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Kathryn Martin

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Interesting Concept. Otherwise boring.

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

Reviewed: 05-20-19

This book was just okay. The twist on death was interesting and compelling, but the plot itself was a little boring and overdone.

Zachary Quinto did a good job on the dialogue. His different voices were subtle but well done and distinctive. However, his blasé reading of the narration eliminated any sense of urgency the text could have given which made the book easy to tune out and made it difficult to root for the main character. If the narration is supposed to be his perspective, and he sounds like he doesn't care, why should the reader/listener?

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No Plot. Still Good.

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

Reviewed: 05-18-19

The narrator for this has an incredibly appealing, incredibly soothing voice, and the way she spoke the words the author wrote truly wove together an aesthetically pleasing tapestry for the ears. The words sound good, and the way they're spoken is even better. I had trouble putting it down for that very reason.

I also thought the ending was really well done. It leaves the reader guessing, but it was a lovely spot to end things without leaving it to be a frustrating cliffhanger. It made my eyes well up with tears a little, too, though I didn't cry.

That being said, I didn't love this book. I love myth and fairy tale retellings, and I enjoyed this, I just found a lot of frustrating elements to it that I felt could have been improved greatly. First, there was no real plot. This was just a slice-of-life wherein we follow the titular character around from inception onward. Sometimes that kind of thing works for me, but with how long this book was, it left me wishing for more.

Second, this book is touted as a feminist piece, but I would argue that it isn't or that the feminist attributes are simply about an individual woman's strength and growth but not as something good for women overall. This character's life revolves around men, and women are treated rather poorly. Sometimes, Circe longs for female friendships and companionship, but she makes absolutely zero efforts in getting beyond her shitty opinions about women to ever try.

She suffers greatly from "not like other girls" syndrome though this time it's "not like other gods" syndrome that still speaks loudest when comparing herself to other women. Women are portrayed as rather shallow, vain, and/or conniving. Only one other woman is treated decently by the narration in this book, and Circe doesn't really do much or try much at all to really stick around and befriend her.

Instead, she treats other women like shit while entertaining men. This book is all about her relationships with men from her father to her first love to her future predators-turned-prey to her new lovers to her future child. I just felt like there could have been an attempt to frame female friendships as more worthy than they were considering the deference she gives to men. Giving value to other women would have in no way impacted how beautifully flawed and dynamic a character Circe was portrayed to be.

That said, I did appreciate the complex way motherhood was framed in this. I appreciated that she was allowed to be flawed and a jealous bitch even if she never really got introspective about said flaws. She really wasn't very different from the gods and women she scorned, and while it's frustrating, it's fine. The book was still enjoyable despite its drawbacks, and again, it was beautifully written as far as word choices go, and the narrator was fantastic.

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Not Your Average Ghost Story

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

Reviewed: 05-18-19

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It wasn't just a full cast. It was a theatrical performance for my ear holes. That being said, they narration does not develop the setting very well. It completely relies on the listener's foreknowledge of what regency (I'm guessing that it was this era?) London was like. I've watched a few movies and seen a few shows, so I was able to picture the scene the sounds of rain and clicking of heels on cobblestones and the clacking of carriage wheels implied. And the voice acting was absolutely wonderful and engaging. I loved the narrators' voices and their emotions and all of that.

Sometimes, the fight scenes were a little difficult to follow because it's really just a lot of grunting and heaving sounds, but it's typically clear who the victor is and how they won by the end of each fight.

The writing itself was pretty good, too. I was fascinated by the mystery, and I loved learning the story of the Darkwater Bride. The dialogue was good, and the characters believable.

I liked the fact that the sex workers were treated as real people with real feelings and real characterizations. The novel felt realistic in its portrayal but painted the characters as unapologetic about their work, some were even proud, and that's honestly really refreshing.

There was a lot of violence against women talked about (but not explicitly "shown" except in minor instances of grabbing/carrying/slapping) in this, but it was never once romanticized. I felt the author truly did a good job of showing that those acts were disgusting and that those who committed those acts were terrible men.

Spoilers after:
A couple of things were kinda meh to me about this story. First, I can't wrap my head around why the good guy copper had to die. Like... for real. The Bride killed him because he would have killed her by proxy, but she seemed pretty keen on dying almost immediately after that. It felt like it was for nothing.

Second, I kind of hated the end where the leading lady becomes the Darkwater Bride but has none of her powers or anything that would legitimately protect her if she's like, "Look into my eyes." as a threat to some skeezball, and he's like, "I just see a headstrong gal who's about to get assaulted." Seriously, super odd. The men who got sent to the Darkwater Bride were pretty unapologetic about being abusers. Somehow, I doubt staring into a, what... eighteen year old's determined gaze is going to protect her. It wasn't necessarily a terrible ending. Just a meh one.

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Wicked Women

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

Reviewed: 05-18-19

It's pretty rare that I read a book from a villain's point of view in which they aren't framed as really being the hero all along. Xifeng is a complex, interesting woman who has a choice about whom to become. There's a lot about fate/destiny in this book, but at no point was it framed in a way that made it seem as if she couldn't have easily chosen a different path than the one she ultimately made.

I'm glad I listened to the audiobook version of this book because looking at the spelling of Xifeng's name versus how Kim Mai Guest pronounced it, I wouldn't have been able to pronounce any of the names correctly. That being said, it took me some time to get used to Guest's narration style. In the beginning, it sounded far too matter-of-fact, but it became a lot more bearable once I increased the sound speed a little and waited for genuine moments of emotion. As the story progressed, Guest really did a wonderful job of giving the characters emotions and helping me feel what they must be feeling.

The story itself was interesting to me all of the way through. I like political intrigue when it's framed in the right light, and Julie C. Dao did that nicely. I struggled with Xifeng's internalized misogyny a lot. It was never addressed as being a bad thing so much as just-the-way-things-are, and I hate that shit. This book often had some very feminist (like when Xifeng noted how she went from being the property of her Guma to the property of Wei) and very tongue-in-cheek moments (like when one of the concubines - whose name I can't spell because I heard it and did not see it - said she was a protector of women despite treating her maids like trash and harming any woman she viewed at a threat). Obviously, the author wanted this character to seek power in whatever way works best for a woman in a patriarchal setting like this, but by giving her zero female friendships (the one she came closest to was treated as a deception, but half her male friendships she had were genuine and not emotionally treated like a mere tool for her ascension who she could/would betray at any cost). But maybe that was the point. Maybe her lack of real friendships with women could have helped her make better choices. I kind of doubt it, though.

As introspective as Xifeng was about her internal struggle with darkness and light, she maintained that because she wasn't like those dirty, slutty Concubines, she was somehow above them, and I'm exhausted by the treatment of sex workers (especially considering that the youngest one is heavily implied to have not chosen that for herself AT ALL) as being gross and bad. If that's what it had taken for Xifeng to gain power, you better fucking believe she would have done it, too. She just saw a way she preferred and made that work for her. She had her head so far up her ass where other women were concerned she couldn't see she was just like them, maybe even worse. Mighta been the point.

Anyway, four stars for the story and narration. Minus one star for the frustrating treatment of women and those who use their bodies to survive. Coulda been five if the author had addressed it at all.

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Terrible

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

Reviewed: 04-17-19

I did not like this book. I can see what it was trying to do, but it just didn't mesh with my tastes. The narrator has a very matter-of-fact way of speaking that didn't allow for any emotional context at all. I could kind of hear where the author was trying to put some emotion into the story, but it fell short when listening to the narrator speak the lines.

I also hated how prevalent the violence against women was. It is true that there was violence against everyone, but violence against women was far more frequent than it was against men, and when it was a woman being murdered, the story lingered on it longer and detailed it a lot more than when it was a man being murdered more often than not.

There was a lot of casual racism littered throughout this.

I don't know if it was the story or the narration, but it was extremely hard to keep track of what was going on with which characters. I think it would have been better to read this textually than to listen to it. There weren't clear divisions between which group was interacting, and it was hard to keep up with the many names and the large cast while just listening to it.

The concept itself wasn't awful, but I couldn't tell if it was satire by an older man who was trying to mock consumer culture or by a conspiracy theorist who worries that this could really happen in our future. The writing felt an awful lot like someone who isn't "hip" with the younger generations just throwing random words from the young, cool kids into the narration in the hopes of sounding up to date.

The arguably main character was completely unlikable and uninteresting, and his parts were the most mind numbing for me. I couldn't fathom why he was able to get laid or why he was even important to the story at all. I think I'm just tired of stories about asshole dudes who disrespect women getting to save the day. I don't think I liked a single character in this, to be perfectly honest.

This whole book was rife with tropes that feel tired and irritating. Misogyny and racism aren't cool or edgy, and it was jarring seeing them used like their point was just to be "shocking" instead of utilizing them in literally any kind of meaningful way at all.

All in all, I would not recommend this book.

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This book makes me wish this band was real.

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

Reviewed: 04-17-19

I really, truly loved this book. The narration was wonderful, and the writing was so alive and so vivid that I found myself forgetting this wasn't written about a real band whose music I could listen to. I'll admit, the reality of their being fictional characters hurt.

Reid wrote a great book in the form of an interview. I don't know how the novel itself would read without the audio, but listening to it was so wonderful. The narration cast did a beautiful job of adding real emotion and characterization to their respective parts. I will say that there were a few characters who I had a hard time telling apart from one another, but they were minor characters like Eddie's brother and some of the recording studio people who really didn't have a ton of bearing on the plot itself. Honestly, I kind of wish this was Daisy Jones & the Five because Eddie's brother was a completely useless character that I continuously forgot about until the book would remind me he was actually one of the Six. He just didn't stand out.

That's really the only thing I have to say that's negative about this book, though. The rest of the characters stood out in vivid technicolor for my ears, and their stories were dynamic and interesting. The characters were flawed, sometimes-but-not-always relatable, and very diverse in their personalities. It was really, really nice to have so many characters who could make me laugh and nearly make me cry. It was great to have such realistically beautiful stories of addiction, love, passion, and music. The latter topic really gave me some serious Fleetwood Mac vibes, and I loved it. I'm really glad I bought this book.

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Super Cute

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

Reviewed: 03-16-19

This book was pretty damn cute. I'll admit that I wasn't sold while listening to the beginning. The character wasn't likable at all, but as the story progressed, so did her growth. I liked the way the author wrote this. I liked the way the narrator spoke it. I found the winding road they traveled, so to speak, really interesting for the most part. I'm just knocking off a star because at times it felt a little too meandering, and if I hadn't needed something to listen to at work, I might have struggled to pick this up. However, I loved the ending. It was well written, and things were wrapped up neatly and happily.

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I loved this book even though it hurt me.

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

Reviewed: 03-16-19

I made the mistake of listening to this book at work. At first, all was well in my world, but the longer the book went on, the more at risk I became of breaking down in the middle of my shift. I did finish it, and I managed to not cry, but it wasn't easy at all.

The writing itself was really interesting. The words are the kinds that feel good in a person's mouth even if they could be a little flowery at times. It sounded good to hear them strung together. Initially, when it was revealed that the details of what happened to Maddie wouldn't be discussed, I was kind of frustrated. I'm used to getting all of the details, to having my curiosity satisfied, but as the book went on, I became really glad those details weren't given. I don't need to know what happened to her in gruesome detail. What matters is what led up to it and who she left behind. I didn't want murder glorified by describing just what she went through.

The writing was beautiful. The characters felt like real people. As someone who has suffered a lot of loss, I could relate to those who were interviewed. Sadie herself was harder to relate to, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I still cared about her. I still wanted good things for her.

The narrators were fantastic, and Soler especially was phenomenal at putting every ounce of raw emotion into the character for any listener to hear. She really brought Summers' words to life, right off the page, right into my ears. I thoroughly enjoyed her reading.

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Short, Sweet, Cute

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

Reviewed: 03-08-19

This was a really cute book. Some concepts made me uncomfortable, but it was fast and popcorny, and I really liked the narrators. Andi Arnt especially has this lovely quality to her voice where it seems breathy but sincere. I really enjoyed it.

That being said, it was really jarring that, despite the fact that there were two narrators, they didn't have assigned characters and would jump back and forth between who voiced what characters. As they have such drastically different voices, it would take me out of the story when they voiced characters who were previously voiced by the other narrator.

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Tone Problems

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

Reviewed: 03-08-19

This book had a serious tone problem. It was marketed as a children's scifi, so I anticipated a cute story about a young boy having to come of age alone. Sometimes, it was this. Other times, it was gory and made my skin crawl at how messed up some of the content was. He honestly could have gone the route of Stephen King's IT and written a book for adults that contained a child protagonist, but instead, he chose to write a story about a child going through some severe trauma that just might traumatize the children reading it.

I also want to mention that it's really unclear when this takes place. It's scifi, so I imagined future, but it must be an alternate reality because he talked about how his parents were really into things like the Simpsons (as evidenced by his father naming moons of a far off planet "Itchy" and "Scratchy"). Spongebob is also mentioned which implies his parents are either Gen X or Millenials which I found really jarring due to the lack of acknowledgement of why the things mentioned far into the future are things we know about in our current time line. Space travel is so advanced but the media is all still the same? It makes zero sense, and it really took me out of the story.

Another thing that bugged me was how there were times when the character's word choices were clearly those of a man upwards of forty despite his being thirteen. Sometimes he did a good job of giving him a kid's voice and other times he did a terrible job. There was little to no consistency.

Though the narrator did a good job of sounding youthful, and he spoke clearly, he always had a sense of urgency to his voice even when discussing the mundane. It led me to grow desensitized to anything that was happening, and during moments of tension, I felt none. He did do a decent job of having different voices for different characters, but it was odd how a ten year old boy from the main character's past ended up sounding like a grizzled thirty-something year old.

Despite all of this, I really did enjoy the ending. I enjoyed the planet, and I enjoyed reading about the creatures that lived on it. I hadn't guessed the "twist" by the end, and I thought it ended on a really cool, hopeful note that almost made me want more had I not disliked everything else so much.

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