Don't Turn on the Lights: A Short Horror Story

Cassandra Khaw

Feb 2020 · Come Join Us By the Fire Book 23 · Nightfire · Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld

About this audiobook

"Don't Turn on the Lights" is a short horror story by Cassandra Khaw, one of 35 entries in the audio horror anthology Come Join Us by the Fire.

Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights?

Come Join Us by the Fire, edited by Theresa DeLucci, is an audio-only horror anthology of 35 short stories from Nightfire Books, a horror imprint of Tor Books. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of bestselling genre luminaries including China Miéville, Chuck Wendig, Richard Kadrey, and Victor LaValle; Shirley Jackson Award winners Paul Tremblay, Priya Sharma, and Sam J. Miller; Nebula Award winners Brooke Bolander, Alyssa Wong, Kij Johnson; and many, many more.

Ratings and reviews

EXTREMELY creepy, do not recommend for 11 year olds like me, but I also loved it. Great for horror fanatics!

Meh, that would be a one word review. While the production quality is strong, as well as the voice acting, the story falls flat. It's neither scary nor compelling. Waiting for it to get better for fifteen minutes is disappointing. I also found the writing to be overly-simplified and numb. The idea has merit, but the execution of the writer leaves much to be desired. However, while I did not find this story frightening, it's purely dependent on the person. Again, the production is quite good, and I'm looking forward to exploring other stories offered by Nightfire.

Narrator had a nice flow but there were a couple of odd pauses and transitions to male voice and sounds seemed off in a sense. The story itself was oddly formatted to distinguish 3 tellings. Slightly repetitive but understand usage was meant as emphasis and to distinguish similarities. Possibly favorite parts were with character analysis; how the author turns the story on its head by providing background information; how innocence is bliss.

About the author

Cassandra Khaw writes horror, press releases, video games, articles about video games, and tabletop RPGs. These are not necessarily unrelated items. Her work can be found in professional short story magazines such as Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Fireside Fiction, Uncanny, and the scientific journal Nature.