Nana

By: Mark Towse

Narrated by: Jordan Hale

Length: 2 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Nana: a term of endearment used in some countries for one’s Grandma. Some say the title is derived from the Italian word for grandmother, Nonna. Another theory is that it stems from the word nanny, i.e., someone who takes care of children.

Meet Olly’s nana, Ivy. It takes more than clean dentures, brandy, and bingo night to keep this one happy!

Nana Ivy lives in Newhaven Crescent, where most of the other residents are past their expiry date and all kinds of batshit crazy, the kind of place where you hang your sanity up at the door.

Being the matriarchal type, Ivy cares for the other residents as though they were kin, so of course, it’s of enormous concern when their veins begin to blacken and they start shedding skin, not to mention the glistening things crawling out of their hair. They’re pushing their luck, and Nana Ivy knows it. Did I mention she has a dark secret?

Young Olly doesn’t know what to make of it when he comes to visit, but he’s about to find out there’s more to his nana than cough drops and slippers. Oh yes, he’s in for a long night.

©2021 Kimberly Dawn Shea (P)2021 Kimberly Dawn Shea

Great story

Excellent story. Creepy. Disgusting, and thank goodness my nana was nothing like Olly's nana... Definitely worth a listen...

Hard to understand

The narrator had several moments of stumbling through sentences, didn't enunciate, often misread and would stutter and repeat words. It made it very difficult to listen to as someone with audio processing issues. The story itself was fine and I'd like to check out his other works.

4 stars

wth did I just read. actually, I listened to it. I used 1.4 speed which is much slower than my usual 1.6-1.7.
anyways, I guess to children, old people can be creepy. just imagine if old people creepiness was real!!! lol. this story is equal parts humor and entertainment

Cocoon on Lovecraftian acid trip!

Mark Towse is one of the busiest dark fiction scribes working today; flip through a catalog of indie horror press anthologies over the past year and a half, and it’s likely you’ll stumble upon a Towse ditty. The author has a rare gift for leading the reader one way, then deftly cutting the wheel just when s/he least expects it. I knew this quality of Towse’s writing going into Nana, and yet, I still walked away pleasantly surprised.

The novella opens innocently enough: Alex, a pre-teen paperboy, dreads delivering his wares to the elderly customers on his route. Towse plants the creepy seeds surreptitiously, sprinkling a bit of the body horror inherent with our shared fear of growing old in order to sow a plentiful harvest later, and in an added bonus, the comic relief in a short interaction between the paperboy and an oversexed octogenarian is laugh out loud funny. From there, the book changes direction, introducing the reader to our “nana” Ivy, her cuckolded son Frank, and the precocious Olly who has been shipped off, reluctantly, to visit with his aging grandmother for the evening. When Olly and Ivy attend a community center talent show, the festivities culminate in a scene not unlike Cocoon viewed through the kaleidoscope of a Lovecraftian acid trip. True to his reputation, Towse crafts a story that is not what I thought it would be. Nana is an original mash-up of cult, demon, and body horror that asks the reader to consider, what wouldn’t any of us do to wrestle control over our own decline and death?

I purchased the paperback version but listened to the Audible rendition while I waited for the book to arrive. Narrator Jordan Hale’s North-West British accent is melodically hypnotic, and though I wish he would have spoken a bit more slowly, his pace mimics Towse’s quickly moving plot. A handful of small glitches in the final thirty minutes of the recording that Audible should have caught do not interfere with the enjoyment of the recording. 

Watch Nana like a hawk

(Disclaimer: I received a free audiobook in exchange for a review.) Where do I start with this one!?! The characters were amazingly written and fun. Nana is what my kids call my Mom and now I want to throw up every time they do. A rocky marriage, a crusty old Grandma and her friends, and a missing neighborhood boy all lend themselves to this grossly funny novella. I love the way this story forces you to ask questions to yourself, how far would you go to save those you love?

5/5 crusty Grandmas

Awful Narrator

I can't get past the monotone mumbling narrator. I can't comment on the content because I barely got through 5 minutes.