The Girlfriend Game

By: Nick Antosca

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Kirby Heyborne, R.C. Bray, Jeffrey Kafer, Emily Woo Zeller, Vikas Adam, Eric Martin, Nick Antosca, Rachel Fulginiti

Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

The complete list of narrators includes: Scott Brick, Kirby Heyborne, R.C. Bray, Emily Woo Zeller, Jeffrey Kafer, Rachel Fulginiti, Eric Martin, Vikas Adam, Dahlia Salem, and Nick Antosca.

Nick Antosca's The Girlfriend Game is a tumble through the looking glass into a vortex of violence and desire. The 12 stories in the newest collection by the Shirley Jackson Award-winning author are brutal, urgent and unforgettable.

In "Predator Bait", a decoy in a sex-sting news show questions her job and the man who shares her bed. An undependable son watches his mother become a creature he hardly recognizes in "Amphibian". A young man plots the death of his girlfriend's killer in "Winter Was Hard".

Antosca crafts surreal doomsday scenarios and otherworldly transformations alongside painfully articulate depictions of sexuality and animal impulse. The stories in The Girlfriend Game are mesmerizing, leaving a haunting afterglow long after you hear the last word.

©2009 Nick Antosca (P)2015 Nick Antosca

Some good, some not.

There are some great stories that I wanted more of, and some I didn't.

What a fantastic book!

I loved The Girlfriend Game By Nick Antosca. 12 stories that feels so new and "crisp", it is maybe 12 stories that should not go together, but gosh i just love ALL the 12! And when a book is narrated by: Scott Brick, Kirby Heyborne, R.C. Bray, Jeffrey Kafer, Emily Woo Zeller, Vikas Adam, Eric Martin, Nick Antosca, Rachel Fulginiti. All 12 are giving there best, and i am so happy to hear horror that works with so many voices. 5 hrs and 44 mins is MAYBE on the short side, but i almost don't care! This so good!

"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com"

Give it a try

Never a dull moment. Nicely written with very good audio performances.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast.

Slices of Unhappy Lives

Would you consider the audio edition of The Girlfriend Game to be better than the print version?

I definitely would, simply because the production and narration was done fantastically. That does not hold anything against the written version but considering the audio version can access more senses and hold me more at attention I have to give it the edge.

What other book might you compare The Girlfriend Game to and why?

I was on a noir kick for a while, reading thuglit and other less than pristine crime stories and though these stories aren't all in that crime range it really echoes the tone present in those stories. These are stories of unhappy people in unhappy lives trying to make their way through this existence and you know that things aren't likely to end well. Even in situations in which they do end well there is no release, that person keeps living in their created world.

Which scene was your favorite?

Probably the entirety of the title story, because even though it left me feeling cold it was the best microcosm to represent the rest of the work. I had to turn it off and do something else for a while, it was that affecting.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I had the same kind of reaction I do when reading well done extreme horror, noir, dystopian, and other works in that vein. While the subject matters don't mesh well, the tone behind them is so empty it makes me question things in my life. The writing is fantastic, but like human lives it's short and brutish (though in this case the brutality is emotional rather than physical).

Any additional comments?

I received this for free in exchange for an unbiased review and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone but I will caution that if you're someone susceptible to negativity you might want to space it out with a different work because it just might get to you at one point or another.

Creepy, dark and wonderful !

What made the experience of listening to The Girlfriend Game the most enjoyable?

The variance of the writers thematically, and the subsequent uniqueness of each performer. What a fascinating ( although admittedly not entirely original ) creative process.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Too many characters to be able to answer this meaningfully.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I did not read the print edition, but I can't imagine that could be any better. Some of the best performers in the industry were enlisted in this project, and each brings their own special sauce to the stories.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Frankly, each one is like a little pocket opera. Complex, admittedly dark and in some cases violent or deeply troubling, they each exhibit creativity without limit.

Any additional comments?

I received this for free in exchange for an unbiased review. That said, my review is honest and without outside influence. I am very glad this book was made available to me ( likely it is one I may have missed during the course of my normal research ) .
Like most offerings, it has some flaws, but on balance they are more than made up for by the quality of the stories and the matching performances.
Highly recommended ( but do know it is not the most cheerful of offerings, certainly dark at its' core, so be aware! )

I loved this collection so much.. I listened Twice

If you could sum up The Girlfriend Game in three words, what would they be?

Very Well Done

What did you like best about this story?

They are a collection of short stories, all written as if they could have come from the vaults of Rod Serling.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Each story is read by a different narrator. Each brings their own unique style, so you're hearing a variety of excellent voices bring their special talent to your ears.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Oddly enough, I was suffering from a gawdawfull cold while listening to this the first time through. I was feeling really bad... and for a while there I kept thinking to myself... "I wonder if I'm actually caught in one of those stories? Have I been sucked into the book? Is this the time where I start drinking again?"

Any additional comments?

Overall I absolutely loved this collection. The stories are all short enough that I can listen to one straight through to the end, and then stop. When I come back, I pick up at the beginning of a whole new story, and don't have to remember where we were when I put it down. I'll have to admit, there were two narrators whose style just doesn't agree with me. I was able to simply skip listening and jump to the end of the story, and on to the next, once I realized that I wasn't enjoying what I was listening to. It didn't detract from the rest of the book... I didn't lose anything... and I got to listen to a whole room full of very talented narrators work their magic.

Macabre Short Story Collection

Some of the stories were very good and some were just so-so. The narration was very good with assorted authors and narrators.

Themes included: vengeance, betrayal, murder, suspense, horror and the supernatural. So there was a story for all tastes.

This is not a stick to your guts book, It is a light varied listen that is not too graphic, violent nor scary.

It would be a good book for family drives with older kids not young children and a good to listen to when multi-tasking as the stories are not that deep nor complex.


“I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot come”

Garbage

The narrator was terrible. I have the stories a chance tho. I would give no stars if possible. This was just terrible.