I tend to focus primarily on books on this site, but this week I decided to branch out into a new medium—podcasts! I just finished listening to Season 1 of Limetown, a podcast drama produced last summer about mysterious disappearances, mind-blowing scientific advancements, and the quest for truth, even in the face of death.
Limetown is a fictional podcast in the style of a radio show, much like the ever popular Welcome to Nightvale. Or so I’ve heard anyway, since I haven’t actually listened to Nightvale, yet. Podcasts are a new medium for me, and I find myself easily intimidated by the idea of committing to a long series with so many episodes. For this reason, my friend recommended that I start with Limetown, which has a similar sense of sci-fi spookiness but on a much more easily digestible scale.
Limetown tells the story of Leah Haddock, an investigative journalist determined to discover the truth about a research facility called Limetown where three hundred inhabitants mysteriously vanished ten years before. Leah risks her life to meet up with survivors and broadcast their stories to the world. However, the deeper she gets in, the more dangerous it becomes. At first mostly concerned with finding out what happened to the missing inhabitants, especially her estranged uncle, Leah soon learns that she should be asking some bigger questions: What exactly were they researching in Limetown? What did they discover there? And who is trying to hide it?
The podcast is delightfully dark, with the air of suspense and conspiracy reminiscent of some of TV’s great paranormal dramas. Its interview style, consisting mostly of dialogue between Leah and the witnesses she finds, strongly reminded me of the audiobook of World War Z. While similar to an audiobook in some ways, Limetown, as a podcast, was also enhanced by sound effects and the sense of being released in real time. These elements came together to create a truly compelling story.
So far only one season of Limetown has been produced, consisting of 6 episodes and a handful of smaller mini-updates. Two-Up Productions has hinted at plans for another season sometime in the future. Perhaps even more exciting, the producers recently signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster to publish a prequel! I’m very interested to see how this story will translate from podcast to written word. Two-Up Productions has also announced possible plans for a television adaptation.
It looks like many exciting things are ahead for Limetown, so now is the perfect time to hop on the bandwagon! Once you listen to it, let me know what you think in the comments. And feel free to share your other spooky podcast recommendations.
YES I AM SO GLAD YOU DID THE THING! It killed me– did it kill you? It was so well-produced, and so well told. I think the way they revealed the information was a really great pace in terms of suspense vs pay off.
Yes, loved it! It’s not my usual genre, but was super well-done and I got really invested. It was so short though, and I really can’t wait for them to do another season!