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Ok Story, Grating Narrator

Revisado: 03-22-22

The story itself is just okay. A little bit of insta-love (like one minute two characters hate each other, and then with basically no development, they’re wildly in love…eye roll). A bit steamy—I actually prefer fewer to no sex scenes, but if that is your cup of tea, I’d rate this as medium-steamy. All told, not great, but not terrible for this genre.

But the narrator. Honestly, if it weren’t for her, I’d go ahead and get the next book in the series for a rainy day, but I honestly don’t know if I can make it through another book of this narration. She does a good enough job of varying the voices between characters, but her voice has a contrived quality that is difficult to explain, but which I found incredibly grating after a few hours.

I will try to describe it: you know “indie girl voice” in music? When a singer will pronounce things in a weird way, adding random R and I sounds around their vowels, and being overall super whispery? Like it sounds like they’re singing from the back of their throat? Selena Gomez is the best example I can think of at the moment.

Now, imagine that…but in spoken narration. This narrator sounds like she’s talking in indie girl voice, like she has a throat full of cotton balls. Some people may not be bothered by this. I was not *super* annoyed by it at first. But by hour two, it was incredibly annoying. And by hour four, it was just about intolerable.

I actually hate it when singers do this. Well, as it turns out, it’s worse when one isn’t singing. And it feels completely contrived. I tried listening to samples from other books this narrator has done, just to see if I’m crazy. As it turns out, she *doesn’t* do it in every book she narrates. So why is she doing it here? It drove me absolutely crazy. To the point that I almost didn’t finish.

Look, the book itself is cheap entertainment. But give the sample a close listen. If you like indie girl voice, you may well be unbothered by this narration. But if you, like me, wonder why singers who do this don’t just have a cup of tea and enunciate, this may get as old to you as it got to me.

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Tiresome

Revisado: 03-11-22

I stuck it out for this whole series, hoping America would truly get her comeuppance. I won’t spoil anything but I found this…unsatisfying.

First, let me start with the narrator. I didn’t really have a problem with the narration for the first book, and maybe half of the second. But then the narrator’s quirks began to grate. She has what I can only call a flat accent, which makes her pronounce certain words (like “me,” pronounced MAY, and “what” (which the author repeats ad nauseam—like seriously, you could make a decent drinking game out of this), pronounced with a flattish A that makes the word sound like a kind of squawk) in an increasingly irritating way.

America herself is extremely irritating as a character. I kept waiting for her to get less self-involved and histrionic, but nope. If anything, her behavior is rewarded more and more. And Maxom—he never really gets taken to task for his hypocrisy as much as I would have liked. This made this a very annoying listen. More often than not, I was rolling my eyes. I was tempted more than once to skip forward or stop altogether, but, unfortunately, I was too committed by that point.

Honestly, the first book was entertaining, but I probably should’ve stopped there. The next two in the series are full of America coming to realizations about how much she sucks, AND THEN NOT DOING ANYTHING TO FIX IT. Extremely tiresome.

(Also, I know the rationale behind our protagonist’s name is explained, but America is an asinine name. It took me out of the story. I kept mentally correcting to ‘Mare’ because that was a bit more palatable).

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Rapey

Revisado: 02-25-22

Wish I had known that this included an almost lascivious description of sexual assault. No thank you. Also, the narrator was not my cup of tea, and the writing was subpar, often confusing. Scenes are summarized rather than written out, our protagonist’s personality is hard to discern, and the narrator uses this strange, deep voice for the protagonist that isn’t all that different from the voice she uses for male characters. Did not finish.

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Same Story, Same Characters

Revisado: 08-25-21

Why is it that every female protagonist in this kind of story has the same personality (stubborn, quick to anger, kind of dumb)?

This book actually had potential—there is some good writing scattered intermittently throughout, and it is, at times, funny. Really wish the author had leaned into the humor more. And really wish the author hadn’t given her female lead this same, tired, frustrating personality.

The characters are enemies at first and then they’re just…not. There’s no real transition into love. They’re just all of a sudden head over heels. And don’t even get me started on the rather unnecessary overtures of rapeyness from some of the bad guys.

The dialogue is stilted, the magic system vague, and the curse itself confusing. Lara’s voice, which the books description makes sound like it’s a central plot point, barely figures into much of anything, and don’t even get me started on the weird fixation a lot of fantasy/romance writers have on red hair, pale skin, and green eyes (POC don’t exist at all in a lot of these books).

Also, a minor thing, but the book is written with a bunch of Britishisms, but both narrators are American. Made some things sound strange (ex. calling cabinets cupboards, saying ‘meant to’ instead of ‘supposed to’, etc.).

Look, I went into this expecting an easy, fun read, not a literary masterpiece. But honestly the same annoying tropes over and over again gets frustrating, and makes it so that I’m just irritated while listening. At least have the creativity to try something new.

One good thing I can say is that the male narrator is quite good. Would listen to more of him.

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Surprisingly Good

Revisado: 08-21-21

The cover art led me to believe this would be a fluffy story that is mostly overwrought romance. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is actually mostly a fantasy adventure with a hint of romance.

It isn’t smutty, as I thought it might be, and the story is actually decent. I genuinely enjoyed this and was more invested than I thought I was going to be.

The good: the main character’s transformation over the course of the story is actually well done. There is a kind of allegory at work here that deals with themes of racism/prejudice. There is an awesome talking dog, the heroine is not overly stupid, and the pacing is great—I never got bored.

The bad: I enjoyed this narrator for literally every character except the goblin king. He’s supposed to be kind of hot and mysterious, and for some reason she chose to narrate him like a creepy old man. It’s off-putting. Some of the characters can fall slightly flat sometimes, and Freya definitely strays into Mary Sue territory a few times.

Overall, though, this was a very enjoyable, light, fantasy quest narrative. I’m excited for the next installment in the series.

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It’s a no for me

Revisado: 08-13-21

I liked this at first. And then the protagonist just became way too irritating. Bullheaded to a fault—it got really hard to root for her. I also found the central mystery very predictable. I’d figured it out quickly, and so watching the protagonist stumble around cluelessly was frustrating.

Even when the answer to the mystery was literally right in front of her she still. Didn’t. Get it. Really dislike this pervasive trope of a very dumb female protagonist who lacks common sense and won’t listen to those who have it.

Then, the narrator. I may be in the minority here, but I really didn’t care for this reading. Struggled to finish. First of all, I really can’t fathom why they’d choose a British narrator who cannot pronounce Italian words to narrate a story that takes place in Italy. As an Italian speaker, listening to this narrator bungle Italian words was…painful. And then certain characters were narrated with a strong Italian accent and it was just cartoonish. Awful.

And second of all, the narrator had this habit of saying part of the sentence in a near whisper, and then hardening her tone into this throaty kind of drawl. This happened pretty much in every sentence. Nearly 20 hours of that and it grew to be like nails on a chalkboard.

Overall, I was actually into this book at first. Wish the author hadn’t felt the need to randomly accelerate the sexual tension between Emilia and Wrath—it felt forced and didn’t make sense. A few too many convenient revelations, and an annoyingly obvious mystery. Ultimately, both the narrator and the protagonist simply grew too grating for me. Unfortunately, I will not listen to the sequel.

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Now I Can See the Movie

Revisado: 08-25-18

I really wanted to read this book before going to see the movie, but I kept putting it off because I had a hunch this was going to be that particular brand of brainless "chick-lit" (a term I hate) that is as predictable as it is lazy. This certainly is not a great literary masterpiece, and it's (mostly) predictable, but I'm really glad I finally got around to it, because it was a lot of fun.

I was surprised by how engrossed I got in this story, and I will say that at some points, my enjoyment of the story seemed to be in spite of, instead of because of, the characters. Nick, Nick, Nick. This may be a hot take, but I really did not like him. His cluelessness was so ridiculous as to be unbelievable, and even if it was genuine, it would still be unforgivable for him to be that dense. There were so many points at which his decision to withhold information from Rachel, the woman he claims to love, is baffling at best, and infuriating at worst.

And Rachel was often not much better. It's one thing for a character to be a bit naive, but Rachel was often so slow on the uptake that it was frustrating. She is an unusually intelligent and independent female lead for this genre--and genuinely so, unlike some other books that will make the female protagonist a doctor or something so it checks off the 'independent woman' box, only to have her tittering and swooning over some man by page six. But I wanted Rachel to be a little less shy of confrontation. She is an intelligent, level-headed woman--I wanted to see her character come into her own power a little bit more.

Something must be said of the narration. Other reviewers have commented robustly on Lynn Chen's bad narration. I felt for Chen. She has to handle so many different accents, and so many different characters. But it's true: she does not do it well. Her accents were as awful as everybody is saying they were. I didn't think I would notice, as I don't speak any Chinese, but...I could tell. And her accents in the languages I do speak were equally cringe-worthy. And when she is not doing a bad accent, she reads a bit like a high schooler who's been called upon to read in front of the class. Her acting is poor. She is very much *reading*, as opposed to performing.

All that being said, this was a fun, light read. I am looking forward to seeing the movie now that I've read the book, and I think I will be continuing the series.

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This is a Sad One

Revisado: 08-14-18

I generally steer clear from books about animals, or with a significant animal character, because, seemingly invariably, the animal dies in the end, and it makes me really, really sad. I overrode my usual reservation for Damian Dibben's Tomorrow because Tomorrow, according to the book's description, is an immortal dog. So he couldn't die in the end, or, I figured, if he somehow did, it might be less sad because he'd lived for centuries.

Well, I'm not going to give anything away, but Tomorrow is, indeed, an immortal dog, and this book is still very, very sad. Tomorrow's odyssey in search of his master is punctuated by his recollections of the long life he had with the man. It's really poignant, at times pretty harsh stuff. Tomorrow is a keen observer of the human condition, and does not shy from reflecting on man's capacity for good as well as his capacity for incredible cruelty.

Tomorrow makes friends with other humans, and other animals over the course of his long years. Of his animal friends, his fellow dog, Sporco, is the most memorable. This character is delightful, and their journey together is as poignant and beautifully wrought as the larger story of Tomorrow and his master. Expect this to be atmospheric, tense, funny, delightful, and ultimately heartwrenching.

If I could, I would give the story three and a half stars. This is because, at times, it really does drag. The book is long, necessarily I think, and there is certainly plenty of action, but there are moments in the story during which I found my mind wandering. And, despite this book being about a dog, one of nature's most joyful animals, I found that things fell flat a little bit, and it took me a while to put my finger on why.

I think it's because Tomorrow is so serious. There are times at which Dibben truly allows him to be a dog, and that's when this book is working at its best. But often, and perhaps it's because of his long life, Tomorrow comes across as rather joyless in a very human way, and I wanted him to retain more dogness even as he has the wisdom of centuries and an anthropomorphic sentience. This book gets heavy, and Tomorrow being a lighter (though no less uncanny and wise) character I think would have balanced things out a bit.

George Blagden does an excellent job as a narrator. It took me a while to really appreciate him, because he has such a soft, soothing voice, and during the parts in the story that dragged, his soft voice made it all the harder to not drift off. But he handles various voices and accents, and even languages, exceptionally well. I can't imagine any of the characters sounding any different from how Blagden narrated them.

All told, this was a very sad book. But I'm glad I didn't miss it. This will stick with me for a while, and yes, I may have gotten really bummed at a few points, but what a well-written, beautifully imagined (and well-researched) exploration of the nature of humanity, the nature of dogs, and the nature of love.

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A Classic that Fell Flat

Revisado: 08-02-18

It took me some time before I was able to put my finger on exactly why this was unpleasant for me to listen to. It has all the elements of good fantasy--the classic hero who comes up from nothing, a comprehensive magic system, a quest, a likeable yet fallible main character, etc. And the shadow that the description references is a very cool concept. I should have liked this. But by hour 2 or 3, it felt like a chore to finish it.

I think the main issue for me was the writing. The writing is not bad, but it is somehow both simple to a fault, and dramatic. I understand this is a classic, written originally in the 60s, but the language was so stilted in places it was just annoying to listen to. I agree with another reviewer who said the story lacked something. It just didn't grip me the way I thought it would.

Rob Inglis is a capable, if imperfect narrator. His voice breaks frequently, which at first, I didn't mind, but got minorly grating near the end. It's odd that I found him so mediocre here, when I absolutely love his narration of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. All in all, this book was not engaging for me. Thematically, I found it very interesting, and I don't think I can blame the fact that it's old because of my love of Tolkien, but I found this ultimately boring.

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Dark, But Really Good

Revisado: 07-31-18

I was surprised by how much I liked this. I wasn't sure about it when I purchased, but I let the good reviews persuade me, and I'm really glad I did. What a great take on the Peter Pan/Captain Hook story. There's certainly a lot of action and mystery and suspense, but to me, what really drives this story forward are the questions it raises about boyhood and childhood, devotion, coming of age, and loss.

This book is definitely dark--lots of death and blood. But it's never gratuitous. Jaime is such a well-developed character, and his coming-of-age is engaging, especially as it's set against this backdrop of the Island, and Peter. Peter himself is part of what makes this story so fantastic. Just *what* is Peter Pan? That question will be haunting me for a long time.

The narrator was great too. I felt he really captured Jaime's voice, and had an appropriate emotional range without ever going over the top. I haven't read Christina Henry before, but I'll definitely be checking out her other work--I've been on the fence about Alice for a while, and this book may have pushed me over the edge. I really enjoyed this.

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