The Third Parent

De: Elias Witherow

Narrado por: David D’Andrea

No one knows where he came from. No one knows what he wants. No one dares ask about his strange physical abnormalities. For a quiet suburban neighborhood, things are about to change. And it starts with a knock at the door.

Follow his rules. Don't call the police. Listen to his lessons. That's what Jack and his family were told. Held captive in their own house, they must face a growing storm of mental and physical trauma as they try to just stay alive.

But even if Jack can survive the horror of his childhood, will his tormentor ever leave him alone? And who is he really?

Who is Tommy Taffy?

©2017 Thought Catalog Books (P)2025 Fireside Audio

Disturbing violence

Elias remains the king from r/nosleep. I’m pretty jaded when it comes to extreme horror stuff, but there are some scenes in this that will stick with me for a long time. Only reason I docked one star is for some logical plot problems, but honestly they were barely a distraction from the nightmares I come to Witherow for.

excellent!

I read the short story Tommy Taffy. when I heard there would be a full book coming it did not disappoint

OUTSTANDING!!!

Elias Witherow is one of my favorite authors so I was PUMPED to see this added to Audible. I was not disappointed!!! Immaculate narration, captivating story line and over all amazing. I heard they are going to make it into a movie so that's exciting. Highly recommend this and his other books on Audible, as they are also great. All I need now is more!!!!!

Outstanding!

I couldn't stop listing to it! It is very harsh and violent and creepy. Solidly into horror, but I loved it. Can't wait for Elias' next book!

Had me quivering with antici…

pation. Ha! Seriously though, great premise and definitely keeps you engrossed. I’m usually really good with figuring out books straight away, but I honestly couldn’t figure out who/what the antagonist was until the author explained it!

Psycho

Tommy Taffy is one deranged dude.
He Invited himself to dinner and stayed. Obey me, we’ll get along fine. Cross me you’ll get punished. As the story progresses, so do the punishments. The family is totally scared, not knowing what to do.
This story is totally psychotic and
Mind blowing
David D’Andrea -what a wild ride. As the story becomes intense, so did his narration.
He captured every character’s anxiety,pain, scream, andTommy’s maniacal laugh to perfection.
If you love intense goryhorror that messes with the mind this is for you.
#Fireside Audio #the flock on tour

Loved it

been hoping this story would become an audiobook on here since the Creepcast podcast covered the original creepypasta, and I love the way Elias' novel renditions of his original creepypasta stories reference them which I cannot exactly explain as to avoid spoilers but to those who read this review definitely check out the original stories before listening to the books, might be slight spoilers as to concepts in the stories and maybe bits overall but it's fun to catch the references in the full novels.

the only thing I hated was the whisper yelling but I understand that there's probably a good reason the narrator couldn't just yell the yelling bits out.

If you like Horror, this might be for you

The Third Parent, written by Elias Witherow, was a difficult listen. Since horror is not a normal trope of mine to read or listen to, I struggled with it. I was not prepared for it. The storyline is a scary situation, a family's worse nightmare. It was gruesome and depraved. Actually, it was similar to his Black Farm books, so I should have known! There was SA, not only of adults, but a child. There was a suicide as well. It's very detailed. I was able to forward the SA of the child but, yeah. There was a sci-fi element to it as well. Just nothing like I expected. Maybe this was too real where his Black Farm was more fantasy ... at least in my head.

David D’Andrea is an excellent narrator. He brought the book to life, which was horrible in this instance. Ugh. Unfortunately, I'll not be able to hear his laugh in future books and not cringe. He definitely has a the evil character performance perfected.

Amazing Concept, Execution a Little Off

The concept of this book is amazing. The horror and action scenes were the best parts. I would say that the prose itself could have stood to eliminate some cliches and there were some minor plot/characterization holes that did make the overall plot a bit frustrating. Like, when they were escape at one point and then "had" to pull over because the dad was too tired to keep driving. Couldn't the mom also drive?? Very much could tell this was written by a man by the way the female characters were handled. It wasn't offensive by any means, it's just that several plot issues could have been avoided or even solved if the female characters had been given more agency and interiority AKA if they acted like actual people. However, again, fascinating concept. Would love to see more lore from this world.

Much different from the creepypasta as well, with some of the themes from the original being lost. Though, arguably, those themes weren't even intentional in the original so who's to say that they were actually "lost"? There were a few references to the creepypasta, though, which was enjoyable.

A solid 6/10. Maybe a 7 or a generous 8/10 for specific scenes. Read if you like splatterpunk and/or the catharsis of characters going through hell.

Too unrealistic

Plot is way too unrealistic and just not a lot of substance to the book. The Black Farm was over the top as well, but it at least had a very original plot and concept. It also had much better character development. This was not worth a credit, in my opinion.