
My Name Is Venus Black
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Alex McKenna
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Cassandra Campbell
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By:
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Heather Lloyd
About this listen
In this riveting, heartfelt debut, a young woman assumes a new name to escape her dark past and find the redemption she desperately seeks.
“It’s impossible not to root for this strong, willful girl as she finds her place in the world and for her brother as he tries to make sense of it.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“Charming, touching, and a host of other adjectives not often associated with a murderous thirteen-year-old.” (Booklist)
Venus Black is a straitlaced A student fascinated by the study of astronomy - until the night she commits a shocking crime that tears her family apart and ignites a media firestorm. Venus refuses to talk about what happened or why, except to blame her mother. Adding to the mystery, Venus’ developmentally challenged younger brother, Leo, goes missing.
More than five years later, Venus is released from prison with a suitcase of used clothes, a fake identity, and a determination to escape her painful past. Estranged from her mother, and with her beloved brother still missing, she sets out to make a fresh start in Seattle, skittish and alone. But as new people enter her orbit - including a romantic interest and a young girl who seems like a mirror image of her former lost self - old wounds resurface, and Venus realizes that she can’t find a future while she’s running from her past.
In this gripping story, debut novelist Heather Lloyd brilliantly captures ordinary lives thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Told through a constellation of captivating voices, My Name Is Venus Black explores the fluidity of right and wrong, the pain of betrayal, and the meaning of love and family.
Praise for My Name Is Venus Black
“Fans of realistic coming-of-age fiction will enjoy Lloyd’s fast-paced first novel for the freshly drawn original characters, compelling story line, and beautiful tribute to the healing power of love. It’s bound to have crossover appeal to older YA readers.” (Library Journal)
“A dark but ultimately uplifting story about family, love, and forgiveness, and how to find your place in the world, My Name Is Venus Black is a powerful debut novel from a fresh voice in fiction.” (New York Times best-selling author Sarah Jio)
"A terrific debut, told gently, honestly, and with a generous amount of hope." (New York Times best-selling author Jamie Ford)
©2018 Heather Lloyd (P)2018 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Lloyd’s debut novel is charming, touching.... Lloyd’s extraordinary plot is grounded in the complex, palpable emotions she exacts from her beautifully realized, heartwarming characters. A culminating series of reunions illuminate their richness and humanity as they confront guilt, blame, and forgiveness. Lloyd’s vivid, superbly crafted novel will have wide appeal." (Booklist)
"Moving.... [Lloyd] adroitly brings the resilient Venus to life.... A satisfying tale about family, forgiveness, and moving on." (Publishers Weekly)
"It’s impossible not to root for this strong, willful girl as she finds her place in the world and for her brother as he tries to make sense of it. A badass bildungsroman." (Kirkus Reviews)
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Story
In 1958, Greenwich Village buzzes with beatniks, jazz clubs, and new ideas - the ideal spot for three ambitious young people to meet. Cliff Nelson, the son of a successful book editor, is convinced he’s the next Kerouac, if only his father would notice. Eden Katz dreams of being an editor but is shocked when she encounters roadblocks to that ambition. And Miles Tillman, a talented black writer from Harlem, seeks to learn the truth about his father’s past, finding love in the process. Though different from one another, all three share a common goal.
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WOW
- By Jordan on 05-20-17
By: Suzanne Rindell
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A Brief History of Living Forever
- A Novel
- By: Jaroslav Kalfar
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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When Adéla discovers she has a terminal illness, she leaves behind her native Czech village for a chance at reuniting in America with Tereza, the daughter she gave up at birth, decades earlier. But the country Adéla experienced as a young woman, when she eloped with a filmmaker and starred in his cult sci-fi movie, has changed entirely. In 2030, America is ruled by an authoritarian government increasingly closed off to the rest of the world.
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Not so distant future
- By Kindle Customer on 05-14-23
By: Jaroslav Kalfar
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The Burning Island
- By: Hester Young
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist Charlie Cates has always believed in facts, in what can be proved - her career depends on it. Which is why she has never truly accepted the supernatural visions that guide her to children in danger. After her work on a high-profile missing-child case brings unwanted fame, she reluctantly flees to the lush Big Island of Hawaii with her best friend, Rae. Determined to avoid her disturbing visions, Charlie begins writing what seems to be a harmless interview of a prominent volcanologist. But soon, she's haunted by dreams of a local girl who went missing six weeks earlier.
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I enjoyed the story
- By M. Abrego on 03-04-20
By: Hester Young
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The Mother Act
- A Novel
- By: Heidi Reimer
- Narrated by: Beth Hicks, Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Sadie Jones, a larger-than-life actress and controversial feminist, never wanted to be a mother. No one feels this more deeply than Jude, the daughter Sadie left behind. While Jude spent her childhood touring with her father’s Shakespearian theater company, desperate for validation from the mother she barely knew, Sadie catapulted to fame on the wings of The Mother Act—a scathing one-woman show about motherhood. Two decades later, Jude is a talented actress in her own right, and her fraught relationship with Sadie has come to a scandalous head.
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Emotions
- By Amazon Customer on 10-17-24
By: Heidi Reimer
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Perish
- A Novel
- By: LaToya Watkins
- Narrated by: Jeremy Michael Durm, Keyonni James, Chanté McCormick, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Bear it or perish yourself. Those are the words Helen Jean hears that fateful night in her cousin’s outhouse that change the trajectory of her life. Spanning decades, Perish tracks the choices Helen Jean—the matriarch of the Turner family—makes and the way those choices have rippled across generations, from her children to her grandchildren and beyond. This family’s “reunion” unearths long-kept secrets and forces each member to ask themselves important questions about who is deserving of forgiveness and who bears the cross of blame.
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listened twice...great performance
- By Carol on 09-20-22
By: LaToya Watkins
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Lo Fi
- A Novel
- By: Liz Riggs
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Most nights, you’ll find Alison Hunter at The Venue, the kind of sweaty Nashville spot that’s on the circuit for bands like Bon Iver and Death Cab. Sounds glamorous—but not for Al, who stamps hands at the door with Julien, the quiet coworker who treats her like a little sister. When she can sneak off, she bums drinks from the tattooed bartender and watches the bands, wondering if she’ll ever finish a song of her own after her disastrous attempt to play in public.
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Nostalgia in Nashville
- By Kalee Barbis on 07-11-24
By: Liz Riggs
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Hum If You Don't Know the Words
- By: Bianca Marais
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising.
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Completely wrong accents
- By Debbie on 02-12-22
By: Bianca Marais
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The Freedom Clause
- A Novel
- By: Hannah Sloane
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Could one night off a year save a marriage—or destroy it? In this bold and sexy debut, a young couple agrees to open their marriage, but they soon discover that a little freedom has surprising consequences.
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Interesting Concept, Dragged Out Too Long
- By S. C. on 10-25-23
By: Hannah Sloane
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The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill
- By: Rowenna Miller
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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There is no magic on Prospect Hill—or anywhere else, for that matter. But just on the other side of the veil is the world of the Fae. Generations ago, the first farmers on Prospect Hill learned to bargain small trades to make their lives a little easier. Much of that old wisdom was lost as the riverboats gave way to the rail lines and the farmers took work at mills and factories. Alaine Fairborn’s family, however, was always superstitious, and she still hums the rhymes to find a lost shoe and to ensure dry weather on her sister’s wedding day.
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Characters and world building
- By Amandahawkes on 02-14-24
By: Rowenna Miller
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Jenny James Is Not a Disaster
- A Novel
- By: Debbie Johnson
- Narrated by: Beth Eyre
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Thirty-something single mom Jenny James is used to the typical run-in-your-tights, milk-turned-sour, break-a-nail bad kind of day. Attitude from her teenage son? Count on it. Car problems? To be expected. Never quite enough money for monthly expenses? Guaranteed. And then arrives the Very Bad Day—when Jenny finds out her dull but reliable office job is in jeopardy, her car totally and completely breaks down, and she arrives home (on foot) just in time to see her modest-but-cozy cottage sliding off a cliff into the sea. Jenny's life—not to mention her home—has reached its ultimate low point.
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Enjoyed the narration
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-25
By: Debbie Johnson
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Unbreak Me
- By: Michelle Hazen
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Andra Lawler lives isolated at her family’s horse ranch, imprisoned by the memories of an assault in college. When she needs help training her foals, she hires a Haitian-Creole cowboy from New Orleans with a laugh as big as the Montana sky. LJ Delisle can’t stand the idea that Andra might be lonely - or eating frozen TV dinners. He bakes his way into her kitchen with a lemon velvet cake, and offers her cooking lessons that set them on the road to romance. But even their love can’t escape the shadow of what they've been through.
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Tender Love Story
- By Astrid on 09-01-19
By: Michelle Hazen
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Caucasia
- A Novel
- By: Danzy Senna
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Birdie and Cole are the daughters of a black father and a white mother, intellectuals and activists in the Civil Rights Movement in 1970s Boston. The sisters are so close that they speak their own language, yet Birdie, with her light skin and straight hair, is often mistaken for white, while Cole is dark enough to fit in with the other kids at school. Despite their differences, Cole is Birdie's confidant, her protector, the mirror by which she understands herself. Then their parents' marriage collapses.
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Wanted it to be better
- By AmyP33 on 05-27-25
By: Danzy Senna
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The Incorrigibles
- A Novel
- By: Meredith Jaeger
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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1890, San Francisco. Seduced by her employer’s nephew, Annie Gilmurray, an Irish maid, is accused of stealing the ring he promised her. Sentenced to one year in San Quentin, Annie is heartbroken and frightened among the inmates of the women’s ward: prostitutes, murderers, and pickpockets. But Annie finds beauty and friendship in a brutal place, where the women look out for one another, dreaming of a better life after release. But their world inside San Quentin's walls is a dangerous one, and when the unthinkable happens, Annie makes a choice that will alter the course of her future forever.
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A page-turner following strong women finding their agency imbued with rich, local SF history
- By S. Brett on 06-04-24
By: Meredith Jaeger
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Everything Here Is Beautiful
- By: Mira T. Lee
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Emily Woo Zeller, Ozzie Rodriguez, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Two sisters - Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister's protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When their mother dies and Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. But Lucia impetuously plows ahead, marrying a bighearted, older man only to leave him, suddenly, to have a baby with a young Latino immigrant.
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Review
- By Sherri H Skalski on 01-30-18
By: Mira T. Lee
Starstruck!!!!
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Loved it!
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Very good story
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Liked it
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The style of the book reminded me of authors Billie Letts and Wally Lamb.
Interesting read with a splash of autism, crime, self discovery, reinventing self, and humor.
Crime crossed with Coming of Age
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Left a piece of me on Venus
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Good characters and story
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