The Academy
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Narrated by:
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David Stifel
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By:
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Bentley Little
About this listen
“Master of the macabre” Bentley Little offers a new lesson in fear with this terrifying horror novel.
With a promise of more freedom and a chance to get out from under the thumb of a reactionary school board, the teachers of Tyler High have voted to become a charter school. Instructors and parents alike are thrilled with the prospect of independence. And yet....
The formerly laid-back principal has become unusually strict. And with her toadying secretary, she seems to be running the show. That isn’t all. The janitors no longer work nights because of what they hear. The students are frightened by what they see. And things are happening on school grounds that defy rational explanation. But there is an explanation. It’s just not anything that anyone can begin to believe — or hope to survive.
©2008 Bentley Little (P)2019 JournalstoneListeners also enjoyed...
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Bentley has always been one of my go to authors
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Oh, the narrator...
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What book did you people read!?
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Performance
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a small Arizona town, a man counts his blessings: a loving wife, two teenage daughters, and a job that allows him to work at home. Then "The Store" announces plans to open a local outlet, which will surely finish off the small downtown shops. His concerns grow when "The Store's" builders ignore all the town's zoning laws during its construction. Then dead animals are found on "The Store's" grounds. Inside, customers are hounded by obnoxious sales people, and strange products appear on the shelves.
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What book did you people read!?
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By: Bentley Little
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Gregory Tomasov moves into an abandoned farm on the edge of McGuane, Arizona, he discovers a terrible secret buried in the walls of the old building.
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Another Excellent Bentley Little Book!
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didn't like narrator
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I would like to cancel my mail
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Okay
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Steve Nye writes for an alumni magazine and his long-term relationship is on the steady path to marriage. But his quiet life takes an unexpected turn when he receives a phone call from his mother. His father attacked her and has been committed to a mental asylum. The doctor says he’s suffering from dementia. But Steve’s father seems so calm, clear-eyed, and perfectly lucid. Is it simply another symptom of delusion and madness? To find the answer, Steve investigates the cryptic message leading him down a terrifying path of his own making—and of his own nightmares.
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A different one
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The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition
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After a violent coup in the United States overthrows the Constitution and ushers in a new government regime, the Republic of Gilead imposes subservient roles on all women. Offred, now a Handmaid tasked with the singular role of procreation in the childless household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost everything, even her own name.
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Wait! It Mightn't Be What You Think--
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With its brilliant and brutal portrayal of the Corleone family, The Godfather burned its way into our national consciousness. This unforgettable saga of crime and corruption, passion and loyalty continues to stand the test of time, as the definitive novel of the Mafia underworld. A #1 New York Times bestseller in 1969, Mario Puzo's epic was turned into the incomparable film of the same name, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is the original classic that has been often imitated, but never matched.
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On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, “reprieve,” they’ll win a substantial cash prize - a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house’s long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants.
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creepy escape room story
- By Barbara S on 11-18-21
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Eliza and Her Monsters
- By: Francesca Zappia
- Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly, Kate Rudd
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she’s worked for begins to crumble. In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza’s persona is popular. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community.
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Just...... Breathtaking
- By Amazon Customer on 06-15-19
By: Francesca Zappia
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Greenglass House
- By: Kate Milford
- Narrated by: Ben Levin
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler’s inn is always quiet during this season, and 12-year-old Milo, the innkeepers’ adopted son, plans to spend his holidays relaxing. But on the first icy night of vacation, out of nowhere, the guest bell rings. Then rings again. And again....
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A magical mystery with twists and heart
- By Jane Pearl on 02-13-22
By: Kate Milford
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Watch Us Rise
- By: Renée Watson, Ellen Hagan
- Narrated by: Angela Lewis, Em Eldridge
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission - they’re sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online - poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences - and soon go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices to be heard.
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Girls Coming of Age Story for Generation Y
- By Amazon Customer on 02-07-21
By: Renée Watson, and others
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Jack: Secret Histories
- Young Repairman Jack Series 1
- By: F. Paul Wilson
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever come across a situation that simply wasn't right - where someone was getting the dirty end of the stick and you wished you could make things right but didn't know how? Fourteen-year-old Jack knows how. Or rather he's learning how. He's discovering that he has a knack for fixing things. Not bikes or toys or appliances - situations...It all starts when Jack and his best friends, Weezy and Eddie, discover a rotting corpse - the victim of ritual murder - in the fabled New Jersey Pine Barrens. Beside the body is an ancient artifact carved with strange designs.
By: F. Paul Wilson
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Rules for Being a Girl
- By: Candace Bushnell, Katie Cotugno
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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It starts before you can even remember: You learn the rules for being a girl.... Marin has always been good at navigating these unspoken guidelines. A star student and editor of the school paper, she dreams of getting into Brown University. Marin’s future seems bright - and her young, charismatic English teacher, Mr. Beckett, is always quick to admire her writing and talk books with her. But when “Bex” takes things too far and comes on to Marin, she’s shocked and horrified. Had she somehow led him on? Was it her fault?
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THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ!
- By Laya Fisher on 04-11-20
By: Candace Bushnell, and others
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Buzz Kill
- By: Beth Fantaskey
- Narrated by: Erin Moon
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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When the widely disliked Honeywell Stingers football coach is found murdered, 17-year-old Millie is determined to investigate. She is chasing a lead for the school newspaper - and looking to clear her father, the assistant coach, and prime suspect. Millie's partner is gorgeous, smart - and keeping secrets. Millie joins forces with her mysterious classmate Chase who seems to want to help her even while covering up secrets of his own.
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'eh' book, FANTASTIC narrator
- By adolfo suarez on 09-25-21
By: Beth Fantaskey
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Bad Habits
- By: Amy Gentry
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Claire "Mac" Woods—a professor enjoying her newfound hotshot status at an academic conference—finally has the acceptance and admiration she has long craved. But at the conference's hotel bar, Mac is surprised to run into a face from a past she'd rather forget: the moneyed, effortlessly perfect Gwendolyn Whitney, Mac's foil, rival, and former best friend.
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Outstanding!
- By SLuzaz on 02-15-21
By: Amy Gentry
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A Skeleton in the Family
- Family Skeleton Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Leigh Perry
- Narrated by: Katina Kalin
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Moving back into her parents’ house with her teenage daughter had not been Georgia Thackery’s “Plan A”. But when she got a job at the local college, it seemed the sensible thing to do. So she settled in and began reconnecting with old friends. Including Sid. Sid is the Thackery family’s skeleton. He’s lived in the house as long as Georgia can remember, although no one, including Sid, knows exactly where he came from and how he came to be a skeleton.
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Did
- By springfield40 on 07-10-24
By: Leigh Perry
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If You See Her
- By: Ania Ahlborn
- Narrated by: Brian Holden
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The house on Old Mill Road has stood in an open field for longer than Jesse Wells has been alive, its crooked windows and jutting turret tormenting the kids of Warsaw, Michigan the way only a haunted house knows how. Everyone imagines that something terrible lurks within the house’s abandoned rooms - especially Jesse and his two closest friends, Casey and Reed. But when Reed chooses the house as a backdrop for his own suicide, childhood ghost stories are transformed into a nightmare that sends Jesse into a downward spiral of grief.
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DNF. Quit halfway through. A slog.
- By Smart, AZ on 07-10-22
By: Ania Ahlborn
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Bentley has always been one of my go to authors
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In a small Arizona town, a man counts his blessings: a loving wife, two teenage daughters, and a job that allows him to work at home. Then "The Store" announces plans to open a local outlet, which will surely finish off the small downtown shops. His concerns grow when "The Store's" builders ignore all the town's zoning laws during its construction. Then dead animals are found on "The Store's" grounds. Inside, customers are hounded by obnoxious sales people, and strange products appear on the shelves.
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What book did you people read!?
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Considering she had just attended her mother's funeral, Gloria Jaymes never expected to see the woman again, but then her dead mom shows up at her house. Gloria's mom is...different. She's younger than when she died, dressed in clothes from the 1980s. And nobody else in Gloria's family seems to recognize her. As Gloria tries to figure out the reason for her mother's reappearance and the odd behaviors the woman begins to exhibit, other bizarre events occur. The changes to Gloria's world are small and subtle, at first...then they become much more startling.
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Bentley has always been one of my go to authors
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So slow!
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What book did you people read!?
- By Dawnde W. on 08-27-17
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Considering she had just attended her mother's funeral, Gloria Jaymes never expected to see the woman again, but then her dead mom shows up at her house. Gloria's mom is...different. She's younger than when she died, dressed in clothes from the 1980s. And nobody else in Gloria's family seems to recognize her. As Gloria tries to figure out the reason for her mother's reappearance and the odd behaviors the woman begins to exhibit, other bizarre events occur. The changes to Gloria's world are small and subtle, at first...then they become much more startling.
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Just NO...
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didn't like narrator
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A must for anyone who has felt lost in the crowd.
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A college freshman finds herself stranded in Arizona with no place to stay and nowhere to run. Cabin fever closes in on an isolated park ranger, as two sinister beauties lurk in the desert outside his door. A California divorcee is starting a promising new life. But her young son knows better—because he's seen what's creeping outside the window. A cross-country traveler is on a journey of self-discovery. But one tourist trap holds its own dreadful surprises....
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woke garbage
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University
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Bentley Little was born in Arizona a month after his mother attended the world premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. He is the author of 10 previous novels, including The Revelation, The Mailman, The Summoning, Death Instinct (published under the name Phillip Emmons), University, Dominion, The Ignored, The Store, The House, and The Town. An acknowledged master of horror, he is currently at work on his next novel.
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Guess not all can be homeruns
- By Arcticicehawk on 12-20-21
By: Bentley Little
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The Mailman
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Once upon a time, waiting for the mail was filled with warm anticipation. But the suicide of the local mailman has left the residents of this tiny Arizona town shell-shocked. Nothing this bad has ever happened here. And now, there's a new mail carrier in town, one who's delivering lethal letters stuffed with icy fear. Nothing - not even the most outstanding citizens or the most secret weaknesses - is safe from the sinister power of this malicious mailman....
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I would like to cancel my mail
- By Spooky Mike on 04-14-18
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The Resort
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Opulent doesn't begin to describe the Arizona getaway where Lowell Thurman, his wife Rachel, and their three young sons have come for one glorious week. Everything at The Reata is perfect - although Rachel is a bit unnerved by the openly lustful gaze of one of the gardeners, something she doesn't mention to Lowell. Nor does he tell her about the frightening sensation he has in the pool of hands clutching at him, trying to pull him under.
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Very good haunted hotel book.
- By Anonymous User on 08-16-18
By: Bentley Little
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The Return
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Springerville is famous for the legend of the Mongolian Monster. Of course nobody really believes it. It’s just a good campfire story, something to attract gullible tourists until an excavation team unearths the figurine of a screaming woman, the jawbone of a deformed animal, and a child’s toy. How odd that they were buried together. Odd, too, is the foul odor lingering in the air, the strange noises at night, and the man’s face found hanging from a tree. Now the locals are locking their doors. Because after sundown, campfire stories can seem very, very real.
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A waste of my credit
- By Yhonica Brackins on 10-26-24
By: Bentley Little
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The Vanishing
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In Beverly Hills, a wealthy CEO goes on a bloody rampage and videotapes the slaughter. He leaves behind a chilling cryptic message: “This is where it begins." Miles away, an alarmed mother receives an unsettling letter from her estranged husband, stained with bloody fingerprints. And all across California, children are becoming affected by a monstrous change - and their parents by a mounting fear. Social worker Carrie Daniels and reporter Brian Howells are determined to find the link between these baffling crimes....
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Okay
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The Consultant
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CompWare is in serious trouble after a promised merger falls through, so they do what other businesses have done to bolster their public image: They hire a consulting firm to review and streamline their business practices.
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I LIKE TO CALL GOD RALPH, DEAR RALPH
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-11-17
By: Bentley Little
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The Handyman
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Daniel Martin has never forgotten his childhood encounters with Frank Watkins, the man who built his family a summer home out of cardboard and plywood. Frank's gaze was oddly confusing, as if he was attempting to discern the proper way to behave because he didn't know how to respond in a human manner. Since Frank obviously wasn't an alien, young Daniel thought maybe the man was crazy. In the end, Daniel would learn the terrifying truth about Frank Watkins. And as an adult, Daniel is about to discover there are more of them out there.
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2500+ books & this was the ONLY one gave me creeps
- By coreybeth on 11-25-17
By: Bentley Little
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The Revelation
- By: Bentley Little
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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For the town of Randall, Arizona, the terror starts quietly, oddly - a senile woman in her 80s becomes pregnant. Then the town's beloved minister mysteriously disappears, leaving his church and home hideously defiled by blasphemous obscenities scrawled in blood. Farmers going out to their fields in the morning find their herds of goats slaughtered. Then, as the terror intensifies, the farmers themselves are massacred. The town begins to smell of death, and the trust which has bound neighbors to one another turns to ashes.
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definitely different
- By ian ginn on 11-10-19
By: Bentley Little
What listeners say about The Academy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- arthur d. schnabel
- 04-10-22
Movie!!❤❤
IT'S GOTTA BE A MOVIE ❤❤❤❤
SCARY BRILLIANT!!❤❤ THE REVIEW THAT NEEDS 15 WORDS TO POST CAN F- OFF!! 🎯💯🤣🤣🤣🤣
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- riever
- 04-29-20
too much of the same thing
the "evil institution" formula
is getting tiresome. The first half a dozen books with this formula were entertaining but after several they are getting so predictable that they're hard to finish. I hope that he goes a different direction something more original would be nice.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Annette M.
- 08-26-21
The Academy
I am a recent convert to Mr. Little’s works. I thoroughly enjoyed this audio version. My commute is so long in the morning and evening and as much as I really like to turn a page, this satisfies my needs for stories. I’ve listened to two of Mr. Little’s books so far and I’m hooked.
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- Michael T. Connolly
- 06-19-20
Little delivers but little performance.
If you've read Bentley Little you know what is his work is like. 'The Academy' is no different. Taking the most mundane scenarios and twisting in the most over-the-top evil is what I enjoy about Little's works. Granted, it is easy to get annoyed with character traits and actions, however, it gives the same kind of fun as watching a horror film and yelling at the screen for the people to STOP DOING THAT!
'The Academy' is a fine jaunt into the world of charter schools (and being married to a school principal, I hear about the real corruption of charter schools all the time) and the whole story falls straight into stereotypical Bentley Little.
BUT, the major hindrance to this audio book is the narrator. David Stifel is bad...very very BAD. He sounds like a mentally challenged Canadian learning English as a 3rd language.
His "girl" voices? These are cringe worthy to the point of wondering whether he as EVER heard a woman speak. And considering there are many female characters, it gets AWFULLY aggravating.
Teenagers? Well they sound like 3 year-olds just beginning to sound out words.
Inflection? Even when the author has WRITTEN what the inflection is (i.e. "he said incredulously") it appears Stifle does not know what directional words actually mean.
I can't over-exaggerate how atrocious this narration is. I wish I had just read the paperback. My own mind fills in the audio/visual aspects of Little books so much better. A warning to those seeing the name "David Stifel" as a narrator, avoid the book. Read it on your own.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Arcticicehawk
- 08-28-20
definitely one of the better
excellent narration and a great story to draw you in. definitely one of the better
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- Tee Tee
- 05-30-24
Great Book
I loved the characters and the storyline. It's funny that I used to work at a school and I could relate to some of the characters. Very intense and it kept me wanting to get to the next chapter to see what was gonna happen next.
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- Riley
- 06-17-20
Why this narrator?
I'm not sure why they keep using this guy for Bentley Little books. He constantly sounds like he's half asleep and barely making through the story. The books would be more enjoyable with a different narrator. I won't purchase any more books from this author if this guy does the reading.
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5 people found this helpful
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- NK
- 09-21-23
Very good book
I really enjoyed this one. Worth a credit.
I didn’t find the narration to be near as bad as some reviews are saying.
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- Carly Smith
- 06-08-21
Worst Narrator David Stifel (Seriously. Don’t buy anything narrated by him.)
A friend of mine recommended Bentley Little’s books to me and I’ve been listening to them all over the last couple of months. This isn’t one of his best stories, but it shares the pacing and style of his others (which have become a relaxing background for my drives and cooking dinner each night.)
This is maybe the third of his books narrated by David Stifel and feel I would almost be in a space of negligence not to mention how awful he is.
The best way to describe Stifel’s narrative style as if he were an alien who had never met a human being but listened to Orson Welles’s original War of the Wolds radio show a hundred times to figure out how to sound like one. His inappropriate inflections and repeated mispronunciations of common and pop culture words and phrases is strange and obnoxious. (In this book, he described a punk rock woman’s t-shirt as displaying the band logo of The Rah-mo-NAYZ. Just to illustrate his misunderstanding of things even an older man should know. Current icons are even worse.) He narrates every young person in a high pitched tinny voice typically reserved for toddler voices, that (if I had any suspicion at all that he knows what’s going on in the book he’s narrating) would almost sound mocking. But it’s not. He just has no clue what an 18-year-old person sounds like.
Stifel also over-pronounces basic plosives to the extent that’s often adds an extra syllable between words the end and then start in them (for example, “wanted treats” becomes “WAN-ted-uh-TREAT-suh”). And don’t even get me started on “Administrative Coordinator”, which, sadly, is a phrase repeated DOZENS of times in this book. I could actually die if I had to hear him say it one more time.
Every female voice (rather than just softening his tone like most male narrators do) is whiney, twangy and makes the character sound as if they’re on the verge of tears at all times, while every expression of emotion that would make sense with a particular specified inflection comes off as either impatience or exasperation with no nuance or range in between. Sarcasm is a ridiculously old-timey lowering of his vocal pitch until it literally sounds like he’s just waiting for a funny trumpet to play “WAH-wah-waaaaaaahhh!” in the background.
There are so many more problems, but my hands are beginning to cramp from typing them out.
I’m taking the time to write all of this because some audiobook producer needs to hear it. The number of books this man has narrated is UNFATHOMABLE. Sitting through one of his performances was kind of funny. Sitting through a second was a bit annoying. After the third, I will never EVER buy another book narrated by him.
The fact that David Stifel has booked and recorded so many gigs makes me feel like no one screens them before putting them up in Audible. Take some pride in the product you are selling. I’m sure David’s trying his best, but someone who knows better needs to encourage him to retire. He’s ruining one of my favorite pastimes and many authors’ hard work.
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- Craig specht
- 05-24-20
Welcome to Hell high!
this was a very good book as good as others by this author, it was very well written, freakish in some parts but really good. he messed up at the end though mentioning Frank Linda's husband watching Bill Maher. come on Bentley you can do better than that. the narrator did a good job, loved how he did all the characters and brought them all to life. made me feel like I was there.
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