The Narrows

De: Ronald Malfi

Narrado por: David Stifel

The town of Stillwater has a very unwelcome resident.

The town of Stillwater has been dying - the long and painful death of a town ravaged by floods and haunted by the ghosts of all who had lived there. Yet this most recent flood has brought something with it - a creature that nests among the good folks of Stillwater...and feeds off them. The children who haven't disappeared whisper the same word - "vampire". But they're wrong. What has come to Stillwater is something much more horrific.

©2012 Ronald Malfi (P)2017 Journalstone Publishing

Malfi delivers a tour de force

There are few perfect books in this world. Everyone has their own idea of what that is, which “ingredients” are absolutely necessary for a story to move the needle past the really good on the ratings meter and inch ever closer to that perfect score. For many of us, it’s a combination of characters and their development, pacing, plot, suspension of disbelief, and so on. But where we all differ is in the intangibles, those pieces of criteria that we love in our stories. For me, it’s a small town setting, where it feels like I’ve been there before. It’s using realistic children characters that I can empathize with in a coming-of-age arc. Throw them in horrific situation where they balance well with the realistic adults behaving… well, realistically to what’s in front of them. Sprinkle in some interesting backstories to round out the characters and make me care about them before we spread the red stuff and you’d be whipping up a story that’s right down my alley. Salem’s Lot. Boy’s Life. These are all examples of what I would classify as “perfect.” And guess what two stories Malfi’s The Narrows reminded me of as I was reading it? Exactly.

Stillwater, MD is trying to hold it’s head above water as torrential downpours have been flooding the area. The body of a hairless boy is washed up in the local culvert called The Narrows. No one knows who he is, nor is anyone from the neighboring towns have a missing child that would fit the description. Two pre-teen boys, Matthew and Dwight, decide to hike out to The Narrows to check out the dead body of a deer that was seen by a classmate, Matthew thinks he sees the figure of his father, who left his mother, sister and him a couple of years ago, in an abandoned plastic factory that resides by the bank of The Narrows. After a reluctant search of the spooky building doesn’t yield anything, the boys head for home. The next day, Matthew is missing and no one knows where he is. At first, Stillwater Deputy Ben Journell chalks it up as another case of a runaway kid that’ll come home after a day or two. But when Ben gets called out in the middle of the night to the scene of an accident where Maggie Quedentock claims she hit a pale, hairless boy on a desolate road, he’s not so sure anymore. Strange things keep happening and the small town isn’t the only thing that feels like it’s dying.

Malfi combines that pulpy 80’s storytelling and small town charm without suffering from any copycat syndrome. The Narrows is its own monster, and I’d hold it up against any other paperback out there. This is one of those stories that would make a fantastic movie with those wonderful tidbits of Salem’s Lot, The Fly, Fright Night, and Stranger Things all rolled into one. If it ever were, I’d be sitting right there on opening night.

5 De-brained cows out of 5

Great story I hope it continues!

I was once told that the sign of a great story is when you are sad to see it end and boy is this one of them. Bravo for creating a monster that is both unique and describing it with such detail you could practically smell it’s breath.

Good creepy story

This is a good story. Not groundbreaking, but it’s tight, no boring parts, creepy and entertaining. If you like the something strange happening in a small town genre, you will like this.

Great horror book!

I’ve listened to 2 of Ronald Malfi’s books and they were both great. Very scary... reminded me of Stephen King’s book Salem’s Lot, but also different. Completely different kind of monster. I find that using children in horror books is always unsettling... but in a good way. It was the scariest book I’ve listened to in a long time. I recommend and I’m
buying more of his books!!!

This book caught my attention right off the bat. Good story and emotional.

I liked the closeness of friends and the brother/sister relationship. You really feel bad for the town as a whole.

great story

really enjoyed this story. definitely set up to keep me listening.

hopefully there will be more.

This book grabbed your attention immediately

I love this author. I don’t wanna give any spoiler alert, but when he writes a book that’s scary borderline horror you think it’s gonna be similar to other books and it’s never similar. It starts out feeling like that and then he puts all kinds of interesting changes and twist.. The characters he creates a fabulous. The narrator did a really great job on this. I highly recommend this read.

Truly Riveting!

Had me addicted from the first chapter, honestly wasnt sure of the exact monster origin until I was half way through. Great take on this specific fiend.

i did get some reminiscenses of Salems Lot, Midnight Mass and The Strain. Really enjoed the performance and will be circling back to listen again!

Frightening story, but in a good way!

If you really want to be frightened, listen to this book at night, in bed, with all the lights out. I dare you!

Great story telling

If you know Malfi then you know this. Malfi is very reminiscent of S King but very unique. His stories are timeless in an amazing way. Despite modern references, it’s easy to forget that and your mind rests wherever you’re comfortable. This one is SUPER creepy and yet Malfi always maintains a positive arc to his stories that leaves you with an excitement and satisfaction, rather than only empty disturbed and depressed.