Dead Weight

By: Hildur Knútsdóttir, Mary Robinette Kowal - translator

Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal

An Icelandic night may hide secrets and affairs – or even bodies – in this gruesomely cathartic horror thriller from the author of The Night Guest.

Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door.

When she tracks down the cat’s wayward owner, she finds a young woman just as lost and in need of help. Like a gust of cold air in a Reykjavík night, Ásta and her pet slip into Unnur’s life.

It’s unexpected, but welcome. Unnur likes the company, and she begins to rely on Ásta in turn. But like a black cat, trouble has been tailing her new friend, and Unnur is the only one there for Ásta when things take a violent turn.

The two women quickly learn: nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.


Also by Hildur Knútsdóttir:
The Night Guest

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire

More a domestic thriller than horror

I enjoyed this short story and purchased it soon after its release. But it's inaccurately marketed as horror. This story is a slow-burn domestic thriller and very entertaining. However, I kept waiting for the story to segue into horror and it never did. I was expecting another supernatural horror story, like The Night Guest. Dead Weight is a little simplistic and a great deal is unexplained. For example, why did Asta's boyfriend become so angry? He just really hated cats?