Backwoods Bonfire

Project 26, Book 2

By: Essel Pratt

Narrated by: Sara Hymes

Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Horrific tales of fright told around a bonfire during remote backwoods retreats are common among close friends. As each person tests the others' ability to remain calm and resist the urge to look over a shoulder as the sounds of nature bellow out in the backdrop, only one may claim victory as the most frightening of the group.

Backwoods Bonfire inserts the listener into a group of friends that unintentionally create a case study on what horror means to them, attempting to coerce the others to believe that horror is specific, not fluid. However, one of the friends chooses to prove that horror is as real as the fire they all gather around.

©2017 Essel Pratt (P)2018 Essel Pratt

I think I am just too old

Aimed for a younger audience who don't prefer true horror. Ending was a nice surprise.

Backwoods Bonfire? More like a Barn fire!

Essel Pratt is a great story engineer. He comes up with some crazy stuff. Seriously, just look at this other stories that are on Audible at the moment there is a lovesick Yeti, Ann Frank pals a round with . . . well, I won't spoil that one, and a shark'spidr hybrid that goes around munching everyone it sees. With that in mind I was a little surprised to see him putting out a "campfire" book. Y'know, a series of stories told around a campfire to make the kiddies jump jump jump just before bed.

Like I said, he is a story engineer. He knows where all the pieces go, and what pieces are needed to build a great tale. Heck, just give him a few verbs, a coupla nouns, and an adjective and he'd crank out a Seussian nightmare of biblical proportions. He can build a story. Not only that he can tell a story too! So, I soon came to realize that there was something more than a campfire tale going on here. Let's see if you can get it. Read this and find out what I mean.

There are several short stories that are told, but the last one takes the birthday cake, the office cake, and the wedding cake, sticks them in a Wonkaesque contraptions and shoots out a Serlingian product straight from the twilight zone. Tastes great, too. Seriously, read it.

NOW.

Hymes does her best to keep up with Pratt, and manages to really wrestle the story into her capable hands as a narrator. She really brings each character, and thier tale to life. I'd love to hear more from her. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.


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Silly and gross

These stories weren’t really scary and suspenseful. They were often silly or gross.Perhaps more directed to high school or college age. I did like the format and the ending.
This is a voluntary review of a free audiobook.

it was ok.

Didnt rrally grab hold of me. Surely I didnt dislike the stories but they were rather forgettable. It was not a waste of time by any means. I just found myself wondering what I'd listen to next. Worth if you find it on sale.

Haunting Stories that Build

One of the most engaging collections that I've read for awhile. A group of friends sit around a bonfire in a contest of who has the scariest story. The stories start out mild then build and build to a climax I actually didn't see coming. Great fun. I've listened to this one more than once, it's always a blast.

Sorry to say...total waste of time

Well, this was not my cup of tea, so to speak. The 'scary stories' were lame...even the characters said so. I kept thinking they might get better, but, they did not. They just got worse. Even the ending was ridiculous. The language by the characters was foul and unnecessary. I don't have an issue with the f-bomb when it is in the right context, but, this was like I was listening to a bunch of jr high kids trying to impress each other by how foul they could be.
That being said, I did listen to the audiobook version of the story and the narrator, Sara Hymes does a very good job of the narration. I would hope to hear a better story that she can shine in.

Not my cup of tea.

I received this audiobook for an honest review, and I wasn't sure how to go about this review.

I hoped for the best, especially after getting high praise from a fellow author that I love. On that note, I'd have to say I wasn't a fan of this one. I felt like the summary of the story was describing a completely different story. I wouldn't really consider any of the tales the kids told as being scary (even a tiny bit) or stories that you'd even tell around a campfire. Most, I felt, were boring and didn't really hold my attention.

As another reviewer mentioned in Audible, the curse words, the quantity of them, stood out to me and seemed over the top. Similar to the reviewer, it sounded more like a group of younger kids getting together and cussing to sound cool in front of each other.

The narrator wasn't too bad. She has a good speaking voice, albeit there were times when she didn't sound natural, more like she was sitting there reading the story. She did good with the accents, although there wasn't much variety between characters (they all sounded female).