Spooky Season Favorites: Lullaby by Jonathan Maberry

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons

Lullaby is written by Jonathan Maberry and is distributed by Audible Studios, an Amazon Company. In this creepy tale, we are introduced to parents to be, Matt and Gillian. They are in the process of buying a home in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. The house in question is remote with gorgeous scenery and enough space to house a growing family. It rests by a lake and carries one catch: the realtor claims that it is haunted.

The couple scoffs at this bit of information and decide to move in. Soon baby Hope is born, and life in their gorgeous new home is quiet and happy. But Hope is not like other children. She is a quiet baby that makes no fuss. And she laughs a lot, reaching up into thin air as if talking to someone. Then one evening while settling down to sleep, Gillian sees something odd on the baby cam's video feed. Hope's cradle is rocking back and forth. Looking closer she sees that a long, bony hand is pushing the cradle.

Lullaby is a forty-minute excursion into terror. It plays on familiar aspects of prior ghost stories, and at times feels like an episode of a paranormal television series. I found myself creeped out by the narrative's atmosphere. Scott Brick's narration felt like someone telling a ghost story at a party or sleepover. He managed to bring out the tale's chill very well. Maberry's writing was enjoyable, breathing new life into this particular aspect of paranormal storytelling. He managed to slip in a clever twist at the end that came literally minutes before the tale ended, leaving me open-mouthed.

This was a solid three-star read that was atmospheric, spooky, and a load of fun.

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