Chynna Blue

Narrator's extreme overacting was a distraction

Revisado: 04-30-25

The story itself was okay. The characters were not very memorable or interesting, but the narrator was so overbearing and distracting that maybe they had no chance to make an impression on me. The narrator would speak in a deep whisper one line and then shout the next line, making it difficult to have a reasonable volume and not either miss something quiet or be startled because of the shouting. I felt like the narrator spent a lot of time shouting at me in various voices and it was more exhausting than entertaining.

I know there are more books in the series, but between a lack of character development and the shouting narrator, I don't have any interest in reading the rest.

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Solid writing spoiled by terrible narration

Revisado: 03-04-25

The true crime story is interesting, but the narrator is extremely distracting. He has a staccato speech pattern and the final word of every sense is clipped and emphasized hard. It's not a natural speaking pattern at all and putting the emphasis on the finally word in a sentence deemphasizes the actual subject of the sentences, making it confusing and difficult to listen to.

Think of a sketch comedy show making fun of William Shatner and his three word phrasing. It reminds me of that.

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What a mess

Revisado: 06-02-23

The writing was overwrought and the narration even more so, making it almost laughable when it should not have been. The characters were clichéd stereotypes with no real depth. The conversations the Preacher had with Rachel were super cringey and the fact that she kept saying that the guy respected her was maybe one of the most cringey things of all. Dude sounded like he’d read a terrible book about Negging from a rapey pick up artist and she could t see through that? She knows the serial killer who killed her parents is after her and she hands out with a stranger? There’s so much wrong here.

And the way women characters are written makes me wonder if Eric Rickstad has ever spoken to women before. Yikes.

I gave it two starts because I liked the ending, but the journey to the ending was not enjoyable.

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Insufferable lead character

Revisado: 05-07-23

MG is a comic book writer who is the only woman in her office. As a woman who often works in tech, I thought I might really enjoy her story, but I mostly found her immature and obnoxious.

MG always thinks she is the smartest person in the room, despite all evidence to the contrary. She believes being a woman is the only thing keeping her from a promotion, even after realizing that a male colleague was better able to articulate her own ideas and make them viable and marketable when she struggled to do so. She cannot stop talking about how every man she meets stares at her chest. She keeps getting in her own way but blaming everyone else for her inability to get traction in her work. As someone who really wanted MG to be more representative of my own experiences working in an office with more men than women, she just wasn’t.

The narrator has a lot of energy, but also had a grating voice. That made MG’s already grating personality so much more unbearable.

I cannot recommend this book.

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Good story, bad narration

Revisado: 05-03-22

This is a high school horror story, so there are a lot of scenes with teenage drama, angst, and terror. The narrator went all in on that and it became annoying very quickly.

The story was good, but I preferred Horrorstör, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, and The Final Girl Support Group.

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Almost ruined by the poor narration

Revisado: 11-24-21

I agree with the others, the narrator was a poor choice. I get why they chose her, she played a Final Girl in a movie, but it was painful to listen to her. As others recommended, I listened with the speed set to 1.3 and that made it much easier.

The story itself was what I expect from Grady Hendrix: a scary story woven into an excellent commentary on society.

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Not for sleeping

Revisado: 08-13-20

This is from the sleep originals series, but it’s someone banging on some reverberating metal instrument. It’s annoying, gives me a headache, and definitely isn’t for inducing sleep.

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Perfect for sleep, relaxation, or focus

Revisado: 05-19-20

I love this. It’s perfect to fall asleep to, but also great to listen to while I read or work. It helps me focus, which can be very hard these days. There’s no story, but I have it 5 starts because it deserves them.

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Awful noise

Revisado: 05-19-20

The meditation might be okay, but I couldn’t listen to it because of the awful sound accompanying this piece. It hurt my ears and I immediately deleted it. I don’t know they think anyone is going to sleep with that awful sound playing.

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Poorly thought out and produced audio drama

Revisado: 12-20-19

This is based on a graphic novel and I think they utterly failed to translate that to audio. It’s literally like the cast read the graphic novel and no one edited it to take long visual scenes and add context to make them work without the visuals.

It was hard to keep up with what was happening - there’s a fight with punching, thudding, and grunting. Who’s fighting? Who’s winning? One happened early on so you don’t even know who all the characters are yet and there’s nothing saying “Sam fought with Tyler” or anything to help.

I didn’t mind the music or sound effects. I love that part of radio drama. But a good radio drama includes narration and context to let you know who is doing what and this adaptation absolutely dropped the ball there. I’m an hour in and it’s been a very painful hour. I would return this, but I bought it over a year ago and just got around to listening.

There’s a TV series coming. I’d recommend waiting for that or buying the graphic novel instead of this. I think this adaptation is going to be most enjoyable for someone who has already read the graphic novel.

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