By Sophie
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-dolKCPjo0
Available until: Unknown
A Perfect Family is yet another absolutely incredible story produced as a YouTube audio book by Moth Sanctuary Productions.
It tells the story of a doctor with a thriving practice who falls in love with a woman living in the area. She returns his feelings and the two are happy, deflecting the many questions about when they would have children, apparently feeling no need to conform to expectations.
But babies often arrive whether they are planned or not, particularly in the times in which this story is set. The couple have a daughter, Harriet. And then everything changes.
It is not uncommon for the relationship between a husband and wife to change following the arrival of a child. They are a family now and a child, particularly a baby, must be their first consideration. But the doctor in this story could not have imagined the ways in which his life would change.
Andrew Bate, who wrote and read this story, creates at first a story of romance and happiness, but gradually, he brings in the sense that something is not right. Andrew creates the sense of uneasiness, making us aware of the danger that lurks around the family, then slowly building it up and awakening us to the horror. Accompanying the story is some very beautiful and atmospheric music, creeping into the story at just the right points to increase the sense of terror.
The language is beautiful and rather formal, characteristic of writing in the time in which I’m guessing it is set, yet very individual and very much Andrew’s own style. There is little direct speech: the story is instead filled with vivid descriptions which allow you to visualise the world in which the doctor lives and the people he knows. There is warmth in Andrew’s voice and he never over-emphasises the horror or makes it sound dramatic – and perhaps that’s part of the secret of why his stories are so successful. He doesn’t guide the reader in how we should feel. He simply describes what is happened and lets our own emotions develop in response to what is happening. The result is a story which is as magnificent as it is chilling.
I won’t say which writer the story reminds me of as that might give too much away and there is always a danger that Andrew might not find the comparison a compliment. Also, as I have already said, Andrew has his own style; this is no second-rate or even first-rate imitation but the story of a talented writer with his own voice. But the writer I’m thinking of is I like very much and who is my favourite in the genre… or he was. It’s fair to say this writer now has some very strong competition.
A Perfect Family is a remarkable story from an exceptional
writer. (And I don’t even like audio books, usually. They’ve always scared me a
bit because I can’t always trust my ears to hear things accurately. But I think
I’m officially converted.)
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