A Life That Is Not Mine by Kristi DeMeester
My rating: 4/5 cats
SPOOKTOBER DAY EIGHTEEN
welcome to my spooktober audio advent calendar, where, each day during the month of spooktober, i will be celebrating by listening to a free audio short from nightfire’s Come Join Us by the Fire series, and you can join ME by following the links. let’s all be scared together!
26 minutes
eerily ambiguous, this story is about a teacher who hates her job, especially as the 1 1/2 hour commute each way, each day, means she never sees the sun, which leaves her feeling isolated and unmoored from the rest of the world, resenting each long drive alone through the darkness. then, her students start getting sick, not showing up to class, the hallways becoming emptier with each passing day. what is happening? is it a real epidemic-scenario, or the delusions of the narrator’s spirally descent into daylight-deprived depression, paranoia, and maaaaaadnesssss?
once upon a time, i worked a 10pm-6am shift, and lemme tell you, the vampire-novelty of that schedule soured fast. completely disconnected and out of step with the world around me, i felt helpless and depressed all the time. there was something so grimy-feeling about going to bed as the people in the apartments around me were just heading out to their much-better jobs, and i stopped even feeling like a human for a while—i was just a thing that did a job and ate and slept on an entirely different plane of existence than everyone else. it fucked me up a lot, and listening to this story brought back all of those jittery-itchy, what-even-is-real? feelings, so ymmv, but to me, this story was chilling.
listen to it here:
https://play.google.com/books/listen?…
THE STORIES:
OCTOBER 1: 57 REASONS FOR THE SLATE QUARRY SUICIDES – SAM J. MILLER
OCTOBER 2: SOME BREAKABLE THINGS – CASSANDRA KHAW
OCTOBER 3: EMERGENCY LANDING – SEANAN MCGUIRE
OCTOBER 4: THE CHANGELING – SARAH LANGAN
OCTOBER 5: THE BEASTS OF THE EARTH, THE MADNESS OF MEN – BROOKE BOLANDER
OCTOBER 6: THE FIREPLACE – CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN
OCTOBER 7: BONE – TADE THOMPSON
OCTOBER 8: IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING – MOLLY TANZER
OCTOBER 9: DREAM HOME – KAT HOWARD
OCTOBER 10: SPAWNING SEASON – NICHOLAS KAUFMANN
OCTOBER 11: THE GIRLS FROM THE HORROR MOVIE – GWENDOLYN KISTE
OCTOBER 12: IT WASHED UP – JOE R. LANSDALE
OCTOBER 13: BLACK NEUROLOGY – RICHARD KADREY
OCTOBER 14: WHEN THE ZOMBIES WIN – KARINA SUMNER-SMITH
OCTOBER 15: WASP & SNAKE – LIVIA LLEWELLYN
OCTOBER 16: THIS GUY – CHUCK WENDIG
OCTOBER 17: THE POND – PAUL TREMBLAY
OCTOBER 19: GREENER PASTURES – MICHAEL WEHUNT
OCTOBER 20: THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL YOU – LUCY A. SNYDER
OCTOBER 21: COLD, SILENT, AND DARK – KARY ENGLISH
OCTOBER 22: WAS SHE WICKED? WAS SHE GOOD? – M. RICKERT
OCTOBER 23: THE DAYS OF FLAMING MOTORCYCLES – CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE
OCTOBER 24: FLAYED ED – RICHARD KADREY
OCTOBER 25: MAMA TULU – JESSICA GUESS
OCTOBER 26: THE VAULT OF THE SKY, THE FACE OF THE EARTH
OCTOBER 27: EL CHARRO – JOHN LANGAN
OCTOBER 28: STANDING WATER – CAITLIN R. KIERNAN
OCTOBER 29: MIDNIGHT CALLER – STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES
OCTOBER 30: TOOTH, TONGUE, AND CLAW – DAMIEN ANGELICA WALTERS
OCTOBER 31: THE QUIET BOY – NICK ANTOSCA
read my book reviews on goodreads
