When your whole career is built on aiming a critical eye at wrongdoers, it just doesn’t do to become one of them.
Isaac Thorne
The Murder of Crows
Format:
Audiobook
Publisher’s Synopsis:
In a near future of zero tolerance, Big Brother is not entirely born of the government. He is also your local news, your social media friends and followers, your neighbors. Everything you say and do is monitored – and judged. Almost overnight, the fabric of society has dissolved into a culture of carrions: a murder of crows.
It was only a matter of time before someone found a way to capitalize on it.
Meet Internet, television, and radio sensation Nick Saint, a man who has built a media empire off the public shaming of both celebrities and average Joes. Lately Nick has noticed a disturbing trend emerging from the culture he’s spent so many hard hours at work perpetuating. The crows are no longer interested in the food he’s providing, and scavenging for the dirty deeds of others is getting more difficult now that all the world has learned to watch their Ps and Qs.
Can Nick continue to find fresh corpses for his starving flocks to feed on? Or will they finally turn on him instead?
Point of view:
3rd person. Entirely from Nick’s perspective.
Rellim’s Thoughts:
It’s a short story so there’s not much to say without giving the twisty-ness away. Critical yet humorous look at scoop journalism, social media, and the public’s insatiable need for a villain to denounce.
I enjoyed Thorne’s writing and will check out more. Less than an hour, so a quick listen.
Narration:
Thorne narrates this himself. Differentiating character voices would have been nice & emotions could have packed a better punch. He’s not bad, just not as dynamic as more skilled narrators. At this short length it isn’t the hindrance it would have been on a longer production.
About the author:
Isaac R. Thorne is a nice man who has, over the course of his life, developed a modest ability to spin a good yarn. Really. He promises. He considers himself a lover of books, music, movies, and other forms of pop culture phenomenon. His philosophy on his life is that it’s all one giant experiment. He is the author of short tales of dark comic horror, two audio plays, and one award-winning screenplay.
Isaac grew up in rural Tennessee, where he attended high school and some college. From an early age, he became fascinated by scary folklore, such as the types of tales that are often told around campfires. He also developed a love of scary audio or radio stories, which he borrowed on vinyl from the local library.
Although he has been writing since he could form letters with crayons, Isaac has always considered himself a private man, publishing none of his horror work until January 2013, when he released the digital short story “Nobody Was Here”.
You can connect with Isaac Thorne here:
My Favorite Quotes
“When your whole career is built on aiming a critical eye at wrongdoers, it just doesn’t do to become one of them.”
Rellim Reads 