-
Magic Terror
- 7 Tales
- Narrated by: Ron McLarty, Beth MacDonald
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $27.93
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Ghost Story
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Buck Schirner
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past - and get away with murder. Peter Straub's classic best seller is a work of "superb horror" ( Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time - and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.
-
-
Great Story! The Best of Peter Straub
- By Jaimie on 07-17-12
By: Peter Straub
-
The Talisman
- By: Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 28 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery.
-
-
Had no idea.....
- By Nate_D on 03-26-14
By: Stephen King, and others
-
Mr. X
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every year on his birthday, Ned Dunstan is cursed with visions of horror committed by a savage figure he calls "Mr. X". This year, Ned's visions will become flesh and blood. A dreadful premonition brings Ned home to find his mother on her deathbed. She reveals the never-before-disclosed name of his father and warns him of grave danger. Driven by a desperate sense of need, Ned explores his dark past and the astonishing legacy of his kin.
-
-
This is not a horror novel.
- By Colin on 09-10-19
By: Peter Straub
-
Shadowland
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First setting: an all-male prep school in Arizona, where two sensitive freshmen form a bond based on their interest in magic tricks. Second setting: the labyrinthine house of a weird magician uncle in New England, where the two boys spend a memorable summer being trained in the art of illusion. Or is it real magic? Third setting: an alternate world where dark forces are at play - forces that first show up at the school, but intensify their power the summer.
-
-
Still one of my favorite books!
- By James P. on 06-28-12
By: Peter Straub
-
Blood Meridian
- Or the Evening Redness in the West
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author of the National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most provocative American stylists to emerge in the last century. The striking novel Blood Meridian offers an unflinching narrative of the brutality that accompanied the push west on the 1850s Texas frontier.
-
-
A beautiful nightmare
- By Ryan on 07-11-11
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
Red Dragon
- By: Thomas Harris
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An innocent family are the latest victims of a grisly series of hideous sacrificial killings that no one understands, and no one can stop. Nobody lives to tell of the unimaginable carnage. Only the blood-stained walls bear witness. All hope rests on Special Agent Will Graham, who must peer inside the killer's tortured soul to understand his rage, to anticipate and prevent his next vicious crime. Desperate for help, Graham finds himself locked in a deadly alliance with the brilliant Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the infamous mass murderer.
-
-
I had forgotten how good Red Dragon was...
- By DanBudda on 08-07-17
By: Thomas Harris
-
Ghost Story
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Buck Schirner
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past - and get away with murder. Peter Straub's classic best seller is a work of "superb horror" ( Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time - and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.
-
-
Great Story! The Best of Peter Straub
- By Jaimie on 07-17-12
By: Peter Straub
-
The Talisman
- By: Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 28 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery.
-
-
Had no idea.....
- By Nate_D on 03-26-14
By: Stephen King, and others
-
Mr. X
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every year on his birthday, Ned Dunstan is cursed with visions of horror committed by a savage figure he calls "Mr. X". This year, Ned's visions will become flesh and blood. A dreadful premonition brings Ned home to find his mother on her deathbed. She reveals the never-before-disclosed name of his father and warns him of grave danger. Driven by a desperate sense of need, Ned explores his dark past and the astonishing legacy of his kin.
-
-
This is not a horror novel.
- By Colin on 09-10-19
By: Peter Straub
-
Shadowland
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First setting: an all-male prep school in Arizona, where two sensitive freshmen form a bond based on their interest in magic tricks. Second setting: the labyrinthine house of a weird magician uncle in New England, where the two boys spend a memorable summer being trained in the art of illusion. Or is it real magic? Third setting: an alternate world where dark forces are at play - forces that first show up at the school, but intensify their power the summer.
-
-
Still one of my favorite books!
- By James P. on 06-28-12
By: Peter Straub
-
Blood Meridian
- Or the Evening Redness in the West
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author of the National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most provocative American stylists to emerge in the last century. The striking novel Blood Meridian offers an unflinching narrative of the brutality that accompanied the push west on the 1850s Texas frontier.
-
-
A beautiful nightmare
- By Ryan on 07-11-11
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
Red Dragon
- By: Thomas Harris
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An innocent family are the latest victims of a grisly series of hideous sacrificial killings that no one understands, and no one can stop. Nobody lives to tell of the unimaginable carnage. Only the blood-stained walls bear witness. All hope rests on Special Agent Will Graham, who must peer inside the killer's tortured soul to understand his rage, to anticipate and prevent his next vicious crime. Desperate for help, Graham finds himself locked in a deadly alliance with the brilliant Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the infamous mass murderer.
-
-
I had forgotten how good Red Dragon was...
- By DanBudda on 08-07-17
By: Thomas Harris
-
Billy Summers
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Paul Sparks
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?
-
-
Absolutely amazing
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 08-03-21
By: Stephen King
-
The Last House on Needless Street
- By: Catriona Ward
- Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.
-
-
I can only listen in 1-2 hour segments!
- By Brenda on 10-04-21
By: Catriona Ward
-
The Best of the Best Horror of the Year
- 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction
- By: Ellen Datlow - editor
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell, Emily Sutton-Smith
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A group of mountain climbers, caught in the dark, fight to survive their descent; in the British countryside, hundreds of magpies ascend into the sky, higher and higher, until they seem to vanish into the heavens; a professor and his student track a zombie horde in order to research zombie behavior; an all-girl riding school has sinister secrets; a town rails in vain against a curse inflicted upon it by its founders; and much more.
-
-
I only managed a few stories
- By Heaven Mecham on 10-21-19
-
Sleeping Beauties
- A Novel
- By: Stephen King, Owen King
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 25 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: They become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place.... The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease.
-
-
one of my bottom 5 King novels
- By Amazon Customer on 06-26-19
By: Stephen King, and others
-
Boy's Life
- By: Robert R. McCammon
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson - a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake - and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible, haunting vision of death. As Cory struggles to understand his father's pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that surround him.
-
-
Remember when the Waltons made you feel good?
- By Marie on 04-03-18
-
Gwendy's Button Box
- Includes Bonus Story "The Music Room"
- By: Stephen King, Richard Chizmar
- Narrated by: Maggie Siff
- Length: 2 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Road, and the Suicide Stairs. Every day in the summer of 1974, 12-year-old Gwendy Peterson has taken the stairs, which are held by strong (if time-rusted) iron bolts and zigzag up the cliffside. At the top of the stairs, Gwendy catches her breath and listens to the shouts of the kids on the playground. One day a stranger calls to Gwendy: "Hey, girl. Come on over here for a bit. We ought to palaver, you and me."
-
-
Not the best King
- By Michael Ferris on 08-01-17
By: Stephen King, and others
-
The Best of Richard Matheson
- By: Richard Matheson, Victor LaValle - editor/introduction
- Narrated by: Donald Corren, Peter Berkrot, Richard Powers, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Among the greats of 20th-century horror and fantasy, few names stand above Richard Matheson. Though known by many for novels like I Am Legend and his 16 Twilight Zone episodes, Matheson truly shines in his chilling, masterful short stories. Since his first story appeared in 1950, virtually every major writer of science fiction and fantasy has fallen under his influence, including Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, and Joe Hill, as well as filmmakers like Stephen Spielberg and J. J. Abrams.
-
-
Rich and thrilling storytelling
- By Arthur on 10-24-17
By: Richard Matheson, and others
-
My Heart Is a Chainsaw
- By: Stephen Graham Jones
- Narrated by: Cara Gee
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life.
-
-
struggle with keeping up with the whole book
- By Suzanne Davis on 09-19-21
-
20th Century Ghosts
- By: Joe Hill
- Narrated by: David LeDoux
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon on an afternoon in 1945...Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn't easy to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town.
-
-
Wonderful and recommended
- By Kasey on 02-12-09
By: Joe Hill
-
14
- By: Peter Clines
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment. Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much. At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbor across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s.
-
-
Not smart sci-fi
- By John on 06-29-17
By: Peter Clines
-
Different Seasons
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four gripping novellas tied together by the changing of seasons. Hope Springs Eternal - "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption": An unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge...the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award nominee The Shawshank Redemption.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Robert A. Raymond on 02-14-16
By: Stephen King
-
Gone South
- By: Robert R. McCammon
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pursued by police and bounty hunters, Dan Lambert flees south toward the Louisiana bayous. In the swamplands he meets Arden Halliday, a young woman who bears the vivid burdens of her own past and who is searching for a legendary faith healer called the Bright Girl. Looking for simple kindness in a world that rarely shows it, bound by a loyalty stronger than love, Dan and Arden set off on a journey of relentless suspense and impassioned discovery...over dark, twisting waterways into the mysterious depths of the human heart.
-
-
Wonderful McCammon Weirdness
- By 6catz on 04-05-19
Publisher's Summary
"Bunny is Good Bread" takes you into the mind of a small boy trapped in grotesque circumstances to portray the creation of a serial killer in a manner that compels pity, sorrow, comprehension, and grief - as well as judgment. "Hunger and Introduction," narrated by the ghost of a pompous, self-pitying murderer, evokes a profoundly beautiful vision of earthly life, one appreciated far more by the dead than the living. The Award-winning novella "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff," a masterpiece of black comedy, draws upon Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" to create a revenge tale in which torture is a moral art and the revenger undergoes a transforming, albeit painful, education.
In the words of Mrs. Asch, the visionary narrator of "Ashputtle," "The Main feature of adventure is that it goes forward into unknown country." Straub's devotees will be entranced by what their fearless guide has in store for them. Those as yet uninitiated are in for a harrowing literary journey. Enjoy the ride.
Critic Reviews
"When Peter Straub turns on all his jets, no one in the scream factory can equal him." (Stephen King)"This selection is less about magic or gothic terror than about pinching the reader's psychological nerve..." (Publishers Weekly)
More from the same
What listeners say about Magic Terror
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Kelly Sue Plamp
- 02-23-11
Great Stories, Bad Formatting
The stories in this book are terrific -- creepy and disturbing. However, the way they are put together without any break or announcement when one story ends another begins makes it very difficult to listen to. I made several attempts and finally looked up the stories on the internet to figure out how many stories there were and what they were about, and finally was able to separate them.
100 points for the author, -10 for Audible.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- FDTracy
- 04-09-07
Had to re-listen twice
I am not sure if I was just missing something or if I really did not get it. I did not read the other reviews before I purchased this book and I really wish I had. I had to play it twice to make sure, but the stories did not make since to me and it flowed from one to the next without any closure. I was still on Ms. Ash and next thing I knew I was in Paris with someone else waiting for a connection. Like the other reader stated, don't waste a credit.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Toivo J Luick
- 05-31-10
I call this pretty good
There are some pretty excellent stories here. Maybe they aren't everybody's cup of tea, but they are good. Porkpie Hat I call brilliant.
Don't buy this expecting 12 page O Henry ironic twisters. These aren't those kind of stories. These stories are longer and darker. They don't necessarily end neatly resolved. More than once I got to the end thinking, "what just happened here?" I savored each story for quite a while after finishing.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Skeezix
- 09-18-07
Magic? Terror?
On the whole I enjoyed this book and find myself coming back to a few of the stories again and again (while others I wish I could permanently delete). I find myself scratching my head over the title, while some of the tales definitely had visions of 'terror', there was little 'magic' and a great majority of stories were completely lacking both! My greatest problem was with Audible's lack of effort in separating the download by story. They resorted to throwing in a series of random breaks that succeeded in turning a 'meandering compilation' into a 'labyrinthine compilation'.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Ron
- 09-09-06
HUH?
I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I have some intelligence. That being said I found myself wondering what the stories were about. I just didn't get it. Each one seemed to go on forever with no real begining or end. I enjoyed the last story a bit but that was it.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Terra
- 11-26-06
Magic Terror
Excellent! Peter Straub really has a knack for bringing his characters to life.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Nathan
- 09-13-05
Terrible - I stopped listening in the middle
This book is terrible. All of the stories are very slow. Some of them are sick and make no sense. I stopped listening in the middle.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Steve
- 04-11-13
I really tried hard to make it through this
I made it through four hours and couldn't take anymore. It was sooo boring. I just don't understand how anyone could think it to be interesting. I know Peter Straub is reputable, so I'm completely perplexed. If you're going to read books by Peter Straub, I recommend avoiding this one.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jacques
- 01-27-13
disturbing
Any additional comments?
Peter Straub has an interest in pedophelia which I do not share. His descriptions of human cruelty and outright psychopathy are gruesome, detailed and offputting. I'm not the sort who goes out of his way to find things to be offended by, but this guy pushes the limits of good taste. His prose is unique, and annoying after a few hours, you'll have to listen to a sample to understand what i mean. It's difficult to describe, street thugs who talk like university professors. Long speeches using long words do describe a trip to the medicine cabinet for aspirin. It's just wierd, I listened to the whole book, hoping it would get better because I liked what he did with Stephen King. but I found myself feeling kind of queasy sometimes, vivid descriptions of rape and torture and child abuse. Not really my bag. I could compare this to what you might get from a movie like Saw. If you've seen that, and you liked it, you'll probably like this.
In a nutshell, it was sick.
-
Overall
- Clint
- 09-18-06
Terrible
I am about three hours into this book and am giving up on it. The writing is terrible. The stories jump around, making no sense and leaving the listener confused. The writing is almost cryptic...it's as if the author is trying to convey a silent message to the listener, but even he doesn't know what it is. Don't waste a credit on this one.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall

- anthonyunionjackson
- 05-06-09
A crazy book of Top Terror Tales
...if you like short stories in the Horror genre - this will be a very interesting one for you and a very, very different format! It took me a while to work out what was going on! A lot of very sophisticated tales are contained within - and more than a few of them will make you cringe and look over your shoulder!!!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Loretta.
- 10-08-21
Magic Terror by Peter Straub
think I got lost I may have to come back to this book Thank you Peter Stroub and Beth Macdonald and Ron McLarty
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Tina Warrilow
- 08-10-21
kind of weird
Didnt really get into any of the stories, read Peter Straub before and expected better