Echoes in the Stone

By: Joshua Bish

Narrated by: Daniel LaRiviere

Some places do not need ghosts. The walls remember them. When freelance journalist Ellie Glass enters the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, she believes she’s chasing a forgotten chapter of West Virginia history, a trail of vanished patients, missing records, and whispered rumors buried beneath the stone. What she finds instead is something far older than the hospital’s crumbling halls… and far hungrier than the dead who never left. The deeper Ellie searches, the more the asylum changes around her. Corridors shift. Shadows breathe. The past bleeds into the present. And somewhere inside the dark, a presence watches with a patience that feels almost human.

As Ellie uncovers the horrifying truth behind the lost ledger of Dr. Walter Freeman, she realizes the asylum is not haunted by memory alone. Something opens its eyes for the first time in decades, a thing shaped by hunger, bound to bone and myth, waiting for someone foolish enough to listen. Ellie came to expose the truth. Instead, she awakens it. Echoes in the Stone is a relentless descent into Appalachian horror, blending psychological dread, historical reality, and the chilling knowledge that some stories never sleep. For fans of The Haunting of Hill House, The Shining, and dark folklore that crawls under the skin and stays there, this audiobook will haunt you long after the final chapter.

©2025 Joshua Bish (P)2025 Joshua Bish

Great Thrilller

This audio is a great thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat as the asylum was thought to be haunted, but really we learned the turnover time in how the asylum really got its story.

the atmosphere is built carefully

There’s a reflective tone running through the story that makes it feel more thoughtful than dramatic, and I found myself lingering on certain passages. It’s not flashy, but it leaves an impression in a steady, almost meditative way that stayed with me after I finished.

Haunting folklore rooted in a real asylum

I had previously listened to The Lady in Flesh by the same author, so when I got the opportunity to listen to this one, I jumped in immediately. It’s set in a similar environment rooted in Appalachian folklore, which gives it a familiar look and feel, at least for me, but the story itself is very different from the Psalm of the Tear series. I love how this audiobook takes the past and brings it into the present, because as you listen and Ellie uncovers clues about what was happening in the asylum, everything slowly connects.

In my opinion, this one is actually better because it isn’t as dark as the other book, yet it still has a strong and immersive atmosphere. The characters are, of course, dark, perhaps darker than I expected, especially since this book doesn’t include flesh rituals. Instead, it shows an Ellie who, in her search for light, becomes entangled in shadows and uncovers a story about her family that might have been better left buried, deep and cold.

For example, the scene where Mr. Hanlon tells Ellie about the different practices performed in the asylum (such as lobotomies) completely froze my blood, and I had to stop listening for a while. The same happened during the scene when Daniel gives her a tour of the installations of that horrible place.

Chilling audiobook

This is a chilling audiobook that turns history into a living, breathing menace, where atmosphere and narration lock you inside the asylum alongside Ellie Glass. Slow-burn dread, shifting realities, and Appalachian folklore combine into an experience that seeps under your skin and refuses to let go long after the final chapter.

Chilling Echoes That Linger Long After Dark

I was completely gripped by Echoes in the Stone from the very first chapter, as the narrator's steady, atmospheric voice pulled me straight into the decaying corridors of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum alongside Ellie Glass. What I liked most was how seamlessly the story weaves real historical details about the asylum and Dr. Walter Freeman's lost ledger with creeping supernatural dread, making every fact feel like it could summon something worse. The way the building itself seems to respond to Ellie's investigations, with shifting corridors and breathing shadows, built such intense, slow-burn tension that my heart raced even during the quieter moments. I especially appreciated the Appalachian folklore elements woven throughout, giving the horror a raw, grounded mythos that felt ancient and hungry rather than just ghostly. The psychological depth of Ellie's unraveling mind kept me questioning what was real and what the asylum was forcing her to see, which made the experience deeply unsettling in the best way.