Preview
  • Pretend I'm Dead

  • By: Jen Beagin
  • Narrated by: Candace Thaxton
  • Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (116 ratings)

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.

Pretend I'm Dead

By: Jen Beagin
Narrated by: Candace Thaxton
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.99

Buy for $14.99

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

Miranda July meets Mary Karr in this brilliant debut novel from Jen Beagin, Whiting Award winner and "one of the freshest voices […] in years - funny, wise, whip-smart, and compassionate" (Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins), about a cleaning lady on a quest for self-acceptance after her relationship with a loveable junkie goes awry.

Jen Beagin's quirky, moving, "frank and unflinching" (Josh Ferris) debut novel introduces an unforgettable character, Mona - almost 24, emotionally adrift, and cleaning houses to get by. Handing out clean needles to drug addicts, she falls for a recipient she calls Mr. Disgusting, who proceeds to break her heart in unimaginable ways.

In search of healing, Mona decamps to Taos, New Mexico, for a fresh start, where she finds a community of seekers and cast-offs, all of whom have one or two things to teach her - the pajama-wearing, blissed-out New Agers, the slightly creepy client with peculiar tastes in controlled substances, the psychic who might really be psychic. But always lurking just beneath the surface are her memories of growing up in a chaotic, destructive family from which she's trying to disentangle herself, and the larger legacy of the past she left behind.

The story of Mona's journey to find her place in this working-class American world is at once hilarious and wonderfully strange, true to life and boldly human, and introduces a stunningly one-of-a-kind new voice in American fiction.

©2018 Jen Beagin (P)2018 Simon & Schuster
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Pretend I'm Dead

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    54
  • 4 Stars
    37
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    6
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    61
  • 4 Stars
    25
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    45
  • 4 Stars
    29
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    8

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

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

A lightened taste of reality

Corky, dark humor. A addicting storyline and can’t wait to read the sequel. One of my favorite audiobooks ever.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Enjoyable but not a home run for me.

I love Jen Beagin and I liked this book. It was an easy listening but didn’t knock it out of the park like Big Swiss, for me. Still worth a lesson. Didn’t totally love the narrator either. Some of the time female narrators doing male voices just makes the characters sound as if they are dumb or at least unbelievable. Just a personal preference.

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

Love love love

Loved this book & the audio book narrator, if you like to laugh, and can handle difficult subject matter & a complicated protagonist I can’t recommend it enough. I don’t think I don’t think I could t
hang out w anyone who doesn’t love this book.

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

best writer

another perfect book. i listened to big swiss last week, which is also perfection. pretend i’m dead is a portrait of an artist. beagin uses literature to weave story with perception and self awareness. these are the kind of books i like best. beagin is a genius and a true freak and palpably inventively honest.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

Gritty and funny

Beautifully written while pulling on the heart strings . Feels like an honest peek into a real life through a real job. Loved it through and through

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

story makes up for bad narration

I don't normally review, but I think it's worth mentioning that in my opinion the narrator doesn't do the story justice. The tone was completely off and she would often go for long stretches without taking a breath which was distracting. The character voices were decent but the narration almost ruined it. Awesome, complex, dark, comedic story saved the day. Would like to read the book myself now.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

I laughed, I cried, it was better than cats!

Loved the descriptive detail. The characters were captivating- I felt like I knew them.
Can’t wait to read Jens next book.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

Happy Sad

I’m nowhere close to my 20’s anymore but this story resonated so strongly. It’s hilarity is so sad. Ms. Beagin has angst down to a T. Mona is a little bit of all of us, regardless of age, sex, race, or childhood memories.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

triggered af

a whole lot of suicide and self harm talk, especially self-hatred. I spun out real hard after reading this and wish I was preparwd for it. I love JB's other hornier work, Big Swiss

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
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

What just happened? Terrible.

Sad that I wasted time on this book. There was potential for a good story line but the author would move on every time something would begin to develop and never circle back around or tie anything together. Lacking in climax and resolution. Terrible.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful