Ill-Fated Audiobook By Jody Wenner cover art

Ill-Fated

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Ill-Fated

By: Jody Wenner
Narrated by: Tabitha Wood
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About this listen

When Shana’s father joins a cult, she tries to find someone, anyone who will help her. Unsuccessful, she takes on the monumental task of fixing it herself. Eventually, she gets some support from the families of the other followers.

Adding to her problems, the person she connects with the most is the leader’s son. She figures that's the worst of it, until the rest of the group is found dead, and her dad is charged with 11 counts of first-degree murder and arson.

With the trial looming, everything starts to nosedive as new revelations about the cult and their bizarre philosophies come to light. Shana’s confidence in her dad begins to waver.

Maybe he isn’t a victim after all?

©2019 Jody Wenner (P)2020 Jody Wenner Genre Fiction Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction
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Loved it! When Shana's father joins a "support group", her suspicions that the group is a cult continue to worry her... especially when tragedy strikes the members. Her journey to find the truth is both intriguing and heartbreaking. Although the narrator wasn't as engaging as I would've liked, I couldn't stop listening to the story. I definitely recommend it!

A daughter searching for the truth...

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I got this book because I enjoyed Painting the Lake. Although I like the basic plot idea in this one, and again enjoyed the author's straightforward style and character development, there are some flaws that are hard to ignore. Spoiler alert: I try not to give away too much, but if you haven't finished the book you might not want to read on....

Although I'm a lawyer, I do not expect books with legal proceedings to be totally accurate, but the effort here is pretty far off the mark. Most of the trial testimony consisted of improper questions, opinions by non-experts about what they think happened, and what most readers would recognize as inadmissible hearsay.

More generally, the conclusion revolved around some surprise testimony that could not possibly have been anticipated, which in my world isn't quite fair in a thriller. The narration was just so-so.

Still, even with the flaws, I found the book fun, because of the writer's strengths.

Interesting Plot but a Flawed Effort

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Listener received this title free

*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.*


Ill-Fated is the story of everything and everyone surrounding the creation and consequences of cults. It perfectly depicts what matters: facts regarding the beginnings of the group, the feelings and life changes for the members as well as their families, the suffering and dangers, building belonging, etc.

This book has perfectly rounded and likeable characters, proper investigation made before starting the writing process on cults, psychology and law and a wrapping atmosphere. You need to know what happens next!

I have never been very fond of open endings, but it somehow seems perfect on the story.

On the other side is Tabitha Wood, who improved -if possible- her narration as the story developed, hooking the listener and differenciating each character's voice and intention.

I hadn't realised how much I was into it, until I gasped and held y breath on a couple of events along the resolution of the plot.

If you like this topic, listening to this book is a must.

Interesting, involving and well-documented.

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I loved this story! I’ve only ever read/listened to stories involving crimes and courtrooms a few times. While I love watching shows like Law & Order, I tend to find crime-related books somewhat boring and hard to focus on. That was not the case with this story. It had me from the beginning and I had a hard time stopping. The court scenes were my favorite part. The author did a great job with the back and forth between defense attorney and prosecutor, I could easily see it all going on in my head. I honestly wasn’t sure how the jury would find Shana’s father. So it wasn’t one of those I-already-know-what’s-going-to-happen type of stories. And the ending! The chosen book her father was reading. Nice!

The narrator was all right. I didn’t feel there was enough distinction between the character voices, but with the story being so great, it didn’t bother me as much as it typically would. I noted that with chapter one, she spoke a lot softer as though she were trying to talk quietly. I’m not sure why considering she sounded normal the rest of the story. One big issue I had was the length of pause between the end of one chapter before beginning the next. Why she would have done them so long, I have no clue. After the first chapter, the pause came, and I had to look back at my phone because I thought Audible had restarted on me. But nope. Just a…really…long…pause. The only other issue was during chapter thirty when Trevor was on the stand. There was the sound of a page turning (the narrator) and a really long pause between words.

I loved this story!

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