
The Vine That Ate the South
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 $13.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
T. Ryder Smith
-
By:
-
J. D. Wilkes
About this listen
With the energy, wit, and singularity of vision that have earned him a reputation as a celebrated and charismatic musician, The Vine That Ate the South announces J.D. Wilkes as an accomplished storyteller on a surreal, Homeric voyage that strikes at the very heart of American mythology.
In a forgotten corner of western Kentucky lies a haunted forest referred to locally as "The Deadening", where vampire cults roam wild and time is immaterial. Our protagonist and his accomplice - the one and only Carver Canute - set out down the Old Spur Line in search of the legendary Kudzu House, where an old couple is purported to have been swallowed whole by a hungry vine. Their quest leads them face to face with albino panthers, Great Dane-riding girls, protective property owners, and just about every American folk-demon ever, while forcing the protagonist to finally take stock of his relationship with his father and the man's mysterious disappearance. The Vine That Ate the South is a mesmerizing fantasia where Wilkes ambitiously grapples with the contradictions of the contemporary American South while subversively considering how well we know our own family and friends.
©2017 J.D. Wilkes (P)2017 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Revelator
- A Novel
- By: Daryl Gregory
- Narrated by: Reagan Boggs
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee. The mountains are home to dangerous secrets, and soon after she arrives, Stella wanders into a dark cavern where she encounters the family's personal god, an entity known as the Ghostdaddy. Years later, after a tragic incident that caused her to flee, Stella - now a professional bootlegger - returns for Motty's funeral, and to check on the mysterious 10-year-old girl named Sunny that Motty adopted.
-
-
Very Unusual
- By troconn on 10-12-21
By: Daryl Gregory
-
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
- Stories
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Stephen King, Dylan Baker, Brooke Bloom, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A master storyteller at his best - the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story. Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant fan. "I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."
-
-
HE'S A CUP OF COFFEE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-10-15
By: Stephen King
-
The Dark Tower I
- The Gunslinger
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces listeners to one of his most powerful creations: Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.
-
-
LIKE A DULL AX THROUGH A CALF'S BRAIN
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-14-16
By: Stephen King
-
The Outlaw Album
- Stories
- By: Daniel Woodrell
- Narrated by: Leslie Bellair, Brian Troxell
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daniel Woodrell is able to lend uncanny logic to harsh, even criminal behavior in this wrenching collection of stories. Desperation-both material and psychological - motivates his characters. A husband cruelly avenges the killing of his wife's pet; an injured rapist is cared for by a young girl, until she reaches her breaking point; a disturbed veteran of Iraq is murdered for his erratic behavior; an outsider's house is set on fire by an angry neighbor. There is also the tenderness and loyalty of the vulnerable in these stories - between spouses, parents and children, siblings, and comrades in arms....
-
-
great stories, great writing
- By Ann on 07-23-12
By: Daniel Woodrell
-
Something Wicked This Way Comes
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time. A calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery.
-
-
It's so creepy
- By Midwestbonsai on 11-14-14
By: Ray Bradbury
-
Boy's Life
- By: Robert R. McCammon
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson - a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake - and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible, haunting vision of death. As Cory struggles to understand his father's pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that surround him.
-
-
Remember when the Waltons made you feel good?
- By Marie on 04-03-18
-
Revelator
- A Novel
- By: Daryl Gregory
- Narrated by: Reagan Boggs
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee. The mountains are home to dangerous secrets, and soon after she arrives, Stella wanders into a dark cavern where she encounters the family's personal god, an entity known as the Ghostdaddy. Years later, after a tragic incident that caused her to flee, Stella - now a professional bootlegger - returns for Motty's funeral, and to check on the mysterious 10-year-old girl named Sunny that Motty adopted.
-
-
Very Unusual
- By troconn on 10-12-21
By: Daryl Gregory
-
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
- Stories
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Stephen King, Dylan Baker, Brooke Bloom, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A master storyteller at his best - the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story. Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant fan. "I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."
-
-
HE'S A CUP OF COFFEE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-10-15
By: Stephen King
-
The Dark Tower I
- The Gunslinger
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces listeners to one of his most powerful creations: Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.
-
-
LIKE A DULL AX THROUGH A CALF'S BRAIN
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-14-16
By: Stephen King
-
The Outlaw Album
- Stories
- By: Daniel Woodrell
- Narrated by: Leslie Bellair, Brian Troxell
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daniel Woodrell is able to lend uncanny logic to harsh, even criminal behavior in this wrenching collection of stories. Desperation-both material and psychological - motivates his characters. A husband cruelly avenges the killing of his wife's pet; an injured rapist is cared for by a young girl, until she reaches her breaking point; a disturbed veteran of Iraq is murdered for his erratic behavior; an outsider's house is set on fire by an angry neighbor. There is also the tenderness and loyalty of the vulnerable in these stories - between spouses, parents and children, siblings, and comrades in arms....
-
-
great stories, great writing
- By Ann on 07-23-12
By: Daniel Woodrell
-
Something Wicked This Way Comes
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time. A calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery.
-
-
It's so creepy
- By Midwestbonsai on 11-14-14
By: Ray Bradbury
-
Boy's Life
- By: Robert R. McCammon
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson - a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake - and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible, haunting vision of death. As Cory struggles to understand his father's pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that surround him.
-
-
Remember when the Waltons made you feel good?
- By Marie on 04-03-18
-
Gravity's Rainbow
- By: Thomas Pynchon, Frank Miller - cover design
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 37 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force.
-
-
"Time to touch the person next to you"
- By Jefferson on 07-04-16
By: Thomas Pynchon, and others
-
The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake
- By: Breece D'J Pancake, Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Breece D'J Pancake cut short a promising career when he took his own life at the age 26. Published posthumously, this is a collection of stories that depict the world of Pancake's native rural West Virginia.
-
-
Short career, like a meteor
- By Christopher on 04-10-21
By: Breece D'J Pancake, and others
-
The Prince of Frogtown
- By: Rick Bragg
- Narrated by: Rick Bragg
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rick Bragg closes his circle of family stories with an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship with his 10-year-old stepson.
-
-
This guy can write.
- By colleen on 03-08-14
By: Rick Bragg
-
Give Us a Kiss
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Woodrell
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doyle Redmond, 35-year-old nowhere writer, has crossed the line between imagination and real live trouble. On the lam in his soon-to-be ex-wife's Volvo, he's running a family errand back in his boyhood home of West Table, Missouri - the heart of the red-dirt Ozarks. The law wants his big brother, Smoke, on a felony warrant, and Doyle's supposed to talk him into giving up. But Smoke is making other plans: he is about to harvest a profitable patch of homegrown marijuana.
-
-
I love the characters he creates.
- By Chris on 04-17-17
By: Daniel Woodrell
-
Little Heaven
- A Novel
- By: Nick Cutter
- Narrated by: Corey Brill
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From electrifying horror author Nick Cutter comes a haunting new novel, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Stephen King's It, in which a trio of mismatched mercenaries is hired by a young woman for a deceptively simple task: check in on her nephew, who may have been taken against his will to a remote New Mexico backwoods settlement called Little Heaven. Shortly after they arrive, things begin to turn ominous.
-
-
I was hesitant to purchase this book
- By James & Mary F on 01-31-17
By: Nick Cutter
-
Sometimes a Great Notion
- By: Ken Kesey
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 30 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A literary icon sometimes seen as a bridge between the Beat Generation and the hippies, Ken Kesey scored an unexpected hit with his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. His successful follow-up, Sometimes a Great Notion, was also transformed into a major motion picture, directed by and starring Paul Newman. Here, Oregon’s Stamper family does what it can to survive a bitter strike dividing their tiny logging community. And as tensions rise, delicate family bonds begin to fray and unravel.
-
-
Sometimes a Great Novel Pops up out of Nowhere
- By Mr. Eyuz on 06-07-19
By: Ken Kesey
-
The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
- Stories
- By: Laird Barron
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the course of two award-winning collections and a critically acclaimed novel, The Croning, Laird Barron has arisen as one of the strongest and most original literary voices in modern horror and the dark fantastic. Melding supernatural horror with hardboiled noir, espionage, and a scientific backbone, Barron's stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year's best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards.
-
-
Not happy. Beautiful.
- By lf on 04-14-20
By: Laird Barron
-
The Nameless Dark
- By: T.E. Grau, Nathan Ballingrud
- Narrated by: Armen Taylor
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Nameless Dark debuts a major new voice in contemporary weird fiction. Within these minutes, you'll find whispers of the familiar ghosts of the classic pulps - Lovecraft, Bradbury, Smith - blended with Grau's uniquely macabre, witty storytelling, securing his place at the table amid this current Renaissance of literary horror.
-
-
absolute gem
- By T on 07-01-16
By: T.E. Grau, and others
-
Other Voices, Other Rooms
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Cody Roberts
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the age of 12, Joel Knox is summoned to meet the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at the decaying mansion in Skully's Landing, his father is nowhere in sight. What he finds instead is a sullen stepmother who delights in killing birds; an uncle with the face - and heart - of a debauched child; and a fearsome little girl named Idabel who may offer him the closest thing he has ever known to love.
-
-
Capote’s coming of age story
- By Daniel Diffin on 11-08-23
By: Truman Capote
-
The River Why
- By: David James Duncan
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gus Orviston is a young fly fisherman who leaves behind his comically schizoid family to find his own path. Taking refuge in a remote cabin, he sets out in pursuit of the Pacific Northwest's elusive steelhead. But what begins as a physical quarry becomes a spiritual one as his quest for self-knowledge batters him with unforeseeable experiences.
-
-
I Can't Listen to This
- By Tom on 05-13-19
-
The Imago Sequence
- And Other Stories
- By: Laird Barron
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The title story of this collection - a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model" - was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while "Probiscus" was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story.
-
-
Agonizingly Dull and Meaningless
- By Zachary on 03-14-20
By: Laird Barron
-
Man with No Name
- The Nanashi Series, Book 1
- By: Laird Barron
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 2 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nanashi was born into a life of violence. Delivered from the mean streets by the Heron Clan, he mastered the way of the gun and knife and swiftly ascended through yakuza ranks to become a dreaded enforcer. His latest task? He and an entourage of expert killers are commanded to kidnap Muzaki, a retired world-renowned wrestler under protection of the rival Dragon Syndicate. It should be business as bloody usual for Nanashi and his ruthless brothers-in-arms.
-
-
I like this
- By Vermillion on 09-10-20
By: Laird Barron
What listeners say about The Vine That Ate the South
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Don
- 03-07-24
The absolute best solo performance you’ll probably ever hear from an audiobook
The book was amazing and the narrator was incredible. I feel bad that I even got to hear this for free with my subscription.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cedarlamb
- 03-20-20
A beutiful and accurate tale of the South!
I wished it never ended. Conjured images of my youth growing up in the south.
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
- Amazon Customer
- 10-20-23
Loved it!
Lighthearted but deep. A clever mosaic of southern charm, wit and grit. Picture Mark Twain if he had a goth phase.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Regin Tyrsmund
- 05-05-24
Southern Goth at is finest
J.D. Wilkes, Kentucky Colonel and genuine Son of the South, revives the Southern Goth genre with this wide-ranging tale of adventure and fantasy. Drawn from historical events such as Roderick Ferrell, The Kentucky Vampire, snake-handling preachers, and vivid imagination, J.D. weaves a clever, entertaining diversion.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kaitlin
- 03-17-20
Southern Storytelling at its finest
Wilkes spins a story as intricate and unpredictable as the vile vine itself. Bravo for an entertaining delivery, and thanks for the escapade into the mystical foothills and hypnotising flatlands of the south.
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
- Greg loy
- 11-29-23
excellently weird story
the author sure can paint pictures with words. creative bizarre backwoods brilliance. great original story. 👏
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AJ
- 06-09-21
Hot Damn!
A well written, beautifully executed story whose wordage is unparalleled in description and absurdity! I listened twice,soon to be thrice.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ms. Lisa
- 07-22-24
COOD-ZOO?!?!
Although the story was a lot of fun, a Southern Gothic hero’s journey of Biblical proportions, the narrator stabbed me deep in my Georgian heart every time he pronounced kudzu…COOD-Zoo. What? Do these narrators not research the names of things before they set to reading a story?
His put-on accents were sometimes great fun but other times frustratingly grating and so fake sounding. I finished the book because I wanted to know how it ended, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t pretty painful to listen to a New Yorker fake a Southern accent for six hours.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!