chaoticmuse

Grotesque People

Revisado: 03-28-25

This entire book was disturbing on so many levels. From the bizarre reaction of the author’s parents to their child being attacked by a shark and suffering intensely to the deeply dysfunctional world of Facebook. It’s a page turner that will have you rethinking your use of social media at the very least. These powerful, careless people seem to be an existential threat to the health and safety of the entire world. Highly recommended.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Essential Reading

Revisado: 10-02-24

This book is powerful and timely. Amazing listen from beginning to end. The author has a gift for taking sweeping and complicated currents of history and putting them into perspective. And she leaves the reader with hope for the future.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not His Best Work

Revisado: 07-16-23

This story was missing some of the moderate depth that Ibsen usually has in his creepy story lines and quirky characters. But what really caused me to first, laugh out loud (unintentional humor) and then, after a while, get irritated was the overuse of uncommon words. It's like he had a shiny new thesaurus and looked for a weird word for every other regular word. He used the phrase "quaff a tittle" when describing Ulrich smelling a bad smell during what should have been an intense scene and he wasn't trying to be funny. It was like that throughout the entire story. I hope he tosses the thesaurus and starts having his characters speak normally.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Constantly breaking the momentum

Revisado: 11-29-22

This was an exciting story concept interrupted constantly by the juvenile sexual fantasies of superficially drawn characters. If the “men” weren’t fantasizing or judging the female characters there were boring, long drawn out scenes of what I’m guessing is supposed to be flirting. Right in the middle of what should be an intense, dark, exploration of a monster infested cave we have to listen to these weird, unimaginative and tedious excursions that have nothing to do with what’s actually happening. I haven’t read any other Janz books so I can’t say this is a normal obsession with porn and sexual fantasy but I started to wonder if what we’re getting is the author’s own shallow fantasies and beliefs about women. It was enough to knock the story off course repeatedly. A good editor could have helped streamline this book and kept the momentum going.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Powerful

Revisado: 10-24-22

This is a must read for everyone. Mr. Fanone tells a very compelling story of what it’s like to be caught in the middle of massive events. I couldn’t stop listening. I worried at first when I saw that he was also the narrator but he does an excellent job and really no one else could have read his story but Fanone. The whole book will keep pushing your outrage meter but it also brought unique insights about many issues including policing today and how to make effective changes.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Narrator Ruins the Book

Revisado: 01-31-22

This great book needs to be recorded again with a different reader. It’s unfortunate that such an important book has been ruined by terrible narration.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

When the reporter is part of the story...

Revisado: 10-02-21

Ward did say, early on in the podcast, that she probably should have passed on the original article for a variety of reasons. She should have followed that instinct. She is so wrapped up in the same incestuous, elite New York social circles shared by her subjects that she couldn't be aggressive enough to get the real story. She was far too concerned about maintaining relationships (aka access) to really dig into the Epstein's or Ghislaine's crimes when it could have made a difference. And, contrary to the conclusions drawn here, Ghislaine isn't a victim. She participated in and enabled Epstein's crimes and will pay the price just as he should have if he hadn't been kil... um... died.

This podcast is mostly about Epstein who conned and blackmailed rich men using the bodies of young girls and women (with most of the time spent of the rich men rather than the young female victims who are rarely mentioned). He was a monster. So is Ghislaine. But you wouldn't know it from this podcast.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Lesson Not Learned

Revisado: 09-06-21

This was an exhausting book to listen to but not a bad one. So many of the insights came from "lessons learned" interviews which the military must do with some regularity considering the number of them over the years of the war in Afghanistan. The interesting thing is that no lessons ever seemed to be learned. The whole 20 years could be summed up with just that phrase of "no lessons learned".

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Interesting Story with Over Enunciating Reader

Revisado: 07-31-21

The story was well done and incredibly sad on so many levels. No real justice was done in this case. Being part of the author's family history added an interesting perspective to the story.

The narrator has an odd way of over enunciating some things and reading normally at other times. It gets irritating after a while. There were quite a few mispronunciations (overly enunciated for good measure) that stood out as well.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great Book but Lots of Dead Dogs

Revisado: 04-26-21

I enjoyed this book with its creepy premise and likeable characters. The narration was very well done too.

Just a heads up to other dog lovers out there that there are several brutal scenes where dogs are killed.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña