Take Your Turn, Teddy

By: Haley Newlin

Narrated by: Thomas Gloom

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

No one knows your darkness like your own Shadow.

Nothing has been normal for Teddy, not since discovering the harsh identity of the monster he had been living with his whole life - his own father. Teddy and his mother leave that behind to start over in a small Indiana township. But as Teddy begins to learn of humanity's monsters, he unveils an otherworldly evil he calls "The Shadow". The Shadow tests Teddy's vulnerability and growing sense of isolation, poisoning his mind and conjuring a vile killer-in-the-making.

A year later, Officer Leonard Strode is called in to offer consultation on a case similar to the most brutal and scarring of those he’s worked on before. One is the case of Jackie Warren, the other, Theodore “Teddy” Blackwood - two missing children. As he and two other officers follow the trail of clues, Strode is haunted by the ghosts of his own past and is horrified to find them wreaking havoc on his present.

When both Teddy and Strode finally meet face-to-face, they must confront their inner darkness as well or else be consumed by it.

©2020 Haley Newlin (P)2021 Haley Newlin

Great Book!

Really enjoyed this one. Dark, creepy, and sad all at the same time. Nice physiological aspect to the tale!

Gripping, Thrilling, couldn’t stop listening

I don’t stray too far from Stephen King, but TikTok has opened up a whole new world of horror and thriller books to me. I came across this gem on there and I loved it! It definitely keeps you guessing!! I tend to get bored easily with books, but this one kept my interest the whole way through. Definitely recommend!

Decent story but...

So I don't normally write reviews but, the Shadow's whispering conversations with Teddy were long and intricate at times which made it made it super hard for me to continue listening but I did push through. Then, if you have read the Bill Hodges series and/or watched the remake of the movie IT by Stephen King, here's a heads up... In the Bill Hodges series, if you've read just one of the books in the series you should pick up on which protagonist in Take Your Turn, Teddy the narrator seems to be trying to channel Holly Gibney into - it's cringe worthy to me as I LOVE the Holly Gibney character and hated hearting the narrator's horrible attempt at (copying) establishing this character. In the IT remake, in the first scene where Pennywise is in the gutter, he and Georgie are talking about popcorn...POP, POP, POP - that phrase is spoken by a Clown is in this book. I listened to the entire book, as I used a credit to purchase it, but I was truly put off by the whispering Shadow and the likeness of Stephen King characters integrated into this book. Had the narrator established his own character instead of borrowing Holly's and had the writer left the POP - POP - POP phrase out of the book I may have enjoyed it a bit more... but, maybe not. Good Luck Reader - Maybe you will take more away from this book than I did.

It was ok

It’s was ok but the choppy way the narrator did the female voice was very annoying. It threw me off every time.

Different story

Nice change, good book. Finch was annoying to me for some reason, too many pauses. All the other characters were good.

Is Indiana The South?

The story was great, but I could not get over all the Indiana people having southern accents. Why was that the choice? It was just so distracting to me.

Narrator dropped the ball here.

The first couple of chapters sounded like the narrator was reading from the other end of a hallway. After that, it was fine for a while. Then the whispering began, and no amount of rewinding, slowing down, and turning up the volume could clear up whatever was being said.

DNF 2 hours in, and a darn shame, because a lot of my friends loved this book. I'm not going to refund the credit, because the problem here is not with the author. I might try to get a print copy at some point to read through the parts the narrator wrecked, but my TBR list is long, so I might not. Oh, well.

Excellent story and narration

I listened to this on audible, narrated by Thomas Gloom. Take Your Turn, Teddy is a brutal look at how childhood trauma can manifest itself in dark, damaging ways. In the story, Teddy goes through experiences that no person, let alone a child, should ever have to endure. As an escape he turns to the ominous creature in the basement, Shadow. I don't want to go in depth into the story because I think that the plot at its core is best explored with minimal information. What we get in the rest of Teddy's story is the heartbreaking tale of a child that is conflicted and alone.

Part way through the book there is a tone shift as we focus on the law enforcement team that is investigating a case that involves Teddy and his family. At first this was jarring and I thought it would take me out of the story but it had the opposite effect, it drew me in more. I was thoroughly engrossed in the story of Detective Strode and the trauma that he suffered due to his job. I highly recommend this book to any horror fans, especially if topics of mental health intrigue you.

As I mentioned earlier, I listened to this on Audible, narrated by Thomas Gloom. From Teddy to Strode to Shadow and all in between Gloom did a wonderful job bringing these characters to life and adding yet another layer to this already powerful story. I not only look forward to more writing from Haley Newlin in the future but also more narration from Thomas Gloom!

⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️/5 limited edition baseball cards

Off putting reading

The story was good. However the reader chose to voice one of the more chatty characters in a strange, halting monotone. Like a robotic Shatner impression. There were no descriptions in the book indicating this was how they’d talk. It was difficult to listen to.

terrible narration

The narrator makes dialog sound off. as if he were reading word by word. something like "we*pause*need*pause*you" it becomes annoying