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Cheryl

  • 32
  • reviews
  • 6
  • helpful votes
  • 91
  • ratings

Masterful and Beautiful

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-08-25

Absolutely loved this beautifully crafted story. Spanning decades, following many well-developed characters, an incredible story of China, a love story, and what it means to be a mother. The best book by far I’ve read in years. Quite simply a masterpiece.

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Great Book & Performance

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-07-25

I wasn’t sure what to expect but Naomi Watts really delivers in this book and performance. I appreciate her openness and honesty, as well as her obviously well-researched points and quotes from medical professionals. The book is easy to listen to, the information is presented in a way that is not overwhelming and her willingness to be both self-deprecating and advocating is remarkable. I would recommend to any woman who wants to understand what happens and what we should be focusing on post baby years. Thank you for sharing with us; this book should help advance women’s health and reduce the stigma around menopause.

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Just not for me

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-29-25

Clearly the author is a skilled writer and lover of nature, but this book was, for me, too long and not very interesting. Different characters over time just meant I wasn’t attached to any of them and the stories around them were thin and shallow. The book also doesn’t contain a lot of dialogue and I find chapters written as diary entries, letters or one person narratives boring despite the varied performances by different speakers. Too many lists and intricate details of nature that, while well observed, didn’t hold my interest for this many hours. Sorry to say as clearly the author meant this as a labor of love. For me, just labor to finish.

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Good story, distracting narration

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-26-24

I’ve read / listened to multiple books by Ellison but the narration on this one is so terrible it’s constantly distracting from the story. I would encourage a re-recording. The female narrators, especially Mindy’s, is oddly halting and has weird spacing of the dialogue. It made it difficult to get completely immersed in the story.

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Interesting concepts

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-07-24

Unique idea for a story and I liked how she wove different math and philosophical ideas and perspectives through a fictional story. In my opinion, I would have preferred more editing especially of the Cherry chapters as some were meandering nonsense. The narration of Cherry was especially snappy and at times annoying (not sure if intended since the character states people find her annoying). Satisfying ending.

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Way Too Gruesome

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-14-24

I selected this book based on a positive review from a source I trust. The initial story kept my interest but it became far too gruesome with violence and rape that didn’t need to be described in detail. I found myself fast forwarding past large sections to see how the story ended without hearing the gory details. Be warned.

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Interesting Original Story

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-05-24

This was an original and ambitious idea, both in terms of story creativity and actual execution. Overall it remained interesting although a bit too long through iterations in my opinion. There were some unexpected reveals but I think there were also some pretty big gaps in explaining how it actually worked - I won’t say more not to ruin the story. Re narration, generally good but would be a little better if nearly every sentence wasn’t performed as if it had an exclamation mark at the end of the sentences.

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Excellent!

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 07-08-24

Drew me in right away and didn’t let go until it was over. What I loved most was that every time I considered who it could be, the author addressed that possibility almost immediately so I wasn’t left wondering for half the book if I was right - this has never happened and I loved it. The narration was great and I appreciated the female / male parts being read accordingly instead of someone pretending to be the other. People saying the podcast music or weird voice which only lasts a few seconds was distracting or annoying seems nit-picky to me. It’s not the first book I’ve read with a podcast format (I don’t generally listen to podcasts) but this was the most well done. Overall highly engaging and enjoyable book - definitely recommend!

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Very Little Mystery

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-28-24

There were a series of reveals but most of them were entirely predictable. The story premise has been done many time before - going back to a high school era place to solve a crime / the wealthy family as the terrible guys in town- without much that was unique. Felt long.

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Very Clever and Original

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-17-24

This is my first book by this author and I really enjoyed the clever and little bit complicated twisty-turny plot, humor and originality of the story. I had trouble pausing for breaks! The narrator also did a fantastic job. I’ll definitely be looking into more books by Benjamin Stevenson. Enjoy!

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