The Feast: And Other Horrifying Tales

By: David Vorhees

Narrated by: Victor Warren

A collection of short stories that take place on different holidays over the course of the year. The collection opens with A New Year, a New Day, a New Life. Grant Curtis is arrested on New Year’s Day and charged with the murder of his wife Carla.

In Easter: The Resurrection, a resurrected Kyle Gardner seeks vengeance on Pastor Brian.

The Vengeance of Cassidy Clay is a narrative poem that takes place on Halloween. The poem tells the story of a slave-hunter who haunts the woods long after his death and many more spine chilling tales.

©2019 David C Vorhees (P)2020 David C Vorhees

Be warned: You won't be able to unsee these tales

HALL WAYS REVIEW. AUDIO BOOK REVIEW. In The Feast: And Other Horrifying Tales, author David Vorhees takes readers through seven short stories themed around the year’s major holidays, telling stories of the most macabre nature. The word “horrifying” in the title is apropos; these stories go for the shock factor with some prompting an “oh-no-he-didn’t-go-there” response from this reader.

Most of the tales are deeply disturbing and be warned: you won’t be able to unsee them. This is a nod to the effectiveness of the author’s storytelling ability and gift for description. Mercifully, Vorhees chose to tell, not show readers what was happening, and I thank him for that. My imagination fleshed-out (pun intended) the rest. Narrator Victor Warren’s performance perfectly complements each story, making them more memorable – even when you want to forget.
Going through the calendar year of stories loosely centered around major holidays gives structure to the collection, the stories varying in length from as short as eight minutes to as long as nearly an hour and a half. The variety in story lengths is a plus because it keeps the listening from being monotonous. And since the whole book comes in at just under four and half hours, I listened straight through and was never close to being bored.

Three of the stories are top notch. “A New Year, A New Day, A New Life” (about 20 minutes) brings to mind Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. The main character’s transition from control to madness is palpable. Halloween’s “The Vengeance of Cassidy Clay,” the shortest story at only 8 minutes, is told in verse, and is probably my favorite (and least graphic). It’s reminiscent of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and it would lend itself nicely to being told around a campfire. “Thanksgiving” (around an hour long) could have come straight out of a Tales from the Crypt episode, with the dread and tension masterfully building to the big, horrifying reveal. Yeah, we know what’s coming, but we can’t stop it. A fourth story, “Easter: The Resurrection,” the longest story in the collection, also deserves mention for the intricacies of the plot and how the need for revenge can motivate and twist the brain.

Two of the stories crossed the line for me, and several of the stories included sickening details that felt gratuitous. Overall, the stories in the collection seem frighteningly realistic in this often-perverse world we live in. Readers who enjoy horror and have strong stomachs for gore and violence will find lots to like in The Feast: And Other Horrifying Tales. For those who are nitpicky (like me) about cleanly edited books, I recommend this one for reading with your ears instead of your eyes as the print version needs a heavy proofreading.

ABOUT THE NARRATOR & AUDIO PRODUCTION: As mentioned, narrator Victor Warren’s performances of the many characters in The Feast are well-done and the perfect complement to Vorhees’s writing. He tackled a wide range of emotions, accents, and convincingly voiced the females. His pace was a bit slow for me, so about an hour in, I bumped the speed to 1.25x, and that was perfect. I would absolutely seek out other titles he narrates. Production wise, the audio book is mostly clean and professionally recorded, though there was a big glitch in “Fourth of July” where an entire chapter was repeated.

Good listen

I enjoyed this program and the narrator was very good. His voice was perfect for this book👍👍🤗

Creepy Stuff

The Feast: And Other Horrifying Tales is a collection of short stories from author David Vorhees. His writing style is easy to follow, his characters are the worse of human beings and range from the killer husband, to the sinful priest and up to the necrofiliac wannabe boyfriend, but each of them has his own story and twist. At the same time familiar and original, you'll find yourself pulled into their world, one broken and terrible... Touching on daily struggles and themes of love, hate, death and redemption, each of these stories has something special.

Set during different holidays of the year, these terrifying, but entertaining stories start on the New Years Day and take us in a rollercoaster ride filled with thrills and chills through Valentines Day, Easter, the 4th of July, Halloween and all the way up to Christmas Day.

Actor Victor Warren tries his hand at narrating audiobooks and he does a great job of it. He gives life to all the characters with enthusiasm, enriching the narrative experience with his powerful voice and acting skills.

Fans of bite-size horror stories should find The Feast: And Other Horrifying Tales to their liking as it delivers all the necessary adrenaline to keep them up all night.

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Thank you & stay safe,
Victor

Wonderful short horror tales

I really loved these intense short horror tales. The tales are creepy as well as entertaining I was hooked from the beginning. If you love intense short tales I recommend that you listen or read this book. I received this book for free from AudioBoom at my request. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review here of my own free will.

An Epic Listen

I received this audiobook at no-cost from Audiobook Empire. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
From the early morning hours of the new year straight through to the end of the year and rounding it off with a truly horrifying Christmas – this compilation of short stories has it all.
From the word go and the overlap of a ring tone on top of the narrator’s voice I was hooked to this audio book. Each short story (or poem) has its own unique little twist that grabs your attention in such a way that you will be hard pressed to switch off the book.
New years day introduces you to a bit of a tool who has obviously been planning his mission for some time. It also contains one of the few things in the book that I found annoying. Throughout the short stories the author tried to maintain the integrity and mystery in the audio books by glossing over some things – this made the continuity of the book suffer a bit. In the beginning of the first story our MC walks to the front door – thinking that maybe it is his wife and she had somehow lost her keys – which should be impossible as he KNEW it couldn’t possibly be her. Little things like that through out the stories took some of the enjoyment away for me. But not so much that I didn’t still love it and wouldn’t recommend.
I loved how each story was in no way at all the same as the next one. From planning the murder of your loved one, to completely losing your marbles and taking out your completely innocent neighbour for acts they did not and were not planning on commiting – if you like horror stories, ghost stories, icky gross and creepy stories – then this is for you.

As mentioned – I have this book 4 stars. I would however like to give the narration 5 stars. Victor Warren was absolutely amazing and his gravelly voice gave me goosebumps and chills in every story he read. His voice drew me in, in such a way that I practically living the stories with the characters.

All in all this was an epic, great listen.