Aquakittie

One of the best in this genre

Revisado: 08-29-22

I've read and listened to MANY MANY zombie and post apocalyptic stories over the years but this series was by FAR one of the best I've come across. Its LONG!! LONG LONG LONG!! BUT I intentionally picked it up for the length since I commute and that's my primary time for listening. That said, it's still a big commitment.

Once started I realized one of my many ways this author stands out from the rest. They take this story to some authentic DARK DARK corners of the imagination. I saw a review below bemoaning the fact that there was so much rape, but c'mon, its not that the author enjoys that, they're painting a picture that would realistically represent such a reality. Don't like it, then good. This isn't a warm fuzzy feel good story. Its gritty and sarcastic and realistic and gory and difficult to listen to but even more difficult to NOT listen to.

The author takes so many brilliant creative liberties delivered to the audience in such a sardonic snarky way to detour from the run of the mill zombie story. "This ain't the movies!" Nope, it sure isn't. You're left picking up your jaw with how they unapologetically DO NOT follow a feel good formula with the subplots. Main characters meeting misadventure and the story thus takes a complete left turn from where you thought it was going. Its brilliant.

The following of the sets of characters over the years is a great way to keep the audience invested. I liked how some of the stories didn't span the entire book. Some just didn't need to. Some were stronger subplots whereas others were just meh. But the nice thing about the subplots was that the author gave them to you in vignette bites so if you weren't feeling that particular story, you didn't have long to get back to one of the main sets of storylines.

After months of listening I'm feeling a bit lost not knowing what to do with myself leaving these characters and their long stories behind. I don't know what to listen to next.

Its good in all the ways you want it to be good. Its different in all the ways you didn't realize a good zombie story needs to be different to stand out in an over saturated genre. TW Brown is brilliant and the narrator gave great life to all of the characters. Its a real talent to pull THAT many voices together under one umbrella so flawlessly.

I can't say enough about this series. Its good, it'll get you sucked in and cry and laugh and get mad and sad and wistful. You'll be yelling at the characters cursing their stupidity or whatever.

If you're into LONG stories, and a zombie story that doesn't follow the same formulas, give this series all the love it deserves.

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Seriously disturbing and triggering

Revisado: 10-08-21

Don't get me wrong, I love a good thriller that illustrates the masterfullness of an author to captivate its audience, but this is dark. It hits close to home for me as I have a young son. It's hard not to look over your shoulder and want to hug your kids extra long after a story like this. Its tainting.

The author really unravels the narrative of these paralleling storylines with rich prose. You're disturbed and uncomfortable but you need to see it through. You need resolution. I feel a sense of anxiety or residual adrenaline wrapping up the story. The rollercoaster ride continues right up to the last moments of the epilogue.

Without going into the plot or letting out any spoilers, its reminds me of a few Australian criminal stories that have surfaced in the last 10yrs or so. Equally disturbing.

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really interesting unique take on time travel

Revisado: 07-08-21

This was a unique read. Time travel is a well used theme in stories and often times the stories take on a similar template and you kind of know the direction it will take. But this, this was different. This little coffee shop in Japan offered this serious opportunity to travel back in time for as long as the coffee stays warm.

The rules to the time travel opportunities were really different too. It drives home the question of "what would you do if you could go back to a time in your past" Why would you go and what would you hope to accomplish.

The characters were quirky as was the setting. You don't get much development outside of the coffee shop but the characters who frequent it bring the life to it.

Being American and not familiar with too many Japanese names I found it a bit hard to follow the names of the characters at times as some of them sounded similar and without seeing the name on paper to differentiate it from the next you really had to pay attention to the goings on of the characters to follow who was who.

It's a fresh and different take on a overused theme. I liked it.

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Awww so tender and charming

Revisado: 07-08-21

I don't know what I expected walking into this novel. I had a bunch of shorter books to read and this was one of them. I figured I'd kill some time in between big mealy, lengthy books that I'm prone to listening to. I'm sooo sooo glad I took a change on this. The synopsis sounded a bit cheeky. I mean where can this book about a librarian writing her own happily ever after actually go? I was pleasantly surprised at where it did indeed go.

I've had a new found love for all things Scotland so I was drawn a bit but that first and then the reviews. The accents are enough to win me over. I just love love love Scottish and British accents....and a good single malt scotch.

Nina is a little bit of everyone probably reading this. We face these moments in life where we have to make be adulty decisions and take plunges for our happiness or we don't. I'm not in Britain or Scotland and I'm not a young single woman with a roommate but I HAVE gone through some times recently trying to find myself and what my purpose or passions are and what I want and need to be truly happy. Sometimes those passions don't have to make you loads of money to be precious and important.

While some of the themes and plot lines in the book were predictable, you still had to wait to reach those desirable conclusions. I grew up on a farm so there was a familiarity there for me once Nina got to the farm.

The book van! Oh my dear, I wish I could see it in real life. What a darling darling idea. I've been very dispassionate about paper books in the time of audible books but this helped me realize their importance.

While this is categorized as "women's fiction" it's just a charming story with a rich setting and well developed characters. It wasn't rom-com for the sake of it. Its more. Give it a go and be enchanted like I was.

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A wonderful collision of genres filled w surprises

Revisado: 04-21-21

Pretty Woman meets a Jason Statham blockbuster and adds a sprinkle of the Da Vinci Code and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. And bam! There you have The Watchers. I wanna say I got this title as a Daily Deal or maybe a sale item and boy am I glad I did. What a gem. I don't even know that I saw what genre this actually fell under until now (Literature & Fiction/Horror). Based on the synopsis I felt like I was walking into something rather straightforward, however it became anything but.

There were a few reviews bemoaning the length and slow progression of the book. I'm a sucker for long books so I decided to look past those. While indeed on the longer side and somewhat slower paced for the first half, it was marvelously developed. The bounce back between characters kept the pace interesting enough to keep going. The character development was really successful in my opinion. While I've never been to Switzerland, I've got a really good idea what the city was like. There's a bit of technical jargon with regard to the cathedral but it was woven in so as not to be boring or irrelevant.

3 unlikely characters lead very different lives and yet they meet for some of the most important reasons in the world. Rochat, a mentally and physically challenged young man is the bell keeper at the Lausanne Cathedral. He appears to have some OCD tendencies and rather eccentric habits but he's kindly and very special. Katherine is a self-indulgent young escort living her best life out of the limelight and scrutiny of tax collectors and law enforcement. She spends her days indulging in anything and everything her consorts provide for her. Jay Harper, a private detective/washed up alcoholic, is called to this old city in Switzerland on the guise of solving a missing persons mystery. There are some crossing of paths but little do any of them know, how intertwined they will all be at some point.

For a good portion of the story, things feel like any whodoneit type mystery. Good cop/bad cop, down on his luck detective, trying to solve the mystery only to find that he's fallen down some kind of crazy rabbit hole and is likely the scapegoat and not the detective he thought he was.

Marc Rochat, what a charming character. You can't help but feel protective of him and hope that the citizens do good by him. He talks to bells and shadows and statues and skeletons and sees angels. He's special in so many ways.

Katherine, naive is an understatement but she thinks she's got the world all figured out when in fact she does not.

Jonathan Davis is just brilliant bringing to life the characters and adding accents and latin and french flawlessly.

The plot is handsomely crafted. Smooth sailing for a while then BAM you're turned on your head and riding the wave in a totally different direction. And you're going "whattttttt? I would never have seen that coming!"

It definitely got me invested. I've ordered up the next 2 books in the trilogy and can't wait to see where the story picks back up.

Give it a go. Let yourself get immersed in the storyline.

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A hopeless and hopeful tragedy

Revisado: 01-28-21

Man, you feel full when this one is done. It was indeed a ride. A long sad ride,but what a story. This story resonated for me in many ways. I too grew up from parents in the 70's who wanted to live off the land and had an idea of what that looked like but reality is a different beast altogether. I had a lot of similar circumstances to Leni. There was so much relatable for me.

This is a story of a broken man leading his family on a journey to start over in a remote tiny community in Alaska. Leni, a 13yr old girl, starts learning some ugly truths about her family and the man her father became after being a POW in Vietnam. She finds a bright spot in the only other child her age, Matthew, who she befriends in their tiny new school house. It's a story of love and loss and a coming of age for this young woman. A story of how circumstances aren't always pretty and you don't always have a white picket fence and Summer BBQs. That some people's childhoods are hard and unfair. A story about how love can break you but also give you hope.

Alaska brings out your character.

The writing is great. No fluff, no flowery depictions of Alaska. Its raw and vivid and sometimes hard to listen to. But it's captivating and it makes you need to find out what happens. To see if there's light at the end of a very dark tunnel. That's the stuff of good writing. Hannah knows her landscape and she knows her era. She paints an accurate picture of how far we've come for women in our country.

Julia Whelan does a wonderful job giving life to the characters. She's especially adept at making you FEEL the feelings and hear the emotion in these people without being over the top.

This story makes me a little homesick and introspective.

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What a treat to stumble upon

Revisado: 02-19-20

I forget how I found this title, but I'm soo glad I did. This was a fantastic and unique reinvention of a old Nordic fairytale. A few Disney cartoons come to mind when thinking on the fairytale but nothing too commercial. The story feels authentic and unique and twisty right away. The young princess Hulde is more than she initially appears to be and that's part of the novelty of this story.

Hulde is thrust out onto a quest to find herself and find where she belongs after she turns 16 and is due to marry the fairest man of all. All is not as it seems however. She has a teacher and friend come to her every few precious years for an extended visit to teach her to write and read and many beloved stories she holds dear to her heart. She's lonely and her heartless loveless mother keeps her a basic prisoner to her glass mountain.

Her journey takes her far and the characters she meets are rich and wonderful. The pets she keeps are also unique and wonderful. Its a great take on a fairytale that even an adult can love.

The narrator was wonderful and her accent lended well to the nature of the story. It felt very medievil just listening to her tell the story. I want to hear more from her and listen to more of Juliet Marillier stories. The genre is a favorite of mine. She has a gift for painting a picture of the world her characters live in. Brilliant.

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Good but no trigger forewarning-heavy topics

Revisado: 02-19-20

Admittedly I think it might be rather hard to warn the audience of potential triggering topics beforehand without some serious spoilers but I DO think the publishers could put SOME kind of trigger warning for heavy family topics ahead. No, nothing ghastly or gory or anything but heavy and very triggering for anyone having lived through similar events and would prefer not to recreationally read and relive them through fictional characters.

Many of the topics were indeed close to heart for me and hard to listen to coming from my own personal experience and perspective, but I kept listening to see where the story resolved itself.

As I listened I kept wondering where the bigger tie-in would come to the title. Yes, yes, its obvious when the book starts non-linearly and you see exactly the very literal title referenced as it starts with a fire, but the subtext is what I'm getting at and is what Ng was getting at in her story. Having finished and stewed a bit on the story, I think its aptly named. It indeed was a whole lot of little fires everywhere.

Mia and Pearl, mother and daughter, come to this cozy little Stepford Wives-esque type community of Shaker Heights. They take tenancy of the upstairs apt in a home owned by the large long standing and affluent Richardson family in town. Pearl becomes pals with the 4 Richardson kids in various ways while Mia becomes involved with many of the Richardson's as well.

There are some obvious underdogs that you root for and some characters that you're initially feeling sorry for but then are disappointed in. The inner personal dynamics of families are complex and every single one has their skeletons in the closet and secrets that need to be protected at all costs.

There's all the little goings on with the kids and the parents and the unlikely budding relationships between all and then there's the subplot of the Chinese baby in town who was abandoned and adopted and who's mother wants her back. They're all involved in the case in ironic ways and the outcome is meaningful to all in not so obvious ways.

You're kind of wondering the whole time, where the author is going to go with it all and how there will be resolution at the end. I admit that I was a bit disappointed and scratching my head because I kinda didn't get it. Too many loose ends left and story unanswered. I get why authors do that but sometimes it works and sometimes you just need answers. I think this was an "I need answers" type of book and we didn't really get them.

The narrator was ok. I don't really have any super lasting thoughts about her performance. It was ok. Not memorable for me. I had to go back and listen to the sample to recall her voice.

Again, had there been some rating system or precursor warning on some of the topics, I might have personally skipped this one though.

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Interesting storyline

Revisado: 02-04-20

So I read the reviews and synopsis and even an advertisement for this book on Facebook and had a level of expectation when going into this book. I wasn't hugely disappointed per say but it fell a tad short (of the Stephen King reference) for me.

I think part of the reason I wasn't wow'd was because there wasn't a clear protagonist. I didn't know who to root for. You think you know for a bit, then the story forces you to change your mind a few times. The end wasn't as OMG as some of the other listeners made it seem. Some key details at the end felt a little glossed over so I was left scratching my head a bit going "wait, what?!"

The storyline was definitely original. The few characters interesting as they evolved. The resolution at the end was sufficiently twisty so that I'm saying "ahh, I see what you did there".

The narrator worked better for me for the female parts. When he first started in with William, he sounded like a 50's radio personality or something. Very dramatic and over the top. Either he stopped doing that dramatized voice so much towards the 2nd half of the book or I stopped noticing as much. I'm not sure.

I liked to hear Susan's commentary at the end. It helped seal the decision to give other books by her a try after this one.

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Wow pretty dark

Revisado: 01-30-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Wow what a unique storyline. Dark and hard to listen to at times but very original. As is the case with man Kate L Mary books, the theme is post-apocalyptic in nature. A virus befalls the earth decades earlier and life is very different from what it is today. It appears as if a rebuilt is in the making as teams of workers are recruited to fix major railways in the country. Jameson is one such worker on a work crew sent out to repair the railways. The job is thankless and dangerous but apparently pays well so it was a no brainer.

Wilderness is the tribe elders daughter and has come of age to take a husband in a matriarchal tribe. Men have no power, no voice and no rights in this reality. They're there to perform their duties and remain separate from the women's tribe. This is all Wilderness knows. She "takes" a husband, Jameson, and their very different worldviews and life experiences collide. Its culture shock for Jameson and the other men who accompany him from the railways.

Wilderness knows a bit of her history and is starting to see the err in their ways of life and practices. Her and Jameson start to develop a bond unlike any other while danger waits around the corner ready to upend the tribe and all it stands for.

The concepts behind the story are really rich and thought provoking. All that we know in our 1st world lives we take for granted in this story. Everything you know about family as fact is not the reality for these women and their men in this tribe. The events are disturbing and ironic and Kate unfolds how great a storyteller she really is as the chapters go on.

Despite feeling somewhat predictable in terms of seeing things coming beforehand, you're still shocked or moved by the events and hope for particular outcomes.

The narrator does a great job bringing to life all the characters, men and women alike. It all flowed very smoothly.

I've listened to a few of Kate's books already and I really enjoy her preferred genre and writing style. I'll definitely be checking out more of her titles. I was given a free copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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