Jen Terry

great narrator, but the story....

Reviewed: 05-23-25

The protagonist of the story was so insanely irritating, I couldn't even finish the book. Suspense is great but suspense caused by the main character being unbelievably stupid at every turn...(but, hey, as repeated ad nauseum, the girl is a sex fiend, so let's hear it for upholding that old rote of people will put up with any nonsense from a hot girl) There are only so many hours in the day. Great narration, though.

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Best book I have read in a long time.

Reviewed: 07-29-24

I didn't want to put it down. I have been binging on mystery/thrillers lately & while all were enjoyable, they can be a bit predictable. This had me guessing til the end. Excellent characters, engrossing story, great narration.

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1 person found this helpful

Excellent Read!

Reviewed: 02-28-24

I love a book with twists and turns. I thought I had it figured out, but was surprised at the reveal (though of course, the reveal did have a slight credibility gap)

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I wish everyone in America would read this book.

Reviewed: 02-11-24

Xi's Tails of growing up during the cultural revolution in China blew my mind and the glaring similarity between then and what is happening here now chilled me to the bone.

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1 person found this helpful

Disappointing twist.

Reviewed: 01-03-24

I bought the book based on the reviews. A little way in, I nearly abandoned it, as the outcome seemed obvious and depressing. I stuck it out, and was briefly glad I did...and then came the ending and I regretted ignoring my initial impulse to ditch it early on.

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Marred by bad narration.

Reviewed: 10-13-23

I bought this book without sampling first as I usually do, simply because it was on sale, and a Koontz book is reliably good. It is a testament to that fact that I was able to enjoy the book or even determined to listen to the whole thing despite the AWFUL narration. Monotone, barely any character distiguishment, plodding cadence, it made it hard to get into the story.

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What’s with the narrator?

Reviewed: 08-06-19

I enjoyed this story quite a bit, but the narration was hard to listen to. I hate to tear the guy down, because I’m sure he’s a very nice person and is probably really good at many things… But this was not one of them. I had to keep stopping and going back to re-listen because his style of reading made it hard to follow the story. His reading was somewhat halting, as though he was reading the story himself for the first time. Also, he read all of the characters lines in his own voice without giving any of the characters any different accents or personality whatsoever… Except the German. He would try to do a German accent whenever the guy started talking but sometime mid conversation his own southern accent would creep back in. I really enjoyed the characters especially the main character but I think it would have been much better either in print or with a competent narrator.

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Too miserable for me

Reviewed: 05-21-10

I liked the writer's style and especially enjoyed the surrealistic moments, and the narrator was odd but perfect for the piece. However...I had to stop listening at chapter 8. The litany of cruelty to innocence is just too miserable to me. I was thinking, "OK, I get it already!" and had two thirds of the novel yet to go...really didn't need to have any more animals tortured and children abused in depressing detail to get the point. Skip to the end...

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19 people found this helpful

outstanding, as always

Reviewed: 01-12-09

I'm in love with the Merrily Watkins series as a whole, and this book delivers the goods once again. My favorite thing is how he weaves actual historical facts and figures into his stories. I read "O Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" in a collection of short stories many years ago and it haunted me ever since(even though I forgot both the name of it's author and the collection). When I heard lines from that tale coming from the mouths of this book's characters, the little hairs rose on my arms and neck! I've never known of anyone else who had even heard of that story! As always, I'm sorry that Rebecca Lacey didn't do the reading (she did the first and was excellent). Emma Powell is quite good, but Ms. Lacey was the best.

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4 people found this helpful

A good read

Reviewed: 01-12-09

I found this book a fairly good read. I enjoy both historical fiction and studies on human psychology and this delivers both. Yes, there are disturbing passages, but, after all- it isn't called "The Nature Of Fuzzie Little Kittens"!

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2 people found this helpful