Look at Me

By: J.M Skalby

Narrated by: Grant Winkler

Colton Hardesty is a video game coder with a haunted past. From his youth, he felt like he had to be strong to keep his parents together. His parents’ well-intended, doting attention felt smothering. In addition to subsuming his own needs to keep his family together, he suffered from severe bullying from a classmate, Max. As a defense mechanism, Colton retreated into himself, cutting off his feelings and allowing people around him to think of him as a cold, emotionless monster.

He is continually haunted by dark dreams and nightmares, always with a terrifying, shadowy creature who makes one chilling demand: LOOK AT ME. A year after losing his parents in an accident, Colton is plagued with severe depression and doubts about his sanity. No one can see the creature that he sees in every shadow. When the creature haunting Colton’s fears begins to physically manifest in the real world, he enlists the help of his doctor to bring forward the repressed memories from his past.

As he struggles, the shadowy creature even appears in the video game he is coding. It commits acts of revenge against those who wronged him. Can he find some clues to the purpose of this creature before he loses himself to it? Can he do it before it’s too late?

©2025 James Skalby (P)2025 James Skalby

Edge of your seat thriller with a clean finish.

Skalby is a literary Genius. The attention to detail in Look at Me was incredible and the narrator's use of sfx only heightened the immersion.
Look at Me is a very dark journey through some incredibly twisted places filled with paranoia, anxiety and doubt.
I felt ... Better after Listening to look at Me. I can't go into detail you will just have to find out for yourself.
I can't wait to see what Skalby brings us in the future! If look at Me is any indication of his style then we have a lot to look forward to.

Look At Me

This was a creepy tale, full of "look over your shoulder" moments. Colton is an up and coming video game designer who is struggling with his mental health. Haunted by nightmares, dark creatures lurking in the shadows and an entity yelling "Look at me" at him, he wonders if he is losing his mind.

With the help of his longtime friend, Maria, and his therapist, Colton works to come to terms with what is happening. When people start to die around him, he truly thinks he is crazy!

In my opinion, the story would have been better as a short story without all the filler of Colton and Maria going out to breakfast and the long descriptions of their growing relationship. Also, the resolution of the creepy stalker was a bit odd to me in that Colton's supposed haunted past didn't seem bad enough to warrant his problems. In fact, I was reminded of another tale that fell a bit flat for me (Stolen Tongues) that most people seem to find terrifying.

The narrator did a good job and I enjoyed his various voices for the characters and the sound effects. However, I nearly quit listening due to the harsh, whispery voice he used for a lot of the book. It was hard to hear and really didn't do anything for the story.