Roberta

Good book, but the narrator!!

Revisado: 04-26-22

Couldn't stand the narrator throughout the book. I'd still buy it, however I need to make a note that she completely over-acted the parts and at one point I had to roll my eyes at how she was reading it.

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

Very well-written, however....

Revisado: 10-10-19

...it was difficult to keep the characters straight - after all, there are 12 of them. At the beginning of each chapter the different destinations are announced, i.e. "LAX - SNA - SAN". Perhaps if I could write them down while listening, I could figure out who is who. The book has a leisurely pace to it, it's nice to listen to while I'm commuting to and from work. The characters are interesting and well-defined.

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Unfortunate narration

Revisado: 01-29-19

Unfortunately the other reviewers are right, the narration is done in a complete monotone which affected how I felt about the book overall. I don't understand why Audible lets authors narrate their own books. The subject is very sad, but I feel that the narration spoiled it for me.

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What a man! What a life!

Revisado: 08-24-17

I can certainly see why Judy went for him. He was good-looking, smart, charming, masculine, and "all man". This book covers his life as well as his relationship and long marriage to Judy. His life before meeting Judy in itself was something that anyone could write a book about.

Sid was truly in love with Judy and put up with a lot from her.. He doesn't skimp on details, along with other juicy gossip about multiple Hollywood stars. I was sad when this book ended, and sad that he has died. I wish I could have known him. Highly recommended.

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Kept waiting for something to happen

Revisado: 03-20-17

Good premise, however the author went into way too much detail at times (describing how someone eats, i.e. "lick, lick, lick" - come on).

I kept hoping that something "big" would happen in the story line, just to help the whole thing along. I wouldn't recommend this.

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Excellent narration!

Revisado: 08-27-15

Jonathan Pryce really makes this book stand out (although the book stands on its own, always has with me). I could listen to it for hours.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Narrator was terrible

Revisado: 01-14-15

The narrator spoiled this book for me. She had a way of speaking that sounded more like *announcing*, with no subtle inflections at all. I dreaded conversations in the book because they were worse.. Everything spoken very loud, as if she was speaking from a stage into a far-away crowd.

Stephen King once said that authors shouldn't use too many "He said", "She said"s, and Carolyn McCormick emphasized them! She would say the sentence, then "[pause] she said" - so it made those phrases even more grating. I felt she just ruined it for me.

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Like watching paint dry....

Revisado: 11-22-14

I love Stephen King, and have ever since his first books came out. However - I don't understand the "excellent" reviews I read of this book before I bought it. Perhaps they were written to drum up enthusiasm, I'm not sure. I kept waiting and waiting for the story to get better - but it was dull all the way through until the last 30 minutes - and even then, it was impossible to follow.

I know that Tabitha King reads all of her husband's books, so I don't know how this one passed muster. Stephen, I love you to death but please try to ramp it up for the one after this.

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esto le resultó útil a 13 personas

Overly complicated plot and too long

Revisado: 03-18-14

If I could give this book 3-1/2 stars for Overall and Story, I would do that. To me, complicated plots are more difficult to keep track of when I'm listening to a book instead of reading it - kind of hard to go back a few pages and check out one of the details. It seemed like it took FOREVER to get to the end of the story, and by the time I reached it, I had forgotten a majority of the convoluted plot.

The performance was good, except for the fact that the reader just was unable to do female voices. They all sounded masculine and they all sounded alike.

The main reason I bought this book was because I had read one of the most recently published Reacher novels, and I wanted to see how everything started out. I'm now re-thinking whether I want to read number two in the series, because that book's reviews aren't really that high. I think I'll go back to John Sandford and re-read some of his - his "Prey" novels, which are just outstanding.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Impressive and excellent

Revisado: 01-08-14

I first started reading this book in the 80's but it was so upsetting that I stopped after the first few chapters. I guess I've changed over the years, because this time I was totally enthralled.

I came away from this experience realizing that 1) Vincent Bugliosi was a genius at law; 2) the LAPD blew this case so much, it was almost unbelievable (like shaking-your-head unbelievable at how inept they were, or were they simply lazy and didn't care?); 3) there was a lot that happened behind-the-scenes that I never knew - example: I didn't realize that Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, the girl who attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford, was a linchpin in the Manson "Family" and took his place as head of the Family after he was jailed - 4) there were many more people killed by the Family than those in the Tate/LaBianca murders. Bugliosi goes into great detail about those in the epilogue portion of the book, stating that perhaps as many as 60 were murdered by them through the 70's; 5) also realizing that if it weren't for Bugliosi's independent investigation at the time, Manson and his family would have gotten away with murder.

This is a good book to have in your car while you're commuting because it's long and there are lots of details, Scott Brick did an outstanding job of narrating it, especially with the sometimes endless details about the case - altho I have to say it was seldom that I was bored with those details. I've served on juries, and it's hard to imagine being sequestered for the 9 months it took for the trial to end.

The details of the Tate-LaBianca murders can be difficult to hear, but I highly recommend Helter Skelter.

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