TONYA REED

Stories Within a Story with Listeners Left Wanting

Revisado: 01-01-25

I like a complex mystery, but this story wasn’t complex, but rather, overly complicated in a way that was distracting, if not irritating. There are too many stories within a story, and none of the tales totally satisfy the listener.

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Delightful!

Revisado: 12-25-24

About midway through, I almost abandoned ship. Too many unconnected pieces left me wanting to abort my listening efforts. I am happy that I pushed through the thoughts to cease listening. After the midway point the pieces gradually begin coming together to form an intriguing plot leading to a delightful end.

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Confusing ...

Revisado: 11-04-24

The audiobook is narrated and co-produced by Wesley Morris, a highly regarded music critic. It includes personal interviews with Stevie Wonder and his family, which is a real highlight. There’s also a lot of excitement with special guests like former POTUS and FLOTUS, Barack and Michelle Obama, along with Stevie himself. However, I found a few things distracting.

First, Morris’s narratives feel like they take away from Stevie’s music and legacy. His focus on race and politics sometimes feels overdone—Stevie Wonder is universally loved, and his music goes beyond race and politics. Second, Morris’s insistence that much of Stevie’s work is gospel music is confusing. Sure, there are church influences, but gospel music traditionally centers on themes like “Jesus, His Blood, and Him Crucified.” Yes, Stevie's music often references spiritual themes but. saying Stevie’s music is gospel doesn’t fit, even if Morris consulted with someone like Gospel legend, Yolanda Adams.

Finally, Morris repeatedly complains that Stevie isn’t acknowledged on the same level as bands like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, or Led Zeppelin. Honestly, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t recognize Stevie’s genius! He’s won the Grammy for Album of the Year three times! Wonder is one of only three artists in GRAMMY history to win Album Of The Year three times in his career. The others are Paul Simon and Frank Sinatra.

It feels out of touch to act like Stevie hasn’t received his fair share of praise and awards.

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Tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell?

Revisado: 09-07-24

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is one of my all-time favorite audiobooks.
The audiobook compelled me to binge-watch the TV mini-series, which I also enjoyed.
However, I cannot count the number of times I have listened to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell from beginning to end.
I will estimate that I've listened to JS&MN nothing short of 10 times since my first encounter with the book 4-years ago.

Without having read the summary of "Babel" which includes its comparison to JS&MN, I was immediately attracted to Babel's tone, storyline, and narration.

Babel is absolutely beautiful.

The footnotes were initially jarring --- I wasn't exactly sure what was happening.
The format of the footnote narrative may initially interrupt the book's overall flow.
However, the purpose of the footnote narrative is not lost or devalued. It is a valued aspect of the book.

I have not yet finished listening, but so far, I love this book and the author's writing style.
And, the point about "retorting" JS&MN is also not lost. The point is well taken.

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BORING. TERRIBLE. LONG, AND DRAWN OUT.

Revisado: 08-30-24

I became invested in The House Witch to the degree of wanting to know how his story ends. However, the follow-up offerings (The Burning Witch) tested the realms of the listener's patience. The narratives including Finley Ashowen (The House Witch) and his familiar, Kraken are brilliant. The storylines related to The First Witch and The Devil are intriguing. However, the narratives are interspersed with other boring storylines and characters, leaving it undesirable to wade through the boring narratives to hear the intriguing storylines. Lady Katarina Ashowan is my least favorite protagonist EVER. Her spouse, Erik, father --- Finley, and best friend Queen Alina and her husband, Brendan --- are much more captivating. Even the Fouchers are more interesting than the Fire Witch. Pina is cute, but unlike the familiar Kraken, many of the narratives related to Pina are silly. Book 3 is THE MOST LONG, DRAWN-OUT narrative I have ever listened to. A desire to know the end for Finley Ashowen compelled me to complete the book, but I just couldn't! I abandoned the ship for fear of being bored or "dumbed down" to tears. It was terrible!

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Arduous but Necessary for continued listening

Revisado: 07-23-24

So far, "The Burning Witch (TBW)" is my least favorite of this book series offerings. This opinion may (or may not) change upon reading/hearing the remaining offerings in TBW series.

This author's fantasy book series offerings have thus far consisted of light-hearted, humorous, and endearing love stories that are fun and easy to listen to. I loved "The House Witch..." books 1, 2 & 3, and the follow-up "The Princess Potential..." 

My main issue with TBW is the main protagonist, Katarina Ashowan. Unlike Kat's father, Finley Ashowen (the protagonist in the introductory books), and her best friend, the crown princess Alina (the protagonist in the follow-up book "The Princess Potential"), Katarina Ashowan DOES NOT possess any endearing qualities.  

From the start, Finley Ashowan is presented as handsome, intelligent, and mysterious, yet rough around the edges. He was rude and abrupt and caused an enormous amount of chaos. However ... THE MAN COULD COOK! He could cook GOOD FOOD, which endeared people to him. Everyone loved his cooking, and so they loved and tolerated Fin's antics. This combination made for loads of fun and good reading/listening! 

From the opening segment of "TPP," the crown princess Alina (the protagonist) is portrayed as sickly, which makes her flawed. Her birthright has placed her in an empowered position of Royalty, and yet, this young woman is portrayed and perceived as being terrified of her own shadow. Alina is thus endeared to the reader from the start.

Conversely, in TBW book 1 (and TPP), the protagonist Katarina Ashown is presented as highly magical, yet flawed, mainly because Kat is a major pain in the "wazoo." Period. Kat cannot create delicious and soul-stirring culinary delights, nor is she sickly or afraid. She is a purely naughty, bratty, and other-worldly individual who constantly creates chaos (while sometimes saving the day, last minute!), and gets on everyone's nerves. Even Kat's "familiar" started out as boring. Pina is portrayed as "cute," but not even remotely as intriguing as Kraken. By the end, however, I found Pina's magic endearing.

Also, unlike the other books that delve into the meat of the romantic love story, promptly, the ENTIRE TBW book 1 is a build-up to the love story. The plot and sub-plots plod along with slow-moving narratives and uninteresting activities that delay the anticipated love story. This causes the book to progress at a snail's pace. 

The crown prince, Eric's storyline is intriguing and therefore imperative to the narrative. Eric's narrative also represents great storytelling! An earlier and more in-depth focus on Eric could have contributed to the enjoyment of this TBW Book 1 installment. Unlike Kat, Eric does INDEED possess endearing qualities. Some of Eric's endearment is based on his history in the story as a child growing up alongside Finley Ashowen.

Also, what happened to Tam, Katrina's twin? Talk about an intriguing storyline! Hopefully, we will hear more about Tam, and hopefully, the anticipated romance will pick up momentum and be satisfying in the follow-up, Book 2, etc. Listening to Book 1 MAY BE necessary to know all the characters, but taking the time to listen is arduous.

Skipping Book 1 and proceeding directly to Book 2, might be possible. However, the reader might miss details related to character introductions and history. Book 1 might be necessary if there is no other reason than to derive the history of the characters. 

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Fun Series Continuation with Kraken in tow

Revisado: 05-04-24

Book 2 continues the story where Book 1 ended.
The characters and story are witty and fun.
I am still not completely sold on the narration voice used for Kraken.
The dialect and inflections sometimes sound eerily familiar to the brothel Assistant.
However, the familiar's exchanges with the protagonist are some of the wittiest and funny moments in this story's 2nd installment.
Overall, I wish a different voice and dialect had been used for Kraken.
However, the exchanges still exhibit some of the most hysterical moments during the story.

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Racist Depiction of Kraken, the Black Cat!

Revisado: 04-14-24

This review refers to the audiobook version of this story.
I loved the story, characters, and MOST of the narration.
However, it was not until Book 2 that the narrative voice of Kraken started to make a bit of sense.

In Book 1, all the characters spoke British English or another European dialect.
The verbal performance of Kraken --- sounding like an African American thug --- came out of nowhere, and the dialect was TERRIBLE.
The narrative voice tried to replicate Eddie Murphy's hysterical, award-winning performance of Donkey in the Shrek series.
However, the replication (voice of Kraken) seemed to come out of nowhere, and it was terrible.
It sounded like the narrator was trying to mimic an Urban-sounding character...
rather than Being an authentically speaking person.
And, the voice was COMPLETELY OUTSIDE of the medieval period of the story.
None of the other characters spoke in a contemporary dialect, and yet,
the voice of the cat came from out of nowhere, trying to sound like an urban-speaking Black American,
and the depiction was terrible.

This narrative type continued with the other felines: The whole gang of cats tried to speak like Black people,
and the depictions were not very good. This choice to make the black cat and his gang talk like Black Americans is downright racist.
So, overall, in Book 1, the feline voices interfered with my enjoyment of the verbal performances of this book.

Fortunately, the feline narrative voices represent only a small portion of this story.
And still... as the main character's "familiar," Kraken is instrumental in the story. 🤗

Note to the producers: Having a black cat as a character does not mean the character needs to speak in an urban dialect... unless, of course, the urban dialect ADDS to the enjoyment of the story (i.e. Donkey in Shrek).

Presumably, adjustments were made, so that...
In Book 2, the narration of Kraken begins to make sense and greatly adds to the enjoyment of the story... so far...
I am only 1 chapter into the Book 2 listen. So far, so good, but time will tell. 🙂

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Dickens' David Copperfield Revisited?

Revisado: 12-07-23

I love English mystery novels. This story moves a bit slowly, but mostly, I liked it. I paused to write this review because I am 7 1/2 hours into this 20-hour audiobook, and I noticed characters directly copied from Charles Dickens's "David Copperfield." "That's odd," I thought. So, I read previous reviews of this book only to have my perceptions confirmed! I am looking forward to continually listening to this audiobook. My review may change, in the end, but so far, I have found it extremely distracting that certain characters were almost directly copied from Dickens's work, apparently without bothering to give him credit!

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PROFOUND

Revisado: 05-10-23

There are no words. The profundity of this read is such that I am left speechless. The ageless wisdom inherent in this book is literally "deep calling unto deep." Only those with ears to hear will come, listen, resonate, and appreciate. The sensitive and nuanced narration also affects feelings of gratitude. With much due honor and respect to the legend who is Madame H.P. Blavatsky. 🙏🏼

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