Episode Thirteen

By: Craig DiLouie

Narrated by: Gregory D. Barnett, Sam Slade, Kimberly Bonny, Louis B. Jack, James Lewis, Jay Aaseng

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

From the macabre mind of a Bram Stoker Award-nominated author, this heart-pounding novel of horror and psychological suspense takes a ghost hunting reality TV crew into a world they could never have imagined.

Fade to Black is the newest hit ghost hunting reality TV show. Led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin, it delivers weekly hauntings investigated by a dedicated team of ghost hunting experts.

Episode Thirteen takes them to every ghost hunter's holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. This brooding, derelict mansion holds secrets and clues about bizarre experiments that took place there in the 1970s. It's also famously haunted, and the team hopes their scientific techniques and high tech gear will prove it. But as the house begins to reveal itself to them, proof of an afterlife might not be everything Matt dreamed of. A story told in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, and correspondence, this is the story of Episode Thirteen—and how everything went terribly, horribly wrong.

"An epistolary descent into a living nightmare . . . well-written and genuinely unsettling. Fans of paranormal documentaries, ghost-hunting shows, and found-footage horror will lose their minds over this one."—Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award winning author of Kin

“A beautiful Russian doll of a story… Episode Thirteen hooks you, creeps you out, and then it overwhelms you. It’s House of Leaves meets Haunting of Hill House, in all the best possible ways.”—Peter Clines, NYT bestselling author of The Broken Room

For more from Craig DiLouie, check out:

The Children of Red Peak

Our War

One of Us

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Craig DiLouie (P)2023 Redhook

Critic reviews

“A beautiful Russian doll of a story… Episode Thirteen hooks you, creeps you out, and then it overwhelms you. It’s House of Leaves meets Haunting of Hill House, in all the best possible ways.”—Peter Clines, NYT Bestselling Author of The Broken Room

“Episode Thirteen does not go where you think it will…instead it offers bizarre twists, devious reveals, and unexpected shocks. Deeply satisfying and a hell of a lot of weird fun!”—Jonathan Maberry—New York Times Bestselling Author of Patient Zero

"An epistolary descent into a living nightmare . . . well-written and genuinely unsettling. Fans of paranormal documentaries, ghost-hunting shows, and found-footage horror will lose their minds over this one."—Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Kin

Just okay

It was very slow building and the characters weren't particularly likeable (in my opinion). The sound effects got a little annoying after a while for me. Once the story took off, it felt like a big build up to very disappointing yuppie mumbo jumbo.

When a TV show becomes a book

Captivating story, interesting characters (albeit underdeveloped) and mysterious ending. Entertaining. I recommend it during a car ride.

Not quite there

It started off good but really petered out. Once we got to the actual paranormal parts, it went down hill.

it started out good

The story started out good but then went into another direction. I completed 90% of it.

Grave Encounters meets House of Leaves.

A great found footage foray into the world of the paranormal and cosmic horror. If the title of the review intrigued you, then you are more than likely going to enjoy this book.

Fun listen!

Enjoyable found footage style horror in novel form. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it comes together nicely.

Unique and Kept me Interested

This is such a crazy way to tell a story but I’m here for it. I was worried with so much character set up to start that I would get bored but once the story picked up, it never let up. I found myself so disappointed that it ended.

Its an audio comic, not a book.

I loved the writing, loved the story. But i wanted an audiobook. Not a audio version of a tv show. A comic. Sound effects, clattering, banging, creaks that drown out the -actual narration-. Drowning out the book. Music, people acting out the words, replacing my imagination. I can imagine hysterical laughter, I dont need an actress screaming into my ears with actual laughter. Can people just make the book, let us , the readers, decide how we want it to be?

Great Performance, Okay Story

I really wanted to love this audio and up until the ending I was pretty hooked. 6 narrators perform this audio doing multiple roles and they all do a great job (even when you can hear one voice actor doing a second role). Sound effects are also included and this helps the audio (hence I give performance 5 stars). Overall I would say maybe that makes this 4 stars but I went with 3 because I think (and based on other reviews) you’re either going to love this book or think it’s ok. The ghost hunting theme is great and making this book episodic (like the novel Dracula) was nicely done. I think the story let down comes simply from personal preference. I love the “haunted house” novels but with these types of novels the endings are hard to pull off. I like a really cool ghost story with scary and creepy happenings but in the end a cool twist happens or an ages long mystery is solved. I kinda saw how this ending was gonna play out and the fact that the solution is more scientific than supernatural is probably why I wasn’t as happy with the ending. Don’t get me wrong, it fits and I understand the idea behind it and why a certain character was the one to get it, but I’d rather have a more clearly supernatural this is the spirit behind it all type ending. It’s a good book well written fast paced and characters you can understand and root far but just not my cup of tea. So be warned you’ll either love it or be meh about it but I don’t think anyone will hate it.

Absolutely horrible voice actors

I love Craig to Louis. He always writes a great story.
The choice of voice actors was a bad one. Single good narrator could've handled this and the actors are laughably bad at their job. Every line spoken by the actors sounds like a voiceover for a cheesy radio or TV advertisement recorded in a perfectly silent room, and the dialogue in conversation is even worse. It blatantly sounds like two people reading lines off the script in separate rooms, not talking to each other. The director of this should be ashamed for allowing such clunky and unrealistic acting. Its a real bummer to see this done to Dilouies work.