Blake

Id rather have paid to buy back my dog’s dump from the backyard

Revisado: 12-31-24

At no point does this rambling, strangely moist for Battlestar Galactica, narrative is anything approaching a cohesive thought even knicked. I feel sorry for the author who took time away from his family to put out this hot pile.

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Meh… I’d pass on this one

Revisado: 08-05-24

Not the worst book I’ve listened to but far from great. It meanders at times, mulches over the same concept several times and throws out some really far fetched ideas. What’s more likely? That an 80 year-old woman walked through a worm hole or that she just got eaten by wildlife while walking the forest alone and dragged into the underbrush? I applaud the author’s effort but I’d save your credit and find something else.

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Worth it

Revisado: 03-02-22

First off, narrator crushed it.

Second, great story.

Third, if you’ve read American Desperado and are looking for that angle (San Pedro, Jon Roberts), not surprisingly, whether that’s factual or not, you won’t find anything here. But it’s still a great book.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Contradicts itself at every turn

Revisado: 05-16-19

I'm sure if you're blindly into demons or The Conjuring franchise then this book will likely appeal to you but it's not a terribly interesting book and is highly repetitive. For starters, it's like four stories with two hours in between each filled with Ed spouting things about demons like he's talking about a common species of animal of which humanity knows every intricacy. I mean no disrespect, but Ed comes across as though he thinks, assuming that demons do exist, that he is smarter than they are. It's the same kind of nonsense you hear on Bigfoot hunter shows, when one of the pack of searchers inevitably reminds the rest of his posse of some wholly unsubstantiated, presumed fact like "everyone knows Bigfoots love peanut butter." That's what the majority of this book is, nonsense stated confidently enough to attempt to pass as facts. Not to mention, every single coincidence or fateful decision is credited to the work of demons. At best it's acute paranoia, at worst it's intentional misleading. Either way, it's a bit much.

He also frequently contradicts himself. For example, in a span of two pages Ed, in reference to the Annabelle doll, claims "demons don't possess things, they (demons) are simply moving the doll to make you think they've possessed the doll" yet as soon as they take Annabelle off the hands of its original owners and take it back to their home it starts trying to harm people wholesale. So they throw it behind glass and charge people $12.50 to come see it. I guess they don't possess things unless you hand them over to Ed and Lorraine and there's a dime to be made.

If you're really into Ed and Lorraine Warren then you may enjoy the book. I however was on the fence about them when I bought this book and now I am firmly convinced they were nothing but a pair of charlatans.

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esto le resultó útil a 25 personas

All his childhood, no mafia content whatsoever...

Revisado: 03-04-19

I really wanted to like this book. I thoroughly enjoyed Gotti’s Rules, which was a thorough accounting of Alite’s days with the Gambino family but this book is sadly nothing more than the accounting of his childhood articulated by a woman who clearly has a thing for him— a childhood I consider fairly routine for a man his age growing up in a lower income in NYC. Which is fine, if that’s how it’s being presented, but that’s not how it was marketed. That said, if you’re looking for a shred of mafia content this book will fail you. I don’t think the name Gambino or Gotti was mentioned once in the book. A real failure and a real snooze, although narrator Joe Barrett kills it as usual.

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Great book, ends somewhat abruptly

Revisado: 12-18-18

Fascinating story and all in all a very interesting listen. My only complaint is to say the end is somewhat abrupt would be an understatement. I think it would have been better had he kind of explained, for better or worse, what that experience and subsequent arrest had done to his current life situation. It is just basically “I got arrested, I tried to get my legitimately acquired assets back, no dice. Audible hopes you enjoyed this program.”

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A straight rip-off of Mark Bowden’s Killing Pablo

Revisado: 11-24-17

While an interesting book, almost every single quote is lifted from a far more thorough telling, Mark Bowden’s Killing Pablo. And when I say every quote I mean every quote. No footnotes, no credit. In my opinion, this is hastily produced effort largely focused on capitalizing on the popularity of Narcos— which is fine— but give credit where credit is due.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

No American Desperado...

Revisado: 01-17-17

Not a bad story-- or set of vignettes to be more accurate-- but the narrator is as bad as they come. He also randomly repeats sentences and at times you can hear what I presume is him adjusting a lamp. American Desperado by Jon Roberts is the major league version of this one.

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Fantastic Detail Told From Multiple Perspectives

Revisado: 12-01-11

In my opinion this is Bowden's best work. His detail and research is unparalleled and the story itself couldn't be any more wild if it was fiction. Bowden offers a gripping look inside the many faces of Escobar, from the ruthless cartel boss that waged war on the Columbian state to the concerned family man who fought fiercely to keep his family safe.

The wealth, violence and details are shocking and Bowden's ability to organize so many narratives and perspectives into a single, cohesive timeline makes for one of the best non-fiction titles I've ever read. Having both the audiobook and the paperback, the abridged audiobook doesn't exclude much. As for the audiobook, Bowden's delivery, often direct and with disregard for political correctness, exponentially improves the quality of the audiobook as you get the sense that the man who did the research is telling you a great campfire story.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas