Inside the Mirrors

By: Jason R. Davis

Narrated by: Darren Marlar

Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

Set in the town of Standard, that small Midwestern town where nothing ever happens. Quiet, peaceful, and tucked away among the cornfields and away from the dangers of the outside world.

Unfortunately there is nothing normal about Standard. There has been an evil that has been awakened, and now the residents are slowly going crazy. Men for no reason are coming home and murdering their families, and dark forms are appearing in people's mirrors. The evil is spreading, and now it is up to ex-Chicago cop Rob Alletto to find it.

Time is running out, and the neighbors are becoming quiet shadows as they watch him. He doesn't have long before it will start to get into his mind, and then he himself would be making that deadly trip home.

©2009 Jason R. Davis (P)2015 Jason R. Davis

Don't go in the house? Don't go back to your home

Davis is one of those psychological horror writers. He doesn't need blood and guts flying to make something horrifying just by the thought of it. I first stumbled onto him with his Invisible Spiders books, and circled around because Aletto was featured here first. Aletto is a character who makes a small appearance in the ffirst Invisible SPider book, hatched, and plays larger one in book 2. He's kind of a fascinating guy, so this book was a must.

Davis really knows how to build things up. Here, he pays chess with several characters, manuevering them deftly across his board until the pieces are all in the right pace, and then he strikes. Brutally, too. This is one of those times where someone (me) will say you will never look in a mirror the same after reading tis book, and it is true. No crap. He really creeps you out. The buildup is well worth the wait, and you won't be sorry that you let this story suck in you in (you might regret it later if you have to brush your teeth or shave, though).

Marlar narrates this perfectly, he knows the right tones and intonations to use, and gives each character a voice. I really appreciated his style. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.


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6 people found this helpful

Good Performance

Great narration by the superb Mr. Darren Marlar. interesting story. took me only a few days to finish the book. looking forward to hearing the next installment.

3 people found this helpful

Silent Hell

Firstly, I'll start with a quick overview of the three audiobooks available in this universe.

The first is Inside the Mirrors. The main character of this is Rob Aletto, an ex-Chicago cop and now small town part time cop. It is a standalone story to the following two books, but does provide a common character for all three books.

Next is Hatched, the first book in the Invisible Spiders series. This book has Rob Aletto in a more or less cameo appearance, and is set in a town about 30 miles away from Standard, the setting for the Inside the Mirrors.

Finally is Caught in the Web. This book has the author listed as Jason Davis as opposed to the other two which list the author as Jason R Davis, so an author link search in Audible won't show all three books. This book also features Rob Aletto as a lead character.

Hatched plus Caught in the Web form a completed story arc, not a cliffhanger ending. It did leave me pondering what direction will be taken next.

I got Caught in the Web as a review copy, and seeing it was part two, I purchased Part 1 to listen to that first. Then the narrator kindly pointed out that Inside the Mirrors was related and also offered me a review copy of that, which I gladly accepted.

Inside the Mirrors was a pretty good standalone horror novel, which resonated well with me, both from an early childhood fascination with mirrors, plus my love of the world of Silent Hill. Frankly, I found the depiction and use of mirrors in Silent Hill 2 and 3 pretty terrifying. The mirror theme here was somewhat similar and well presented, but I still found the ideas fresh, both in that is no way just redid the Silent Hill type concept, and that I hadn't seen these ideas in other books. Rob Aletto is a main character in this book, along with his wife Robin, and an ex-resident-turned-drifter who has returned to Standard. Of the three books, I think I prefer this one the best.

The narration was enjoyable, and I found it engaging, and had no issues understanding of having to re listen to passages. Voices were conveyed well enough.

To wrap up, I think all three books form a good read. Inside the Mirrors could be skipped from the Invisible Spiders books, but it really does provide a better background to the lead character in Caught in the Web.

2 people found this helpful

Awesome

I couldn't stop listening. Great job writing and great job narrating! Can't wait to get more books

1 person found this helpful

Inside the Mirrors

I really liked this book.Darren Marlar did a fine job with narration. A police officer gets hurt in an odd meth bust.People are seeing shadows in mirrors.A man returns to the town where he grew up,where his father murdered his mother and tried to kill him.He comes back in an odd way.Personalities are changing,but all into the same people,over and over.Can Rob save his family?We'll see!
This audiobook was provided to me at no cost for a fair and honest review.

1 person found this helpful

Nice creepy story

If you could sum up Inside the Mirrors in three words, what would they be?

Creepy, disturbing, and fun

What did you like best about this story?

Story has a great classic horror feel to it

Have you listened to any of Darren Marlar’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

First time listening, he did an great jod

Any additional comments?

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

1 person found this helpful

Read like a good traditional scary movie!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this audiobook because the voice performance was well done. The many accents and changes of tone helped paint the characters as individuals. The story was actually pretty unique for one in the traditional horror genre, and the convergence of several characters to the final conclusion was exciting.

What about Darren Marlar’s performance did you like?

Yes. Well done.

If you could take any character from Inside the Mirrors out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Haha. The Grim (kidding). Probably ol' Coolidge. Figure he'd be hungry and would have some great stories.

Any additional comments?

In general, it was an easy listen, fun, and pretty creepy at times.

1 person found this helpful

Inside the mirror

If you could sum up Inside the Mirrors in three words, what would they be?

Inside The Mirrors by Jason R. Davis is like a classic horror: scary without excessive gore. This story crawls into your head, and makes you leave the light on after you're done reading. The plot centers on Rob Alleto, a Chicago cop who believes that moving to a small town would lead to a safer environment for himself and his family. Before long, he discovers that there are things far worse than street criminals, when an evil spirit attempts to possess Rob's neighbors through their mirrors.. It kept my interest from beginning tp end.

1 person found this helpful

Darren Marlar kept the story flowing

I'm not going to lie, this book didn't do it for me.

It seemed to be made up of all the bits  I don't personally like of Stephen King's work. When it comes to ghost stories, especially ones using plot devices like evil entities stuck in mirrors, I love the symmetry of the cliche and the comfort of hearing a familiar story being retold. In this case though, it felt like 7 hours of narration leading up to a 'yeah, there's a ghost stuck in the mirror' which seemed a little unnecessary, given the title of the book.

The premise is that a family move from Chicago to a sleepy town in the Midwest, the father, Rob, is a police man and is recovering from injuries sustained in course of duty (cos, y'know, meth labs). Their idyllic new home isn't as wonderful as it first appeared, the men of the town are coming home from work and murdering their families before committing suicide.

Ok, there's no need to go into a huge amount of detail, I'm sure you can guess the whys and wherefores of this particular story.

The one thing that did particularly bother me about this story is that there was an enigmatic native American woman who appeared from time to time to delivery ominous warnings to the main character. It might just be my own personal sensitivity but it does get under my skin when native people are used as cheap stereotypes in stories.

On the positive side, the audio for this book was pretty good in both sound quality and choice of narrator. I'm not sure that I could have found the motivation to finish the book if it wasn't for Darren Marlar who kept the story flowing at a decent pace.

This isn't by any means to say that you shouldn't read or listen to this book, if you're a fan of American ghost stories and horror, this may very well be right up your street.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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8 people found this helpful