Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Devotion

By: Maile Meloy
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $6.75

Buy for $6.75

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

From one of the most popular and acclaimed story writers of her generation, a single-volume short story.

"That the yellow house was thrillingly affordable might have been a warning sign if Eleanor had known how to read it. But she'd been desperate. She was sharing a room with her four-year-old daughter, Hattie, in her parents' house, and she had to get out."

From the award-winning novelist and short story writer Maile Meloy, Devotion: A Rat Story is an exquisitely unsettling tale about a young single mother whose new home becomes a kind of nightmare she must resolve on her own.

Eleanor is in such a rush to move away from her parents that she allows an imperious realtor to rush her to close on the too-good-to-be-true home without an inspection. Shortly after the house becomes legally hers - with every cent and all of her pride and future tied up in the property - the giant rats show themselves. In the yard, in the kitchen, on her daughter's bed. A walk around the block reveals a decrepit neighboring house where two elderly sisters are feeding and fostering thousands of unusual "pets". What has Eleanor done? What action can she possibly take now?

In Meloy's characteristically clean, assured style, she captures the hopes and horrors of domestic life with an element of suspense that drives the listener feverishly to the end.

©2015 Maile Meloy (P)2015 Penguin Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"[Meloy is] a wise and astonishing conjurer of convincing realities." (The New Yorker)

"She’s such a talented and unpredictable writer that I’m officially joining her fan club; whatever she writes next, I’ll gladly read it." (Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times Book Review)

"Maile Meloy combines the meticulous realism of domestic fiction with the witchery of a natural-born storyteller." (The New York Times Magazine)

What listeners say about Devotion

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Odd

Strange but full and had pathos. I felt for the young mother who just wanted her own life and the strange old sisters next door. Reminds me now of my misplaced sympathy for morning glorys in Seattle and how they took over the garden.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

An hour of perfectly chosen words

I've underestimated the power of the short story! Maile Meloy has combined imagery with suspense to make magic out of a tale that might be right under your own nose. Cassandra Campbell is one of my favorite narrators with the perfect cadence of a storyteller for the adult in all of us grownup kids.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

What?

Would you try another book from Maile Meloy and/or Cassandra Campbell?

Well, first this has to be the dumbest book I have ever purchased. Second, I thought I was buying a full book and not a short story so when it ended in the middle of the crisis for no reason, I almost laughed. Don't bother spending money on this one. I'll give you the cliff notes. "Lots of rats with a story that doesn't end." the end

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!