Ksenia Chabarova

Couldn't finish it

Revisado: 05-25-21

At first I was happy I'd found a 16 hour long book to listen to, but it was a drag. It's so slow, nothing really happens for a very long time, and the characters seem boring and one dimentional. I'd rate it "only good to listen to when you're doing something else and you don't really care about what you're listening".

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Pure gold

Revisado: 05-24-21

I loved everything about it. Its both funny and terrifying, ridiculous premise mixed with horror of the execution.
At first I thought it was just a joke and no horror at all, but the horror parts ARE terrifying, and the way ridiculous excerpts from the catalog at the beginning of each chapter turn creepier towards the end give me chills. It's a masterpiece.

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Finished it and still not sure

Revisado: 05-20-21

I loved the narration. It was very pleasant to listen to, and Stephanie Racine was doing her best trying different voices and intonation, and it shows. But the novel itself...
I can't exactly put my finger on it. Was the plot bad? No, not at all. The characters not to convincing? Not really, when it turns out one character is a liar (to remain spoiler-free) I felt real urge to punch them, and the other one is a too convincing useless lesbian, I'm connected to her. The mistery too clichéd? Also no, I wasn't exactly sure till the end, going between two variants, and the two of them were played through till the end very skillfully. The extracts from folklore? Gorgeous reading with gorgeous music. But something just didn't stick with me. Maybe I was looking for something else in the book, and it hasn't met my expectations, that's definitely not the authors fault. Maybe I should think about it, and maybe I should give it another try. For now I'm leaving all fives because I shouldn't take away from the grade if I can't tell why. And also because you should listen to it, it's a fine story. Just be aware of the details on childbirth, pregnancy and the psychological troubles of a new mother, there are a lot of those.

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Why did you have to do this?

Revisado: 05-14-21

It was a great story, it was read perfectly. But then came the ending.

So let me first be spoiler free: the story is actually quite good and yeah, the main twist got me good. I also appreciate the profound look into the psychiatric details of a sociopathic personality, and the author was very talented to put a lot of info and not to over-burden the text with it (it takes a lot to find this sweet spot between the two). And Aimee Horne had a blast recording it, you can feel how she puts all of herself into the reading, the voices and the editing are so well done! However even this couldn't salvage the ending.
In short, the antagonist is cartoonishly particular about telling his plan and it becomes unbelievable, the saved person talks as if they were reading a book, and the ambiguous ending is so unnecessary it hurts. I don't mean to say it was so bad it doesn't deserve a listen, because it does, but I was really upset with the ending. Now that I think of it, it's mainly because the book was really good, I liked it and I feel sad it couldn't carry it through.

SPOILER TERRITORY

Did Nathan really need to drag out the torture with him talking, to read the diary and to tell every little detail? It felt as if the author was too upset that nobody would understand how much thought was put into his plan and wanted to share everything... But there was no need for that much details! The story with the second phone was already on the cliff for believability, but it was still okay, kind of a genre trope, but the more they talked (Margo STANDING BARELY with a noose on her neck!) the more the compelling story dissolved into just an audio I had on my phone! And then July - an 18yo girl who was just rescued from a psychopath who tried to kill her! - keeps describing the event in long deliberate sentences, and it's not July, it's the author speaking for her! The same story could've been told in a rushed, panicked way, and it wouldn't lose a thing from this, but we got what we got.
And the the "twist" that Margo can be a sociopath herself. Why did we need this again? It was such a cool story of a psychiatrist tortured for a thing that didn't happen, but suddenly Margo was a bad guy? And she intentionally brought her patient/lover to suicide, and suddenly she'd been a sociopath from her childhood. Completely unnecessary, cheesy, not to mention doesn't correlate with her desire to help Cormack and her love for her family. The ending would be so much more powerful if she was left there with all this trauma, a normal person forced to kill because she has no choice... But no. I chose to pretend the test part of the book never happened and I was never suggested to think of her as a sociopath.

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A lot about nothing

Revisado: 05-11-21

The story is... A non-story? There's a lot of rambling and nothing is going on, and the psychological tension just isn't enough to make it work. You're supposed to feel for the woman, or maybe it's supposed to be ambiguous whether she's ill or pregnant, or maybe it's supposed to be a twist she's not really bleeding (although it's in the description)... Maybe, maybe, maybe, nothing. Maybe would've worked better with a female voice (no offense to Jacob York here, great reader, love it)

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Cool, but what?

Revisado: 05-11-21

I kinda liked it, but... What exactly happened? And why?
Kind say much about the story as it's confusing and I can't decide if it's in a good or bad way. It's linear and smooth, but it's like it's in the air and you have no idea if you were supposed to expect it or not.
But anyway, huge thank you to Jacob York for excellent work with the voices! His "Daaaaaannyyyyyy" is going to haunt me tonight

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Captivating

Revisado: 05-11-21

I liked this one. It was tough in a sense that the subject is really heavy, but I liked how it all resolved. Some parts really made my heart leap with the main character's anxiety, so hooray for Anna Quinn and her psychological writing: I'll look more into her books.
Two thing that get this book a minus star for the story from me: a few overdramatic dialogues and the way children's speech is done. The whole novel sounds really life-like so these two things stood out too much. I've never heard children be all "mommy, mommy" all the time other than in a commercial. And it was a bit hard to beat the desire to have a count of Fiona's "mommy? Are you OK?" I felt as if half of her speech consisted of this and nothing else, but props to Cassandra Campbell for doing great work on the reading, I never had a wish to abandon the book.
Overall it was really good. Listen to it and you'll have a good time (if you can handle heavy themes well; tw: abuse, including sexual, including children)

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Meh

Revisado: 05-10-21

I don't know what it was, but it didn't do it for me. I didn't really feel invested in the story while listening

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I dunno

Revisado: 05-09-21

The story was good, but I had a feeling something was missing. The plot twist is too abrupt, as if something is left out before it, and because of that it doesn't work. Maybe a few subtle hints here and there would've helped, but the way it is now its just... Ok

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Another great story

Revisado: 05-04-21

I love Ben Kane. I've found him from his stories of Romans, and now I'm here with a new subject. Of course I knew who Richard the Lionheart was, but I never dived in this historical period as I did with Rome. And how happy I am I did it with this book!

Kane always strides for historical accuracy (and always discloses where he doesn't), so I listened to the book while checking myself on Wikipedia about who was who. It was a bit challenging, moreover English isn't my first language, so I struggled a bit (my dear English native speakers, what are you doing with all the French words, I'm almost dying here!). But I feel it was worth it. The story was very captivating, and thanks to Philip Stevens all the characters had their own voice and character. Sometimes I felt I was present for the dialogs between the King's sons, and I think I can say this is a sign of a great reading. Listen or read it by yourself, and even if (for some unknown reason) you don't like it you'd definitely have something to think about.

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