Glenn

One of the best books I’ve ever read.

Revisado: 04-19-19

The story was not only interesting and compelling, but realistic and believable. I’m not going to gush on the details, but I will day this book is in my top five and I can’t think of the other four.
I will be listening to it again. It was pleasant, captivating and heartfelt.

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Waste of time. What's the point?

Revisado: 01-31-18

I listened to 3/4 of this book and can't finish it. I don't see the point. There were a couple interesting stories, such as with the airplanes, but beyond that, this book was not worth my time.

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Character Confusion and Contrived Drama

Revisado: 01-14-18

I was loving this book for the first 3/4 or so. This is my fourth French book and I read them in order starting with In The Woods. That was one of the best books I've ever read. French has such a delicious, yet casual way with words I loved reading even when I didn't like the story line very much.

I liked Broken Harbor almost as much as In The Woods, but till I had four hours to go, then it took a dive. Without giving anything away, I'll tell you that there were two things that bugged me enough to (figuratively) through this book out the window.

The first is, the main character in Broken Harbor, "Scorcher" turned into the main character from her previous book "Faithful Place", Frank Macky. Scorcher was in Faithful Place also and was a different person, but French seemed to get confused. I didn't like this, it is certainly a writing and editorial flaw, but I could live with it. The heavy sarcasm was weighing down the story.

Finally, well into the book and the story line, a piece of evidence showed up that should have appeared much sooner. Because it didn't, it caused a lot of drama. Contrived drama. Granted, the entire story if fiction so everything is contrived, but if we are to "believe" the story there needs to be a consistency with it's rules, and French broke them in a big way. This evidence that appeared could have been found later in the story and then the exaggerated drama would not have needed to happen the way it did.

Sure, we want a certain amount of drama and suspense in a murder mystery story, but this was forced. My intelligence felt betrayed. In order to follow a story as it unfolds, the listener must trust that we are learning about it the same as the characters that we're following. When the author throws a wrench into the story because she wanted to add a twist at the end that we could not has seen coming, I feel cheated. Part of the fun, for me anyway, of a mystery is trying to figure out who done it. I don't want it to be predictable, but I also don't want evidence hidden from me unnaturally.

It is for these reasons that I do not recommend this book.

French, you need to tighten up your game. You've been slipping.

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Sarcastic Rant Ad Nauseum

Revisado: 11-25-17

This was my third Tana French book. I started with "In the Woods", which I loved. This book, was difficult to get through. The main character is an ugly man. He comes from an ugly family and he is a pain. The only reason I finished this book is because of the strength of French's writing.

She took a few unbelievable leaps to further the story, and I call bollocks on it. She is pretty good at being unpredictable, which I appreciate, but at the loss of reality it leaves me feeling ripped off. I would rather a good story with a predictable villain, than a slight of hand with a preposterous one.

I do like how she wraps up her books (the first three, anyway). After the crescendo, she let's things settle down, so the reader knows how things are going to go. It is a time of peace and tying up loose ends.

Over all, I don't recommend this book, unless you really love French's writing, a lot. I will listen to another, after awhile. But I will read the reviews carefully to see if I want to invest in it. The third book was incrementally less good than the second and that was also true of the second compared to the first. Does she continue to drift down hill?

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A Long Reach, That Worked

Revisado: 11-10-17

This is my second Tana French book. She is my new favorite author. I love her writing style. It is delicious. It's like a flour-less chocolate cake with raspberry drizzle.

I wasn't wild about the reader on this book. She did a fine job, I simply didn't care for her voice. The audio engineer had some trouble balancing the levels between chapters, but still, nothing too bad.

What can I say without giving anything away? It was a difficult concept to believe, but I love French's writing so much I bought in and enjoyed the entire book from start to finish. There was never a dull moment. I was fascinated and captivated all the way through. I listened at every chance I had and never wanted a break from it. I was looking forward to the ending so I would know who don it, etc. but was sad at it being over.

In short, I loved it and will continue reading her other books.

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Deliciously Captivating from the Start

Revisado: 10-30-17

This has been one of my favorite books to listen to, second only to Shantaram.
In both books, the story was well written and held my attention, and they both had excellent readers.

When I say Steven Crossley made this book, it is because he added so much life and feeling to the words on the page. I never read the book, but if I had it would not have been as enjoyable to me.

This book grabbed my attention from the beginning and held it throughout. It was like an addiction for me. I had to listen at every free moment. I even went back and listened to several sections again because French's use of the English language was delicious. His metaphors were fantastic.

I will be listening to this book again, even though I know how it ends.

The story was not predictable, and was not ridiculous. It maintained reality throughout.

I strongly recommend this book.

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I love a time travel story

Revisado: 10-22-17

This wasn’t Clines best book, but I did enjoy it. I love a good time travel story, especially one that is a new idea on the concept.

This idea was not very believable, but it was original, as far as I know.

I whipped through this book quite quickly and don’t regret finishing it. I liked the ending and would recommend it to anyone that like Clines or time travel.

The reader was superior.

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Grasping, Gripping, Engaging

Revisado: 10-11-17

I was hooked from the first minute. My wife is reading this book and I would read it too while at home, but I found that I enjoyed the audio version much better because the readers are much better than I am. They put emphasis in the right places and give the characters, character.

I was captivated and couldn't wait to hear what happened next. I equated it to "Gone Girl" in tone and quality of suspense and writing.

My wife and pontificated on where the book was going to go, and we thought there would be a plot twist, but none of our ideas were close to right. So, the best thing about this story is probably the unpredictability of it.

The only downside of this book is, it ended. Now I'm sad and know I'll have a hard time finding another worthy story to follow. Suggestions?

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Dense Mass of Crap

Revisado: 07-18-17

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People who like blind action films and don't care about facts, reality, or continuity.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Nothing by Scott Sigler. I'm listening to Stephen King now to cleans my palette.

Have you listened to any of Ray Porter’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I'm not sure. I thought the performance was terrific! Excellent.

What character would you cut from Earthcore?

Kyla. She sucked, was annoying, and most of all, she had no purpose.

Any additional comments?

The beginning of this book was well done and intriguing. And the story line was creative. However, I soon found most of the characters were complete jerks, to put it mildly.
I wanted to abandon this book many times, but was intrigued by the story line and had hope that it would get better.
It didn’t.
And now my eyes hurt from rolling them so many times.
I didn’t care about any of the characters, except one, and when things went south, I wanted all of them to die. When the stupidity started, I wanted to throw the book across the room – but it’s an audio book, so that takes the fun out of it. Then the stupidity kept coming.
The author has a good imagination, but doesn’t care about continuity. I read an review that said this book would make a good movie, I agree, for the brain-dead, bloated Americans who like those big action films that leave the rest of use feeling like we lost brain cells. The kind of movie that caters audiences made up of 9 year old boys. The kind that doesn’t worry about anything but big, dramatic, action.
There were so many holes in the storyline I had to back it up several times to see if I missed something. Nope, I didn’t, the author did – and so did all the editors.
I felt compelled to finish this book to see how it ended with the hope that the holes would be filled. They weren’t. In fact, instead of rolling my eyes at the finale, I was incensed that the author not only chose genocide to end this story, but as a cheap precursor to a sequel.
Genocide?! Scott Sigler, are you actually condoning and promoting genocide?
The scene is set for the sequel of “retaliation” with the overt goal of genocide. Yet, the man who wants this retaliation was part of a team that invaded this other cultures world. The beings he wants to retaliate against were simply defending themselves. AND, they let him live. For that, he wants to wipe them all out locally and around the world.
I found the characters shallow, the plot interesting, the storyline insipid, and the ending, disgusting. Shame on you Scott.

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Tory Line for Convenience

Revisado: 01-27-17

What did you like best about Behind Closed Doors? What did you like least?

The reader was great.The story started off interesting, and creepy, then a situation took place that was unbelievable for the character and lost me. There needs to be believably and consistency in a character.

What could B. A. Paris have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Hold Grace to her values.

Which character – as performed by Georgia Maguire – was your favorite?

I didn't have one.

Do you think Behind Closed Doors needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No, because I didn't finish this one. I got two hours, plus, into and abandoned. It's not worth finishing.

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