Stay-at-Home

By: Christopher Dowell

Narrated by: Clare Radix

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Tia's only contact with the outside world becomes tenuous. As she chats with her friends online, Tia comes to learn that one of them is not who they claim to be.

©2021 Christopher Dowell (P)2021 Christopher Dowell

Christopher Dowell is now the bar in Short Fiction

Story: The story itself is beautifully written in both a technical and narrative sense. I found myself hanging on every word of every chapter and listened to the story in a single sitting. Not only was it interesting, the story is so good that it made me paranoid as it delved deeper into maddening mind of the main character, Tia. I will be listening to this again.

Narrator: This is my first experience with Clare Radix but I can say with confidence that it will not be my last. Her pace is slower but her tone, pitch, and ability to emote and drive each characters emotions home through her narration is an absolute wonder to behold.

Overall: This story made me nervous to walk into the bathroom because the light was off and I’m not checking my messages the rest of the day. I highly recommend this book.

Stay-at-home

Good story.Too short. Good narration by Clare Radx.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'

Intense

We all remember the quarantine feels at the beginning of the Coronavirus. This novella takes that scenario and gives it an interesting worst case scenario by showing exactly the effects that isolation can have on a person.

Tia, a seemingly normal woman, slowly descends into madness the longer that she’s isolated in her apartment. Even though this was a short listen, I found it interesting, nonetheless.

Narration was well done.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Creative

"Stay-at-Home" (2021) by Christopher Dowell is a creative novella about Tia, who never leaves her apartment due to her obsession about the coronavirus. Tia’s contact with the outside world: her work-from-home job, vid chats with her psychiatrist, her online product orders, and two online “friends” she's never met. Tia’s isolation and compulsions threaten her sanity, resulting in a life-changing conclusion. I would have liked to have read at least a little backstory about her. An impressive debut. Clare Radix’s narration is well done. At my request, I was given this free audiobook and have voluntarily left this review.

Kelvin L. Reed
Author of "Guilt by Association"

All Work and No Play Makes...

If you watch CNN, this is exactly how you have lived for the last year. I didn’t live that way and won’t ever, but this story definitely gave me that claustrophobic feel of someone being afraid to leave their assumed safe place. I get this is real, and believe half the country set up like this, so the reality of this was palpable. A little upset there were Clorox wipes to waste, I personally couldn't' find any during the pandemic, yet alone enough to use as a face masks or door stuffers, but I got the point. I think the main theme was isolation and how that messes you up more than the disease itself. Isolation driving the human need for interaction and having to resort to the internet for contact with people. I think this captured the fear and day to day of so many people that this is, before the twist, a real story that listeners will relate to. I liked to hear Tia’s downward spiral as that seemed real and terrifying.

A lot of this story is told through IM chat. The narrator included the IM beep and read the IM with the name of the character as if you were reading it yourself. First time I had heard a story like that. Weird at first but I really liked this style. Totally unique and made for a completely different story. The narration was great and I felt it pulled you into the story and made you a part of the chat room.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.