margaret

Excellent new take on a favorite from my childhood

Revisado: 03-25-25

I read the adventures of Tom and Huck both when I was a pre-teen and fell in love with the idea of having adventures. As an adult, I really felt like I could identify with Jim’s humanity. The agency of the character was well developed through his intelligence. It made him relatable to me, despite my having absolutely nothing in common with him. Extremely well done, on many levels.

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Very timely

Revisado: 03-16-25

I wish everyone with outdated patriarchal views of gender, sex and sexuality were somehow obliged to read this. Not that many don’t still make the conscious decision to remain ignorant, or ignore reality. I don’t consider my social or scientific views conservative by any means, but this book still managed to further broaden my knowledge and opinions.

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Brilliant. Something new and beautiful. A few trigger warnings.

Revisado: 06-26-24

Very clever use of metaphor that finally came together for me at the end. It was a bit of a slow start, but the dreaminess of the narration and word painting, plus intrigue over the premise in the synopsis, kept me engaged as the story built. The characters were very engaging.

Trigger warning and spoiler alert (although you just know it’s coming from a long way off in the story anyway): there was violence toward a dog in this book. It’s not when they went looking for the dog, as I was worried then, so fear not at that part. Anyway, I skipped over the part in the story where it actually happens, but not quite enough to not get some sense of what had happened. Still glad I skipped over the details. You’ll be able to tell it’s coming, just make sure you skip well enough past it if you’re also sensitive to that sort of thing.

Another trigger warning is there are some pretty strong references to rape, though thankfully no graphic details.

Those ugly bits aside, I would say most of the book is beautiful and endearing. As other reviewers have spoiled a bit, this is, ultimately, a love story between two men. As a straight female, I felt it was a very human story of love and not at all gratuitous. This did not read like a dime store romance. The story wasn’t just a vehicle. In fact, the premise was very original and captivating.

As others have noted, the author’s gift for imagery went above and beyond. Oftentimes I feel like authors stretch too much to try to paint a scene. They describe people or things in ways that leave me saying aloud “what does that even mean? how can a laugh sound like broken glass?” or some such nonsense. This author describes richly in (mostly) plausible sensations. I loved that about this book as much as the actual story. This is probably the longest review I’ve written, and this is one of the best books I’ve listened to in quite a while. I listened to about the last 3/4 of it in one day. Couldn’t ‘put it down.’

Last quick note about the narrator: loved his voice, and love me a Yorkshire accent. Even when he was going for Lucien’s posh, a little York slipped out now and then and was adorable. Going to look for more from him now just to listen to him talk. lol!

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Another excellent read from this author

Revisado: 06-21-24

I so enjoy these books. The character development and storytelling are really well done. I also enjoy this narrator. He’s a really good fit for the story and characters. Looking forward to more from this author.

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Unique story, great writing, excellent narration

Revisado: 05-16-24

Not much more to say than that. I’d be keen to read more from this author. Great characters and character development. I was engaged from beginning to end.

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Poor writing, poorer narration

Revisado: 07-25-23

Tried to return it, but can't as it was only $4.89 so I paid with credit card rather than audible credit. Turns out it's not even worth that. Book is only 4 hours long, and after a quarter of the way through, precisely zero interesting things had happened. The main character's thoughts are uninteresting and add nothing to the story, her relationship with her boyfriend is not believable...so far there is really nothing to recommend the writing. The narration is worse. Breathy, sing-songy, and a posh accent that sounds practiced. I even tried to look up the narrator to see if she was actually American. Whittaker sounds like she's reading a children's book while wafting about a room pretending she's a ballerina. I knew I wouldn't be able to listen to it for another three hours. Just not worth it, unfortunately, as the premise sounded promising.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Alright

Revisado: 02-08-23

It was entertaining. Not the best book I’ve listened to, but I’d consider another by this author. There were a few things about the writer’s style I found somewhat annoying, but not that stopped me listening to the whole thing. Narrator was ok too. Not spectacular, but fine.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Unique ghost story, great narrator

Revisado: 01-06-23

I’m not quite happy with the ending, but it’s not always good for stories to turn out like you think they should, so I’m fine with it. Overall I thought it was good storytelling and excellent narration. I liked that he didn’t try to raise and soften his voice to try to sound more feminine for spoken female parts. And he has a very soothing story voice all around. Very pleasant easy listening. I think I’ll look for more from both narrator and author.

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Not my favorite of Ruiz Zafón’s work

Revisado: 12-27-22

I suppose I should have heeded the other reviews, but the premise sounded interesting, and I really liked the Cemetery of Forgotten books series. The writing was okay, but I found the story lacking overall. Just not his usual magic.

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Excellent as ever

Revisado: 09-07-22

Loved the epilogue on this one! I won’t spoil it for anyone, but suffice to say, Taylor’s wit and humor never disappoint.

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