Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
The Anechoic Chamber - and Other Weird Tales - cover

The Anechoic Chamber - and Other Weird Tales

Will Wiles

Publisher: Salt

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

'Funny, chilling, intriguing: each tale offers something different from the last, and the overall result is like listening to a perfectly made album.' —Mark Watson
An anechoic chamber is a soundproofed room with no echo. The profound silence it produces is disturbing enough. But listen carefully and you'll hear something worse … In this new collection of uncanny short stories, award-winning author Will Wiles finds sinister creatures and subtle nightmares in mundane modern environments and bureaucracy.
A cursed NHS file brings doom to whoever handles it. A memory-foam mattress breaks down the walls of sleep. A marketing executive for a property developer turns to the occult. And horror seeps from the most unexpected places: eBay purchases, boxes of holiday photographs, and the hidden corners of the smart TV menu.
While mostly modern in setting, this is a collection steeped in the tradition of the weird tale and the ghost story, and includes homages to the greats of the previous century: a doomed Edwardian antiquarian is drawn into a murderous plot involving a Roman mosaic, and river boatmen uncover eldritch terror in a deserted mining town.
You'll never look at some things the same way again.
Available since: 03/17/2025.
Print length: 176 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • The Missing QC's - cover

    The Missing QC's

    John Oxenham

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Two leading London barristers--Queen's Counsels--disappear during a murder trial, one for the prosecution and one for the defense. Junior defense barrister Charles Dallas searches for his two colleagues, but they are about to undergo the most bizarre of trials themselves. 
     
    English novelist and poet John Oxenham (November 12, 1852 - January 28, 1941) was born William Arthur Dunkerley in Manchester, England, in 1852. His entry into the literary world was not as a writer but as a publisher; with several partners he started the publication "The Idler", and later on the weekly "To-Day". He traveled extensively in Europe, Canada and the US as part of his publishing duties, but eventually decided he wanted to be a writer more than he did a publisher, and in 1913 he finished "Bees in Amber". However, his publisher would not spend a penny promoting it, and even asked that he limit the book to no more than 200 copies, as they knew they could not sell that many. He eventually printed the book at his own expense; it wound up selling almost 300,000 copies. During World War I he self-published several volumes of poetry, and together they sold over a million copies. He also wrote a song called "Hymn for the Men at the Front" that eventually sold more than 8,000,000 copies. Altogether he has published more than 40 novels, poetry books and essays.
    Show book
  • Caliburn's Fight - cover

    Caliburn's Fight

    Christopher Cartwright

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The video was everywhere – a viral sensation sweeping across social media. 
    A golden retriever puppy in Bilbao, Spain. It was placed on a series of different rugs, its fur shifting in real time to match the colors and even the intricate patterns woven into the fabric. The internet was in a frenzy, with hundreds of thousands of comments debating whether it was an elaborate hoax, a genetic anomaly, or something else entirely. 
    But Sam Reilly knew the truth the moment he saw it. 
    This wasn’t a trick. 
    Caliburn, his dog, shared the same genetic trait. 
    The golden retriever was an engineered chimera infused with human and octopus DNA. He was originally designed as a classified military experiment rooted in the legendary craftsmanship of the blacksmith Merlin, who designed King Arthur’s greatest weapons – Excalibur and Caliburn. 
    If the puppy was real, then so too was the danger that followed it. 
    The hunt for Caliburn’s offspring leads Sam into the depths of a forgotten cave – where he stumbles upon an antique Basque Astrolabe that shouldn’t exist. The discovery sets off a chain reaction, dragging Sam into a deadly conflict with a Secret Society that has been protecting a hidden truth since the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804. Meriwether Lewis was murdered to keep the secret buried. 
    The question remains, can Sam work out what to do with the truth, before it gets him killed too?
    Show book
  • Katherine Mansfield - Six of the Best - Their legacy in 6 classic stories - cover

    Katherine Mansfield - Six of the...

    Mansfield Katherine

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Six has always been a number we group things around – Six of the best, six of one half a dozen of another, six feet under, six pack, six degrees of separation and a sixth sense are but a few of the ways we use this number. 
     
    Such is its popularity that we thought it is also a very good way of challenging and investigating an author’s work to give width, brevity, humour and depth across six of their very best. 
     
    In this series we gather together authors whose short stories both rivet the attention and inspire the imagination to visit their gems in a series of six, to roam across an author’s legacy in a few short hours and gain a greater understanding of their writing and, of course, to be lavishly entertained by their ideas, their narrative and their way with words. 
     
    These stories can be surprising and sometimes at a tangent to what we expected, but each is fully formed and a marvellous adventure into the world and words of a literary master.
    Show book
  • The Light That Burns - cover

    The Light That Burns

    Karyne Norton

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    This is a tragedy. 
    It’s also a love story with threads of hope. 
    But it’s important that you go into it expecting a tragedy. 
    In The Half-Light Chronicles, nearly every book and story references Lovers’ Falls, a waterfall near the center of Vendaras inhabited by sprites. It’s named for the skeletons embracing at the cave’s entrance, and its origin is a favorite story among bards and storytellers because it can be tweaked to emphasize various morals, making it a warning or inspiration, depending on the audience’s need. 
    But this version is the true story, the one that tells just how the skeletons got there (hence the tragedy) and how their story connects to others you may know.
    Show book
  • Night Zoo - cover

    Night Zoo

    Sarah Barr

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Longing for excitement in a heatwave, Liza inadvertently stumbles across the complexity of being a child in a grown-up world. Brendan is haunted by the ghosts of the past in the present, and Franny contemplates the meaning of home in a world made uncertain by global warming.
    
    With its dark twists and intense themes, Night Zoo subverts the reader's expectations at every turn. Throughout, Sarah Barr weaves an intricate, cyclical thread of regret and hope, offering captivating glimpses into the lives of her distinctive cast of characters. A compelling collection, it forms a powerful portrait of life, painting the extraordinary in the everyday.
    
    An expert blend of feminism and motherhood – set against a backdrop of climate change and with a breadth of settings explored – these stunning stories celebrate the variety and vitality that encompass the human experience.
    Show book
  • LAMDA Verse and Prose Anthology: Volume 20 - cover

    LAMDA Verse and Prose Anthology:...

    Exams LAMDA

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    This anthology presents the set selection of verse and prose pieces for Learners entering LAMDA Graded Examinations in Communication: Speaking Verse and Prose from Entry Level to Grade 8, and LAMDA Introductory Graded Examinations from Stage 1 to Stage 3 (Solo and Group).
    The collection includes 155 pieces in total: a range of celebrated poems alongside prose extracts from bestselling classic and contemporary novels. It also features original material written specifically for this anthology, including the winner and runners-up of LAMDA Learners' Poetry Prize 2023. Also included is a foreword by Joseph Coelho, Waterstones Children's Laureate 2022–24.
    For Learners taking LAMDA Examinations, this anthology offers a wide choice of themes, topics and worlds to explore. With many performance possibilities, it is a perfect resource to help Learners practise and develop their communication skills. For the general reader, it is the ideal starting point for discovering contemporary poets and novelists, such as Maya Angelou, Malorie Blackman, Sally Rooney and Michael Rosen, as well as reconnecting with celebrated writers of the past, including Jane Austen, T. S. Eliot and William Wordsworth.
    Show book