Knock Knock, Open Wide

By: Neil Sharpson

Narrated by: Aoife McMahon

Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse. So begins a night of unspeakable horror that will take her to the very brink of sanity.

She will never speak of it again.

Two decades later, Betty Fitzpatrick, newly arrived at college in Dublin, has already fallen in love with the drama society, and the beautiful but troubled Ashling Mallen. As their relationship blossoms, Ashling goes to great lengths to keep Betty away from her family, especially her alcoholic mother, Etain.

Gradually, Betty learns her lover's terrifying family history, and Ashling's secret obsession. Ashling has become convinced that the horrors inflicted on her family are connected to a seemingly innocent children's TV show. Everyone in Ireland watched this show in their youth, but Ash soon discovers that no one remembers it quite the same way. And only Ashling seems to remember its star: a small black goat puppet who lives in a box and only comes out if you don't behave. They say he's never come out.

Almost never.

When the door between the known and unknown opens, it can never close again.

©2023 Neil Sharpson (P)2025 Tantor Media

excellent narration

I loved the narration. story was pretty good, felt a little scattered at points, and I would've loved more screen time for the giant paper mache vagina.

Wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, but unique.

Did I miss something? The summary made it seem really scary and creepy but I feel like the actual story was not like the summary very much at all.
Definite props to the writer for the uniqueness and not doing some old hat, faux creepy story. I just felt like the first bit of it had so much potential to be really creepy (I was so creeped out in the beginning when the girl was kidnapped and in the house) but nothing else in the book lived up to that level of fear for me. So I guess I was just a little bit disappointed.

Really good and interesting book with a good premise- I just had too high of hopes in terms of creep factor.

This story was great! It kept my interest.

I liked the story. Narrator was AWESOME! But the story isn’t as scary in the sense you’re thinking. The mystery isn’t as big as the summary makes it sound, or as exciting. But over all it’s a great book

Lore. Mystery. Horror. Chef's kiss.

This book was a lesson on Irish history and Lore, a riveting thriller and a haunting illustration with really beautiful character arcs. the narration was a cherry on top. Bravo.

Entertaining

Some parts were genuinely very creepy, as a whole this was an entertaining listen. I feel like there were a few ends that don’t quite get tied up but all in all, I’m satisfied. The folklore aspect was interesting.