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    Nightmare Ballad
    Nightmare Ballad
    Nightmare Ballad
    Ebook333 pages4 hours

    Nightmare Ballad

    By Benjamin Kane Ethridge

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    One day, while instructing a swim class, Luke Rhodes hears a strange ballad in his head that twists reality. After a series of terrifying events, he escapes through a black curtain and leaves a living nightmare behind. The ballad hasn't left him though. Pieces remain. And when the song surfaces… the nightmare returns. Joined by Luke’s two wives and his miscreant friend Johnny Cruz, they resolve to discover the source of these “Lifemares,” and, more importantly, how to escape them. But time is against them. Innocent people are dying and these freakish disturbances are devastating the world they know. Will Luke and his family find the singer of the Ballad before it’s too late? Or will horrifying nightmares roam the world… forever?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJournalStone
    Release dateMay 17, 2013
    ISBN9781936564767
    Nightmare Ballad

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    Reviews for Nightmare Ballad

    3/5

    64 ratings30 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This was a very strange book for me. This book made me feel very confused at times and I had to go back and read passages to make sure I wasn't missing something. I liked that this book was different than some of the normal run of the mill horror books I have read! I applaud the author for trying something new and really liked the book for that reason. I look forward to the follow up because it should really help me understand this one better. Really focus in on this book as you read it!
    • 3/5
      In dreams, the most incomprehensible insane things can seem rational. But what if reality followed the same logic as dreams so that, for instance, frogmen attacked people in public pools (because that's what frogmen do). Author Benjamin Ethridge explores the idea of dreams as reality where weird, wacky, and frightening things occur and almost everyone finds it normal. This made for an interesting premise - we've all had dreams that were completely nuts but it took a moment after waking to realize they were just dreams.Trouble is, as another reviewer said, dreams are really only interesting to the dreamer - or maybe his therapist should he have one. I like weird as long as it follows some logical course. This story seemed so hard to follow at times that I struggled to make it through and, when it finally started to make a bit of sense, we hit a cliffhanger of an ending. I honestly didn't hate the story - it just didn't grab me enough to make me want to try to understand or care about what was happening. I will also admit to a certain unfair prejudice - I'm a music geek and I wanted more about the music. There was an ongoing theme of a song playing in people's heads and dreams usually before something strange or horrific happened, but I guess I wanted more about the music. Now, that would make an interesting book - people driven mad by the catchy but annoying songs they play endlessly on the radio until you want to drive a screwdriver into your brain to make it stop or into the brain of whatever idiot though some cloyingly cute teenager from Canada should be everywhere on the airwaves meaning that every Canadian over the age of 12 must constantly apologize ...but I digress. Still, Ethridge is clearly a good writer and, although I probably won't be reading the sequel, I will suggest that, if you like the strange and weird in books, this might just be what you're looking for.
    • 3/5
      This was a strange story about dreams coming to life. I just couldn't get into it. it had its interesting parts but not enough of them.
    • 3/5
      Bizarre in a way that grabbed my attention and held it, Nightmare Ballad provides a realistic backdrop for the dreamscape "lifemares" it introduces that makes it realistic enough to fear. While the characters may seem slightly underdeveloped and unlikeable, I still found myself hoping they'd see it through till the end. I find that readers of this book should allow themselves a little more imagination in reading it, especially in some of the details (Like the marriage between Dara, Luke, and Maribel), but for those who are willing to let anything swing within a fictional existence, this novel might be great. Personally, I enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing where the story is taken with the follow-up novel: Nightmare Serenade.
    • 3/5
      It took me a while to get into this book, and by the time it finally started to get interesting, it ended on a cliffhanger. The main characters are not particularly likeable. The main protagonist has two wives, but doesn't belong to the LDS church. So I'm not sure how he's getting away with that in Southern California. His best friend is a drunkard, with authority issues, and a lot of other issues. His renditions of the horrible heat in So Cal ring true, having lived there I know, but the rest...eh. I just couldn't really get into the book. The author was able to capture the frenetic flow of dreams. It is an interesting premise about dreams becoming reality, and if they are lucid dreaming and can remake things, it seems to me they'd be working on something completely different.
    • 3/5
      Most dreams end when you wake up. Nightmare Ballad is a strange story about dreams becoming a reality. I enjoyed the book in a somewhat twisted fashion. His nightmares made me forcus on my nightmares. Very creative in the way he presented his story.
    • 3/5
      Sometimes we dream of really strange stuff, but feel that it's "normal". Till we wake up and realize that it was really strange things happening.What if it happened in normal world, but you also thought it was normal? Like if you were attacked by frogmen in suddenly dirty pool and some people died but after your escape, people just say "that is what frogmen does". Perfectly normal! However, man found it to be very strange after he found black curtains and got though it.Few people had nightmares come up randomly, and have it actually affect reality and see that people find really strange and often deadly events to be normal random possible event.While this isn't exactly my preference, I somewhat enjoyed the book.
    • 1/5
      A bizarre book where nightmares begin to come true. The author accurately captures the essence of bad dreams, where crazy events are accepted by normal, what's going on can shift completely in the blink of an eye, and nothing quite makes sense. Successful in being surreal, but unsuccessful in being readable.Nobody's interested in your dreams but you, and reading this story felt like hours on end of some bore insisting on telling me about his dreams. Not my cup of tea at all.
    • 3/5
      I'm not sure how to review this book because I'm not sure how to describe it. The author definitely gets props for creativity and originality. The story focuses around four people and the nightmares that they are living, triggered by a mysterious singer/song. I liked that a polyamorous family was featured as just that: a family. Not a threesome, but a unit that deals with 'regular' relationship issues, along with having to put up with people discriminating against this non-traditional family.The parts of the book that I had trouble with consisted mainly of lulls in between adventure. The first few pages were definitely attention-grabbing, but after that it took awhile to get back into the story, and I felt like that was a common occurrence throughout. Also, sometimes it was unclear whether a nightmare was happening or whether it was just a regular day.This book does have lots of violence, and the author is talented and great at painting graphic pictures. I also want to say there's a rape scene or an attempted rape scene but I'm not 100% sure about that.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a husband with two wives and an outside friend. They begin experiencing things that only can be explained away in dreams and nightmares. They find themselves caught in waking nightmares over and over again as a ballad forms in their minds, and the resulting horror lingers even after the nightmare has ended. They have to survive to find their way out of the nightmares and deal with the aftermath.Starting the book, I didn't know how I felt about the husband with two wives situation, but as the story went on, I understood the family better and I wasn't as disconcerted with it. The outside friend, Johnny, is an arrogant jerk and I found myself disliking him from the very first introduction to him, but he begins redeeming himself by the end of the book and I found myself appreciating and understanding his character better. It was confusing to read sometimes and I found myself skimming through some of the Choruses and Refrains without fully understanding what I was reading. The book correlates with dreams, and dreams flow seamlessly without sense sometimes, so I understand the reason for the confusion, but that didn't make it any easier to read.The book was written with vivid descriptions and I could picture the town and events quite clearly. There were plenty of times that I was drawn into the story and I was wondering what kind of nightmare would surface next. I did enjoy the second half of the book better than the first. It was hard to get into the idea of nightmares happening in reality at first, but as the story develops, it becomes more conceivable and clear, so you can follow along easier. I found myself going back and forth between enjoying and disliking the book as I read, but now that I've finished, I find that I enjoyed it more than I thought. The ending leaves you eagerly waiting for the next book to find out what happens next as more characters are pulled into the story. Quite the cliffhanger, I must say, so I would definitely like to read the next book after its release.
    • 5/5
      Book Info: Genre: Horror/LovecraftianReading Level: AdultRecommended for: fans of horror, Lovecraftian fictionTrigger Warnings: deathsMy Thoughts: One of the things I liked best about this book is that it features a functioning polyamorous relationship, in which two women and a man are all married to each other. It doesn't show this in the “threesome” sense, either, but realistically with all the sorts of compromises and difficulties that such a relationship entails, as well as the beauty when it works properly.I have designated this Lovecraftian, but not in the sense of tentacled Elder Gods (although there is an octopus at one point), but in the sense of skewed reality, unknown things in the dark, dreams and nightmares. This is an incredibly creepy story, and fans of horror should enjoy this.It is not truly stand alone, however. While this book wraps up with a denouement, not everything is solved. A sequel, called Nightmare Serenade, is planned, although I am not certain when it will be out. I, for one, plan to acquire a copy of it, because I really enjoyed this book. If you live in fear of your nightmares, if you enjoy Lovecraftian fiction, if you're a fan of horror, definitely check out this book.Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.Synopsis: One day, while instructing a swim class, Luke Rhodes hears a strange ballad in his head that twists reality. After a series of terrifying events, he escapes through a black curtain and leaves a living nightmare behind.The ballad hasn't left him though. Pieces remain. And when the song surfaces… the nightmare returns. Joined by Luke’s two wives and his miscreant friend Johnny Cruz, they resolve to discover the source of these “Lifemares,” and, more importantly, how to escape them.But time is against them. Innocent people are dying and these freakish disturbances are devastating the world they know.Will Luke and his family find the singer of the Ballad before it’s too late? Or will horrifying nightmares roam the world… forever?
    • 1/5
      This book goes from one time frame to another instantly making it very difficult to keep track of the story line. Although a long time Sci fi fan I could not stay with the stoey line and complete the book.
    • 3/5
      The book is well-written, but the story didn't grab me. I didn't find it interesting or engaging.
    • 4/5
      Luke Rhodes day started with a teaching a swim class that goes horribly awry. He keeps hearing this odd melody that causes him to realize that he is having a waking nightmare that is acutally changing the real world. Can he and his 2 wives, Dara and Maribel, and his best friend ,Albert "Johnny" Cruz, figure out what is going on before they disappear into the nightmare world? This is another excellent story by the author of Black & Orange. Surreal landscapes and odd characters abound and I for one can not wait to read the next book in this series. An excellent way to spend an afternoon in the sun!
    • 4/5
      Everyone has nightmares but for Luke Rhodes, his two wives and Luke's friend Johnny Cruz, they happen during the day when they're wide awake. Everytime they think of a certain song, reality twists into a nightmare and people start to die. It all starts when Luke is teaching a swim class and hears a strange ballad, then a curtain drops and a group of frogmen appear and drown the swimmers. Luke manages to escape but the song is in his head and the effect is spreading to his loved ones. Luke must find the cause of the Nightmare Ballad and put a stop to it before the nightmares spread to the rest of the world. Nightmare Ballad by Benjamin Kane Ethridge is a very original horror tale, I can honestly say that I've never read anything like it. There are some true moments of terror in this book like when a young girl tells Luke that she just gutted her teddy bear and now she wants to see what it would be like to gut Luke. This book really gets into what each character fears the most and the things that they fear is what most people fear, which makes all the characters relatable. Nightmare Ballad doesn't have a lot of violence or jump scares, its more of a psychological horror story that looks at what truly scares us, such as having no control over a situation or being abandoned.One part of the book I really enjoyed was when Johnny goes to steal some copper from an abandoned building and end up being captured by some people who run a dog fighting ring. The scene was suspenseful without anything odd happening and then the Nightmare Ballad takes hold and takes it to the next level. The action just gets more intense from that point. The downside for this novel was that the story was hard to follow at points. It got a little confusing on what was real or not real but I still loved Nightmare Ballad for its originality. Also I liked how the author gets into his character's heads and makes you care for them. Nightmare Ballad is a surreal adventure that you won't want to put down and you may need to read it again to figure out what it all means.
    • 4/5
      Four friends are haunted by a sinister song that turns nightmares into reality. Can they unravel the mystery before more innocent people are killed by their 'lifemares'?An amazing, haunting story. Drew me in from the very first page and I loved it. It keeps you on your toes and remains a mystery right up to the end, when everything falls into place and you realise where the song is coming from. Still leaves a lot of questions unanswered and I'm really looking forward to the next novel.The story is well-written, original and never boring. The characters are interesting and have enough depth to carry the story, and character development throughout the story is worked out quite well.
    • 4/5
      I won a copy of "Nightmare Ballad" though Library Thing early reviewers. "Nightmare Ballad" by Benjamin Kane Ethridge is about Luke Rhodes and how his life is horribly changed after a swimming class. During the swimming class he hears a strange ballad. Awful things happen and Luke believes that he is stuck in a nightmare. He sees frogmen drowning children and their parents. Luke almost dies, but somehow escapes the nightmare through a black curtain. Luke goes back to his family to discover that what happened was real and that the news media reporters accept what happens without question. In fact nobody in the town where he lives questions the strange events. Everyone tells him "That’s what frogmen do." Luke's wives Dara and Maribel experience these "Lifmares" also. Luke's friend Johnny becomes stuck in the Lifefmares. Everybody associated with Luke hears the Nightmare Ballad and they can't escape it. When they hear the ballad, everybody and everything around them is thrown into chaos. Luke and his friends and family need to find a way to to stop the nightmare ballad before they end up dying. "Nightmare Ballad" slowly builds in tension. I never had a book mess with my head as much as "Nightmare Ballad." The story will keep you guessing until the end. When you discover who is responsible for the nightmare ballad, the story is still not done in upsetting you.The last few pages made me angry and cry at the same time. I can't wait for the next book in the trilogy called Nightmare Serenade.
    • 3/5
      Nightmare Ballad, although intriguing, was a little bit "out there" for my tastes. At times, it was a little hard to follow, but I liked it just the same. It did have shades of Stephen King and Bentley Little, which is a compliment. All in all, I would still recommend it to those who like that type of book.
    • 4/5
      I normaly dont read these type of books that often but I enjoyed this one and could not wait to see how it ended.
    • 4/5
      I just finished reading "Nightmare Ballad" by Benjamin Kane Etheridge. It was a good book - I'd probably give it 3.5 stars if I could do halves-but only cause it takes a bit to get the story "really" going. It starts off with the first "nightmare" within the first few pages & I was hooked from there, wanting to continue & see what all this stuff was about. And one thing that was really mind-boggling was that once the "nightmare" was over, ordinary people just "accepted" elements of the nightmare as being perfectly "normal" - i.e. There being "frogmen" in a school swimming pool was perceived as being completely acceptable. (No wonder people died, afterall there were frogmen in the pool!)But after that fascinating opening, I was a bit disappointed at the next 80 pages or so. There were four main characters throughout the book: Luke & Mara are a married couple who meet & fall in love with another woman, Maribel. The three form a 3-way marriage that they are very happy with-it's society who has the problem accepting them. The fourth character is Johnny, who is twice divorced & has a son, who doesn't live with him anymore.What disappointed me was that after the interesting beginning nightmare, the next 80 pages or so were just "regular" stuff....it was Luke discussing his office & how it was difficult for people to understand the marriage situation he had chosen to be in. However, the book read "smoothly"..my interest didn't falter too much & it was easy reading. It's not that the personal stuff wasn't "interesting", I just was wanting to really get into the "juicy" nightmare stuff, and the long "interlude" of discussing the domestic situation left me feeling like the author should have done a whole book on THAT & saved the nightmare material for its own book.Well, finally when Johnny goes to a yard to steal some copper..boy, it "really" picks up then! And it gets progressively better & better! Once you get to the mid-way mark, there's no stopping you! The nightmares are so fascinating & it's about that point where the characters start talking to each other & comparing notes to try and figure out what the heck is going on?? Towards the end, it really gets interesting & the ending is totally unexpected! It made me want to go back & reread it to see how it all fits together!Now just to give some readers a "heads-up" on what to expect. All the places in the story involving Johnny have quite a bit of cussing, mostly the "F" word. Also, within the nightmares....let's just call it "Adult Material" and leave it at that. However, nothing really grossed me out or made me want to stop reading.
    • 2/5
      I couldn't get past the first two chapters, although I had hopes this would be a better read based on the synopsis in the early reviewers write up.
    • 3/5
      Review CopyI wanted to like Nightmare Ballad, and I did in some ways, but I found the overall experience to be mind numbing. Multiple characters drawn into a dream world where nightmares blend with reality was all a bit much for me. I found myself struggling to comprehend what was really going on.Ethridge is a capable writer and I've enjoyed some of his other stories and I'm sure some people will like the esoteric nature of Nightmare Ballad, I just don't happen to be one of them.I will say, Nightmare Ballad is an apt title, as nightmares and an elusive ballad are integral to the story. Luke Rhodes hears a strange ballad, one day, while instructing a swim class. A ballad which twists reality, leading to the death of both a number of pool-goers and several frogmen. The authorities don't seem too concerned as this is what frogmen do. And then things start to get very strange. Joined by Luke's two "wives" and his friend Johnny Cruz, they resolve to discover the source of these "Lifemares," and, more importantly, how to escape them. The official release date for Nightmare Ballad is May 17th, but it seems to be available now from Amazon.com. There is a sequel in the works, maybe Nightmare Serenade will add some closure to the story and I'll have a better feeling about the whole experience after I read that.
    • 3/5
      First of all, The cover is a sad interpretation of the setting I had in my mind when reading this novel. It definitely needs a better cover. This book feels like an attempt to emulate David Foster Wallace's style of writing. It was fun getting to know the characters. The plot was entertaining. This book has a cliffhanger ending, with a probable 2nd book to finish the story. I think this story could be completed in 1 book. It doesn't have enough substance to stretch into more. It did cause me to read slower in order to absorb what I was reading. Overall, a good book.
    • 2/5
      I like an earlier reviewer's comment that "nobody's interested in your dreams but you"... that is so true. And it sums up this book quite succinctly. If you like listening to other people's dreams, even when they make no real sense, you'll like this book. Otherwise, you'll feel like the author just told you about his dream and then asked you to interpret it for him.That, and... the "reality" wasn't logical. Even if I accept that dreams can change reality (it's fiction, I can do that), why would everyone else in the story be so blasee about it all? Unless they too were having their own reality-dreaming sessions, but if so, we aren't told that is the case. So what it feels like to the reader is that only the main character(s) exist and everyone else is just there to provide a viewing-only audience for the main characters... otherwise how would they know if they were dreaming or in reality?Anyway, maybe book two would be better at clarifying some things, but... I certainly won't be reading it... this book was hard enough to force myself through.
    • 3/5
      "We don't understand," Maribel insisted. "Something very bizarre happened at the pool today. Why are you being so . . . tolerant of this?""Oh, yes, well, it isn't so bizarre," answered Reese. "You see, there were frogmen in the pool, and in circumstances like this, that's what they do. Right? Not much we can do about that. Yeah?"It did make sense to Dara actually, and as she searched Luke and Maribel's faces, she discovered that it also made sense to them. That's what frogmen do. Even the reporters on the TV had moved on to basketball scores. This event wasn't a big deal at all. What else could you expect from frogmen?A half-remembered song plunges those who remember fully it into a waking dream or 'lifemare', and for some reason both the dreamer and everyone else caught up in their dream accepts the impossible and surreal things that happen as being normal and not worthy of investigation by the authorities, even after the dream is over. Some of the changes to the world are permanent while others disappear once the dreamer manages to find the exit and end the dream. After the first dream s swimming pool changes shape permanently and huge gouges are left in the road surface so that traffic has to be diverted, but people just accept it.Unfortunately I didn't really like any of the protagonists, although Johnny was a slightly more sympathetic character than the Rhodes family, so I didn't really care whether they would all survive to the end of the book. On the other hand, the idea of waking dreams that can change reality is intriguing. I wanted to know who (or what) sent the ballad and why, how it worked and whether the it was only Luke, Dara, Johnny and Maribel who were having the dreams, or was it a more widespread event. Although the ending starts to answer some of those questions, it was quite rushed and the book ends abruptly, so if I want all the answers I am going to have to read the sequel.
    • 2/5
      A group of characters suddenly have bizarre waking nightmares, called lifemares, that are somehow connected to a song heard in their heads. Passing through black curtains that appear in the air and lead to areas that the dreamer has never been before leads back to reality, but the events of the dream have taken place and affected the real world.As might be expected, more than a few events operate on dream-logic, which can make things a bit difficult to follow at first. This is especially true in the first chapter, when the reader has no more idea of what's going on than the viewpoint character. However, it gets much easier during the second lifemare when it becomes clearer that these events do work somewhat like dreams.The book groups every four chapters into a "verse", with a one or two page "chorus" between verses. The choruses consist of somewhat surreal descriptions of a strangely menacing playground by a person who clearly knows something about the singer of the titular ballad. The identities of the singer and the narrator of the choruses, along with their connections to the main characters, is kept hidden until the end of the book.Overall, I found the book to be a bit of a mess. While the dream logic of the lifemares requires the reader to just accept a lot of strange events, the interaction between the lifemares and reality is inconsistent; for example, every item and person moved about by someone unknowingly manipulating dream events remains where the lifemare moved it after the dreamer exits the dream except for one character's blouse in the second lifemare. The ending also feels rushed, as if the author realized he was running out of space and had to fit in all of the major revelations quickly; within the last chapter and final chorus, the identity of the singer, their connection to the main characters, the reason for certain items being associated with them, the identity of the narrator of the choruses, and why the singer is able to cause the lifemares to occur are all rapidly revealed, frequently with no hint of the relevant connections beforehand. Despite all of these revelations, the book feels incomplete, not so much reaching an ending as just stopping; while it's the first book of a series and so one can't expect everything to be resolved, the abrupt ending doesn't really resolve anything at all. There are also a couple of points which look like they came from an earlier draft of the story: chapter 22 ends by saying "Johnny would not live to tell Luke this tale", although Johnny survives and does tell part of the events to Luke, and chapter 23 feels like a placeholder until the author gets back to actually write it (although it does work in context, it seems like there should be be something between the two sentences there).There are some minor editing errors which may be due to my copy being an advanced copy. Most noticeably, the first sentence of chapter 9 has a redundant use of "startled" in it and the wrong character is identified as speaking at one point in chapter 10.Finally, there are a couple of issues which will be problematic to some people and should be mentioned. First, the lifemare events frequently get gross (especially the one at the sewage treatment plant) and/or gory more than is necessary. Also, the Bone Men, one of the two types of dream people that show up repeatedly, are basically headhunter/tribesman caricatures in appearance.
    • 2/5
      This book was hard to get into for me; but then I am more of a fantasy/scifi reader than I am horror reader. If you enjoy horror with strange twists you might like the book however for me just was meh.
    • 1/5
      I am sorry to say that I couldn't finish this book. The beginning was original and promising, but descended into prolonged soap opera, which did not hold my interest. I found the amount of swearing to be excessive, adding nothing to the characterisation.
    • 3/5
      I received this book through Library Thing early reviewer program. It was an ok book, but a bit too strange for my taste. It was hard to get into the book.
    • 1/5
      I have to confess: this is a book I couldn't finish. I enjoy horror, even horror with a strong dose of surreal otherworldliness (I love Clive Barker's books) but this one was an uphill struggle that I gave up on about halfway through. Nightmare scenes impinge on the reality of the characters. It sounds like an interesting premise and the dream scenes are convincingly, well, dream-like, but in practice what it boils down to is one disturbing scene after another with nothing apparently linking them other than the recurring tune playing in the characters' minds.

    Book preview

    Nightmare Ballad - Benjamin Kane Ethridge

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