Malevolent Novels & Stories

Oh definitely, 'Malevolent' is out there as an audiobook. I listened to it a few months back on Audible, and the narrator they got for it does a solid job with all the different character voices, especially the main detective's gruff internal monologue.

I will say the pacing in the audio version feels a bit different than reading it physically. Some of the slower, atmospheric horror bits in the middle really land when you're just listening in the dark, but if you're someone who skims descriptive paragraphs, it might test your patience. Still, having someone else voice the creepier lines added a whole other layer for me.

Look, trying to sum up the plot of 'Malevolent' is like trying to explain a knot that tightens the more you pull on it. It’s an audio drama, a horror-noir following Arthur Lester, a 1930s PI who wakes up blind with a demonic entity named John sharing his mind. The main thrust is Arthur trying to regain his sight and life while John, who can see through Arthur’s eyes, forces them into solving occult mysteries to sate his own infernal hunger. It’s a road trip from hell, literally and figuratively, across a bleak alternate America.

The key twists are brutal and they always hinge on the co-dependency of this terrible partnership. Early on, you learn Arthur’s blindness and John’s presence aren’t random—Arthur performed a ritual to save his dying son, and John was the price. The big one for me was the reveal about the King in Yellow and the wider cosmic horror tapestry they’re tangled in; it’s not just a personal haunting, it’s a faction war among eldritch gods. The most gutting twists aren’t about lore, though. They’re character moments, like when Arthur realizes how deeply he’s compromised his own morality to survive, or when John’s motives shift from purely predatory to something horrifyingly close to friendship.

The beauty is you’re never sure who’s manipulating whom. Just when you think Arthur’s gaining ground, the story pulls the rug out, often through his own past mistakes coming back. That constant tension between wanting to escape the monster and needing it to navigate the world is the engine, and every twist fuels that fire.

I genuinely had a tough time getting through 'Malevolent'. The premise is promising, a therapist whose patients keep dying, but the execution felt so flat. I kept waiting for the psychological tension to ramp up, but the protagonist's internal conflict never moved beyond a surface-level 'am I crazy?' monologue. The 'twists' were telegraphed from a mile away for anyone familiar with the genre. It lacked the meticulous, gut-wrenching doubt that makes a thriller like 'Gone Girl' or 'The Silent Patient' work.

What really lost me was the supporting cast. Every character besides the main therapist felt like a cardboard cutout just there to advance a plot point. For a story centered on perception and reality, you need a richer tapestry of interactions to make the reader question everything. Instead, it felt like watching a predictable clockwork mechanism. I'd only recommend it if you're completely out of other options and don't mind a very straightforward, undemanding read.