The Book of Speculation
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Ari Fliakos
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By:
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Erika Swyler
About this listen
"Dear Mr. Watson, I came across this book at auction as part of a larger lot I purchased on speculation. The damage renders it useless to me, but a name inside it - Verona Bonn - led me to believe it might be of interest to you or your family...."
Simon Watson, a young librarian on the verge of losing his job, lives alone on the Long Island Sound in his family home - a house, perched on the edge of a bluff, that is slowly crumbling toward the sea. His parents are long dead, his mother having drowned in the water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, works for a traveling carnival reading tarot cards and seldom calls.
In late June Simon receives a mysterious package from an antiquarian bookseller. The book tells the story of Amos and Evangeline, doomed lovers who worked in a traveling circus more than 200 years ago. The paper crackles with age as Simon turns the yellowed pages filled with notes, sketches, and whimsical flourishes. His best friend and fellow librarian, Alice, looks on in increasing alarm.
Why does his grandmother's name, Verona Bonn, appear in this book? Why do so many women in his family drown on July 24? Is there a curse on his family - and could Enola, who has suddenly turned up at home for the first time in six years, risk the same fate in just a few weeks? In order to save her - and perhaps himself - Simon must try urgently to decode his family history while moving on from the past.
The Book of Speculation is Erika Swyler's gorgeous and moving debut, a wondrous novel about the power of books and family and magic.
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Angela is being held in a police interrogation room. Her ex's wife has gone missing, and Detective Novak is sure Angela knows something, despite her claim that she's not involved. At Novak's prodding, Angela tells a story going back 10 years, explaining how she met and fell in love with her high school friend HP. But as her past unfolds, she reveals a disconcerting love triangle and a dark, tangled web of betrayals. Is Angela a scorned ex-lover with criminal intent? Or a pawn in someone else's revenge scheme?
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Amazing
- By lisa on 12-31-19
By: Roz Nay
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The Wicked Deep
- By: Shea Ernshaw
- Narrated by: Casey Turner
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow...where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles, and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town. Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.
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can't keep my attention. I tried to like it.
- By HARRIS' on 04-10-18
By: Shea Ernshaw
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Surfacing
- By: Shana Norris
- Narrated by: Amanda Ronconi
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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16-year-old Mara Westray has just lost her mother, and now, being shipped off to live with the father she doesn’t know is not how she imagined grieving. She's already counting down the days until she turns 18 and can leave the tiny island of Swans Landing. But from the moment she steps off the ferry, nothing is as ordinary as it looks. As she tries to unravel the events that led to her mom fleeing the island 16 years ago, Mara finds that the biggest secret of all is only the beginning.
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A Good Listen.
- By Karen Russell on 02-28-16
By: Shana Norris
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The Arsonist
- By: Stephanie Oakes
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Morgan Hallett, Rachel Botchan
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
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In this offering from Morris Award finalist Stephanie Oakes, three riveting points of view are woven together in a story that's part historical mystery, part contemporary coming-of-age, and completely unputdownable. When Molly gets a package leading her to Pepper, they're tasked with solving a decades-old mystery: find out who killed Ava back in 1989. Using Ava's diary for clues, Molly and Pepper realize there's more to her life - and death - than meets the eye. Someone is lying to them. And someone out there is guiding them along, desperate for answers.
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Thrilling with wonderful characters
- By Emily Schneider on 11-29-20
By: Stephanie Oakes
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Bleeding Violet
- By: Dia Reeves
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly, violet dresses, Hanna's tired of being the outcast, the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas, in search of a new home. But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. She discovers secrets that would terrify any normal soul. Good thing for Hanna, she's far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen, and no one is safe.
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Didn't like it. Sorry, not sorry
- By Cii'Em on 02-15-16
By: Dia Reeves
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The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4
- By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Rebecca Mitchell, Michael Healy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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With tales from Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan, Peter Straub, and many others, and featuring Datlow’s comprehensive overview of the year in horror, now, more than ever, The Best Horror of the Year provides the petrifying horror fiction readers have come to expect - and enjoy.
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Only a few decent stories in this bunch.
- By Jerry on 12-06-14
By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, and others
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Southern Gods
- By: John Hornor Jacobs
- Narrated by: Eric G Dove
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
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Recent World War II veteran Bull Ingram is working as muscle when a Memphis DJ hires him to find Ramblin' John Hastur. The mysterious blues man's dark, driving music - broadcast at ever-shifting frequencies by a phantom radio statio - is said to make living men insane and dead men rise. Disturbed and enraged by the bootleg recording the DJ plays for him, Ingram follows Hastur's trail into the strange, uncivilized backwoods of Arkansas, where he hears rumors the musician has sold his soul to the Devil.
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Big, Bold and Bright
- By John on 08-23-11
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Now & Then
- By: Jacqueline Sheehan
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Anna O’Shea has failed at marriage, shed her job at a law firm, and she’s trying to re-create herself when she and her recalcitrant nephew are summoned to the past in a manner that nearly destroys them. Her twenty-first-century skills pale as she struggles to find her nephew in nineteenth-century Ireland. For one of them, the past is brutally difficult, filled with hunger and struggle. For the other, the past is filled with privilege, status, and a reprieve from the crushing pain of present-day life. For both Anna and her nephew, the past offers them a chance at love.
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Loved This Book
- By Janina on 03-07-17
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The Secrets She Carried
- By: Barbara Davis
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Though Peak Plantation has been in her family for generations, Leslie Nichols can't wait to rid herself of the farm left to her by her estranged grandmother Maggie. But Leslie isn't the only one with a claim to Peak. Jay Davenport, Peak's reclusive caretaker, has his own reasons for holding onto the land bequeathed to him by Leslie's grandmother. Before she died, Maggie hinted at a terrible secret surrounding Adele Laveau, a lady's maid who came to Peak during the 1930s and died under mysterious circumstances.
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Best book of the year
- By Joanne Tailele on 10-08-18
By: Barbara Davis
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Because You Love to Hate Me
- 13 Tales of Villainy
- By: Ameriie - editor
- Narrated by: Ameriie, Kevin T. Collins, Julia Whelan
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In this unique YA anthology, 13 acclaimed, best-selling authors team up with 13 influential BookTubers to reimagine fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains' points of view. These fractured, unconventional spins on classics like Medusa, Sherlock Holmes, and 'Jack and the Beanstalk' provide a behind-the-curtain look at villains' acts of vengeance, defiance, and rage - and the pain, heartbreak, and sorrow that spurned them on. No fairy tale will ever seem quite the same again!
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I enjoyed more than I expected
- By Doha on 08-30-17
By: Ameriie - editor
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The Disappearances
- By: Emily Bain Murphy
- Narrated by: Devon Sorvari
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Aila Quinn's mother, Juliet, has always been a mystery. Vibrant yet guarded, she keeps her secrets beyond Aila's reach. When Juliet dies, Aila and her younger brother, Miles, are sent to live in Sterling, a rural town with mysteries of its own. In Sterling, the experiences that weave life together - scents of flowers and food, reflections from mirrors and lakes, even the ability to dream - vanish every seven years. No one knows what causes these Disappearances or what will slip away next.
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Always
- By Lisa Gay on 09-09-17
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Grim
- By: Ellen Hopkins, Julie Kagawa, Amanda Hocking, and others
- Narrated by: Christine Johnson
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today: Ellen Hopkins, Amanda Hocking, Julie Kagawa, Claudia Gray, Rachel Hawkins, Kimberly Derting, Myra McEntire, Malinda Lo, Sarah Rees-Brennan, Jackson Pearce, Christine Johnson, Jeri Smith Ready, Shaun David Hutchinson, Saundra Mitchell, Sonia Gensler, Tessa Gratton, Jon Skrovron.
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amazing
- By Anonymous User on 10-04-17
By: Ellen Hopkins, and others
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The Beach Trees
- By: Karen White
- Narrated by: Ki Gottberg, Gin Hammond
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
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For Julie Holt, travelling to the beautiful but ravaged coast of Biloxi, Mississippi, is a journey into a secret past, and a life she never expected.... Julie first knew loss at the age of 12, when her sister disappeared, never to be found. As her once close-knit family grew apart, Julie's mother obsessively searched for the girl, and when her mother died, Julie took up the search, never letting go of the hope. Then, at an art exhibition in New York, she meets Monica....
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The ending was very weak
- By Missi Boyd on 10-31-16
By: Karen White
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What listeners say about The Book of Speculation
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- T. L. Walker
- 07-05-15
A wonderful blend of magical realism and fantasy
This book plays around with the Slavic myth of the Rusalka, a type of water nymph. At one point, the Rusalka was a symbol of fertility, but in later years, they became malevolent in stories. They’re believed to be the result of a woman committing suicide by drowning or being violently murdered by drowning. Since their life was fated to be a full one, they continue their lives as Rusalka, luring men to their deaths. However, this is not their sole way of being created. I did a Google search to get all this information since I love learning about new mythology, but the book does a fair job of painting a portrait of the tragic story of the Rusalka. I would call this fantasy, but it is very light fantasy with the magic realism being much more pronounced throughout the story. Much like Mandel’s Station Eleven, this is one of those books that defies it genre by being moving and poetically written. There’s so much going on with family secrets, betrayals, old pains, and how one’s past can come together to be an almost self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s a painful read with so many wins being punctuated by devastating defeats that shapes the history of not only the Watson family but the families that are interconnected with the Watsons.
I probably would’ve rated this book much higher, but I did find it a little hard to connect with the characters, and while this book worked largely on the idea of a thread weaving together many lives, it still felt too coincidental rather than feeling like it smoothly pieced together the many puzzles making up a history that was larger than any of the characters could imagine. I cared more about the story being told about their ancestors than the modern day tale that was unfolding. However, Ari Fliakos was simply amazing. At first, I didn’t know if I was going to like the tone he used for Enola, but as I continued to listen and learned more about the character, that clipped, sarcastic tone he used for her fit the eccentricity of her character well. In fact, he did a wonderful job of making all the characters feel so distinct from Churchwarry’s jolliness to Peabody’s larger than life magnetism to Evangeline’s pensive wistfulness to Frank’s simple straightforwardness. I even loved his southern accents which sounded mostly right and used that softened twang just the way it’s supposed to be. Where I might’ve just rated this 3 stars, Fliakos’ narration was beautiful and swayed some of my opinion on its rating.
The Book of Speculation is a haunting, poetic story that shows how wants, heartache, and wishes can breathe intent into actions that were done simply out of love, how generations can fall into those same cycles until someone tries to break the “curse.” This book has just the right amount amount of myth, magic, and realism that can cause its readers to ponder the ideas presented, and if I’d had the chance to care a little more about the characters that Swyler introduced me to, this book would’ve definitely been a home-run for me.
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28 people found this helpful
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- Ajoy
- 11-05-15
Pleasently Surprised
Very engaging and lots of unexpected twists. The set up is a little slow but once it catches its momentum you don't want to put it down!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Tarantilia
- 04-30-18
Engaging!
Listening to this book felt very indulgent. I became completely immersed by the story, so much so I found myself relistening to chapters to savor the story before completion. Definitely check it out.
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- Anonymous User
- 04-23-18
Stick with this one
I wasn’t sure I was in the right mood for the tempo of this novel at first- the narrator had to grow on me a little. But a few chapters in I was hooked. More like 4.5 overall and on the story. Should appeal to lovers of magic realism.
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Overall
- DRegie
- 04-10-19
An interesting tale
The book starts slow. I wasn't sure if it was worth my time. I'm glad I stuck with it. The story switches between two different stories, at times each held my interest, at times each seemed tedious. But at the end both became enormously more interesting and I really enjoyed the surprising way they were tied together. It's a book I'm still thinking about and I can see myself revisiting.
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- Maghan
- 08-20-16
This book was touching and magical.
I love books that change your thoughts on people and places; that get you so involved that when the last words read, you get a rush of mourning. That is this book.
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- Paige Woodruff
- 03-26-16
Old fashion fun at the carnival
I have come to love books about books, libraries and such, that is what drew me to this book.
I have always enjoyed a well written book that can move the reader from past to present rather seamlessly, Book of Speculation is no disappointment. The story of Amos and Peabody is touching. The carnival life of the 19th century boisterous and flamboyant.
Present day Simon, Churchwary, Inola and the lot make an interesting cast of characters.
The narrator does a very good job with the carnival voices, some of which are quite a challenge I am sure. The story comes to life with the magical revealing as told by Ari Fliakos.
If you are someone that enjoys good storytelling than look no further. Completely avoid this book if you are bothered by the occult and the occasional foul word.
Happy listening.
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- Ewa
- 01-27-18
Nice story, difficult listening
I found the plot quite interesting and well-built. I struggled with the flat-voice narration, it was difficult to connect to, thus making it a challenge to stay focused on the book, rather than let your mind wander.
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- JBJ:Mother of 4
- 10-29-16
Perfect Mix of Magic and Realism
Where does The Book of Speculation rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This is by far one of my favorites, simply because it was such a nice change for me. The story felt like part novel, part fairytale, part folklore. I could listen to the narrater all day long. All his many voices brought each character alive for me.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Book of Speculation?
Too many to list!
Which character – as performed by Ari Fliakos – was your favorite?
My favorite character was Simon. He was such a sweet and witty character and the fact that he was a male librarian, but still cool, made me like him more. Second favorite, the electric boyfriend!
Any additional comments?
If this is going out on a limb for you to read a magical tale, give this one a shot. You may realize you have found a new genre!
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-14-18
Outstanding family lore
Loved the generational stories - floating forward and back in time. Mesmerizing carnival tales. Well written and fabulously performed.
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