Bad Parts

Dark Parts, Book 1

By: Brandon McNulty

Narrated by: Ellie Gossage

Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

A town divided. A demon made whole.

When rock guitarist Ash Hudson suffers a career-ending hand injury, she seeks out the only thing that can heal it - her hometown's darkest secret.

For decades the residents of Hollow Hills, Pennsylvania, have offered their diseased and injured body parts to a creek demon named Snare. In return, Snare rewards its Traders with healthy replacement parts. There's only one catch: if Traders leave town, their new parts vanish forever.

Ash wants a new hand, but living in Hollow Hills isn't an option. Not when her band is one gig away from hitting the big time. Desperate, she bargains with Snare, promising to help the demon complete its organ collection in exchange for both a new hand and the freedom for everyone to leave town.

As her band's show rapidly approaches, Ash teams up with her estranged father in a last-ditch effort to recruit new Traders. But not everyone trusts Snare's offer, and Ash soon learns how far her neighbors will go to protect their precious parts.

With her family in danger and her band waiting, Ash must find a way to help Snare. But even if she succeeds, there's no telling what Snare plans to do with everyone's bad parts.

Fans of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Richard Laymon, and Blake Crouch won't want to miss this gritty, fast-paced, supernatural thriller.

Buy your copy of Bad Parts and start listening today!

©2020 Brandon McNulty (P)2020 Brandon McNulty

Critic reviews

"A page-turning tale of Faustian bargains." (Alma Katsu, author of The Deep and The Hunger)

Author’s work deserves better

Brandon McNulty is a good writer. His work deserves better production. The audio production is inconsistent. The first 4 chapters are well done. The author does a good job acting, it sounds like it was recorded in a sound booth with a condenser microphone. It’s great. Then starting in chapter 5 she literally sounds like she’s recording inside her car. At first, I thought she was acting a radio news broadcast, but that wasn’t the story. Granted, there was part of a scene that happened inside a car, but not in a way that would merit that sort of ambiance. When I got to chapter 8, I honestly considered that another narrator took over the reading because the style abruptly changed for the worse. The delivery was done in a news announcer fashion rather than voice acting. The script was being read, inside of a car, and not acted. I guarantee this is not the way she auditioned for this book. Her audition was certainly done like the first 4 chapters. If ACX used humans to review the submissions rather than AI, they would have caught the diminished quality. Since the volume levels and background noise were within ACX limits, the AI approved the reading. Unfortunately, the narrator has been paid so ACX won’t have this title redone. We’re stuck hearing this well written story delivered to us like a news broadcast coming from an AM radio at the bottom of a steel barrel. Because the writing and the story are so good, I still recommend this title. The narrator should be embarrassed and Brandon McNulty should be livid.

A Page Turner That Will Keep You Hooked

Bad Parts is a true page turner and a really fun ride. Yes I know this is a review for an audiobook so it can't really be a "page turner" in the true sense, but it still feels like it. The story and mystery of it all will keep you hooked into the story. The author paints a vivid, detailed picture of what is happening yet keeps the action flowing and there is never a boring moment. A great thriller that never slows down!

I thought the person reading the book did a good job.

Clarity, compelling, clear

Brandon does an excellent job in his newest entry. I look forward to the next one and I’ll read the two before it read it.

I can't finish it...

I don't often write reviews for the audiobooks I listen too, but this one I had to speak out and say I can't even finish it.

Before I spit venom at you, I want to say I made it almost half way though the book and the story was interesting and I liked the direction of some of the characters. The actual reading of the story was engaging and she made it clear when different people were speaking and added personality to them. I WANT to finish the book, but I simply can't get past the audio engineering here.

Whomever is responsible for mastering this audiobook has some real work to do. The audio in this does some super annoying stuff. The entire things sounds like someone was talking into a can during the gramophone recording session. The voice integrity is so bad and inconsistent, the editing was jarring and I just cant complete the work.

Its a real shame, because I was into the story, but until they release a remastered version, I'll never finish it.

Buy the book

As another reviewer started, the audio book is poorly done. The story itself seemed really interesting, and I love the author's YouTube videos. I couldn't get past more than a few chapters. Right around chapter 4 or so the audio sounds like it was recorded in a car on a cellphone. I'm not sure if no one checked her work after it was submitted, but it's very poor quality. I don't especially care for her voice acting either, but I could get past that for a compelling story. I will be actively avoiding this narrator's work.

Save yourself the conundrum of wanting to continue but being unwilling and just buy the book.

Good writing, ok story

Many good elements of writing but the story was a bit weak. The first 3/4 of the book was much better than the last part. The audio talent was only so so and a bit distracting.

Fantastic and exciting tale that envokes vibes of Stephen King‘s the mist!

Second book I’ve listened to by this author, and he is absolutely electric! This book just keeps hitting the gas until the nail biting finale! Brandon is great at humanizing characters and flushing out backstory in a very organic way. Fun twists and turns are really the cherry on the cake of this paranormal horror novel. 10/10

Production and performance is equally bad

This title is impossible to finish. The performance is uneven but primarily annoying, and the production quality is so bad that it literally hurts your ears.

The audio sounds like it has been recorded with the cheapest microphone available, so you get a lot of background noise, humming, and buzzing on top of the mediocre performance. But it doesn't stop there: The mastering is awful with equalizing and sound levels all over the place.

The story is quite interesting, though, at least the five chapters I listened to before giving up on this audio production.

Not for me

I think the idea of the book is pretty interesting but I didn't like it very much.