The Face They Paid For
A Novel of Silence and InheritanceBy Justin Burrus
Length14h 38m
About this audiobook
Pittsburgh, 1987. Cameraman Daniel Whitfield is behind on rent, his wife is seven months pregnant, and a silver-haired stranger with a gold pen offers him more money than he has ever held to film eleven Tuesday-night shows in Harlan Pruett's old ballroom.
The shows are a minstrel revival, played for a paying audience that laughs. The contract has a penalty clause on page four. The stagehands keep getting hurt. And in the corner of every room Daniel sits silent in, something tall and patient is waiting: the same shape he drew in crayon as a boy.
His father kept the family's silence like a vow. His uncle swallowed his. Now Daniel's daughter sees what he cannot, and one rule remains that no one in his family ever dared test: it grows on what you swallow, and it shrinks when you say it out loud.
A Black American historical horror novel about inheritance, silence, and looking straight at what has been looking at you. For mature readers.
Audiobook details
GenreHorror, Mystery and Thriller
Length14 hrs 38 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 5, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Face They Paid For
2Prologue — The Window
3Chapter One — The Empty Side of the Frame
4Chapter Two — The Advance
5Chapter Three — The Inch
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6Chapter Four — The Laughter
7Chapter Five — What the House Saw
8Chapter Six — The Recut
9Chapter Seven — The Pause
10Chapter Eight — The Corner
11Chapter Nine — The Book
12Chapter Ten — The Chandelier
13Chapter Eleven — Old Man in the Mirror
14Chapter Twelve — The Second Cup
15Chapter Thirteen — What Walter Wrote
16Chapter Fourteen — The Fitting Room
17Chapter Fifteen — The Booth
18Chapter Sixteen — The Back of the Calendar
19Chapter Seventeen — Show-Through, Part One: The Back
20Chapter Eighteen — Show-Through, Part Two: The Front
21Chapter Nineteen — What the Money Bought
22Chapter Twenty — The Call
23Chapter Twenty-One — Salt and Pepper
24Chapter Twenty-Two — Last Night
25Chapter Twenty-Three — The Edit
26Chapter Twenty-Four — The Screening
27Chapter Twenty-Five — Two
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