Sarah

Like a Twilight Zone movie in book form

Revisado: 08-14-18

No complaints here. Of the four stories Loaded was by far my favorite. I can't give the performance five stars because someone needs to tell Kate Mulgrew that Coloradans do not have Texan drawls. This native found that accent very distracting throughout the reading of Rain.

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Spellbinding storytelling

Revisado: 08-06-18

Joe Hill's writing is the perfect combination of his father Stephen King's dark horror and Neil Gaiman's wistful fairy tales. I went into this book blind having no idea of the author's relation to King or that he was also the author that inspired on of my favorite movies to have popped up on Netflix recently, Horns.

I kept thinking as Hill cleverly dropped little references to the King-verse that this was like Ready Player One in the sense that it living played homage to some of my other favorite pop culture icons. Like that aforementioned novel, this book is fun to read on the way it creates is own world while still anchoring itself in the familiar.

On top of the excellent story, Kate Mulgrew turns out to be one of the best narrators I have ever listened to. She builds the characters perfectly with varied voices and accents that all fit perfectly and I didn't notice any mistakes or strange pronunciations during her reading.

This was hands down the best audiobook I've listened to this year and is in the running for best of all time.

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Indulgent garbage

Revisado: 08-26-17

Of course the hero's name is Jack. Of course he drives a "lambo" and lives seaside in LA. Of course the mere idea of being rejected by this stud drives his lovers to attempt suicide and his exes still pine over him. Even the attempt to deepen this character by giving him a PTSD eat sorry background is shallow at best. Jack essentially criticized himself for not being heroic enough as he rushes back toward a burning helicopter. Gag me. As if that wasn't enough, there is a hint that the killers may have been homosexual and one might have had OCD (showing a profound misunderstanding of the disorder) for no apparent reason; it has no ties to any other part of the storyline or anything else revealed about the killers throughout the book. It's hard not to see this as the author's message that straight stud equals good and gay equals bad. It's a good thing Audible gave us this book for free because I already feel like I've overpaid.

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Relentlessly depressing

Revisado: 10-26-16

I kept waiting for an uplifting moment that never came. The characters are interesting but story is endlessly tragic. There never seems to be any real change for any of the characters, either. What change does appear gets destroyed by tragedy. If you enjoy walking away from a story with the sense that life is meaningless, you might enjoy this book. Otherwise, skip this one.

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Supernatural meets Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Revisado: 02-04-12

Wong does an amazing job of creating terrifying, heart-pounding supernatural suspense with excellent description and action, then catches you completely off guard by making a joke in the middle of the action. The characters are well drawn out and likable and the story is convoluted but fun to follow along with. I love the fact that Wong really plays with the "unreliable narrator" concept with this novel. The narrator does a great job of conveying the sarcastic-ness of the prose; my only complaint is that his voice for John is a bit too close to Jack Nicholson and can be distracting. I hope we get more from this author in the near future.

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Yep, It's a McCarthy Novel

Revisado: 12-26-11

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The story is compelling and the characters are richly developed. The narrator, Tom Stechschulte, who also did the reading for

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

As usual, McCarthy abhors an ending - if you've read other novels by this author or saw the theatrical release of

Which character ??? as performed by Tom Stechschulte ??? was your favorite?

The father character in this story was fantastic - a calm, quiet man who is struggling to provide for his child in a harsh world. As usual, McCarthy manages to say a lot about his characters without them saying much of anything at all.

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Nothing New

Revisado: 07-17-11

This book makes some good points about the benefits of a vegetarian or at least ethically farmed omnivorous diet, but it's all been said before. For a better narrated, well written version of this book, I recommend "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

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Definitely credit worthy and worth several listens

Revisado: 03-09-11

First of all, a disclaimer: this book drew me into its narrative in a way few books do, but that may be in part because I was so close to subject matter. I was a freshman at Lakewood High School (about 10 minutes north of Littleton and Columbine High) when the shootings happened. Though the attack did not directly affect me, I remember my principal announcing over the intercom, voice cracking, that there had been a shooting at Columbine and that we would be sent home early. I did not know anyone at that school, but many of my friends did - they had friends there, family. My mother came to pick me up from school and all that day and for the next six months I was glued to the news. There was so much confusion and controversy and misinformation in those early months that it got harder and harder to understand what happened. I thought I knew what happened that day, but after listening to this book, I now realize that much of what I thought I knew about Columbine was based on myths and rumors.

The book is very well written - for what is essentially a work of journalism, the author does a fantastic job of adding real human interest to the story line and making even the most mundane pieces of factual data become part of the dramatic retelling of the events as they unfolded. I was especially fascinated by the psychological profiles of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold - given what I am sure were very limited resources, the author does a superb job of getting inside the killer's heads and explaining why they did what they did without simply blaming their actions on a single "hot topic" like so many reporters have done. Without justifying the horrific actions they took and while still giving their victims the respect and sympathy they deserve, the author still manages to get you inside the killers' heads.

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Very good writing, bad story

Revisado: 04-15-10

I guess you could classify this as a sort of "coming-of-middle-age" story, but to me it was just pure pathos. The writing was rich without being overly verbose and really created scenes, but the vast majority of the scenes in this book were just devastatingly depressing. When the story wasn't terribly sad, I usually found myself either frustrated by the narrator's negativity or angered by his violent reactions (there is one scene in particular, involving a dog, that almost made me quit the book right then and there).

I guess I was caught off guard because the book came highly recommended by one of my favorite comedy writers, so perhaps I would have a less critical opinion of I'd known what I was getting into beforehand. As, as I've already mentioned, the saving grace of this book is that the writing is top-notch.

Just be forewarned that this book deep and dark and you get only the slightest bit of (ultimately unsatisfying) relief from all the ire at the very end.

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A vehicle for a goofy New Age philosophy

Revisado: 08-10-09

This story started out very interesting... I thought it'd be a character study on terminal illness. Then the ill man starts seeing visions of an angel of death. "Oh, crap," I thought, "I didn't realize this was a religious book!" Turns out, it was even worse: the book is nothing but a vehicle for Scott Blum to sell his weird New Age philosophies to a mass audience.

You know, I'm getting really sick of authors doing this. It's one thing to have an underlying message to your story; it's quite another thing to start with a message and then half-ass a story around it in order to widen its mass appeal (I'm talking to you, Dan Brown!).

I'd have to say free is too much to pay for this book.

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