Daisey

Terrible

Revisado: 08-19-24

I made the mistake of thinking this was Anni Taylor.
Where did the great reviews come from? This was very repetitive, dragged, whiny, too wordy, too much narration and description of things that don't matter. Annoying. GET TO THE POINT!! Shallow character interaction until the very end. All female characters sounded like the same person. Story jumping all over the place. Confusing. Monotonous. The only fairly good part was the male narration at the end. I have no idea what happened in the middle because I could not tolerate this book so I fast-forwarded. It's so repetitive that I might already know but don't know I know it, Will not read anything from this author again. It's as if she talks way too much and so she writes way too much.

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first half great, last half dragged

Revisado: 05-06-24

First half great, last half dragged very much.
Very good writing and narration of first half--second half sounded like the narrator of Helen was whining or on the verge of crying throughout, and it was quite annoying. Talking about very uninteresting things. It was i-i-i-i almost constantly, and hardly any other dialogue from other characters. Telling much more than showing. And then the ending was too fast and it was done.

"Why the Sky Is Blue" was MUCH better, and free.

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Dragged, Swearing, Boring

Revisado: 03-23-24

Dragged, Swearing, Boring--Too much narration not enough interaction. So slow. Can't undertand the good reviews. Just because it's DB doesn't mean it's an automatic 5-star. Returning.

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Exellent

Revisado: 12-02-23

Very interesting plot, beautiful reader. Her voice is beautiful and calming and her character voices great. Looking forward to Book 2.

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Sorry, this is Terrible

Revisado: 11-23-23

Endless conversations, ENDLESS "he saids", "she saids", dragged on and on, and the narrator still over-pronouncing like crazy in a totally monotone voice with no emotion, and it's extremely annoying and distracting. Is this a robot? If I hear "Chil-d r-ess" one more time I will scream. Can't listen to this anymore. Returning. The first books were excellent, 1-8, don't know what happened to these last books 9 and 10. They will both be returned.

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What Happened?

Revisado: 11-17-23

I loved this series, gave all previous books 5 star reviews for both narrator and author. I looked forward to this book. However, this one does not measure up to the others, whatsoever! Not even close!

There's too much third party narration, not enough acting or direct communication between characters. Much more telling of the story than showing. The story is all over the place. It's Chapter 22 and I still don't know what's going on. Can't tell the difference between the narrator and Tracey's voice.

And the narration almost sounds like AI. Robotic and monotone, too fast, with absolutely NO expression. It goes on and on, describing too much, very boring. I fell asleep. She also has started to over-pronounce consonants. "Loo-k-e-d, Chi-l-d-ress, per-tur-b-e-d, chang-e-d, in kind of a staccato. And there are weird pauses between some words. She sounds like a robot breaking words up into too many syllables-- or something? Something's off. I don't think I can get through this one. Like I say--What Happened? Don't understand the great reviews.

I'll update if it gets better. Got worse could not finish. Returning. Hope this was some kind of fluke and Book 10 will be like the others,

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Incredibly Talented Writer except...

Revisado: 10-04-23

The raw talents of both Abraham Verghese and the narrator, Sunil Malhotra, are stunning, but I took 3 stars off because:

1. I am writing this as a WARNING--there are explicit, vivid scenes of extreme animal cruelty toward a litter of puppies and a cow. There was absolutely no reason to include that. Does A.V. want us to think Ethiopians are born with a savage lack of empathy, not interested in the suffering they cause to animals? Does A.V. want us to think Ethiopians do not think of animals as living beings that feel pain, terror, panic? One of the twins from the story was traumatized from the puppies. A.V. is such a vivid writer that those horrific scenes will be with me, stuck in my head for the rest of my life. It came up fast and I unintentionally heard it. Why doesn't this author have the forethought and concern that this may affect his readers detrimentally?

2. Overly descriptive narrations that went on and on and on.

3. Marion's very disturbing description of the breast he was nursing from. And I think he had to be an older child! One of A.V.'s little puzzles.
Growing up, Marion had a twisted obsession with Gennet, kept himself a virgin right up until he became a doctor because he was "waiting for her". Then finally got to rape her. His “first time.” He was a doctor yet could not see she was very sick? And bleeding from genital mutilation? She told him to stop and he did not. Yet Marion, who was pampered all his life, was portrayed as the one to be sympathized with, while it was Gennet who suffered much trauma throughout her life, including this rape. And A.V. writes as though teen sex and prostitution is okay? Something is just not right here.

Although unrealistic, authors should be psychoanalyzed before they are allowed to publish their books because some have disturbing thoughts that go onto their pages and then into our heads. There should be guidelines, warnings.

It is quite disappointing when a superb writer ruins their own work by including such things as the above. The reader should be put first, not the author's self-gratification which this book demonstrates is off base.

Audible should include warnings in the introduction, not leave this work to unsuspecting readers they get money from.

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Awful

Revisado: 07-03-23

This is one of the worst books. This author apparently does not like men-she put all the males in a negative light. Even the detective--all we heard about him was quite a vivid description of the veins on and in his nose. The characters were one-dimensional and under-developed, Narration rambled on and on and on, with endless internal thoughts instead of action. It was so annoying and unpleasant, repetitive and boring. And foul language was expressed with such hate that it was impossible to listen to. I skimmed through most of it and am so glad this did not require a credit. Perhaps they knew that there would be a high return.

I usually like this narrator but in this particular book she came off as whiny and quite unpleasant. Not her fault because those were the annoying no-dimensional characters she was depicting. But she is extremely talented and I could tell the difference in characters. Wish she would choose her books more wisely because it's a negative on her too.

I cannot understand the good reviews. What a waste of my time. I give this a rating of "AA+" for ANNOYING and AWFUL.

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Excellent so far, BUT---and A BIG BUT

Revisado: 06-07-23

NOTE: I have 4 hours left but don't know if I can stand it:
Why all the swearing?? F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F , and others. It's ridiculous. From everyone.

Alex Smith is an extremely talented author but he adds so much swearing that it throws off the whole book. And this is the worst one so far in the series. Hardly anything about Kett's family, just investigation and swears. Hardly anything so far about Billie after an extrordinary rescue

Narration was awesome--but I am surprised at how many narrators would lower themselves to speak like this. No story NEEDS it!!! 3 stars off for that. Why do authors do this?????? I don't want to pay to hear the F-bombs, said with all sorts of different expressions, in my ear, hundrends of times. Makes the characters sound stupid too.

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EXCELLENT but there's a BIG BUT

Revisado: 05-27-23

There is way way too much swearing in this story. It was filled with talent from both the author and the narrator. But the swearing was ridiculous. F... F... F... F...F...SH..SH..SH..SH.. over and over. and others. WHY??? There are people that don't want to hear that in their ear for 9 hours. 2 stars off for it.

Otherwise this is fantastic. But really, why trash your novel?

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