The Howling

The Howling Trilogy, Book 1

By: Gary Brandner

Narrated by: Stephen Caffrey

Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

An Amazon number-one best-selling horror title

Karyn and her husband Roy had come to the peaceful California village of Drago to escape the savagery of the city. On the surface, Drago appeared to be like most small rural towns. But it was not. The village had a most unsavory history. Unexplained disappearances, sudden deaths. People just vanished, never to be found.

©1977, 2011 Gary Brandner (P)2022 Mark Alan Miller

Critic reviews

“If you haven’t read Gary Brandner, you’re missing a treat.” (Stephen King)

omg wow 👌

this was sooooooo good. even more creepy than the film. I definitely enjoyed this and will read it again

1/2 better the movie, 1/2 not

Most are already aware that this novel was the inspiration for the movie of the same name. There are similar ideas and plot twists but the story is different enough.

The first half is better than the film in setting up the story. The last half is a little anticlimactic. Interspersed are ideas that did and did not make it to the film. Some of those ideas should have made it.

The narration is choppy at some points with overdubs for some reason. The narrator is decent but not good at generating excitement or suspense.

It was worthy of a listen but don't go in with huge expectations.

A long awaited classic

I read this first when I was 12. I'm 50 now and had been searching for the audio book version for a very long time. The narrator did a very good job and the story satisfied as much as the first time I read it. If you enjoy horror and the werewolf genre in particular this will not disappoint. I hope the sequels will be released as well. I enjoyed the trilogy.

Raunchy Pulp at its Finest

Finally they bring The Howling to Audible!
I've been waiting for this since the 1st generation kindle fore tablet! I've loved this book since the 90s and read it numerous times and to Finally hear it with all its raunchy fun brings a smile to my face. the narration was great EXCEPT FOR THE BEGINNING SEQUENCE! That whole part felt out of place and they should have used the narrator who did the actual story its self. My only other gripe is that the producers for this got the howling 1 and 2 on Audible but NO 3!! please do The Howling 3 do not make us wait years again!

Thrilling

An awesome Werewolf story! Sexual content a bit racy for younger readers, but overall well written and very well acted!

Call Me Impressed

I really wasn’t expecting much, since I had seen the movie as a kid. But, this was much better! I guess it just needed to be read. I liked it a lot!

Enjoyed it

I enjoyed this but ok. I remember the movie but found out the book is very erotic scary

Surprisingly not as good as the movie

I have been looking for this audiobook for years without success so I was super excited to see it on here yesterday. I had started to read it many times on my kindle but life got in the way so I was over the moon when I saw 1 and 2 were on here. I enjoyed the narrator and story was good, however, having seen the 1981 film by Joe Dante and being a huge fan of it, I couldn’t help but feel some disappointment at the werewolves and the story not being as good. I get that it’s not fair to judge the two against each other, but I couldn’t help it given how big a fan I am of the movie and genre. All in all this is a good listen and do recommend it to others but if you are a big fan of the movie then you may find this story a bit of a let down.

Excellent short read

Fan of werewolf lore and 70s style fiction. This satisfies both. The author's prose is great and succint but effectively descriptive and not politically correct. I have to admit at several points the story sent a few chills down my spine, and I'm a 48 yr old male. Highly recommended.

The best pulp horror novel of its time

Raunchy, depressing, and simplistic, The Howling doesn’t try to be a classic. It is trashy pulp at its core, but somehow this book manages to tell a story that both reinvented the Werewolf genre and makes you care about it’s characters and it’s setting. Better than both of the Howling movies that attempted to adapt it, this was a great (sometimes cheesy, always shocking) listen, especially at night! I sincerely hope to hear the sequel!