Positives first - nice landscape descriptions (if a tad overdone), nice actual setting (stories that admit to the financial downfalls of towns and people are always appreciated, as most genre stories seem inhabited by comfortable, upper-middle class individuals with well-paying jobs, something becoming less true as the economy goes south) and kudos for at least approaching the sticky-wicket area of psychological truth, rarely touched on, where the victims of incest are acknowledged to have more complicated feeling for their abusers, due to familial links, than just absolute hatred. Oh, and thank to the writer for seemingly not intending the dead-Dad thing to be a twist or reveal. Saved you a lot of needless work and saved us the internal groan.

But, in the end, the story seemed pointless to me. Mentally ill women talks to dead father/molester and finally cracks and kills (barely developed) hubby and kids. As someone said, you can hear similar stories with the same outcome on the news every month and, if such a scenario even requires fictionalizing, there needed to be much more there. But I’d question even that first assumption (that such scenario requires fictionalizing).

Thanks for listening

“For great changes in the human mind are terrible. As we realize them we realize the limitless possibilities of sinister deeds that lie hidden in every human being. A little child that loves a doll can become an old, crafty, secret murderer. How horrible! And perhaps it is still more horrible to think that, while the human envelope remains totally unchanged, every word of the letter within may become altered, and a message of peace fade into a sentence of death.” Robert Hichens, “The Return of the Soul” (1895)

Boring, predictable, depressing and not horrific.

The audio quality was also very poor. Warbling, hissing, crackling, and popping do not a good audio tale make. Alasdair, your bit about short answer/long answer even repeated itself.

This episode is not a high point for the ‘cast.

I actually thought the killing of the children /was/ graphic enough to be revolting, maybe because killing children is always more disturbing to me than the death of anyone else.

I was perplexed at the other comments on this page and surprized to discover that my reactions are so different from others. Perhaps horror with zombies and ghouls is easier to enjoy than the types of horror that REALLY might be living next door. To you.

Thank you psuedopod for a chilling start to my weekend!

The father being dead was obvious early on, and 75% of this story seemed to be how awful this woman’s life was, then we flip gears for the last 25% and she kills her kids in a scene that is not graphic enough to be revolting or laced with enough emotional conflict to be stirring.

Did not like this one.

So I ask others: based on this story, what would you “feed the pod”?

Although I found the story to be well written, the tale was not my cup of tea. It is not that I found the welcomed incest distasteful; I just like my horror to be something more than something I could read in a newspaper.

This in no way implies I found the writing poor. The writing is what made the story but basic idea, I simple did not care for.

I liked the closing remarks to more interesting. That stirred my imagination.