loix

Worst crime fiction and grating narration

Revisado: 04-13-25

I was almost running out of titles, so I got this one to listen to while working on long projects, based mostly on the generous length and the overall rating. I will never make the same mistake. The narrator seems to think we won't hear her unless she shouts. Listening to almost nonstop shouting can be very draining and traumatic, and the flimsy story dwells too much (as another reviewer correctly points out) on the feelings of the protagonist, who seems to be the worst fictional (including TV series--gasp!) cop ever and unprofessional to boot. There is also too much foreshadowing, allowing readers to race way ahead of the "investigators" in this soap opera. I suppose the story may appeal to some because it gives them the illusion of being smarter than these absurdly incompetent characters, unlike Agatha Christie's novels, which leave the readers in the dark until the final reveal.

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I wish I hadn't preordered this

Revisado: 10-22-21

And waited for other users' reviews before I bought it. While I enjoyed the narrator's performances in The Client, the overdramatization and rising intonation declaratives were very taxing on my poor ears to sit through for hours. The story didn't fare much better, either. I'm not sure I understand why the informant decided on the BJC as her go-to authority and still cannot make sense of her paranoia or excessive traumatic response to a crime that she did not even witness in person. As an avid consumer of crime fiction and nonfiction, I do not share the informant's or investigators' awe for the perpetrator's methods, since strangulation seems like the easiest MO for a perfect crime. And I find it difficult to believe that he did not leave other trace evidence (such as hair, which would have easily given investigators his DNA). The flimsy plot, the unlikable characters, and the flippant tone of the narration make me wish I had canceled my pre-order of this title and used my credit on a more deserving one.

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Mixed feelings

Revisado: 07-26-21

I jumped at the chance to buy this title as soon as I learned about its availability through Hoffmann's YouTube channel, thinking that at the very least, I could have his soothing voice lull me to sleep on those days when I had too much coffee. The title led me to expect this book to provide an overview of a wide range of topics on coffee. *However,* (the strong emphasis on this conjunction got somewhat repetitive) I'm not sure the word "world" is fully warranted, especially in regard to the brewing methods: a number of popular age-old methods (such as the Vietnamese phin, the Turkish cezve, the South Indian filter, etc.) are left out, while siphons are covered. And as with other narrators, foreign names were probably as hard and painful for the listeners to recognize or listen to as they were for the narrator to sound them out. I really wish narrators would take the time to check the native pronunciation of foreign words or at least stay consistent in their pronunciation (the narrator here seems to think "h" is not silent in some Spanish words for some reason). There were also a few suspected cases where there were either typographical errors in the original title (which should have been corrected in the audio version by the author/narrator) or mistakes in the narration: e.g., "ready" for "reedy" and "coarse" for "fine." Most importantly, audio seems to be the exact wrong format for an introduction that offers only a taste of a broad range of topics, especially at this swift a pace.

Despite all this, I enjoyed listening to this title (a few times now). What shines through is Hoffmann's undeniable expertise and passion in coffee and unwavering stance on certain matters of right and wrong. I really enjoyed how he denounced in no uncertain terms the "novelty" aspect of kopi luwak, discouraged coffee hobbyists from unnecessary purchases of uni-taskers or wastage of resources, or went against the unquestioning mainstream exaltation of certain coffees and compared them critically with other coffees produced in regions with less cachet. I recommend this title for repeated listening. It is quite a pleasant listen as one tries to fall asleep and might even sow the seed for flavorful dreams about that elusive perfect brew!

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2-for-1 sale purchase

Revisado: 03-18-21

I went for this title because it had better reviews than most titles on the 2-for-1 sale list. It was one of the least enjoyable listens in my 19-year-old Audible library. The writing is self-indulgent and too often goes off on tangents (which are probably meant to reflect the stream of consciousness of the heroine but only contributed to endearing her less to me). The story/plot is nonexistent. This is simply a collection of showoffy literary allusions and very flimsy philosophical musings. The narrator did a decent job with voices, but her mispronouncing of certain words (e.g., chiaroscuro; there may have been other foreign words that simply went over my head or that I just missed because I couldn't stay focused on all the drivel) and the bad editing (the chapter transitions are smooshed together, without any pause in between or change in tone to mark them) were almost on a par with the "story" of this title.

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2-for-1 sale purchase

Revisado: 03-18-21

That was the only reason I picked this title (over other more deserving titles on my wish list). I hope Audible will have better selections for the next 2-for-1 sale event (which I didn't even receive an email notification about and only learned about when it was almost too late). Even for a fan of crime fiction, the violence seemed gratuitous. The plot and the rationalizing of rough treatment of women were a little too convenient, and the emotional dynamic was odd at times (as if there were some inside info I was missing). The narrator did a fine job, except for the overdramatization of yelled passages, which got excessive and forced me to lower the volume by several notches.

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NPR reviewer was right; NYT's wasn't

Revisado: 07-05-15

I can see how this book managed to find a large audience among adolescents (as it turns out, that is the selection criterion for the Prix Goncourt *des lycéens*), but I would caution anyone drawn to the "Goncourt" name to lower their expectations. This is a very badly paced—repetitive and rambling—page-turner, without finesse in language, dialogue, or character development. And despite the many red herrings the author threw our way, at least this reader could identify the perpetrator in the first third of this needlessly drawn-out story.

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Too personal

Revisado: 07-05-15

There is no doubt that the author is an expert in her field: I was especially impressed with the series of questions she comes up with for helping even the least inspired student to flesh out a topic into something readable. However, I found the flippant tone of the narrator and the author's clumsy attempts at humor to be a very poor match. The anecdotes were also too specific to the author to resonate with a larger audience.

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A story of superlatives

Revisado: 06-30-15

I thought writers knew better than to lavish superlatives, but apparently some writers—including this one and like-minded scribes that work on soap operas) are happy to stay in that comfort zone, where the hero is the most intelligent, the most disciplined (even more so than one of the "baddest" terrorists in history), the most affluent, etc. And any character that outsmarts him or earns his admiration through her/his efficiency, whether in the service of good or evil, is blessed with similar traits and becomes an object of wonder. So although the story was competently plotted (despite the handful of egregious coincidences that are central to this story) and the hero/narrator (NOT Mr. Ragland) did his best to leave bread crumbs at the end of many chapters to guide us pedestrian readers along, this is not an author whose work I would be interested in exploring any further. Mr. Ragland seemed an even match for the story, despite the occasional mispronounced foreign words/names (e.g., dacha; Thessaloniki, etc.).

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A fun rewriting exercise

Revisado: 06-30-15

As a lowly reader, I'm usually happy to follow the story wherever the author has decided it shall lead. However, I do sometimes find my mind wandering, and ask myself, "What if ...?" Mr. King has done even that job for us here, revisiting some of his previous work and well-known American classics just as Shrek and Once Upon a Time have with fairy tales. I didn't like either the main antagonist or the hero of this story, but I nevertheless appreciated how it unfolded and welcomed the opportunity to "visit with" Hodges and Jerome. I look forward to reading more of their adventures in the future.

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Pretty impressive

Revisado: 06-30-15

I picked up this title on Jon Stewart's recommendation, and wasn't disappointed. And despite Ansari's merciless criticism of audiobook listeners/buyers, I was glad to have the audio version with the ad libs and the hilarious accents, which make this much more than a self-help book or a practical guide to dating in the 21st century. The only small issue I had with the structure of the book was the proportion of the latter chapters, which felt less researched and not as well thought out as the earlier ones.

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esto le resultó útil a 49 personas