• The Shuddering

  • By: Ania Ahlborn
  • Narrated by: Luke Daniels
  • Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (980 ratings)

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The Shuddering  By  cover art

The Shuddering

By: Ania Ahlborn
Narrated by: Luke Daniels
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Publisher's summary

They only come when it snows, and nobody ever gets away.

A group of close friends gathers at a secluded cabin in the wintry mountains of Colorado for a final holiday hurrah. Instead, it may be their last stand. First a massive blizzard leaves them marooned. Then the more chilling realization: Something is lurking in the woods, watching them, waiting....

Now a weekend of family, friends, and fun has turned into a test of love and loyalty in the face of inhuman horrors. The only hope for those huddled inside is to fight - tooth and nail, bullet and blade - for their lives. Otherwise, they’ll end up like the monsters’ other victims: bright pools of blood on glittering snow, screams lost in the vast mountains.

©2013 Ania Ahlborn (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about The Shuddering

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

A Few Shudders and Too Much Soap

A few moments of terror wrapped in a tiresome junior high school level love triangle. Ultimately falls flat. Would have been better if the story had been more about the creatures and survival and less- way less- about the puerile relationships between a group twenty-somethings on a winter snow boarding vacation. The character development was clumsy and forced. The best parts of the story were the stalking creatures. The performance was just okay. The female voices were not so good. Two and a half stars. Not a total fail but definitely not a win.

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18 people found this helpful

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

Too much silly relationship drama...

What disappointed you about The Shuddering?

Was this supposed to be a horror book? Did I miss something? The first chapter hooked me, but but then it went all character building and relationship drama for the first third (at least) of the book. I finally gave up because I couldn't deal with the 90210 storyline, I didn't really care what happened to the characters anyway.

Has The Shuddering turned you off from other books in this genre?

Nope.

What aspect of Luke Daniels’s performance would you have changed?

The female voices were very bad. :( Otherwise, he was good.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment. For sure. I'm not sure I will read anything by this author again.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Irritated

Let me start off by saying in my opinion don't waste your time . That being said all the people in this book were so stupid and shallow that I didn't miss a single one of them when they got killed . And I hate books that people write , and want you to read but they don't have the decency to write an ending! What a waste !

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15 people found this helpful

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

This was some scarey shit!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'd recommend to any horror fans, it was really scarey and suspenseful.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

From start to finish, because it never got predictable or boring.

Which scene was your favorite?

The couple skiing.

Any additional comments?

Twins Ryan and Jane Adler are heading to their family cabin in the Colorado mountains, trying to escape for a few days from life and their parents impending divorce. The cabin had been put up for sale, but Ryan hopes for one last hurrah with his sister and some friends to revel in all the happy memories they had at the cabin, as a family.
But something is lurking in the mountains, hiding in the shadows, and unbeknownst to the twins, someone has gone missing.
The tension in the cabin is stifling. Ryan is enamoured with his sister’s best friend, Lauren. And Jane who was hoping to reconcile with her ex, Ryan’s best friend, is devastated when he shows up with his fiancé in tow. Tempers are flaring and everyone is hyper aware of what’s going on around them. Except for what’s going on right under their noses, outside, in the woods.
A woman goes searching for her husband who never came home, following his trail what she finds just might kill her.
Ryan and Jane are starting to take notice to something that’s just not right in the woods that surround the cabin. As well, two of their guests see shadows outside their bedroom window at night, and hear strange noises. The tension in the house is almost to the breaking point. Snowed in and running out of food and patience, they have to decide to wait out the storm, or try to get back down the mountain.
A couple get into an arguement on the ski slopes, and take a dangerously wrong turn that has deadly consequences.
What the HELL are these things?! When Ryan, Jane and their group of friends attempts to make it down the mountain they are finally confronted with the danger they didn’t fully comprehend they were in. The monsters aren’t hiding anymore, and if they can’t make it back to the safety of the cabin, they are all as good as dead.
Two roommates who work the snow plow are up in the wee hours of the morning, getting coffee and getting ready for work. Let’s just say, the roads shant be plowed today!
I absolutely loved this story! The mystery and suspense at the start with the random side stories of people going missing, then tying those stories into to Ryan and Janes story. The tension building in the cabin all the while they are clueless to what’s happening outside, I was standing on my head screaming, “LOOK OUT THE WINDOW!” and, “ DON’T GO OUT THERE!” Yes, on the edge of my seat from start to finish.
And you never do quite fully recognize the creatures, or monsters or what they truly are. But that is just one more thing that adds to the suspense. And the narrator was fantastic, capturing the perfect voice and shriek for a teenage girl scared out of her mind, watching her friends fall around her.
This is a must read for hard core horror fans. I have a friend that doesn’t do audio, she got a paperback copy and thoroughly enjoyed reading it as well.

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13 people found this helpful

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

It had potential

This horror novel started out pretty good but slowly went downhill from there. I like the premise of this book-a group of twenty-somethings stranded in a Winter cabin but I feel the story bogged down and went off course focusing more on drama and "in-house" fighting between the characters and less on the actual horror aspect of the story." Ania Ahlborn(the writer) was on the right track but she fell short due to the lack of terror and suspense that I usually get from books in this genre. It felt more like a T.V. drama than an actual Horror novel. The best thing about this book was probably the narrative performance of Luke Daniels.

Too much drama/bickering and not enough monsters/suspense = pretty weak Horror novel.

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7 people found this helpful

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

Holy Cow! AWESOME! Get it NOW!

Man, what a story! I LOVED this book! I love monster books and this is by far the best of this kind I have read. Just enough gore, just enough suspense, just enough comedy, just enough personal story etc. I have never in my life read/listened to a book that screams "hit movie" like this one does. Wow. Wouldn't need any rewrites either (hear that Stephen King / Under the Dome) If you don't like this I would be amazed.

Rich twins, Ryan & Jane meet their best friend (and Janes old one true love) Sawyer with his new fiance at their father's mountain chalet which has been sold. One last snowboarding trip down memory lane. Jane also brings her best friend Lauren who hits it off wonderfully with playboy Ryan. Unbeknownst to them tall demon like beings are hunting............people. They are attacked and struggle to survive. They desperately try to make it out of the cabin in the midst of a horrible snowstorm. Not all of them survive.

Characters are great, just enough backstory without overburdening us, everyone is believable and that goodness there are no "blond idiot running naked into the woods" moments (yes I can say that I'm blond)

Like I said this would be an AWESOME movie. While you listen to this you can literally envision what's going on in your mind. It's as if someone just read me the closed captioning on a movie! Great book. Best I've read in a while!!

You'll love it!!!!! I'm off to see what else Ahlborn has written.

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7 people found this helpful

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

Good suspenseful story, characters problematic

This story is interesting and suspenseful. Overall I enjoyed it. The pacing was good, the story line generally okay and I liked the way it ended. I, personally, would not really call it scary, but there was plenty of tension and twists. The characters are the real problem here. I was more invested in some of the vignette characters than the main ones. Ultimately, I didn't really care if they survived. Almost all the women were portrayed as incompetent, whiny and overly emotional. They were a particular point of frustration for me and it marred an otherwise pleasant book.

Luke Daniels is always amazing - always.

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3 people found this helpful

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

Reads like a scifi channel original

monsters are neat though you never learn anything about them and about halfway through the book they change tactics and behavior out of no where. its made pretty clear they are super dangerous and smart but conveniently they become scared of humans and only attack one at a time even though they are soposedly pack animals. The human side is where this book really falls short, the book spends a lot of time trying to play match maker and creating a love triangle about characters you don't really care about. one of the main characters just hyperventilate and panics to the point of not being able to function pretty much constantly by the end. BUT there was a dog so that was cool.

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3 people found this helpful

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

Like others have said, too much drama

First off Luke Daniels is awesome, as always.

Second I was a fan of her other novel "Seed", I thought it was a bit padded but the story was good and quite creepy. So maybe I had too high hopes for this one, hopes it did not deliver upon.

The characters in this all act like high school kids, the relationship drama is unbearably pathetic and their ability to think beyond the next 4 seconds is non existent.

There is no tension in the book, no suspense. The monsters are always right there up in your face, you're never left to wonder "what if this, what if that".

Speaking of the monsters. What are they? Why are they there? Where did they come from? None of this is touched upon, they're just there for some reason or another and has somehow remained hidden despite killing several people around a popular ski resort.

The last 20% of this book is good, would have worked nicely as a short story if the first 80%.

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3 people found this helpful

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

Performance was awesome.

Lived the narrator. The story was good, but the ending was just awful. Sad day when an. Otherwise cool story suffers a predictable ending.

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3 people found this helpful