Deep in the Fens, there is a hotel. It's been there a very long time in one form or another, and it's both very popular and slightly off-putting. It was built on the site of a farm, run by a woman ostracized and killed for being a witch, and has maintained the legacy of her 63 jars with the strange things that happen in room 63. That, and the ominous phrase "I'll see you soon" which follows through from the past and appears in a few different locations.
This collection of horror shorts (only 15 minutes apiece) have hints of Stephen King's 1408, being based around the hotel, but also put me vaguely in mind of The Magnus Archives, due to the anthology nature of various stories built within a bigger framework. However this is also more pointed, with the stories focusing more specifically on women's fears, with all of them told from a female viewpoint with female readers.
Aside from the aforementioned witch, there's one of the people breaking ground on the hotel, one of the cleaners, a woman visiting on an underwhelming hen-do, and someone on a work conference. (There's more, but I'm currently only halfway through the series.) "Conference" has thus far been the most powerful of these in my mind, with workplace sexism being layered on in gentle but persistent drips, adding up to a very uncomfortable end result. It contains the most real life horror, carefully teasing with the supernatural edge that only accentuates, rather than drives.
All of the readers are fairly compelling, and I'm certainly going to be listening to the rest of this. It had initially felt a bit "gentle" for my liking, with the horror being very subtle, and my general disinterest in ghosts, but it's grown over several episodes, and I'm now rather taken. This is one I suggest you give a listen to.
Tagged: Radio Drama Monologue Fiction Horror