Kristen Barenthaler
Bio
Curious adventurer. Crazed reader. Librarian. Archery instructor. True crime addict.
Instagram: @kristenbarenthaler
Facebook: @kbarenthaler
Stories (370)
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The Latch
There is a practice that holds a place between habit and superstition in the lane: a set of small, unspoken behaviors everyone follows. It grew from a season when ordinary things began to misbehave—mirrors that showed rooms that were not there, reflections that lagged a breath behind the person who cast them, lamps that bent their light away from certain thresholds, music that drifted down the street and stopped at the gate. People learned that some openings answered back, and that answering could change the shape of a life. Out of that learning came rules: ways of moving, of refusing, of tending one another so that the strange things might pass by without being invited in. The rules are not written; they are taught by consequence and by the steady, patient care of neighbors who prefer to keep one another whole.
By Kristen Barenthaler10 days ago in Fiction
Not Vanishing
My central concern is that I will be forgotten. I am afraid my name will stop being said aloud. I am afraid the people who knew me will not tell stories about me. I am afraid the work I do will be erased from records and memory. I am afraid the small kindnesses I offered will be unremembered.
By Kristen Barenthaler10 days ago in Poets
A Door Ajar
The morning began like a promise someone had almost kept. Light came in through the kitchen window in a thin, apologetic strip, as if the sun had remembered at the last minute and was still tying its shoes. On the table, a mug with a lipstick crescent at the rim cooled beside a folded map whose edges were softened by being looked at too often. The map was open to a place whose name the narrator had practiced saying in the shower, in the car, under the breath of the houseplants. The syllables felt like a borrowed coat: warm enough, but not yet fitted.
By Kristen Barenthaler10 days ago in Fiction
The Knot
Myth They tell it as a lesson: Icarus soared on wings of wax and feathers, drunk on the sun, and fell because he would not listen. The story is short and sharp, a moral carved into children’s mouths. It leaves no room for the small, ordinary things that make up a life.
By Kristen Barenthaler10 days ago in Fiction
Hallowbridge
The Town That Forgot The town of Hallowbridge sat in a fold of hills where the river slowed into a wide, glassy bend. In autumn the maples flamed and the air smelled of woodsmoke and apples; in winter the streets were neat with snow and the lamplight turned the drifts to gold. The town had a single main street—brick sidewalks, a hardware store with a bell that never stopped jingling, a bakery that opened at dawn, and a library whose windows always steamed in the mornings. People knew one another by the sound of their footsteps and the way they left their porches at dusk. It was the kind of place where the past felt like a neighbor you could borrow sugar from.
By Kristen Barenthaler10 days ago in Fiction
Maple Street Moon
The moon was on Mrs. Halvorsen’s porch. It had been there when I walked past at seven, a pale, pocked globe the size of a bathtub, cradled in the wicker swing as if it had come to borrow a cup of sugar. It hummed faintly, like a refrigerator left on the back porch, and when I stopped to look the cat that lived under the swing blinked at it and went back to licking its paws. Mrs. Halvorsen sat on the step with a knitting basket in her lap and a mug of something steaming beside her, and she waved at me as if the sight of a celestial body parked on her stoop were the most ordinary thing in the world.
By Kristen Barenthaler10 days ago in Fiction
Smooth Error
The Pulse Mara learned to read the city the way her grandmother read weather: by the way light pooled on the sidewalks, by the cadence of footsteps, by the hush that fell when the trams slowed. Then the Pulse arrived — a single, humming system that promised to make everything efficient. It listened to traffic, to power grids, to hospital wait times, to the number of empty chairs in cafés. It promised fewer shortages, faster commutes, cleaner air. It promised that the city would finally behave like a well-tuned instrument.
By Kristen Barenthaler10 days ago in Humans
Flames of Deception: Boston’s Arson Epidemic. Content Warning.
Welcome to The True Crime Reader, the podcast that goes deep into the world of true crime literature, bringing you the stories behind today’s most gripping investigative works and in this episode, we take you to a city under siege—not by an outside force, but from within.
By Kristen Barenthalerabout a month ago in Criminal
Postcard from Bangor
Welcome to “Postcards Between Pages,” where we journey to places where stories come alive, and the landscape speaks with the echoes of literary giants. Today, we’re mailing you an audio postcard straight from Bangor, Maine—home to SK Tours of Bangor and the heart of Stephen King’s legendary world. Together, we’ll traverse the eerie streets and storied landmarks that inspired the King of Horror, listen to tales and whispers from beyond the page, and unravel how Bangor’s soul has shaped the nightmares and dreams of readers across the globe.
By Kristen Barenthalerabout a month ago in Wander
Two Teens, One Bus, and a Nation Watching. Content Warning.
Hello, and welcome to “The True Crime Reader,” where we dig beneath the headlines to unravel the stories that shape our understanding of crime, justice, and society. Today’s episode takes us to Oakland, California, for the story behind Dashka Slater’s powerful nonfiction book, “The 57 Bus”—a case that stunned the Bay Area and reverberated across the country.
By Kristen Barenthalerabout a month ago in Criminal
