Rori Song

5 star read!

Revisado: 04-07-24

This book is a collection of essays about schizophrenia written by a woman with schizoaffective disorder. It’s fascinating! I was initially interested because schizophrenia is often conflated with one of my diagnoses, Dissociative Identity Disorder, so I wanted to learn more about the similarities and differences. This book was also recommended for Gemini readers and reading a book recommended for your zodiac sign is a prompt for this month’s #oriliummagicalreadathon . There’s a lot packed into each essay and the book makes you think about topics such as involuntary commitment (when does the community’s right to safety take over an individual’s right to bodily autonomy?), whether the mentally ill should have children, and whether colleges and universities should be allowed to kick out the mentally ill to reduce liability or should have to accommodate them under the ADA. The last essay even brings up questions around mental illness and magic. I could really feel for a lot of what Esmé Weijun Wang has gone through. This is a great book for anyone interested in the topic and anyone that battles mental illness. The author reads the book and she is a bit monotone and sometimes mispronounces words, but the writing makes up for it. Definitely check this 5 star read out!

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5 Stars across the board!

Revisado: 05-30-21

Couldn’t put this one down! If you’ve even thought in passing of checking this one out, DO IT! Jess moves to Malaysia with her parents, only to wind up possessed by her grandmother’s ghost. Ah Ma was the medium for the god Black Water Sister and is determined to have Jess become the god’s next medium so the god can take revenge on a developer who plans to redevelop her temple. Of course Jess, who spent most of her life in the US, has no idea what she’s agreeing to and quickly gets in over her head. To be fair, she does try to bargain with Ah Ma, but knowing the duplicitous nature of many spirits, we were anticipating betrayal. If only Jess had read the Dresden Files! 😂 Jess must figure out who to trust, while juggling complicated family dynamics, cultural expectations, and a secret lesbian romance. Zen Cho does an excellent job balancing insider and outsider cultural perspectives, making this story accessible to any reader. She keeps the twists coming and the ending is unforeseen, powerful, and satisfying.

Catherine Ho does a brilliant job narrating. So brilliant we’re disappointed she’s not narrating Zen Cho’s upcoming short story collection Spirits Abroad. Emily Woo Zeller, who seems to be Audible’s go-to for female Asian narration, was tapped instead. And Zeller is great. But Catherine Ho really gets the potent combination of emotion, magic, and gritty reality in Black Water Sister and brings it all out for the listener. While she does use accents for some characters, it’s never difficult to understand and all the voices are distinct.

The very first sentence was confusing because it ends in a Hokien word. We weren’t expecting that and at first thought we had misheard. Keep going; the word will be explained. This was the only instance where the experience suffered from being audio, simply because we couldn’t tell it was a non-English word and not terrible narration or our hearing by looking at the text.

A Word to the Wise (Content Warnings)

Major: Sexual assault, homophobia, violence, manipulation/gaslighting, religious abuse.

Moderate: Heteronormativity.

Minor: Brief mention of drugs.

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esto le resultó útil a 20 personas

Better for bedtime than original

Revisado: 08-09-20

We are glad we gave this version a try! Stuart Blinder’s narration is clearly informed by the original. Only Constance and Logalog’s voices took some getting used to. Blinder gives a wonderful performance that is perfect for bedtime listening.

We were skeptical at first, too. The original full cast recordings with the author himself narrating are wonderful and among the few full cast recordings we enjoy. But we often want to listen to Redwall as we fall asleep and the music in the original recordings jars us awake. If you’ve also had this problem, we wholeheartedly recommend this version. We hope Stuart Blinder will record more of the Redwall series!

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

I feel cheated. This isn’t a full book.

Revisado: 04-12-19

This is a great start to one of Harper’s wonderfully snark-filled tales. But it’s just a start. It’s just the opening act. In other words, it’s about 1/3rd of a full book. I listened to this using the Romance Package, but in order to get the rest of the book it looks like I’d have to spend a credit. I can appreciate the idea of putting book 1 on the Romance Package list and not further books in the series, requiring readers whose interest was piqued to use credits—as long as it’s a full book 1. I feel cheated. That’s why I’ve knocked a potentially 5-star story down to 3 stars. Not cool, Audible. Not cool.

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Flawed but Fabulous

Revisado: 11-27-18

I waited to pick this book up on sale. Now I’m ready for the next one! It’s fun and Andrews writes well, doing a great job of piquing curiosity and keeping you engaged despite the novel’s flaws. That’s talent! I recommend this book if you enjoy the genre, but consider:

1.) Approach with caution if you’re prone to nightmares. I was concerned when the first enemy creature was revealed that the story would be too gruesome and horrific for me. It wasn’t. This novel should be fairly safe for adults who aren’t horror fans. I do not recommend it for children.

2.) I have to be in the right place to listen to Renee Raudman or her voice drives me nuts. It reminds me of Carol Channing and older folks with dentures. That hissing, whistling S can be really annoying. She also doesn’t have a great deal of variation among characters. Her accent is authentic, however.

3.) The story starts with over-the-top, egregious animosity between Innkeeper Dina and werewolf Sean. It’s pretty obviously a set-up for later romance. The romance between Dina and Sean doesn’t grow naturally and the story veers into really bad cliche territory a lot with this pair.

4.) Could have used some better editing. At one point Andrews reveals a fact, and then in the very next chapter assumes the reader has forgotten already! Chapters 14-15 (if I recall correctly) lost me. I had no idea where we were or why at first. Chapter 15 really needed to be chopped down to a scene.

And yet I still finished it in 24 hours and am eager for book two.

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Narrator spoils classic

Revisado: 10-21-18

TL;DR: The narrator wrecked it. I returned it. Try the next book, “Tai-Pan”, instead.

“Shogun” is a classic for good reason. Clavell makes this period of history come alive. He accurately captures the different cultural moires of the time (which sometimes is very disturbing to modern sensibilities. The way women are treated is appalling, for example) while weaving a compelling and historically accurate epic tale. There are wonderful laugh out loud moments, too. Not a small feat.

Unfortunately, Ralph Lister ruins “Shogun” with his narration. When he’s not doing dialogue, his voice is pleasant. The moment he begins narrating dialogue, however, he seems to feel the need to become very gruff and gravelly with a harsh lisp, no matter which character is speaking. It’s unpleasant and difficult to understand. But then layer on top Portuguese and Japanese accents (his Japanese is terrible, by the way) and it becomes even worse. I eventually gave up and am returning this one.

If you’re intersted in this series, I suggest starting with Tai-Pan instead.

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Someone shoot the people in charge of this disaster!

Revisado: 02-09-18

I’m a big fan of this series, but this installment suffers from two huge problems:

1. Like many other listeners, I hate the second narrator. I’m used to and vastly prefer Lorelei King’s voice for each character. If I had to choose a narrator for the chapters from Adam’s point of view, I wouldn’t have chosen George Newbern. His voice is completely wrong for Adam and Stefan (and his Italian accent is execrable), just for starters. I might have been able to get used to his monotone eventually if the producer hadn’t decided to interrupt the Adam sections with time announcements in Mercy’s (King’s) voice. This is jarring every time. While the time-skipping nature of the story requires these announcements, they should be performed by the same narrator as the rest of that chapter—if multiple narrators are necessary at all. Adding Newbern to the mix seems like a misguided attempt to follow the multiple narrator trend I’ve noticed on Audible. I usually avoid these titles since it’s very difficult to get a good result with multiple narrators. Unfortunately, Silence Fallen is no exception to this rule. Audible, please go back to using only King to narrate this series. I’d be really happy if the current version was replaced by one voiced only by King.

2. Briggs needed a better editor. She repeats a lot in this installment—not one of her usual weaknesses. I wonder if some misguided editor told her to make the book longer, resulting in lots of repetitious padding.

While I still enjoy the plot and characters, and will keep this in my collection for completeness’ sake, I hope the next installment is back to Briggs’ (and a solo King’s) usual 5-star standard.

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Gave up: heroine too dumb to survive

Revisado: 03-17-17

Any additional comments?

I decided to try this book after reading the manga version of Lords of the Underworld on Renta!. The mangaka, Earithen, did an excellent job of abridging and illustrating the story, so I encourage fans of the series to check it out. Of course in order to turn The Darkest Night into a manga, a lot had to be left out. I was eager to discover what I was missing. What a let down! I finally gave up on The Darkest Night with 2 and 1/2 hours to go and will be returning it. I couldn't stand the female protagonist, Aislyn Darrow, any longer. While I understand that characters have to make poor/dumb choices sometimes to move the plot forward, she was too stupid to survive and aggravatingly naïve. These qualities are taken to an unrealistic extreme and there is no character development or maturation over the course of the novel. When her stupidity should get her in (worse) trouble, it conveniently does not. The manga version made Aislyn look like she had some sense! In addition, Gena Showalter's writing is an excellent example of purple prose. I hung in there as long as I did because I did enjoy the story concept and the Lords themselves. Max Bellmore is an excellent narrator, managing to clearly differentiate so many male voices without resorting to cheap gimmicks (with the exception of Reyes, who is made to sound like a stereotypical lummox, which doesn't fit my image of any of the Lords). Despite the purple prose, I enjoyed the sex and fight scenes. I just kept hoping Aislyn would start developing some street smarts… Alas.

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A Scientific Defense of Polyamory

Revisado: 06-01-15

I enjoyed listening to this book and felt the authors did a great job of supporting their viewpoint with scientific evidence. The book could be called "The Case for Polyamory" and the carefully considered arguments take apart the standard narrative that humans are designed to be monogamous point by point, rebutting all other perspectives. But I felt the authors became repetitious, as if they were afraid readers would need extra convincing to overcome cultural conditioning that the standard narrative is The Truth. I don't think anyone interested in this kind of book needs to be pushed that hard to accept Jetha and Ryan's conclusions. The book also ended very abruptly, making me wonder where the rest of it was. But it's still worth reading and a great resource for anyone on the fence about poly or who needs to explain to someone that poly is just as natural as monogamy.

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