Feareater

By: Steve Wands

Narrated by: Aida Reluzco

Length: 1 hr and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Feareater is a supernatural thriller in which Anissa Jones, wanting a better life for herself and her mother, runs away. Anissa leaves her mother to choose between a loving daughter or an abusive husband. With her best friend, Geraldine, in tow, they find shelter at a nearby abandoned housing development.

They are not alone, however. In the woods is a woman who feeds on fear. She is little more than a ghost story - a demon of sorts - and the next night, when Anissa returns alone, she reveals herself.

Unbeknownst to each other, her best friend, an angry stepfather, the friendly neighborhood drug dealers, and a pair of concerned police officers search for her. Before they find Anissa, the woman in the woods finds them. She amplifies their fears. Manipulating them to converge in a fatal confrontation, forever changing their lives.

©2020 Steve Wands (P)2020 Steve Wands

Perfect Horror

To me the best horror reflects on society. Feareater looks back at the current state of the media and wraps it into a fun chiller.

Aida is a tremendous performer bringing each character to life in a reserved and consistent way.

Steve writes horror truly well and has a penchant for dialogue.

My only complaint was that it wasn't longer. Really good stuff. High recommendation.

Listen to this Novella

This is a review for the audiobook Feareater, Written by Steve Wands and Narrated Aida Reluzco. Steve Wands highlights his gifted ability to craft amazing and interesting stories in this short horror work. Fear can be crippling and it can affect all the things that we do. But what is responsible for our fears? Scientifically speaking, we know that fear starts in the brain region known as the amygdala in which signals various stress hormones to release during fearful situations ect… Or does it? Perhaps a more sinister truth is that fear is a nourishment for a devilish fiend. One that can produce this fear in anyone in able to feed and survive. We meet such an entity in this tale. The result is a great story that shows how fear can cause people to do things they never would have done before. And how much scarier that understanding would be if we knew we could be manipulated to produce more fear, or in the feareater’s eyes, more food. As for narration, Aida Reluzco provided a wonderful performance that really brought these characters to life. The audio was clean and professional with no problems noticed. She does both male and female characters with perfection. I was given a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

A Timely and Thought-Provoking Read on Fear

Feareater is well worth your time. Set in an urban environment, teenagers Anissa and Geraldine live a harder-than-average existence. The two friends are caught in a world of borderline poverty, parental abuse, local gangbangers and police. If this isn’t bad enough, after especially rough treatment from her stepfather, Anissa decides to camp out at the edge of the woods that connect to their apartment’s property. Unfortunately, if the teenage girl thought life was hard before, it’s degrees worse now. After meeting a fiendish, strange woman that tends to consume fear itself. If her victim is filled with fear upon meeting the ominous looking woman, she has a knack for instilling it, for growing it, that, in the end, pits the teenagers, the police and local drug dealers against one another.
A very enjoyable read. Wands’ characterization and command of his settings is to be admired. The plights of the young girls are something we can all feel, despite where we come from. It’s also worth noting that we see fear, not reality, lead to an awful outcome. I think Mr. Wands’ writing has matured and improved with each released work and this is definitely a step above most indie writers in the field today.

The narrator was exquisite. Very interested to see her other work.