in the stifling heat wave sweeping across Britain, and anxiously contemplating her upcoming marriage to careful, precise researcher Oscar. The only reprieve from her small, close world is attending the local bereavement group to mourn her brother’s death from years ago. That is, until she meets journalist Sam Hunter at the grief group one day. And he has a proposition for her.
-
-
Enjoyed the pacing and the setting.
- By Sal M. on 04-14-25
By: Daisy Pearce
-
Model Home
- A Novel
- By: Rivers Solomon
- Narrated by: Gabby Beans
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.
-
-
Wandering around my house in a daze
- By Rebecca Henson on 04-30-25
By: Rivers Solomon
-
Our Wives Under the Sea
- By: Julia Armfield
- Narrated by: Annabel Baldwin, Robyn Holdaway
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leah is changed. Months earlier, she left for a routine expedition, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp.
-
-
Has stayed with me…
- By Maryanne T. on 10-05-22
By: Julia Armfield
-
The Madness
- By: Dawn Kurtagich
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray’s carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, along with her routine and the calm it brings, she returns to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she’s left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy’s symptoms mirror those of her mysterious patient with amnesia hundreds of miles away.
-
-
Excellent Story
- By Heather B on 09-02-24
By: Dawn Kurtagich
-
A Certain Hunger
- By: Chelsea G. Summers
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eat Pray Love meets American Psycho in a seductive and sinister debut literary thriller. Food critic Dorothy Daniels indulges in her homicidal urges by murdering her lovers and devouring their organs in this intense, visceral, and lushly told tale of food, sex, power, and the pursuit of a very particular taste set between New York and Italy. Please Note: A Certain Hunger contains adult language and depictions of violence. Discretion is advised.
-
-
Ugh.
- By Kimberly on 02-03-20
-
Bloom
- By: Delilah S. Dawson
- Narrated by: Sarah Beth Pfeifer
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sweet sapphic romance takes a deadly dark turn in this sharp-as-a-knife novella with the slow build menace of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber—from a New York Times-bestselling author hailed by Chuck Wendig as "a storyteller working at the top of her class."
-
-
what an ending
- By sam on 11-09-24
-
The Haar
- By: David Sodergren
- Narrated by: Mhairi Morrison
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there. But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost . . . until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland.
-
-
The protagonist
- By Alyssa Scholler on 08-25-24
By: David Sodergren
-
Dearest
- By: Jacquie Walters
- Narrated by: Jacquie Walters
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A new mom in need of help opens her door to her long-estranged mother—only to invite something much darker inside—in this "fast-paced and frightening debut" (Rachel Harrison) about the long shadows cast by family secrets, perfect for listeners of Grady Hendrix or Ashley Audrain.
-
-
Overall enjoyable!
- By Mary on 04-16-25
By: Jacquie Walters
-
Blood Like Mine
- By: Stuart Neville
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers, Michael Braun
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a snowy December night, single mother Rebecca Carter drives her van into a snowbank to avoid hitting an elk on a desolate mountain highway. She is at the end of her rope, out of money and food. Still, she refuses help from a man in a pickup truck—Rebecca’s adolescent daughter, Moonflower, is on the run from a grisly secret, and the last thing they can afford is to be remembered by anyone they meet.
-
-
Well that was a surprise!!!!
- By 6catz on 08-09-24
By: Stuart Neville
Critic reviews
“This Gothic family tale will give you the spooky story you've been waiting for all year. Set in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia, the novel centers around the Haddesley family and their cranberry bog. Weaving in elements of the paranormal, Chronister gives us the long history of the family and their dark relationship with the land, complete with family secrets laid bare, and complicated sibling dynamics. It's full of tales of family sacrifices, a missing mother, and deadly rituals.”—Bernadette Roe, Women.com
"An immersive, haunting, and compelling tale of a family being crushed by the weight of their secrets and held hostage by their traditions. It's a lush and uneasy tale that leaves both characters and readers at the mercy of the land itself."—Booklist
"The Bog Wife is a creeping, Appalachian folktale, an astute allegory for a decaying America, and a haunting, brilliant novel. This one is going to stay with me for a while."—Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Desert Creatures
- By: Kay Chronister
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan, Thom Rivera, Samara Naeymi
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine-year-old Magdala and her father have been exiled from their home; they flee through the harsh landscape of the American West, searching for refuge. As violence pursues them, they join a handful of survivors on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Las Vegas, where it is said that vigilante saints reside, bright with neon power.
By: Kay Chronister
-
Smothermoss
- By: Alisa Alering
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1980s Appalachia, sisters Sheila and Angie couldn’t be more different. While their mother works long shifts at the nearby asylum, Sheila cares for their home and keeps to herself, even when enduring relentless bullying. Her fearless younger sister, Angie, is more focused on fighting imaginary zombies and creating tarot-like cards that seem to have minds of their own. When the brutal murder of two female hikers on the nearby Appalachian Trail stuns their small community, the sisters find themselves tangled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
-
-
Frustration
- By Heather Hakel on 01-11-25
By: Alisa Alering
-
My Darling Dreadful Thing
- A Novel
- By: Johanna van Veen
- Narrated by: Jess Nesling
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.
-
-
Holds Out Until the Last Minute
- By Andy on 12-19-24
By: Johanna van Veen
-
The Boatman's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Andy Davidson
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since her father was killed when she was just a child, Miranda Crabtree has kept her head down and her eyes up, ferrying contraband for a mad preacher and his declining band of followers to make ends meet and to protect an old witch and a secret child from harm. But dark forces are at work in the bayou, both human and supernatural, conspiring to disrupt the rhythms of Miranda’s peculiar and precarious life.
-
-
I listened to the whole book so you don’t have to
- By Kaley Faber on 12-14-20
By: Andy Davidson
-
A House with Good Bones
- By: T. Kingfisher
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Mom seems off." Her brother's words echo in Sam Montgomery's ear as she turns onto the quiet North Carolina street where their mother lives alone. She brushes the thought away as she climbs the front steps. Sam's excited for this rare extended visit, and looking forward to nights with just the two of them, drinking boxed wine, watching murder mystery shows, and guessing who the killer is long before the characters figure it out. But stepping inside, she quickly realizes home isn’t what it used to be.
-
-
Narrator Kills It
- By Lucinda Perregil on 04-04-23
By: T. Kingfisher
-
Bloom
- By: Delilah S. Dawson
- Narrated by: Sarah Beth Pfeifer
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sweet sapphic romance takes a deadly dark turn in this sharp-as-a-knife novella with the slow build menace of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber—from a New York Times-bestselling author hailed by Chuck Wendig as "a storyteller working at the top of her class."
-
-
what an ending
- By sam on 11-09-24
-
Desert Creatures
- By: Kay Chronister
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan, Thom Rivera, Samara Naeymi
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine-year-old Magdala and her father have been exiled from their home; they flee through the harsh landscape of the American West, searching for refuge. As violence pursues them, they join a handful of survivors on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Las Vegas, where it is said that vigilante saints reside, bright with neon power.
By: Kay Chronister
-
Smothermoss
- By: Alisa Alering
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1980s Appalachia, sisters Sheila and Angie couldn’t be more different. While their mother works long shifts at the nearby asylum, Sheila cares for their home and keeps to herself, even when enduring relentless bullying. Her fearless younger sister, Angie, is more focused on fighting imaginary zombies and creating tarot-like cards that seem to have minds of their own. When the brutal murder of two female hikers on the nearby Appalachian Trail stuns their small community, the sisters find themselves tangled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
-
-
Frustration
- By Heather Hakel on 01-11-25
By: Alisa Alering
-
My Darling Dreadful Thing
- A Novel
- By: Johanna van Veen
- Narrated by: Jess Nesling
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.
-
-
Holds Out Until the Last Minute
- By Andy on 12-19-24
By: Johanna van Veen
-
The Boatman's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Andy Davidson
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since her father was killed when she was just a child, Miranda Crabtree has kept her head down and her eyes up, ferrying contraband for a mad preacher and his declining band of followers to make ends meet and to protect an old witch and a secret child from harm. But dark forces are at work in the bayou, both human and supernatural, conspiring to disrupt the rhythms of Miranda’s peculiar and precarious life.
-
-
I listened to the whole book so you don’t have to
- By Kaley Faber on 12-14-20
By: Andy Davidson
-
A House with Good Bones
- By: T. Kingfisher
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Mom seems off." Her brother's words echo in Sam Montgomery's ear as she turns onto the quiet North Carolina street where their mother lives alone. She brushes the thought away as she climbs the front steps. Sam's excited for this rare extended visit, and looking forward to nights with just the two of them, drinking boxed wine, watching murder mystery shows, and guessing who the killer is long before the characters figure it out. But stepping inside, she quickly realizes home isn’t what it used to be.
-
-
Narrator Kills It
- By Lucinda Perregil on 04-04-23
By: T. Kingfisher
-
Bloom
- By: Delilah S. Dawson
- Narrated by: Sarah Beth Pfeifer
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sweet sapphic romance takes a deadly dark turn in this sharp-as-a-knife novella with the slow build menace of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber—from a New York Times-bestselling author hailed by Chuck Wendig as "a storyteller working at the top of her class."
-
-
what an ending
- By sam on 11-09-24
-
A Botanical Daughter
- By: Noah Medlock
- Narrated by: Keval Shah
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Driven by the glory he'll earn from the Royal Horticultural Society for such an achievement, Gregor ignores the flaws in his plan: that intelligence cannot be controlled; that plants cannot be reasoned with; and that the only way his plant-beast will flourish is if he uses a recently deceased corpse for the substrate. The experiment-or Chloe, as she is named-outstrips even Gregor's expectations, entangling their strange household. But as Gregor's experiment flourishes, he wilts under the cost of keeping it hidden from jealous eyes.
-
-
Odd….
- By Liz on 09-18-24
By: Noah Medlock
-
The Hollow Kind
- A Novel
- By: Andy Davidson
- Narrated by: Susie James
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nellie Gardner is looking for a way out of an abusive marriage when she learns that her long-lost grandfather, August Redfern, has willed her his turpentine estate. She throws everything she can think of in a bag and flees to Georgia with her eleven-year-old son, Max, in tow. It turns out that the "estate" is a decrepit farmhouse on a thousand acres of old (rotting) pine forest, but Nellie is thrilled about the chance for a fresh start for her and Max. So it takes her a while to notice the strange scratching in the walls, the faint whispering at night, how the forest is eerily quiet.
-
-
not spoon fed
- By Amazon Customer on 03-02-23
By: Andy Davidson
-
Lute
- By: Jennifer Thorne
- Narrated by: Victoria Blunt
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the idyllic island of Lute, every seventh summer, seven people die. No more, no less. Lute and its inhabitants are blessed, year after year, with good weather, good health, and good fortune. So it’s only fair that every seven years, on the day of the tithe, the island’s gift is honored. Nina Treadway is new to The Day. A Florida girl by birth, she became a Lady through her marriage to Lord Treadway, whose family has long protected the island. Nina’s heard about The Day, of course. It's all superstitious nonsense. Then The Day begins. And it's a day of nightmares.
-
-
Slow to unwind- but what a finish!
- By linda on 10-08-22
By: Jennifer Thorne
-
Eat the Ones You Love
- By: Sarah Maria Griffin
- Narrated by: Barry McStay, Lauren O’Leary
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After losing her job and her fiancé and moving back from the city to live with her parents, Shell Pine needs some help. And according to the sign in the window, the florist shop in the mall does too. Shell gets the gig, and the flowers she works with there are just the thing she needs to cheer up. Or maybe it’s Neve, the beautiful shop manager, who is making her days so rosy? But you have to get your hands dirty if you want your garden to grow—and Neve’s secrets are as dark and dangerous as they come.
-
Guillotine
- By: Delilah S. Dawson
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Ashby
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thrift fashionista Dez Lane doesn't want to date Patrick Ruskin; she just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine. When he invites her to his family's big Easter reunion at their ancestral home, she's certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship someone with her pedigree could never nab through the regular submission route. But once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed, things take a dark turn.
-
-
SO FUN AND SURPRISINGLY GORY
- By Bradley on 09-27-24
-
Graveyard Shift
- A Novella
- By: M. L. Rio
- Narrated by: Jess Nahikian, M. L. Rio, Max Meyers, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story. One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?
-
-
Honestly, what was this even about?
- By The Dutchess on 09-25-24
By: M. L. Rio
-
The Unmothers
- By: Leslie J. Anderson
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marshall is still trying to put the pieces together after the death of her husband. After she is involved in a terrible accident, her editor sends her to the small, backwards town of Raeford to investigate a clearly ridiculous rumor: that a horse has given birth to a healthy, human baby boy. When Marshall arrives in Raeford, she finds an insular town that is kinder to the horses they are famous for breeding than to their own people. But when two horribly mangled bodies are discovered in a field—one a horse, one a human—she realizes that there might be a real story here.
-
-
Beautifully raw writing
- By Sophia Camphorst on 11-20-24
-
The Lamb
- By: Lucy Rose
- Narrated by: Emma Rydal
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies. But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes.
-
-
This book ATE
- By Danielle Carney on 02-07-25
By: Lucy Rose
-
Hungerstone
- By: Kat Dunn
- Narrated by: Perdita Weeks
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the height of the industrial revolution and ten years into Lenore’s marriage to steel magnate Henry, their relationship has soured. When Henry’s ambitions take them from London to the remote British moorlands to host a hunting party, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into their lives. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night. Carmilla, who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger . . .
-
-
11/10 for both the novel itself and for the narration
- By britney giraffe on 03-10-25
By: Kat Dunn
-
Together We Rot
- By: Skyla Arndt
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These days, Wil obsessively gathers not-so-legal evidence on her mom’s disappearance while she and her checked-out dad try to make ends meet at their failing motel. They’re a hair’s breadth away from foreclosure, and the powerful Clarkes have their eye on the property. Elwood has been counting down the days until winter break. He hasn’t told anyone he won’t be coming back to school to finish out senior year—his pastor father is training him to lead their congregation, the Garden of Adam. But after one last night out with his friends, he comes face-to-face with a more chilling fate.
-
-
so bad
- By Rachel on 09-15-23
By: Skyla Arndt
-
Don't Let the Forest In
- By: C.G. Drews
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairy tales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality—Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more. But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve.
-
-
Beautiful story but…
- By wheelchairmommy on 01-15-25
By: C.G. Drews
-
Wake the Bones
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Kilcoyne
- Narrated by: Bailey Carr
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sleepy little farm that Laurel Early grew up on has awakened. The woods are shifting, the soil is dead under her hands, and her bone pile just stood up and walked away. After dropping out of college, all she wanted was to resume her life as a tobacco hand and taxidermist and try not to think about the boy she can’t help but love. Instead, a devil from her past has returned to court her, as he did her late mother years earlier. Now, Laurel must unravel her mother’s legacy and tap into her own innate magic before her future and the fate of everyone she loves is doomed.
-
-
Enchanting.
- By Heather A. Dubravac on 07-18-22
What listeners say about The Bog Wife
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Maria Finazzo Hernandez
- 01-04-25
Creepy
So I give this book a three star only because I did not like the story. It was very well written and had the American gothic vibe. It hit all the right parts in the storyline and drama and feelings! I just don’t like the story. I don’t like that these poor siblings suffered, that they are expected to perform these rituals. That they don’t know life outside the Bog, that they lost their mother, that the creepiness the father brings to the story, the story as a whole. It’s is so well established that I don’t think I would not have liked it if it wasn’t. I know some of you will disagree and I will accept that.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 04-09-25
Enjoyable and interesting
Each part of the story kept interest and flowed well. Liked the characters and their development, and the ending in a way wasn't expected or unexpected. Will likely listen again, great story with a good message at the ending.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Laura Kuzmeski
- 05-01-25
So Immersive
The descriptions in this book put you right in the bog watching the story unfold. The sibling dynamics are realistic and somewhat relatable for most people, and the story is eerie and captivating enough to keep me hooked without being startling or absolutely terrifying.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jason
- 10-12-24
3.75 stars
This was the story of the ultimate dysfunctional family. It was good but sad, and beyond odd but cool.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- wilsosa
- 04-06-25
Folklore and mountain magic
This was a cozy story to fall into. I liked placing myself amongst the spaghum and hemlock trees and the concept that there are wild magic things out there.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- E.k.
- 10-11-24
incredible book.
the reader was so captivating and the story so vivid emotional and just vague enough in its mystery that you never feel it's juvenile. it's like a black diamond
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julie McAdon
- 11-02-24
Interesting read
This book was intriguing and I couldn’t tell if I loved it or I didn’t believe it. The characters are great and the story is definitely unique. It’s a good listen. Give it a try.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 01-03-25
Gothic Appalachia
Story about family dysfunction and the scars our past can leave. The poor narration of this book is a shame because it’s distracting - it takes away from the story and characters. Almost gave up on listening several times.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Corinne
- 03-22-25
Excellent writing that backs out of its own ending
Excellent prose that transports you immediately to the place. All the characters are really solid and believable, and I was there right up until the last few chapters, where it seems like the writer kind of abandons most of what was set up in the first 2/3rds of the book in favor of a twist ending that doesn't quite feel earned. It's definitely polarizing, but overall not a bad listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tramplamps
- 12-24-24
A West Virginian Cranberry Bog provides an ideal setting for this book’s modern day Appalachian Gothic family reunion.
It was all too easy for me to immerse the superb Actors who some may have seen featured from those Mike Flanagan limited series, such as “Hill House”, or “Midnight Mass”, into the roles that this Author’s imagination created for this book’s story.
As I felt as though the Flanagan cast could easily accept this author’s narrative world and its constructs as true to the natural order of the world, and in my head, it was easy to see them build it around the narrator.
Because in these shared universal narratives, it’s just a matter of fact that some families happen to inherit haunted houses, others inherit an enchanted pool of very thick water that you have to offer tribute to “or else”.
Some families have huge mansions, that contain a hidden trap door, that leads to a place in the floor, called the “forbidden root cellar”, that long ago, swallowed up the old caretaker, but in fact, it was actually the original owner of the house.
But then there are other more normal families, that just have your run of the mill- typical Bog on their inherited wild antebellum property, that your family has apparently had had a compact with. But, ya know , that’s just, ….well…
heck,
that’s so commonplace & pedestrian, right?
I don’t even think I even need to explain it.….right?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful