Wes D

Decent story, so-so narration

Revisado: 04-20-25

(Very mild spoilers)

This kind of story - historical mysteries, relics & treasures, lost tombs, and forgotten temples - is my jam.

The story is pretty good overall, and the writing was decent (not very amateurish). However, I struggled with 2 things:
1) I had difficulty relating to the main character, and 2) the narrator's performance was, for lack of a better term, uneven.

The main character, Jules, seems superhuman at first. He does complex "A Beautiful Mind" calculations instantly in his head, and seems to be an expert at almost everything, at age 23. I'm not a fan of this - it makes him seem unrealistic and unrelatable.

However, we eventually learn that Jules is on the autism spectrum, and struggles to connect and interact with people. That helps explain some things, but I don't know if it completely make up for everything, either.

Regarding the narrator, he does *some* voices very well, and seems to do best with dialogue. For example, Jules is a young black man from New York - he absolutely nails this voice... But another character, Bridget, is a Southern Belle, and he narrates her with the exact same voice as he does with Jules. It's impossible to tell them apart.

However, during segments of description/exposition, he seems to speak with an almost robotic cadence that was hard for me to follow, sometimes placing the emphasis in a sentence in a strange place.

Overall it's not bad, but this might be one of those books that would be better in print format.

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So many twists!

Revisado: 03-03-25

It took me a bit to become invested, but once I was in, I was hooked... And the story only got better from there. This one has twists upon twists that you couldn't possibly see coming, and still manages to end in a reasonably satisfying way.

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Thank goodness this was a free listen on Audible Plus.

Revisado: 01-26-25

For a book that is only 3 hours long, this felt like 30. It seemed to drag on forever.

Because this is narrated by Virtual Voice, it's difficult to know whether to assign blame to bad writing, or to the robot narration.

Some is certainly the author's fault, though. A lot of the book is people arguing back and forth - some about the accuracy of biblical accounts, some about how to locate and rescue the kidnapped main character. VERY LITTLE ACTUALLY HAPPENS.

This is my first experience with this author, and it is likely to be the last.

Regarding the narration: I know not all Virtual Voice narration programs are the same, but they do seem to share many of the same problems (misplaced inflection or lacking inflection entirely, no differentiation between speakers, etc.) but this one really grated on me after just a few minutes. I honestly don't know why I pushed through to the end.

This narration program's tone would seem more suitable for narrating children's books, except that would be especially cruel to children.

If you want a *good* series in this genre, check out Andy McDermott's Nina Wilde/Eddie Chase series.

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A great listen for the Halloween season

Revisado: 09-21-23

I'm always amazed at the wildly differing opinions on any horror book. It doesn't seem to matter which book you choose, some people love it, and some people hate it. I guess this one isn't any different.

Personally, I loved this one. It certainly has the feel of a gothic horror story, although it is set in 1980. This story feels like it would fit well alongside Edgar Allan Poe on the bookshelf.

Lots of books in this genre play to the trope of "are they insane, or is this really happening?" This one made me ask that question for most of its length, but at the end of the book it does actually provide a concrete answer to this question. That was refreshing.

Yes, this book contains violence and misfortune, even against animals. It's horror, what did you expect?

Still, I very much enjoyed this. The pacing is a slow burn, in keeping with the gothic horror feel. I enjoyed the ride, and I felt like it paid off in the end.

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Cozy Mystery meets Adventure... Sort of.

Revisado: 08-19-23

I got this book expecting it to be an adventure novel. You know, a globe-hopping hunt for a historical treasure, along the lines of Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider. That's what I wanted.

It has those things, of course, but in terms of tone and structure, this is much closer to a cozy mystery than an adventure. It actually kind of reminds me of an Agatha Christie novel. She sometimes included elements that were more common to other genres, but at its roots, it was still a mystery novel.

When I say Cozy Mystery, I mean it -- even situations that would normally be tense or frightening are almost devoid of suspense. Adventure novels usually place more emphasis on danger, action, and high stakes, whereas this seems to try to avoid that... As if this book was designed not to excite the reader too much, in case they're reading it before bedtime.

With that said, it's not a bad book. It is well written, the story was good, the ending was satisfying, and (despite some negative review I saw) I thought the narrator did a fine job.

I don't regret listening to it, it just wasn't what I was searching for. I haven't decided if I'm going to continue with the series or not.

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Suprisingly entertaining... Until it got political

Revisado: 08-15-23

This is my first foray into LitRPG, and surprisingly, I was okay with the RPG elements.

I've played RPG video games before, and liked them. I don't know if I'd say that experience is necessary to enjoy this, but it probably helps a lot.

The story was fun enough to entertain me, and left me curious about where it would lead.

However, about halfway through, there was an injection of politics. Look, I expect there to be politics in any fantasy world. They can be an interesting worldbuilding tool -- but I want them to be politics *unique to that world,* not our own real-world politics inserted into the story, with little effort taken to hide that fact.

I have to deal with politics all day. Even if I agree with the author's views, I don't want that in my entertainment. I'm here to forget about real-world BS for a little while, not be further inundated by it. Nothing breaks immersion like the author reaching through the page to slap me in the face with a political message.

Because of that, I haven't decided if I'm going to continue with the series.

Nick Podehl, as always, does an amazing job. He's one of the few narrators that seems like a vocal chameleon.

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That's 13 hours I'll never get back.

Revisado: 05-16-23

I struggled with this book. Now that it's over, I think the story idea had a lot of promise, but the execution left me wanting.

My biggest issue was the writing style, and specifically, how the main character is written.

The scariest part of this book is that there might actually be people in the world as neurotic and helpless as the main character. For the first half of the book, most of what happens is Margot hears or sees something ambiguous, leaps to wild conclusions, and whips herself into a nervous frenzy... only to find out that she's just overreacting about nothing. She is nothing but a hypersensitive bundle of nerves from the very beginning, and frankly, I couldn't stand the character.

By the time things *actually* started happening, I already didn't like her, and I was annoyed with her every move.

I have nothing against the narrator -- she has a nice voice, and succeeds in putting emotion into the lines... The problem is, when the POV character is basically a jittery nutjob, the end result is that the audiobook sounds like 13 hours of listening to a hysterical woman in the midst of a panic attack. It was exhausting.

This is one case where I may have enjoyed the print version better.

To its credit, the story ended in a satisfying way. Like I said, the story premise is pretty good... It's just mired in hours of suffering.

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Disappointing. What a waste of potential.

Revisado: 04-26-23

I don't have a clue where the glowing reviews are coming from. This was massively unsatisfying.

This book sells itself as a convicted murderer's tell-all confession, wherein he claims his crimes were due to the influence of the devil. The description also hints that it is unclear whether he was insane, or whether there is some truth to his story. That's a lie.

If that was actually what this book was about, it would have been *much* more entertaining. It is completely clear that the man is mentally disturbed, and there is absolutely no ambiguity or supernatural twist to the story.

Instead, the book is mostly made of up the manifesto of a deeply mentally ill person who is suffering from acute psychosis. He sees things that aren't there, things with a decidedly demonic aesthetic, and has frequent memory blackouts.

The book's description implies that there will be elements of the story that will make you question what's real. That's inaccurate -- the main character doesn't know what's real, but it's quite apparent to the reader. There are no events that cannot be fully explained by his mental illness.

Rather than being spooky or chilling, this is really just sad. It's really clear from early on that the main character is deeply ill and needs help, and it basically feels like reading a disturbed person's journal. You will feel pity and regret for the main character, but not the thrill of a well-crafted horror thriller.

I'm not going to spoil everything, in case you decide to ignore my warning and get this book anyway, but by the time I reached the end, I got the impression that this was supposed to be a disguised way for the author to convey a sociopolitical message. The real "devils" in this story (as summed up in the last few lines) seem to be religion and heteronormativity.

How utterly regrettable. There were the pieces for a truly outstanding story here, but this one failed to deliver.

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Lots of nostalgia

Revisado: 04-21-23

I'm not really sure how to characterize this book. It is largely a reminiscence of a teenage girl's 3 summers at camp, the last of which ended in some unspoken tragedy. It intercuts with her as an adult, having become a successful and reclusive true crime author, when the camp is reopened.

I'm not sure if it's accurate to call this a "mystery," because for the majority of the story, the biggest mystery is "What exactly happened?" The tragedy is only hinted at for about the first two-thirds of the book, and the specific details of the events are only revealed in the last hour. Once the specifics are exposed, I found the results to be satisfying and interesting.

I admit, what drew me to this book was the fact that it revolves heavily around summer camp. I went to summer camp 4 or 5 times when I was young. Then as a young adult, I was a camp counselor for a summer, at a camp where tragedy had struck the year before. There is a LOT of memory and nostalgia about this setting for me, and it's probably a large part of why I really enjoyed this book. I honestly don't know if this will appeal to those who haven't had that experience... but for me, it certainly resonated.

The pace is slow, but not boring. I never found myself annoyed or aggravated by the teenage characters (as happens frequently for me these days). It reminded me a lot of my own adolescent years, and the stuff I'm sure we all went through. In fact, I would have been about the same age as the main character at the time.

The narrator was great, and really captures that spirit of the main character, an average teenage girl. I did notice the occasional hiss or whine in the recording, and at one point there is an editing mistake. It was minor, and wasn't enough to distract or annoy me.

So, even though I'm not sure what to call this, I really enjoyed it.

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Good grief, this is bad.

Revisado: 04-11-23

This is the first time I've written a review before I have finished the book. I'm 3 hours in, and I honestly don't know if I can make it to the finish line... And I've muscled my way through some pretty bad books.

Firstly, I'm not trying to be mean, but the writing is very amateurish. The dialog is awkward and stilted, and the descriptions are like a scenic tour of a thesaurus. It gives the impression that the writer is trying to impress me with his big vocabulary, which is a pet peeve, and the book suffers because of it. It doesn't feel natural, and there's no flow.

Speaking of bad dialog, here is an exchange from about 2.5 hours into the book: "You feeling like a rat in a maze yet?" "Hopefully the piece of cheese at the end is not a piece of cheese, but something we can use to get out of here."

Then there's the narrator. I haven't listened to anything else Dan Delgado has narrated, but I would humbly suggest that he should exclusively narrate children's books. He has an overexaggerated narration style that reminds me of a kindergarten teacher reading a picture book to small children. Listen to the sample, and you'll see exactly what I mean. I thought I would get used to it, but I was very wrong. It's awful.

Geez, I have *actual children's books* where the narration feels less condescending. For example, I have Goosebumps: The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (I was feeling nostalgic for the books of my childhood, don't judge me) which seems pretty similar in premise to this book so far. However, the narrator of that book manages to sound less patronizing and juvenile than Dan Delgado does in this one.

As of right now, I'm not enjoying anything about this book. I awarded an extra star for story because the description sounded interesting enough to sucker me. I don't have a clear picture of the story yet, so I can't really comment on it. If I can summon the strength to continue, I'll edit my review to add my thoughts.

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Edit: I managed to make it about 6 hours in, and I can't do it anymore. This is officially the first book I've ever returned, and I've been on Audible since 2014. I have almost 600 audiobooks, and I've never encountered one this bad.

The writing doesn't improve. The author spends a ridiculous amount of time on things that don't matter, and then breezes right through things that warrant some extra attention. The dialog is hilariously bad and painfully drawn-out.

The narrator also doesn't get any better. There are text-to-speech computer apps that sound more natural than Dan Delgado.

I had hope that the story would be decent enough to get me through. It wasn't. In fact, the author drags things out for so long, the story had barely gotten moving when I quit at the halfway mark. At 6 hours, this book was where a more competent book would have been at the 2 hour mark.

Look, I'm an adventure-genre addict. I *usually* love this kind of thing, but this was an atrocity. I just learned that Rick Chesler has written 30-odd books, and they all sound like the kind of adventure stories I typically go for... but I'm not stepping on the same booby-trap twice.

I'm going to be avoiding Rick Chesler's work like an angry ex-wife from now on.

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