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Toplin

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Toplin

By: Michael McDowell
Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
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About this listen

Death in the family

"But come back soon", the sign said. Obviously it was a lie. The people in the grocery store just wanted to make sure he couldn't buy the spice he needed to make the recipe he'd selected for that night (recipes must be followed exactly). Obviously they wanted him to eat out...to meet the waitress, Marta, to see her horrible, unspeakable, unbearable ugliness. It was obvious to him: her maimed, twisted face was the living desire to be dead. He had to help Marta be dead.

His teeth are perfectly white. He can't see colors. He keeps a combination lock on his door and has twelve shelves of cookbooks. His walls bleed blood. His suits each have a number, S-1 through S-6. And life goes on.

Life goes on, if you can stand it. Life goes on, for the brave and the damned. Life goes on, but come back soon....

"An ambitious novel of psychological horror." (Publishers Weekly)

"Compelling-a tour-de-force of storytelling and style ... considerable artistry, marvelous pacing, and a welcome dose of macabre humor." (Fantasy Review)

"One of the best writers of horror in this country." (Peter Straub)

©1985, 2020 Michael McDowell (P)2020 Valancourt Books LLC
Genre Fiction Horror Psychological Scary Fiction Witty
All stars
Most relevant  
I thought I could listen to Matt Godfrey read me the phone book and I’d enjoy it. Honestly that might be better than this book.

It just was completely pointless. Nothing was resolved, no answers were given, we didn’t find out what happened to literally any of the characters.
Just a waste of time.
And certainly in no way could this be considered “horror”.

Matt Godfrey’s narration couldn’t salvage this one

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