Shingles Audio Collection Volume 1

By: Robert Bevan, Rick Gualtieri, Steve Wetherell, Drew Hayes, John G. Hartness

Narrated by: Cassandra Myles, Cal Wembly

Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

Tantor Audio presents six must-listen stories from the horror comedy series Shingles.  

The collection begins with "The Ghost of Hooker Alley," which introduces listeners to 10-year-old Sarah and six-year-old Tommy. After a quick bus ride into town to buy a gun, Sarah and Tommy think their problems are all but solved. That is, until a creepy weirdo follows them into an alley. But they aren't the only ones in that alley....

"The Monkey's Penis" features Chris, a teenage boy who receives a birthday gift unlike any other. In "Gary's Children," a man's quest for stress relief leads to terror, and an unexpected kidnapping takes place in "Aliens Wrecked Our Kegger."   

"Zombies Ate My Homework" is set in the middle of a zombie outbreak. Todd, his brother, Andy, his best friend, Tarik, and their tomboy friend, Mikayla are forced to take shelter in the first place they can find - an adult novelty store.   

In the final story, "The Legend of Jimmy Headshot," the zombie apocalypse is upon us. The dead have risen from their graves to feed upon the flesh of the living, and 12-year-old Jimmy couldn't be happier about it.   

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Robert Bevan (“The Ghost of Hooker Alley”); copyright 2017 by Steve Wetherell (“The Monkey’s Penis”); copyright 2018 by Rick Gualtieri (“Gary’s Children”); copyright 2018 by Drew Hayes (“Aliens Wrecked Our Kegger”); copyright 2018 by John G. Hartness (“Zombies Ate My Homework”); copyright 2018 by Rick Gualtieri (“The Legend of Jimmy Headshot”) (P)2018 Tantor

From most of the creators of Authors and Dragons!

I laughed.
I wept.
I soiled myself.

Are there truly any bad people or are there just bad decisions? Shingles holds the answer. Both exist and lubricated with unspeakable amounts of alcohol, they created this audio tome we see before us. I hope Cassandra Myles was not overly traumatized by the experience as I would like to hear more from her in the future.

I must give this book my highest recommendation. We have a responsibility to keep these diseased minds focused on literature lest they begin to wander. Just imagine the harm they could cause in politics, or food service...

17 people found this helpful

Silly and fun - but real Horror too

(Don't judge this book by its shitty cover art - this is NOT for kids.) This is a collection of works by several really excellent authors. You'll find equal parts raunchy adult humor and complete horror Think of Raunchy Stand up Comedians meet Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits. Good writing - fantastic narration- all super creative.

15 people found this helpful

Waiting for the bus

Holy balls I was not prepared for this. I mean I really should have been seeing as how I’ve been a fan of these guys for a few years now, but there are few things that can prepare you for...well any of that would be spoilers. You need to have the proper bus fare for where you’re going if you like these books. I thought I was driving, but I’m just realizing I’m just a rank amateur in a cardboard box with wheels drawn on. Do yourself a favor, get this collection, and laugh your way into a bus seat!

7 people found this helpful

Mostly Fun & Funny With Lots of Raunchy Humor

I've been a Drew Hayes fan for years and have read all of his books. I also started reading Robert Bevan's Critical Failures series last year. Given my positive experiences with those authors, I decided to give this series a shot. I would give 4 of the 6 stories 5 stars, 1 of them 4 stars, and 1 of them 1 star.

I'll start with the voice performance. I don't particularly care for Cal Wembly's narration. His voice is not engaging (it sounds monotone), and I think all the books (even the ones I enjoyed) suffered from that. By contrast, I enjoyed Cassandra's performance of The Ghost of Hooker Alley quite a bit. Unfortunately, that was her only performance in this series. With every new story, I kept hoping to hear her voice again instead of Cal's. Sadly, it was not to be.

As for the content of the stories, I'm not sure if it's odd or not (sometimes authors hit a home run and sometimes they strike out), but my favorite and least favorite stories in this collection were both written by Rick Gualteri. For me, The Legend of Jimmy Headshot was fantastic, but I should have quit listening to Gary's Children after 15 minutes (and would have been happier if I had). I give Gary's Children 1 star because that's what I give any story I wish I hadn't wasted my time finishing. Maybe others like it, but it was not for me.

By contrast, Jimmy Headshot was engaging and entertaining from the start. I'll admit, my expectations for Jimmy were pretty low since I had already been disappointed by Gary's Children. So it wouldn't have taken much for Rick to surpass my expectations with Jimmy. At the same time, I was ready to end my Shingles experience early and shut off the final entry if I wasn't enjoying Jimmy's story. I was also skeptical because it was the second consecutive zombie story in the set, and I quite enjoyed the preceding one. Having said that, Jimmy started strong and kept me interested and laughing throughout. The story was full of action and over-the-top sarcastic humor that kept me entertained. If Rick's other stories are like this, then I've been missing out. I'll have to try samples of some of his books before buying them to figure out if they fall into the love or hate side of my feelings based on these two stories.

I also really enjoyed the first entry in the series, The Ghost of Hooker Alley. Robert Bevan's style isn't for everyone because he is very raunchy. Sometimes I think he's playing a game of seeing how disgusting he can get before a reader can't take anymore and stops reading/listening -- as if he's trying to determine the line that cannot be crossed without severe consequences because he's willing to cross every imaginable line leading up to that point (and might not even care if he does go too far for his audience). Because of that, there are a few descriptions I wish I could unhear (mainly related to rotten food and strange effects of hormonal changes on a young boy), and I think the book would be stronger without those descriptions. At the same time, I'm not sure Bevan could reach the same level of boundary-pushing hilarity he achieves without making those missteps. I'm left simultaneously wishing he would censor/filter himself a tiny bit while fearing what I'd miss if he did.

Drew's entry, Aliens Wrecked Our Kegger, is another of my 5-star picks. This story combines what seem to be some of Drew's favorite topics -- drinking and college life. It's worth noting that Drew's writing style is much different from the other novellas in this series. He's more PG13 than R or X rated and doesn't rely on ranchy sex jokes to keep his audience entertained. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with raunchy humor; if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have enjoyed the other stories in this series. But Drew can keep you entertained with a solid plot line and one liners about 15 different frat boys all named Tony (including Hipster Tony and his unicycle earring) rather than relying on dick jokes and shock value to make you laugh and keep you engaged.

I also give 5 stars to Zombies Ate My Homework. Middle school children take refuge from zombies in an adult novelty shop and hilarity ensues. It takes some sort of creative genius to figure out which sex toys could be turned into zombie-killing weapons. I can't help wondering how many sex shops John Hartness visited while pondering this issue or how many dildos and butt plugs he picked up to test the weight and firmness when choosing weapons for his characters.

Finally, I give 4 stars to The Monkey's Penis by Steve Wetherell. It's a solid story and kept me entertained, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the ones I gave 5 stars. Steve does a good job combining classic themes (like trying to make the best decisions with limited wishes while finding yourself transported to alternate histories or parallel universes). This isn't necessarily a book I'd read again (like the 5-star ones), but I'm glad I had the experience of hearing the story.

4 people found this helpful

Wow

I don't give almost any 5 star reviews, but this collection earned it. I absolutely love Drew Hayes, Robert Bevan's 'Critical Failures' series if fucking atrocious and I always pick up the next book in it as soon as it comes out. Gualtieri had a good Vampire series Inlistened to, and I wasn't familiar w/Hartness or Wetherell, but each and every one of these mother fuckers pulled a gem out of their asses.

There was one story in here I wasn't that into, and even it was 'pretty good'.

If you like any one of these authors, and can get into terrible, juvenile, clever humor and story telling, you will probably love this collection.

4 people found this helpful

fun and creepy book.

definately not for kids but a lot of fun for adults! I enjoyed the stories and listened to them several times. the mix of stories was very well done and the matchup of authors to narrators was also done very well!

3 people found this helpful

Deeply disturbing and hilarious

Like a lot of anthologies, I did not enjoy all the stories in this one, though I enjoyed enough of them that I don’t regret buying it. The narration was excellent, particularly in the first story, which was also my favorite. Good Halloween series.

2 people found this helpful

A must for fans

If you're a fan of any of these authors, get this collection. Several times I had to back up a story to make sure I really heard them right -- did they really just say that? It is just as hilarious as it is inappropriate. Great work to all.

I've never heard of narrator Cal Wembly before but he did a great job. Looking forward to more of him in the future.

2 people found this helpful

Disturbingly funny!

Loved it! It was great to hear an audiobook from a lot of my favorite authors! The Ghost of Hooker Alley was hilarious and very messed up! Monkey Penis is just how it sounds! All the stories were funny as hell! If you're sensitive and take offense easily to adult humor, you'll want to avoid, but if you're a man-child like me, then this is the perfect audiobook for you! Volume 2 better come out soon!

2 people found this helpful

I wish I had a Monkey Penis too!!! ...Maybe not ;)

My internal political correctness meter red-lined out and blew a gasket within the first three sentences of this hysterical collection of short "horror stories". Only nominally can you call these horror stories... but you can quite legitimately classify these stories as unapologetic and irreverent romps through off-kilter humor with a nod to the macabre. NOT suitable for younger ears, but a wickedly fun ADULT alternative Halloween treat (not to mention an extra nice treat for all you Drew Hayes fans out there). Not sure how many times I would want to replay this collection, but I did thoroughly enjoy every minute of it the first time around.

2 people found this helpful

Incredible Shorts Collection

I love all of the authors involved in the making of this compilation, having listened to almost every book in all of their back catalogues, and these didn't disappoint! Direct and informative, really bringing you into the stories dispite lacking the 5, 000 words+ that a novel would potentially have to really be able to set a scene.

This series is brilliantly funny and reinvents the traditional stories of theme involved, for example the zombie stories are a completely unique way of telling a zombie tale, and I was captivated by the ability to merge child-like innocence with such adult content.

The only downside I found was SOME of the narration seemed a little choppy? Almost a little 'Microsoft Sam' if that makes sense? It may have just been me, but it didn't seem to have the fluidity of these authors' usual narrators used in their individual series'.

In short, loved it.

A tour through crazy

Listening to this turned out to be even more horrifying and hilarious than reading it, and that was the most horrifyingly hilarious series I had read. Can't wait for the next collection as well!

Kapow! A must buy

One funny gig after another, al of the authors are legends in their own right!!!! Bring on the second volume!!!