
Beauty in the Blood
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Marie-Francoise Theodore
-
By:
-
Charlotte Carter
About this listen
A curse rolls out over centuries, murky and unknowable as swamp waters, shaping and destroying lives.
“Carter delivers. . . . [A] fusion of detective fiction and horror that is impossible to look away from.”—The New York Times Book Review
Sarah Toomey is a successful young black lawyer, lovely but straitlaced–and afraid that she is losing her mind. Since the death of her mother, a force she can neither understand nor control is manipulating her memory and driving her to unexplained acts of violence and destruction. At the same time, Sarah is swept up in a highly charged relationship with a work colleague that portends a danger of its own. As she moves through her privileged life in New York, Sarah comes to learn how her past—her haunted history—is intertwined with America’s.
Yvonne Howard was born into the working class. Now, after years as a prison guard, she has reinvented herself. Her passion for cooking has landed her a position at a trendy soul food restaurant, and she is looking forward to a glamorous career. Then an ex-inmate named Bitty appears, demanding Yvonne’s help investigating her brother’s shocking death. Before long, Bitty too is dead, and Yvonne is pulled back into a world of ugly violence. Smart but unschooled, Yvonne finds herself in the unlikely role of detective: it is she who must unravel the dark and blood-soaked history that not only doomed Bitty and her brother, but also determined beautiful Sarah Toomey’s fate.
©2025 Charlotte Carter (P)2025 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
We Are Watching
- A Novel
- By: Alison Gaylin
- Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meg Russo was behind the wheel when it happened. She and her husband Justin were driving their daughter Lily to Ithaca College, the family celebrating the eighteen-year-old music prodigy’s future. Then a car swerved up beside them, the young men inside it behaving bizarrely—and Meg lost control of her own vehicle. The family road trip turned into a tragedy. Justin didn’t survive the accident.
-
-
Conspiracy theory on steroids
- By Pink Amy on 01-29-25
By: Alison Gaylin
-
The Doorman
- A Novel
- By: Chris Pavone
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chicky Diaz is everyone’s favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world, home of celebrities, financiers, and New York’s cultural elite. Up in the penthouse, Emily Longworth has the perfect-looking everything, all except her husband, whom she’d quietly loathed even before the recent revelations about where all the money comes from. But his wealth is immense, their prenup is iron-clad, and Emily can’t bring herself to leave him. Yet.
-
-
Awful
- By C39LDUTBFFFQ on 06-06-25
By: Chris Pavone
-
Mask of the Deer Woman
- By: Laurie L. Dove
- Narrated by: Isabella Star Lablanc
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At rock bottom following her daughter’s death, ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr has nowhere to go but back to her roots. Starr’s father never talked much about the reservation where he was raised, but the tribe needs a new marshal as much as Starr needs a place to call home. In the past decade, too many young women have disappeared from the rez. Some have ended up dead, others just…gone. Now local college student Chenoa Cloud is missing, and Starr falls into an investigation that leaves her drowning in memories of her daughter—the girl she failed to save.
-
-
Finally a meaningful read
- By AC on 02-01-25
By: Laurie L. Dove
-
Precipice
- A Novel
- By: Robert Harris
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In London, twenty-six-year-old Venetia Stanley—aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless—is part of a fast group of upper-crust bohemians and socialites known as “The Coterie.” She’s also engaged in a clandestine love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state.
-
-
outstanding in every way
- By Rosalind Britton on 10-10-24
By: Robert Harris
-
Black in Blues
- How a Color Tells the Story of My People
- By: Imani Perry
- Narrated by: Imani Perry
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions. But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and blue?” In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey.
-
-
So many lessons in this book
- By Christina the Teacher on 02-04-25
By: Imani Perry
-
The Dark Hours
- By: Amy Jordan
- Narrated by: Flora Montgomery
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1994: When Gardas Julia Harte and Adrian Clancy are called out to a sleepy housing estate in Cork to investigate a noise complaint, they are entirely unprepared for what they find. What happens next will haunt Julia for the rest of her career, leaving her plagued with nightmares and terrified of the dark. There is a serial killer at work in Cork, one as clever as he is deadly. Julia may not be a detective yet, but after the harrowing events of that night, she is determined to be the one to catch him…
-
-
fascinating mystery
- By Julie Jones on 07-03-25
By: Amy Jordan
-
We Are Watching
- A Novel
- By: Alison Gaylin
- Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meg Russo was behind the wheel when it happened. She and her husband Justin were driving their daughter Lily to Ithaca College, the family celebrating the eighteen-year-old music prodigy’s future. Then a car swerved up beside them, the young men inside it behaving bizarrely—and Meg lost control of her own vehicle. The family road trip turned into a tragedy. Justin didn’t survive the accident.
-
-
Conspiracy theory on steroids
- By Pink Amy on 01-29-25
By: Alison Gaylin
-
The Doorman
- A Novel
- By: Chris Pavone
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chicky Diaz is everyone’s favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world, home of celebrities, financiers, and New York’s cultural elite. Up in the penthouse, Emily Longworth has the perfect-looking everything, all except her husband, whom she’d quietly loathed even before the recent revelations about where all the money comes from. But his wealth is immense, their prenup is iron-clad, and Emily can’t bring herself to leave him. Yet.
-
-
Awful
- By C39LDUTBFFFQ on 06-06-25
By: Chris Pavone
-
Mask of the Deer Woman
- By: Laurie L. Dove
- Narrated by: Isabella Star Lablanc
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At rock bottom following her daughter’s death, ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr has nowhere to go but back to her roots. Starr’s father never talked much about the reservation where he was raised, but the tribe needs a new marshal as much as Starr needs a place to call home. In the past decade, too many young women have disappeared from the rez. Some have ended up dead, others just…gone. Now local college student Chenoa Cloud is missing, and Starr falls into an investigation that leaves her drowning in memories of her daughter—the girl she failed to save.
-
-
Finally a meaningful read
- By AC on 02-01-25
By: Laurie L. Dove
-
Precipice
- A Novel
- By: Robert Harris
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In London, twenty-six-year-old Venetia Stanley—aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless—is part of a fast group of upper-crust bohemians and socialites known as “The Coterie.” She’s also engaged in a clandestine love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state.
-
-
outstanding in every way
- By Rosalind Britton on 10-10-24
By: Robert Harris
-
Black in Blues
- How a Color Tells the Story of My People
- By: Imani Perry
- Narrated by: Imani Perry
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions. But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and blue?” In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey.
-
-
So many lessons in this book
- By Christina the Teacher on 02-04-25
By: Imani Perry
-
The Dark Hours
- By: Amy Jordan
- Narrated by: Flora Montgomery
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1994: When Gardas Julia Harte and Adrian Clancy are called out to a sleepy housing estate in Cork to investigate a noise complaint, they are entirely unprepared for what they find. What happens next will haunt Julia for the rest of her career, leaving her plagued with nightmares and terrified of the dark. There is a serial killer at work in Cork, one as clever as he is deadly. Julia may not be a detective yet, but after the harrowing events of that night, she is determined to be the one to catch him…
-
-
fascinating mystery
- By Julie Jones on 07-03-25
By: Amy Jordan
Critic reviews
“Carter delivers, though the book is markedly different from her earlier novels. Yes, there’s a mystery to solve … But Carter is after larger narrative game here, linking the violent death to America’s original sin of slavery, and a generations-spanning curse dooming women to act out the worst kind of revenge fantasies. The result is a fusion of detective fiction and horror that is impossible to look away from.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Beauty in the Blood begins in the last year of the Civil War, as blacks flee ruined plantations, murderous Confederates, and treacherous Unionists. It takes us to New York in the year 2000, where successful black women find their lives threatened with a violence that implicates them in America’s harshest racial crimes. None of us is exempt from history’s torments, and none of those torments is simple. This is a riveting and wise novel.”—Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Negroland and Constructing a Nervous System
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Only Black Girl in the Room
- A Novel
- By: Alex Travis
- Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Genevieve Francis, a 25-year-old Black reporter, assumed she’d go into her fourth year at her newspaper job with a bigger story than the latest seasonal ice cream flavor. Instead, she’s relegated to doing copy edits and sensitivity reads on the articles her white colleagues write. So when Gen finally gets the opportunity to cover a prominent CEO’s gala, she leaps at the chance—this will be her biggest assignment to date. The only problem: The CEO is her ex, Jude, whose marriage proposal she publicly rejected four years prior.
-
-
Amazing story of truth setting you free
- By C. Spyn on 01-21-25
By: Alex Travis
-
We Rip the World Apart
- By: Charlene Carr
- Narrated by: Tebby Fisher
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 24-year-old Kareela discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't sure she wants, her struggle to understand her place in the world as a person who is half-Black, half-white—yet feels neither—is amplified. Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child during the politically charged Jamaican exodus in the 1980s, only to realize they'd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion—a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily. Years later, Evelyn's mother-in-law, Violet, moves in.
By: Charlene Carr
-
Smile for the Cameras
- A Novel
- By: Miranda Smith
- Narrated by: Abigail Reno, Marwan Salama, Louisa Zhu, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, Ella Winters was the it girl. She made a name for herself in Hollywood and throughout America as the sole survivor in the cult-classic slasher Grad Night. But the real horror is what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling—something terrible that Ella and her co-stars agreed never to speak of again. Shortly after the movie’s premiere, Ella disappeared from the acting scene under the pretense of caring for her ailing mother, hoping for a quiet life out of the spotlight to ease her guilty mind.
-
-
I love the twists!
- By Kelly Barum on 06-28-25
By: Miranda Smith
-
Fortune Favors the Dead
- A Novel
- By: Stephen Spotswood
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1942 and Willowjean "Will" Parker is a scrappy circus runaway whose knife-throwing skills have just saved the life of New York's best, and most unorthodox, private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. When the dapper detective summons Will a few days later, she doesn't expect to be offered a life-changing proposition: Lillian's multiple sclerosis means she can't keep up with her old case load alone, so she wants to hire Will to be her right-hand woman. In return, Will is to receive a salary, room and board, and training in Lillian's very particular art of investigation.
-
-
Stick with Rex Stout
- By Jeffrey P Rowland on 01-14-22
-
Zeal
- A Novel
- By: Morgan Jerkins
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Shayna Small
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning over a hundred and fifty years, Morgan Jerkins’s extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah's family moves across the country during the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while of the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison's progeny.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Courtney Pipkin on 06-21-25
By: Morgan Jerkins
-
The Life of Herod the Great
- By: Zora Neale Hurston, Deborah G. Plant - editor
- Narrated by: Blair Underwood, Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but a forerunner of Christ—a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea.
-
-
like the lion needs no weapon but himself
- By william t. on 03-25-25
By: Zora Neale Hurston, and others
-
The Only Black Girl in the Room
- A Novel
- By: Alex Travis
- Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Genevieve Francis, a 25-year-old Black reporter, assumed she’d go into her fourth year at her newspaper job with a bigger story than the latest seasonal ice cream flavor. Instead, she’s relegated to doing copy edits and sensitivity reads on the articles her white colleagues write. So when Gen finally gets the opportunity to cover a prominent CEO’s gala, she leaps at the chance—this will be her biggest assignment to date. The only problem: The CEO is her ex, Jude, whose marriage proposal she publicly rejected four years prior.
-
-
Amazing story of truth setting you free
- By C. Spyn on 01-21-25
By: Alex Travis
-
We Rip the World Apart
- By: Charlene Carr
- Narrated by: Tebby Fisher
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 24-year-old Kareela discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't sure she wants, her struggle to understand her place in the world as a person who is half-Black, half-white—yet feels neither—is amplified. Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child during the politically charged Jamaican exodus in the 1980s, only to realize they'd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion—a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily. Years later, Evelyn's mother-in-law, Violet, moves in.
By: Charlene Carr
-
Smile for the Cameras
- A Novel
- By: Miranda Smith
- Narrated by: Abigail Reno, Marwan Salama, Louisa Zhu, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, Ella Winters was the it girl. She made a name for herself in Hollywood and throughout America as the sole survivor in the cult-classic slasher Grad Night. But the real horror is what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling—something terrible that Ella and her co-stars agreed never to speak of again. Shortly after the movie’s premiere, Ella disappeared from the acting scene under the pretense of caring for her ailing mother, hoping for a quiet life out of the spotlight to ease her guilty mind.
-
-
I love the twists!
- By Kelly Barum on 06-28-25
By: Miranda Smith
-
Fortune Favors the Dead
- A Novel
- By: Stephen Spotswood
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1942 and Willowjean "Will" Parker is a scrappy circus runaway whose knife-throwing skills have just saved the life of New York's best, and most unorthodox, private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. When the dapper detective summons Will a few days later, she doesn't expect to be offered a life-changing proposition: Lillian's multiple sclerosis means she can't keep up with her old case load alone, so she wants to hire Will to be her right-hand woman. In return, Will is to receive a salary, room and board, and training in Lillian's very particular art of investigation.
-
-
Stick with Rex Stout
- By Jeffrey P Rowland on 01-14-22
-
Zeal
- A Novel
- By: Morgan Jerkins
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Shayna Small
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning over a hundred and fifty years, Morgan Jerkins’s extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah's family moves across the country during the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while of the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison's progeny.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Courtney Pipkin on 06-21-25
By: Morgan Jerkins
-
The Life of Herod the Great
- By: Zora Neale Hurston, Deborah G. Plant - editor
- Narrated by: Blair Underwood, Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but a forerunner of Christ—a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea.
-
-
like the lion needs no weapon but himself
- By william t. on 03-25-25
By: Zora Neale Hurston, and others
-
People of Means
- A Novel
- By: Nancy Johnson
- Narrated by: Nancy Johnson, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1959, Freda Gilroy arrives on the campus of Fisk University full of hope, carrying a suitcase and the voice of her father telling her she’s part of a family legacy of greatness. Soon, the ugliness of the Jim Crow South intrudes, and she’s thrust into a movement for social change. Freda is reluctant to get involved, torn between a soon-to-be doctor her parents approve of and an audacious young man willing to risk it all in the name of justice.
-
-
Beautifully Told
- By Dr. Judy A. Alston on 02-19-25
By: Nancy Johnson
-
Red Clay
- By: Charles B. Fancher
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, when a frail old white woman shows up in Red Clay, Alabama, at the home of a Black former slave—on the morning following his funeral—his family hardly knows what to expect after she utters the words “… a lifetime ago, my family owned yours.” Adelaide Parker has a story to tell—one of ambition, betrayal, violence, and redemption—that shaped both the fate of her family and that of the late Felix H. Parker. But there are gaps in her knowledge, and she’s come to Red Clay seeking answers from a family with whom she shares a name and a history that neither knows in full.
-
-
Relatable & Heartfelt
- By Me on 07-04-25
-
The Bitter Truth
- By: Shanora Williams
- Narrated by: Sable Lyn, Roderick Ross
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Jolene “Jo” Baker, the least she can do for her adoring husband, Dominic, is give unwavering support for his North Carolina gubernatorial run. He is not only the love of her life, he’s also helping her prove that she’s far more than just a pampered trophy wife. With huge crowds showing up at Dominic’s speeches and the polls consistently in his favor, she’s never been happier to stand proudly by his side …
-
-
Love a Good Thriller!
- By Kaira on 06-27-24
By: Shanora Williams
-
Rules of Engagement
- By: Stacey Abrams, Selena Montgomery
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Raleigh Foster, an operative for a top-secret intelligence organization, knows that her undercover work has its risks. So she doesn't hesitate when asked to infiltrate Scimitar, the terrorist group that has stolen lethal environmental technology. But when she's assigned a partner—brooding, sexy Adam Grayson—to pose as her lover, Raleigh discovers that the most dangerous risk of all...is falling in love.
-
-
First time reader
- By Candice Bailey on 04-05-23
By: Stacey Abrams, and others
-
The Unexpected Diva
- A Novel
- By: Tiffany L. Warren
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born into slavery on a Mississippi plantation, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield has been raised in the safety of Philadelphia’s Quaker community by a wealthy adoptive mother. Sheltered and educated, Eliza’s happy childhood always included music lessons to nurture her unique gift: a glorious three octave singing voice that leaves listeners in awe. But on the eve of her twenty-fourth birthday, young Eliza’s world is thrown into a tailspin when her mother dies.
-
-
Wow!
- By Nicole Wilson on 05-27-25
-
The Dark Hours
- By: Amy Jordan
- Narrated by: Flora Montgomery
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1994: When Gardas Julia Harte and Adrian Clancy are called out to a sleepy housing estate in Cork to investigate a noise complaint, they are entirely unprepared for what they find. What happens next will haunt Julia for the rest of her career, leaving her plagued with nightmares and terrified of the dark. There is a serial killer at work in Cork, one as clever as he is deadly. Julia may not be a detective yet, but after the harrowing events of that night, she is determined to be the one to catch him…
-
-
fascinating mystery
- By Julie Jones on 07-03-25
By: Amy Jordan
-
Beta Vulgaris
- A Novel
- By: Margie Sarsfield
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elise and her boyfriend, Tom, set off for Minnesota, hoping the paycheck from the sugar beet harvest will cover the rent on their Brooklyn apartment. Amidst the grueling work and familiar anxieties about her finances, Elise starts noticing strange things: threatening phone calls, a mysterious rash, and snatches of an ominous voice coming from the beet pile. When Tom and other coworkers begin to vanish, Elise is left alone to confront the weight of her past, the horrors of her uncertain future, and the menacing but enticing siren song of the beets.
-
-
The awful personality of the main character.
- By Gina Q. on 02-16-25
By: Margie Sarsfield
-
The Door to Tamba
- A Short Story
- By: Ishmael Beah
- Narrated by: Maduka Steady
- Length: 51 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning author and human rights activist Ishmael Beah brings us The Door to Tamba, a powerful story centered on a mining village in West Africa where the destruction of earth and pollution of life impacts the mind, body, and soul of communities. Hindolo, a storyteller, returns to his hometown after 30 years and recalls the solitary and formidable old man who opened his home to him and introduced a world of literature and imagination, which for many years, was his only escape. Hindolo begins writing the stories down on paper stolen from a nearby mine to share with his classmates.
-
-
Excellent
- By Tereza Jenkins on 02-04-24
By: Ishmael Beah
-
The Garden
- By: Nick Newman
- Narrated by: Nicolette McKenzie
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. Evelyn and Lily have only ever known each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know. Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother. So when a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the center of their isolated grounds, their once solitary lives are irrevocably disrupted.
-
-
Disappointing
- By Susan L. Houser on 03-28-25
By: Nick Newman
-
Rootless
- A Novel
- By: Krystle Zara Appiah
- Narrated by: Clifford Samuel, Diana Yekinni
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a Spring afternoon in London, Sam hops the stairs of his flat two at a time. There’s £1,300 missing from his and his wife, Efe’s, shared bank account and his calls are going straight to voicemail. When he finally reaches someone, he learns Efe is nearly 5,000 miles away as their toddler looks around and asks, “Where’s Mummy?”
-
-
The ending was traumatic & unnecessary
- By Kayzee on 04-27-25
-
Mask of the Deer Woman
- By: Laurie L. Dove
- Narrated by: Isabella Star Lablanc
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At rock bottom following her daughter’s death, ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr has nowhere to go but back to her roots. Starr’s father never talked much about the reservation where he was raised, but the tribe needs a new marshal as much as Starr needs a place to call home. In the past decade, too many young women have disappeared from the rez. Some have ended up dead, others just…gone. Now local college student Chenoa Cloud is missing, and Starr falls into an investigation that leaves her drowning in memories of her daughter—the girl she failed to save.
-
-
Finally a meaningful read
- By AC on 02-01-25
By: Laurie L. Dove
-
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
- By: Avery Cunningham
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1921, and America is burning. A fire of vice and virtue rages on every shore, and Chicago is its beating heart. Nelly Sawyer is the daughter of the “wealthiest Negro in America”, whose affluence catapulted his family to the heights of Black society. After the unexpected death of her only brother, Nelly becomes the premier debutante overnight. But Nelly has aspirations beyond society influence and marriage.
-
-
Better Ending next time!
- By Matt & Lindsy on 02-11-24
By: Avery Cunningham