Audiobooks Like We Have Always Lived in the Castle

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Bernadette Dunne narrates Shirley Jackson's short gothic novel with a childlike opacity that makes Merricat's voice genuinely unsettling — the flatness isn't emptiness, it's something much worse, delivered across a six-hour listen that uses its brevity well. Two picks share Dunne's narration, including another Jackson title, and the rest hold to the same psychological gothic territory where the horror is atmospheric and domestic and the dread arrives before any single event justifies it.

10 audiobooks for fans of We Have Always Lived in the Castle

  1. 1
    "The Haunting of Hill House Novel cover

    "The Haunting of Hill House Novel

    by Shirley Jackson

    Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

    3.89 ABR Score (413.4K ratings)
    ★ 3.81 Goodreads (402.1K) ★ 3.98 Audible (11.3K)
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    Four paranormal investigators enter America's most malevolent house, where the real terror isn't ghosts but psychological breakdown. Jackson's subtle psychological horror unfolds beautifully in audio format.

  2. 2
    The Mist cover

    The Mist

    Skeleton Crew • Book 1

    by Stephen King

    Narrated by Will Patton

    4.43 ABR Score (187.6K ratings)
    ★ 3.93 Goodreads (183.8K) ★ 4.58 Audible (3.8K)
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    Shoppers trapped in a supermarket face otherworldly creatures lurking in a mysterious mist outside. Will Patton's tense narration captures the claustrophobic horror as civilization breaks down inside the store.

  3. 3
    The Amityville Horror cover

    The Amityville Horror

    by Jay Anson

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    4.24 ABR Score (147.1K ratings)
    ★ 3.83 Goodreads (138.4K) ★ 4.38 Audible (8.7K)
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    Ray Porter's deadpan delivery transforms this into pure psychological dread—he sells the slow-burn terror without ever overselling it, making the escalating haunting feel disturbingly plausible.

  4. 4
    The Woman in Black cover

    The Woman in Black

    by Susan Hill, John Lawrence

    Narrated by Paapa Essiedu

    4.22 ABR Score (84.9K ratings)
    ★ 3.76 Goodreads (83.2K) ★ 4.51 Audible (1.7K)
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    Arthur Kipps encounters a vengeful spirit while handling a deceased client's estate in the isolated Eel Marsh House. Paapa Essiedu's atmospheric reading heightens Hill's Victorian-style ghost story with elegant restraint.

  5. 5
    I Am Legend cover

    I Am Legend

    by Richard Matheson

    Narrated by Robertson Dean

    4.20 ABR Score (170.3K ratings)
    ★ 4.05 Goodreads (154.9K) ★ 4.21 Audible (15.3K)
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    Robertson Dean captures the isolation and desperation of humanity's last survivor hunting vampires by day and hiding by night.

  6. 6
    Terror in the Shadows Vol. 11: Horror Short Stories Collection with Scary Ghosts, Paranormal & Supernatural Monsters cover

    Terror in the Shadows Vol. 11: Horror Short Stories Collection with Scary Ghosts, Paranormal & Supernatural Monsters

    Terror in the Shadows • Book 11

    by Kathryn St. John-Shin, Scare Street, Ron Ripley, David Longhorn, Sara Clancy, Anna Sinjin, Johnny Raven, Bronson Carey

    Narrated by Johnny Raven

    3.68 ABR Score (106 ratings)
    ★ 4.41 Goodreads (82) ★ 4.83 Audible (24)
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    Thirteen supernatural tales explore vengeful bullies from beyond, medical procedures gone wrong, and nature's violent revenge. The variety spans ghostly tormentors to hungry amphibian swarms in this expertly curated collection.

  7. 7
    Blithecraft: an anthology of weird tales cover

    Blithecraft: an anthology of weird tales

    by C.R. Tyroak

    Narrated by Gareth Richards

    3.45 ABR Score (17 ratings)
    ★ 5 Goodreads (3) ★ 3.93 Audible (14)
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    C.R. Tyroak's collection spans fishing ports to Cumbrian fells to alien observatories, all rendered in classical weird fiction style. The narrator captures both contemporary elements and old-fashioned atmospheric dread.

  8. 8
    21st Century Dead cover

    21st Century Dead

    Dead of Night #1.1 Jack and Jill

    by Christopher Golden, John M. McIlveen, Rio Youers

    Narrated by Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, Bernadette Dunne, Richard Powers, Kirby Heyborne, Malcolm Hillgartner, Chris Patton, John Pruden, Renée Raudman, Stefan Rudnicki

    3.49 ABR Score (897 ratings)
    ★ 3.45 Goodreads (790) ★ 3.75 Audible (107)
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    This zombie anthology spans from Robopocalypse tie-ins to unpublished Stephen King, with ten different narrators handling each story's unique voice and terror.

  9. 9
    The Stand cover

    The Stand

    by Stephen King

    Narrated by Grover Gardner

    4.91 ABR Score (922.6K ratings)
    ★ 4.35 Goodreads (841.5K) ★ 4.69 Audible (81.1K)
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    After a plague wipes out most of humanity, survivors choose between Mother Abagail's godly Boulder and Randall Flagg's sinister Las Vegas. Grover Gardner's narration spans this epic battle between good and evil.

  10. 10
    The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft cover

    The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft

    by H.P. Lovecraft, Eric Carl Link

    Narrated by Andrew Leman, Sean Branney

    4.57 ABR Score (39.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.34 Goodreads (37.4K) ★ 4.63 Audible (2.6K)
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    Fifty-one hours of cosmic horror from Cthulhu to Dunwich, with Andrew Leman and Sean Branney channeling Lovecraft's antiquated dread across his complete works.

How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

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