The Traveling Vampire Show Audiobook By Richard Laymon cover art

The Traveling Vampire Show

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Traveling Vampire Show

By: Richard Laymon
Narrated by: Bob Barnes
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.00

Buy for $25.00

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

When the one-night-only Traveling Vampire Show arrives in town, promising the only living vampire in captivity, beautiful Valeria, three local teenagers venture where they do not belong, and discover much more than they bargained for.

©2000 Richard Laymon (P)2009 Audio Realms, Inc., all rights reserved. Produced by Audible, Inc. and distributed by Audible, Inc. and Brilliance Audio.
Fantasy Fiction Paranormal Vampire Scary City

What listeners say about The Traveling Vampire Show

Highly rated for:

Coming-of-age Story Suspenseful Horror Theatrical Narration Vivid Descriptions Unexpected Twists Smooth Pacing
Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    142
  • 4 Stars
    64
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    21
  • 1 Stars
    7
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    155
  • 4 Stars
    56
  • 3 Stars
    28
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    124
  • 4 Stars
    56
  • 3 Stars
    35
  • 2 Stars
    21
  • 1 Stars
    14

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Slow, But Intense

A majority of the story is the wind up to the climax. The story is well done and character development is thorough. Awesome read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Old school Supernatural Entertainment

Coming of age Teen/ Young Adult Supernatural “ol school” tale of particular tastes from another decade but good entertainment in my opinion. While unlikely in the forefront, the background reminds me of the 70’s, although I would’ve been way younger than the kids in this story.
The entire thing is based on “what you are curious about - shouldn’t always be found out”, but you just can’t help it, and you’re clueless or at least somewhat okay with still wanting to find out, but maybe one you hang out with never uses reasoning or his brain so you’re sort of stuck with it. The main character sure wishes he wouldve decided otherwise, as in, what the heck is going on here!
Lol this story is fun and really just kids who possibly let their imagination run away like a freight train, Its all in good fun in the Main character’s mind , except that he’s a typical young person with hormones and he’s at the age where everything is sexual. He only wants to see The vampire chick who’s barely wearing anything, but unlike his stupid friend he’s willing to not risk it by a certain point in the story. But sometimes choices turn into a fuse lit and there’s no stopping it. Eventually - it will explode. And boy does it.
This is pure cheesy supernatural dark matter at its best, and a bit sick at the end. Laymon is awesome at this. You gotta have an open mind. I love this! It’s my favorite Laymon book- he’s pretty weird. But this is plain and simple - Freaking Fantastic! Hope you like it. Keep an open mind and forgot everything you know about supernatural and current times. This is not that!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Richard Laymon is UNDERRATED

I am a huge fan of Richard Laymon, and was excited to see that Audible has a handful of his books! the traveling vampire show is probably his most popular, and Audible has not disappointed! I just wish they would come out with the Beast house books!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not really about Vampires. Great title though.

I am trying to find a way to rate this book with out coming off as a complete prude. For me this was almost a DNF a couple of times due to intense dislike of certain characters. Which itself could be a compliment to the vivid richness of Layton's writing. This is not really a horror novel, it does have some suspense, mildly scary scenes with a few gory descriptions.
It is more, a really seamy coming of age novel about 3 small town teens who develop a fascination and obsession with the Traveling Vampire show and its entourage which includes the mysterious vampire Valeria. The traveling vampire show is a traveling side show that turns out to be a showcase for Valeria in a sort of wrestling cage match forum.
There is Dwight, who is obsessive about sex, his bestie, teen tomboy Slim, AND his pretty sister in law Lee. Dwight spends pretty much every waking moment having sexual thoughts and fantasies about both females. And some of his fantasies are somewhat disturbing and didn't strike me as normal, veering off into strange bondage murder porn. Umm weird.
Even though for the most part Dwight was an ok kid, I never did develop much liking for his character.
There is Slim, who is the best character in the story, an awesome tomboy, pretty, super smart, well read with lots of practical street saavy as well. There are hints that Slim has been abused or molested, but no actual revelation.
Then there is Rusty who is the third member of the trio. I don't think I have every hated anyone who was just a fictional character on a page before, as much as I hated this guy and his gross whiney sister Bitsy.
There are not enough adjective in the dictionary to describe this nasty, lewd, indecent boy. My gut reaction to him was stomach roiling hatred. I hated him so much that a couple of times I actually almost stopped listening to this audiobook.
At the end, ole Rusty got what he deserved. And I could never, ever understand why Dwight or Slim would want to be friends with this crude, rude awful person.
All in all, this coming of age story did evoke strong emotion, just not sure it was the emotion that the theme and plot of the story intended. There was some interesting elements of suspense surrounding the traveling troop, and their possible nefarious actions that were intriging, but the mystery of the story wasn't strong enough for me to be fully captivated.
I did end up listening to the entire audiobook, and the final few minutes were pretty good, and I was happy that the "bad guys" mostly got their just desserts. I am left saying I am not sure if I liked this story or really hated it. I don't know if I can discern the difference. Good writing, strange peculiar story.
Bob Barnes narration was excellent. He brought this story and characters to brilliant colorful life.

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

If you loved IT, this book is for you.

I love this story, and the characters (outside of Rusty and his obnoxious sister), and the audiobook brings it all to life. The narrator is fantastic, reading with the passion you'd expect to hear from the books own author.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Wonderfully entertaining

This is nothing like the other Laymon books I’ve read. That could be a good thing for some readers who may not be able to stomach some of his “creativity” in his hard core horror. This one however, could be read by so many. It borderlines on a young adult novel just pushing the envelope enough to get an NC-17 rating. I was engrossed the entire time waiting expectantly for chapter after chapter. Great book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great coming of age horror

Don't listen to these negative reviews, I've listen to this book twice it's funny, suspenseful, sexual coming of age.Fun listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good core story, but very mixed overall

I wish I liked this as much as I'd expected. I like the core story a lot, but there's so much that makes it feel questionable. It mostly revolves around sex - there's a kind of embarrassing amount of this in the story and the characters' thoughts, which gets to feel a bit uncomfortable as it goes on because the main characters are all underage. And even more so, when it drags adult characters into the mix as well. I'm no prude, but this particular setup just felt too exaggerated and uncomfortable.
A shame, since the story is otherwise enjoyable and the narrator is quite good. Very mixed review overall.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A fantastic story

This book is amazing and the narrator is one of the best that I have heard. His narration perfectly matched the atmosphere and emotion of this tale.

This is one of the best Richard Laymon stories and puts me in mind of a scary Stand By Me.
This is one of the few audible books I listen to many times.

It is also one of the few books I want to write a sequel for.

You won't regret giving this one a try.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Hmmm

Read all of Layman's books long ago and loved them......hated that this narrator gave a 14 year old boy the accent of a 50 year old Brooklyn cabbie...audible is great done well and ruins a book when not thought through.....Love the author hate the narrator...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!