Kristin

Incredible story, beautifully written and performed

Revisado: 01-25-19

I can’t say enough in appreciation of the way Sides structures and presents this gripping story. The material is full of passion and drama, and Sides has the skill to bring it to life. Excellent reveals; sensitive portrayals of individuals and cultures; excellent narrative weaving. This is a long audiobook, but I couldn’t stop listening! The narrator, Morey, is stellar and understated. This is one of my favorite audiobooks of all time.

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Narration nearly ruins such an interesting book

Revisado: 12-31-18

I almost didn't make it through this one, despite this being a great book. Solid characterizations, complex plotting, compelling pacing, intriguing themes.... but the narration is truly offputting, the narrator overacting most of the voices, presumably in an attempt to differentiate them and keep long scientific or mathematical descriptions interesting. I appreciate the challenges of narrating a book like this, but the voices the narrator chose for some of the characters were so grating that I began to dread those characters' reappearances. Some were overly whiny, some were overly casual, some were overly sinister, some were overly anxious, some were overly blasé (you get the idea), and some were just so downright silly that I felt like I was listening to a Simpsons episode. It takes a lot for me to write a negative review, but this narration was dreadful.

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Characters too insipid for suspension of disbelief

Revisado: 08-03-17

I bet I would've loved this book as a 12-year-old, when I had fantasies of my one true love being a Hollywood A-lister and could suspend my disbelief for anything. But as an adult, the criminal stupidity of these characters – repeatedly making decisions that anyone could foresee the disastrous consequences of – made it very hard to believe in these characters, or care for them. Eventually I began to despise them both. I also found the female lead to be kind of pathetic, her life loveless and full of holes because she's still pining after a guy who treated her terribly many years ago. Unappealing Mary Sue with not a lot going on in her head or her heart (despite how much she naval-gazes). Very disappointing.

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Characters too insipid for suspension of disbelief

Revisado: 08-03-17

I bet I would've loved this book as a 12-year-old, when I had fantasies of my one true love being a Hollywood A-lister and could suspend my disbelief for anything. But as an adult, the criminal stupidity of these characters – repeatedly making decisions that anyone could foresee the disastrous consequences of – made it very hard to believe in these characters, or care for them. Eventually I began to despise them both. I also found the female lead to be kind of pathetic, her life loveless and full of holes because she's still pining after a guy who treated her terribly many years ago. Unappealing Mary Sue with not a lot going on in her head or her heart (despite how much she naval-gazes). Very disappointing.

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A wonderful reading ruined

Revisado: 08-17-16

What did you like best about The Glass Sentence? What did you like least?

This audio version of Grove's creative and unique fantasy novel is lovely, right up until the moment the protagonist Sophia starts talking. Sophia is such a sensible, smart, matter-of-fact, kick-ass character, but you wouldn't know it based on the whiny, insipid voice assigned to her by this narrator. The rest of the narration is lovely! But Sophia's characterization is too important to be so badly represented. I listened to more than half of this before realizing I couldn't bear it anymore. I returned to the paper book.

Would you be willing to try another one of Cassandra Campbell’s performances?

Possibly, as long as the protagonist isn't a teenaged girl. I've lost my faith in this narrator's ability to do that well.

Was The Glass Sentence worth the listening time?

Grove's book is. This narration isn't.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

An absolute delight

Revisado: 07-08-16

The characters are hilarious, the reader's delivery flawless, and the beautifully-balanced plot the type to create just the right amount of anxiety about where it's going, then comfort and deight the reader with the hoped-for resolution.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Objectifies victimization and disability

Revisado: 06-15-16

What did you like best about A Little Life? What did you like least?

I understand that this book doesn't intend to be realistic, but the result -- a character who's less of a person and more of a symbol of victimization, presented via lengthy passages that objectify disability, suffering, self-loathing, self-harm and victimization and offer them up for voyeuristic consumption -- is troubling. Plenty of people in the real world suffer as much as Jude does, living real lives rather than caricatured lives... this book cheapens their real suffering. Also, narrative tension that centers around the slow revelation to the reader of the details of childhood abuse... this makes me deeply uncomfortable, and not in a good, "This book challenges me" way. It makes me uncomfortable because it's gratuitous.

Has A Little Life turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. There's no such thing as a good or bad genre. Books need to be taken individually, by individuals.

What does Oliver Wyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I did like his performance; I thought he inhabited the book well.

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