Dread

22 Tales of Terror

By: Kevin Bachar

Narrated by: Cheryl May

A child died in an avalanche, and she won’t leave me alone.

A woman plagued by blood-draining mosquitoes on the Alaskan tundra figures out a horrific way to scratch her unending itching.

There’s something outside my tent…and I think it’s hungry.

A collector of rare tropical fish receives a new fascinating and terrifying species.

Dread—Thousands of people have gone missing out in the wild and here is a collection of tales that offer up some horrifying reasons why. Emmy-award-winning National Geographic cinematographer Kevin Bachar has swum with sharks, climbed the peaks of mountains, and explored the darkest of forests. In Dread, he weaves together terrifying true stories from his real-life adventures with twisted fiction from the depths of his frightening imagination. Listen and indulge in the dark side of nature—haunted forests, tree demons, monstrous snakes, and a search-and-rescue team terrorized by the ghosts of those they couldn’t save.

Listen... if you dare.

©2023 Kevin Bachar (P)2025 Kevin Bachar

Weep For the Bedbugs

Dread is a fit name here with tales that have a neat pg13 style uneasiness with any scares focused on mood, buildup, or weirdness rather than gorey, extremes, or profanity. None of the stories overstay with one as little as under two minutes and the longest (final one) being 37 minutes. One of my favorite stories is about pizza and another (the lead) about an unusual grief. A lot of the stories have nature themes with cryptozology fiends, 'the Australia incident,' weird bug swarms, and other creature feature vibe oddities. In fact the outdoorsy theme gives a sense of continuity across stories even when they are unconnected as if peering into the evil of life itself behind the trees. This imagery/fiend oriented approach to horror requires some creativity which ranges from a story with a cryptic ending left to imagination to deliciously weird creatures (ten of them suddenly become twenty, etc). There were some stories that felt too soft and fizzled out - with for example a lot of (nice) drawn out buildup to end on a musing indefinite note but the pacing is good and there are more wins than lulls. [Note received a free copy for honest review]

Bite sized terror

A nice collection of short stories that will creep you out! The calm tones of the narrators voice add to the terror and makes a great listen.

Makes you question everything.

Some of the stories are great and others are meh but overall the book is very decent. The first two stories, the cops in the woods, rats, big foot and bed bug stories were my favorites. Makes you wonder whats really happening in the world and what’s in the woods. 100% worth listening to while camping lol.

There's Some Really Good Gems in Here

I really enjoyed about 3/4 of the stories in this collection, There was a good variety of creature feature style horror, man vs wilderness horror, as well as stories that lean more towards the supernatural

My favorites in the collection would have to be:
The Kubwa Njaa, Shade, Heavy, The Starter, The Itch, Howl of the Rock Hound, Who Will Weep for the Bed Bugs, and The Hunter

Ones I enjoyed but wish there was a little more content to flesh it out more: Green and The Opening

All the rest were good as well, but didn't leave as much of an imprint on me

And there was one story that I had a little trouble getting behind, I enjoyed the story overall but think it just missed the mark for me. Spoilers for the following stories: Branching Out

For Branching Out, sure the old man was a cantankerous old fart. But, ultimately he was in the right regarding the story direction. After all his warnings and complaints to the city, someone ended up dying because of the unsafe road. Did he respond to the mourners in an appropriate manner? Hell no, he was an unsympathetic bastard. But he cared about his house, his property, and his memories of his late wife which is why he was always advocating for the city to do something about the road. I think having him be the ultimate villain of the story was kind of unfair, but that's just my two cents