AudioFile Earphone Awards
Stock up with our Shop Small Sale!
Shop the sale
Send as gift
Add to Wish List
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Shop Small Sale
Shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks. Don’t miss out—purchases support local bookstores.
Shop the sale
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up todayBeholder
Narrator
Vikas Adam
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn more
Length
11 hours 45 minutes
Language
English
From Ryan La Sala, author of the tantalizingly twisted The Honeys and riotously imaginative Reverie, comes a chilling new contemporary fable about art, aesthetic obsession, and the gaze that peers back at us from behind our reflections.
Now an Audiofile Earphones Award Winner!
No one survived the party at the penthouse. Except Athan.
Athanasios "Athan" Bakirtzis has made it far in life relying on his charm and good looks, even securing an invitation to a mysterious penthouse soiree for New York City's artsy elite. But when he sneaks off to the bathroom, he hears a slam, followed by a scream. Athan peers outside, only to be pushed back in by a boy his age. The boy gravely tells him not to open the door, then closes Athan in.
Outside the door, the party descends into chaos. Through hours of howls, laughter, and sobs, Athan stays hidden. When he finally emerges, he discovers a massacre where the corpses appear to have arranged themselves into a disturbingly elegant sculpture-and Athan's mysterious savior is nowhere to be found. Athan-the only known survivor-is now the primary suspect.
In a race to prove his innocence, Athan is swept up in a supernatural mystery, one of secret occult societies and deadly eldritch horrors with rather distinctive taste. Something evil is waking up in the walls of New York City, and it's compelling victims toward violence, chaos, and self-destruction. Bound to him by a mysterious hereditary power, Athan has felt this evil hiding behind his reflection his entire life, watching him. Waiting. Now, it's taking over.
Ryan La Sala writes about surreal things happening to queer people. He is the author of Beholder, The Honeys, Reverie, and Be Dazzled. He lives in New York City, allegedly. Visit him online at ryanlasala.com.
Featured in these playlists...
Reviews
"Unnerving, intricate, and glittering with La Sala's trademark wit. You'll be scared of your own reflection after this one."
-Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author
"Beholder takes readers through a glass darkly, and into a spellbinding, spine-tingling world no one but Ryan la Sala could have dreamed up."
-Caleb Roehrig, author of Last Seen Leaving and The Fell of Dark
"If it's unhinged horror of the mind, you know it's a La Sala. This berserk beauty is a joy to behold, and when you're done reading, you'll be avoiding mirrors for weeks!"
-Adam Sass, award-winning author of Surrender Your Sons and Your Lonely Nights Are Over
"La Sala has done it again! Beholder is a resplendent monster of power, secrets, wealth, and murderous interior design, sure to leave readers beautifully dizzy and unsettlingly ravenous. Get ready, because queer horror just keeps getting better."
-Andrew Joseph White, New York Times bestselling author of Hell Followed With Us
This book devours you. When a hot boy at a swanky party tells Athan to stay in the bathroom until he comes back for him, Athan doesn't expect to spend hours listening to frenzied screams and the sounds of destruction. Vikas Adam provides rich character voices and emotion that pull listeners into Athan's search for answers to the horrors of that night, as well as the disappearance of his grandmother and the fire that destroyed his family when he was a child. Athan can tap into mirror worlds, and the spidery quality that Adam's voice takes on as Athan reaches out from those worlds will haunt listeners. High society, art, cults, madness, and dark magic mix with a touch of wild romance. Sound effects and a high-octane performance don't let go. S.T.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2024]
Expand reviews
Stock up with our Shop Small Sale!
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks