The Past Is Red Audiobook By Catherynne M. Valente cover art

The Past Is Red

Preview

Try for $0.00
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.

The Past Is Red

By: Catherynne M. Valente
Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.00

Buy for $20.00

Confirm purchase
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.
Cancel

About this listen

The future is blue - endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown.

Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she’s the only one who knows it. She’s the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it’s full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.

But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.

©2021 Catherynne M. Valente (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Fiction Humorous Post-Apocalyptic Satire Science Fiction Comedy
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Past Is Red

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    70
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    70
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    61
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3

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

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

Perfect narration!

So, this is weird. It reads as if it were a book for middle-schoolers, but with adult language. The themes are appropriate for middle school, the setting is decidedly middle-schoolish, and the length of the book is what you would expect for middle school. Overall great book, I really enjoyed it. It seemed like a cross between kids’ and adults’ world views. Is that intentional given the themes of the book? I hope so. I will re-read it sometime to truly understand the shifting timeline—I sometimes missed when she was speaking in the present, versus the past. The audio narration was absolutely perfect, I really enjoyed that.

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

a good sad story. nice quick listen

I enjoyed it and don't regret the credit spent.
this novel is pretty sad so be prepared for that. other than that I enjoyed the science fiction of it. hopefully things don't turn out that way but lol it feels possible.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

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

like the premise

but its not a kids book. we loved Osmo unknown and hope to find more good stuff from the author.

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

Beautiful and heartbreaking

Cathrynne Valente creates a post apocalyptic world like no other. A place where most people despair and yet we meet the most pure and wonderful character, Tetley Abednego. She is the sort of person I wish I could be, she’s been through hell but still views the world with joy and wonder. Tetley is the sort of friend that I think everyone needs in their life. Penelope Rawlins does a masterful job of voicing all the disparate characters from Tetley herself to each minor character she encounters each is brilliant.
This is a book you can’t help being enthralled by and won’t be able to stop thinking about.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

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

It's the most beautiful f**kwit junk there is!

This book is so inspiringly positive in its take on our bleak future that it might surprise you. I found myself purposefully not trying to figure out the twists or guessing at any hints of what was coming next because I wanted to let this great author just tell her story.

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

Brilliant

This novella was a gift, a remedy for life's absurdity as we all work through our grief on our dying ecology. Thank you for a momentary vacation out of the morass and destruction of the now. This narrator deserves many accolades. It was a magical journey.

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

The most perfectly perfect book a F**kwit could ever want.

There is nothing in all the world more sweet, more rewarding, or more terrible than the last moment of a beautiful book. This is my MOST beautiful book.

The narrator is perfect. The story is soul-smashingly perfect. The pacing and the language and the poetry of this book is hatefully, perfectly perfect.

If you’re worried that it isn’t worth a whole credit for a short novella, you’re wrong. The Past Is Red is worth a hundred million billion credits. Spend one, get this book. Listen to it. ACTUALLY listen to it.

If, by the end, you haven’t fallen in Love a dozen times, if you haven’t cried and laughed and felt ashamed and alone and alive…

…you’re probably a F**ckwit.



X Life Before Tetley X

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

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

Cat Valente always astounds

This is a book I'm going to have to listen to again, and then again, to fully understand all the feels it makes me feel. That can only be a good thing, right?
Penelope Rawlins brings it all to life so viscerally--good luck wrapping your head around Tetley's reality.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful