A

Food for thought

Revisado: 08-10-22

Interesting premise that manages to avoid being overly judgmental. Tells the story of bias in the first Oxford dictionary without painting every man or upper class person as the enemy the way so many works about such biases do. This is not a light read but for those interested in language and how it relates to those who speak it, it is well worth the credit.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Very wordy

Revisado: 08-02-22

Everything is given a long flowery description. The individual descriptions are pretty - the author knows how to put words together - but so many descriptions are unnecessary and become a little tedious. Otherwise the story is fine. No action or romance but a nice story about people.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Happy easy little story

Revisado: 07-31-22

Nothing too intense or involved, not great literature, just a nice little feel-good story.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Engrossing but...

Revisado: 11-11-20

I found the book engrossing enough, though not "unputdownable." As for the mystery, there are plot twists but don't look to amass a collection of clues that lead logically to Colonel Mustard in the study with a candlestick. This is less a "whodunnit" and more of a "did he do it." If you can appreciate that type of mystery you may enjoy this book. I only had two complaints. I found the female narration, which was most of the book, to be very annoying. Her voice was pleasant, she didn't overdramatize the way some narrators do, and the voices she used for the characters' dialogue were fine. But during regular narration she used a weird inflection pattern that didn't sound like normal speech and had nothing to do with the content she was reading at any given time. My other complaint is that I disliked the main protagonist. There were characters you were supposed to dislike and the writer did a good job with those. But I felt like I should like the protagonist yet found her to be juvenile, somewhat selfish and often clueless. Since the story was told mostly from her POV, the annoying narration may have contributed to the feeling.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Too long

Revisado: 01-07-20

The good: Fantastic narration. The author did a great job setting mood. He also did a good job with characters' thoughts and inner voices. Some reviews compared this to Stephen King and I agree -- reminiscent of King in his prime. The author was also good at making eerie, disturbing imagery without being overtly twisted or gory.
The not-so-good: Very loooong. The book could easily lose 5-10 hours and probably be better for it. I almost wrote that the plot is too rambling, but that isn't quite right. It doesn't really ramble. There seems to be intent behind every twist and turn; there's just no good reason for them. And finally, it's just too apocalyptic and biblical for my taste. Not that either is necessarily bad, just not my thing. I was more turned off by the apocalyptic aspect than the biblical one, but if you don't like religion incorporated into your good vs. evil epics, you might not enjoy this one.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Good book, bad narrator

Revisado: 04-28-17

The book was great - original story and quirky, interesting characters. I couldn't stop listening. Once I got used to the narration. Had I not been in the car with a long commute ahead of me when I started listening, I probably would've returned the book after the first 5 minutes. Fortunately I quickly got hooked on the story and learned to tolerate the narration. The narrator tended to emphasize the wrong words making it sound weird and unprofessional. Every sentence and situation was read the same way, so the humor was lost, different types of emotional situations all sounded the same, and it all sounded like someone who had never heard conversational English before. She was slightly better when reading dialogue, and she did a decent job of male voices and making the characters distinguishable, but her weird manner of reading the non-dialogue portions really detracted from the book. Also, the narrator spoke with a British accent, rather than Australian. I enjoy British narrators, but I will avoid this one. If you are particular about narration you would do well to stick to the print version of this book.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

One of the best

Revisado: 04-13-17

Don't let the mystical horse fool you, this isn't fantasy or sci fi. And though there are puzzles to solve, I wouldn't classify it as a full-blown mystery either. But if you don't go in expecting a typical book from a specific genre and can live with a good, original, fiction story with some mystery and a dash of something magical, this is an amazing listen. I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks and this is one of the best.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Pointlessly creepy

Revisado: 02-25-17

This was definitely a creepy book, but there seemed to be no point to it. No good explanation of why things were the way they were, just a mishmash of concepts and imagery that ranged from creepy to plain cringe-worthy.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Bad narration

Revisado: 09-19-16

The narrator did a fantastic job with voicing the secondary characters but sounded like a caricature of the stereotypical voice-over in an action movie trailer when narrating the story or voicing the main character. Way too dramatic. I wish his narration was as great as his voices, but as it is I couldn't get past it and returned the book without finishing it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not for adults

Revisado: 01-13-16

I am too old to enjoy teen angst, so I really can't stand that same lack of maturity in someone who is supposed to be an adult, albeit a young one. "Ooooh, I'm just so DAMAGED!" "Ooooh, a crazy woman became obsessed with me and killed my parents before I even knew she existed so my parents' deaths were ALL MY FAULT!!" "Ooooh, a crazy vampire is obsessed with me and is threatening my friends, therefore my friends are at risk ALL BECAUSE OF ME!!!" Get over yourself, Scarlett. The only saving grace is that occasionally -- though not nearly enough -- one of her friends will call her out on her BS. But then that makes it seem like the author knows how immature and self-absorbed the main character is and carries on with it anyway. The story was able to carry me through the first book and make me want to see what happened next, but I'm not sure I will even be able to finish the second one. Perhaps Scarlett will mature in a later book, but I'll never know.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 11 personas