Grace P.

Virtual voice actually good

Revisado: 03-15-24

So I liked the story, but was most surprised by the virtual voice. It actually sounds great! And almost forgot it wasn’t a real person for most of it. Only when there were scenes with multiple ppl did it get a little weird as the voice doesn’t change for different speakers so they all sound similar, but surprisingly found it amazing that the voice could get intonations and exclamations pretty accurate. The story was good although I was frustrated with Lizzy sometimes, but mostly enjoyed the whole thing.

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All over the place

Revisado: 02-14-24

I found when the book ended I was left with a question of "that's it? This is how it ends?" Upon further reflection I realized there were many things about this book I really did not like. I felt like the author spent way too much time on minor details that should have been but a footnote, but instead seemed to take nearly a whole chapter to get through. It was slow at first with many many family members and while I really enjoyed the history of her family and seeing what life was like for them in a segregated racist area, I felt like it took me too long to remember the family members names. At times I was left to wonder, "who is this person again?" Then we come to the author's life herself and the history seems to jump around. One minute we'd be going in chronological order of her life and the next we jump back two years and it would pull me out of the narrative to figure out what was happening and where in time we were. On top of all of this, we get details of her life that she spends way too much time on that I felt had no bearing on the "yellow house", e.g. her time in Burundi. While fascinating at times, I felt it took way too much time to get through. The memoir is entitled "The Yellow House," and while the author touched on the house and the history of the house, I felt the main content of her memoir was not even related to the yellow house. At the end of the book, I felt that I wanted to know more about HER family and not her. I wanted the interesting stories that her brother Carl would most definitely have or how her brother Daryl overcame his addiction. I felt like I was left wanting at the end. I wanted a different story. I wanted the histories of her family, not her or the yellow house. Or in the very least, Carl's history with the yellow house as it seemed he had more of a connection to the yellow house than she did. I felt I wanted more than just her story, I wanted the fascinating stories of her family. Or at the very least I felt there were things she glossed over in her life that I was left wondering "how'd that come about," e.g. how'd she get her job at Opera. How did her family feel about her graduating college? Graduate school? Wasn't this a big deal?

In conclusion, I just felt this lacked something or maybe her focus was all over the place. The narration was superb and I wouldn't have changed a thing about it except in the last 30-60 minutes the narrator lisps on a word and I thought it was an error in the narration and I had to rewind but, Nope!, she lisped and it wasn't corrected. That would be my only note on narration because other than that, it was excellent and didn't think she could have done better. I kept listening mostly because of the narrator and because this was a book club book of the month and I had to finish it. I would have stopped about 30 minutes into the book had I not needed to finish it.

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Great story...not the best narrator

Revisado: 01-18-16

This series is absolutely amazing. I love all the characters and their relationships that only grow as the series continues. Having listened to all the narrators I will say this, Felicity Monroe does an alright job at narrating but something about her portrayal of Sam and a few other characters rubs me the wrong way. This story is amazing but could be even better with a different narrator. Eva Kaminsky is the BEST narrator for this series, hands down. I almost wish she'd go back and record the few books narrated by Monroe and Katie Sparer. She narrates most of the other books so I say if you don't want to read the first two books get the audio and you won't be disappointed with the story and it just gets better and better especially with Eva Kaminsky as narrator starting book 3.

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I Couldn't Stop Laughing

Revisado: 03-05-13

What made the experience of listening to Seriously...I'm Kidding the most enjoyable?

I read this while I was on a road trip and I have to say that I absolutely LOVED it! I love Ellen, but this audible book was absolutely hilarious. I can't really say there was much of a story, just a bunch of chapters on various subjects. I don't know how she did it, but I felt like I never stopped laughing.

What about Ellen DeGeneres’s performance did you like?

Ellen connects to her audience as if they were listening to her live. I thought her performance was great.

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Jam Packed with Twists and Turns

Revisado: 03-04-13

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

First let me say Jeffery Deaver is an amazing author. He can turn any novel upside down at the last second and give you a twist that will have your jaw dropping to the floor. And this one had more than just one twist.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book minus a few new characters introduced. It did take me longer than usual to finish this novel as the beginning had me wishing it could go a little faster, but once the story got going it had me sitting in my car even after coming home from my commute just to listen to it for a few more minutes.I would highly recommend this book if you are a Deaver fan, Lincoln Rhyme fan, or just want a good mystery novel to read.

Have you listened to any of Richard Turner Perry’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

He did an excellent job of creating a voice for the characters. Although I wasn't so keen on his hill-billy southern accent, but overall it was enjoyable and worth the listen.

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Horrible reading for an AMAZING book

Revisado: 03-04-13

Would you try another book from Jeffery Deaver and/or David McCallum?

I am currently reading/listening through Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme series. I absolutely love this series. However, I would NEVER get another book read by David McCallum even if it was a Jeffery Deaver novel.Let me just say this about this audio version. It was the bare bones of the story. I absolutely loved the story and the characters. It was just the right about of creepy and gruesome thrown in together with a kick-ass detective and a forlorn police specialist. I loved this book! However, that said I really wish they would have made this "abridged" version less abridged. It's running time is only about 3 hours whereas Deaver's other abridged versions run between 5 and 6 hours. This novel was amazing but whoever cut down the book into this abridged version should have called it not abridged, but a rough cut version. There were points in this abridged version that had me confused because they suddenly jumped to a scene that had nothing to do with what was just being spoken. Things were cut down so much that if you weren't paying attention closely you'd miss a major part in the story.Now, let me move on to McCallum's performance. Oh boy, was he the worst reader ever! There were times in the reading where I couldn't even understand what he was saying! He is a british man reading for a book set in New York with characters that are from New York. Enough said on that point. Now, let me talk about the quality of this audible. It sucked, to say the least. Not only do you have a man you can't understand, but it almost sounds like they had McCallum recording this in a bathroom on an old record then decided to change from the LP to digital audio without fixing the sound quality. It was AWFUL!

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Bone Collector?

There is nothing more that could have been cut. As stated before, this version should really be called a Rough Outline of Events rather than Abridged. It was so cut down that scenes changed when you least expected them to and with no real break for you to realize that you were now with a different set of characters in a different location.

Any additional comments?

If you really really really want to read this book I would suggest getting it from the library and actually reading it. That said, if you don't have the time and just want to start the Lincoln Rhyme series via Audible then it's not the worst purchase you could make especially since this is the ONLY abridged version out there and the unabridged version is about $50.00 if you can even find it. The only place I've found it is from the UK on Amazon.

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Not my favorite Lincoln Rhyme Novel

Revisado: 03-04-13

What did you like best about The Stone Monkey? What did you like least?

Although I normally LOVE Jeffery Deaver, this novel just seemed so-so to me, especially the audio version. Albeit it is abridged, but normally I can follow the abridged versions fairly well, e.g. Coffin Dancer. However with this novel there were parts of it that left me saying, "What just happened? Who is that character?" I will say that I could catch up and I finally figured out what was going on, but then the ending seemed like every other Jeffery Deaver novel, at least in the Lincoln Rhyme series, where there was a twist you probably could have seen coming and bam! They catch the bad guy. So as for his novel, eh, it was by far my least favorite so far. (I am currently on Vanished Man).Now, let me go on to talk about Boyd Gaines reading of the book. From the very first time I pressed 'play' to the very ending of the novel it was hard for me to hear Gaines' performance of the book. He made Sacs sound too much like a simpering female instead of the strong female cop that we all know her to be. Then even worse? His Chinese accent. The first time he started speaking with his faux Chinese accent I was really confused. I kept asking myself "Are the characters supposed to have a slur? Does this character have a lisp or is that supposed to be a Chinese accent?" Oh, it was awful; so awful in fact that it took me two and a half weeks to finish this story when in reality I could have finished it in three days with my commute to work!With all that said, perhaps if I would have read the novel instead of listened to this very, very inferior version I would have liked the novel more. If you are a true Lincoln Rhyme fanatic and Jeffery Deaver fan then by all means get this book and listen to it because it does add some character depth to Sacs and her relationship with Lincoln. But if, however, you are just looking for something to read and have stumbled upon this book, DO NOT buy it because you will be sorely disappointed.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Boyd Gaines?

Joe Mantegna, He read The Coffin Dancer and by far is my favorite reader for Lincoln Rhyme novels with his very realistic New York accent. Or I would have recommended Dennis Boutsikaris who read The Broken Window by Deaver. His portrayal of all the characters was fantastic!

Do you think The Stone Monkey needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

This book is followed by The Vanished Man.

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