I obtained a overview copy from the writer. This doesn’t have an effect on the contents of my overview and all opinions are my very own.

Widow’s Level by Richard Chizmar and W.H. Chizmar

Mogsy’s Score (Total): 3 of 5 stars

Style: Horror

Sequence: Stand Alone

Writer: Simon & Schuster Audio (September 30, 2025)

Size: 12 hrs and 15 minutes

Writer Data: Richard Chizmar | W.H. Chizmar

Narrators: Mia Barron, Tristan Morris

For those who’re a fan of epistolary or “discovered footage” horror like me, you’ll perceive why I discover the style interesting. When it really works, the fashion can actually add to the environment of immediacy and switch even essentially the most performed out of concepts into one thing that feels new and refreshing. It was why I used to be drawn to Widow’s Level, in addition to the truth that it’s a collab between an writer I already observe, Richard Chizmar, and his son W.H. Chizmar.

Instructed although a set of video transcripts, information clippings, emails, and journal entries, the story transports readers to Nova Scotia, the place the Widow’s Level Lighthouse has loomed over the rugged shoreline for almost two centuries. Since then, the constructing has been the location of many tragedies, from staff falling to their deaths throughout its development to the slaughter of a complete household by certainly one of its later residents within the late twentieth century. By 1988, Widow’s Level was shuttered for good. However naturally, these with a predilection for the supernatural or uncanny simply can’t appear to remain away. Reputed to be haunted, the lighthouse has drawn no scarcity of ghost hunters, paranormal investigators, and thrill-seekers, all keen to inform its story and uncover its secrets and techniques.

In 2017, certainly one of these investigators, a magical researcher hoping to doc definitive proof of the haunting, organized to spend a complete weekend locked contained in the lighthouse. What adopted subsequent has by no means been totally defined, for he vanished and not using a hint, abandoning solely his recordings and written notes. Undeterred, a widely known on-line influencer decides to reopen the location years later in 2025, bringing alongside his personal crew in an try to succeed the place so many earlier than him have failed. Armed with cameras and no small quantity of bravado, the crew intends to capitalize on the macabre historical past of the lighthouse however quickly uncover that some tales are way more harmful to chase than they’re to inform. Evidently, factor don’t go in accordance with plan.

Widow’s Level is informed completely by means of a multimedia lens, utilizing quite a lot of paperwork to piece the story collectively. Admittedly, this isn’t the best format for audio, and I want there had been added touches like sound results or different audible cues to make the narrative move smoother and extra immersive—one thing I’ve seen different audiobooks to to nice impact on the subject of this style. Not surprisingly, the studying did really feel slightly flat at first, whereas I attempted to regulate to the Blair Witch docu-style presentation, however issues ultimately settled into rhythm.

What stood out for me was the lighthouse itself. Widow’s Level, from atop its remoted location trying over storm-battered cliffs, is the right horror novel setting. I particularly loved the snippets we obtained of its darkish and sordid previous, which have been scattered all through the textual content—transient however chilling accounts of murders, suicides, accidents, and unexplained disappearances which have plagued the lighthouse because it was constructed. Additionally they do an ideal job of filling out the lore, reminding the reader that it is a cursed place steeped in blood and misfortune.

However there have been different components that didn’t work fairly as effectively. Perhaps it was the format, however the characters by no means actually got here alive for me, because the epistolary fashion has a means of holding them at arm’s size. I used to be additionally disenchanted that the audiobook narration didn’t do lots to bridge that hole. The studying felt flat at instances, which solely strengthened the sense that the solid was made up of inventory figures slightly than actual individuals. The center part additionally dragged, providing little in the way in which of plot growth. No massive surprises or enormous twists both, as occasions and the ending unfolded kind of precisely as anticipated.

Ultimately, Widow’s Level most likely labored higher for me as a spooky idea and setting slightly than as a totally realized novel. That’s, it makes for a good sufficient ghost story, with some additional enchantment for readers who get pleasure from haunted buildings, epistolary codecs, or these found-footage vibes in prose. Fast and readable with its justifiable share of eerie and atmospheric moments, it’s pleasing however in the end struggles to rise above being simply common.