Rachel K

Even better than its reputation

Revisado: 08-31-24

Having never seen the movie, all I knew of Haley's epic were memes. Not only did *Roots* send me down a hundred worthwhile research rabbit holes, but every branch of the story gripped me. Onayemi's narration is consistently on-point and believable. This is one of those books that's so famous, I suspected it was the right book for a moment in our social consciousness (rather than an amazing and enduring work, period), but I could not have been more wrong. It is beautiful and heartbreaking and powerful as a human story and an American story - and I'm sure has a ton of layers of cultural connection I don't have access to. Haley's personal journey of research and self-discovery alone is fascinating, and that's just the context of this incredible work.

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Delightful

Revisado: 08-31-24

This is so short, I wasn't expecting to get such a strong sense of place or fall so in love with the characters. From the very beginning, it's just the right amount of scene, snark, and silly to be an absolute delight without feeling too cheesy. Ed Harris is the perfect narrator, delivering repeatable one-liners in the most satisfying possible way. I look forward to listening again on another drive, just to revisit Doug's crew.

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An unexpected joy

Revisado: 07-19-24

Both main characters - the ersatz author and interviewee of this "biography" - are complex without feeling contrived and real without being wholly predictable. The format and performances make it feel far more intimate and true than it might seem if the author had chosen to simply tell the life story of the central figure. And, frankly, the combination of paparazzi voyeurism and genuine human interest the author manages to evoke make this book deeper and more delightful than the storyline might otherwise be. I loved this. It'll definitely be one I listen to again.

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Plot holes and poor voice acting

Revisado: 06-10-24

The narrator sounded like a parody of and angsty teen through much of the performance, and read parts of older and male characters exactly as you’d expect a teen to mimic them. And there were so many issues with plot and character consistency... Just not a good one for me.

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Unexpected and well performed

Revisado: 05-22-23

While this book did move along in a satisfyingly familiar way, the story felt new and unexpected at crucial points. The performances were excellent, didn’t feel like the stilted “I’m reading a book” tone too often found on audiobooks. Good open end that makes you want to hear the next in the series.

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Love the story, writer needs a thesaurus

Revisado: 05-11-23

I've enjoyed all the books and characters in this series, but at this point I'm kinda done with hearing the words "instinctive" and "psychopath." The author does such a lovely job painting pictures of her characters and their inner lives, but repeats certain details of the story so frequently that I wonder if she's forgotten what was in the last chapter or thinks her readers weren't paying attention the last five times a thought or situation was described. Still, a pleasant read with characters you want to spend the time with. And the performances throughout the series are excellent.

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A classic, classically performed

Revisado: 02-09-22

The narrator has a lot of trouble with women's voices - they seem a bit cartoony - but these feel like cozying up to the radio to hear a few minimalist scene-setting sounds and have the classic Holmes stories read to you. If that sounds like a good way to spend an evening or a commute, you'll not be disappointed.

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Well narrated, tightly focused on two characters

Revisado: 03-20-15

Well produced, with excellent narration. Switching between the two readers felt very natural, even (or especially?) in scenes when both voices were used paragraph by paragraph depending on whose observations were being shared.

I gave the story three stars because so few of the characters felt fully fleshed out. Much of the motivation of secondary - but important - characters was barely mentioned, and much of the relationship and baggage of the two main characters, Lord John Grey and Jamie Fraser, is left either to the imagination or to other books in the collection. I don't know that I would've enjoyed this very much if I didn't already feel like I knew these people so well. But I do, so I did. And I'm glad to have heard this.

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Well narrated, tightly focused on two characters

Revisado: 03-20-15

Well produced, with excellent narration. Switching between the two readers felt very natural, even (or especially?) in scenes when both voices were used paragraph by paragraph depending on whose observations were being shared.

I gave the story three stars because so few of the characters felt fully fleshed out. Much of the motivation of secondary - but important - characters was barely mentioned, and much of the relationship and baggage of the two main characters, Lord John Grey and Jamie Fraser, is left either to the imagination or to other books in the collection. I don't know that I would've enjoyed this very much if I didn't already feel like I knew these people so well. But I do, so I did. And I'm glad to have heard this.

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Giving up on the audiobook, switching to paper.

Revisado: 01-27-15

Would you try another book from Tony DiTerlizzi and/or Teri Hatcher?

My daughters and I are really enjoying the plot, characters, and images in *The Search for WondLa,* but Hatcher reads the young heroine's lines like she's a whiny brat, while the rest of the text is read so slowly and without voice modulation that they could've been read by a machine or a child just learning to sound out the words. We've literally stopped the audiobook repeatedly just to take a break from the tedious delivery.

Having enjoyed DiTerlizzi's other work, and wanting very much to find out what's in little Eva 9's future, we're going to switch to the hard copy of this book. We'll trade the convenience of the car and the grating flatness of the narrator's delivery for the great illustrations of the original!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

SLOOOOOOOWWWWW and emotionless delivery.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes.

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