Ray

A really slow-burn story with no real climax

Revisado: 10-15-24

An interesting story, but there is a lot of time jumping and never a crucial moment of climax to really tie things up in an interesting way. Everyone just sort of… falls into place without notable events, unless you really dive into the nuances of each character and note their simple and deliberately mundane revelations. This is 100% slice-of-life to an extreme. It’s almost like Jewell wanted to tell the most minimal and realistic story ever, with Rory (sp?) being the least realistic character.

Anyway, it’s a good listen but don’t expect a huge payoff for your time.

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The most important coming-of-age novel for women

Revisado: 10-04-24

I’ve listened to this audiobook so, so many times, and it always hits home with the narrative. Every girl and woman NEEDS to hear this story.

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Circular writing and overproduced sound effects

Revisado: 09-10-24

I have several qualms with this collection of fun facts and backstories.

1) Content: I was really excited for this deeper dive into the wizard of world’s lore, but was disappointed to find that much of the writing directly quotes the existing books and often added very little new knowledge. Often, subjects that were already clearly explained in the original series are “expanded on” - which is to say, they just repeat the same knowledge we have from the original series but make it sound more flowery and expansive without really adding anything new. However, some background content for characters (Lupin’s life story, for instance, or how to actually become an animagus) were very interesting and much more aligned with my expectations.
2) Writing - I am dizzy from how every subject has an introduction, actual information on the topic, and a closing. While this sounds solid - all 3 parts use many of the exact same phrases and it gets far to repetitive. This could have easily been improved by not repeating often identical phrases within a 5-10 minute span of each other.
3) Production - I am overwhelmingly distracted by all the random (and seemingly incongruous) background sound effects and chatter behind the narration. The slight musical moments are fine - but good gracious please get rid of the meaningless chattering of characters (or at least reduce the volume significantly). Also, many of the non-verbal sound effects are poorly timed and don’t really fit what the narrator is describing. I also noticed on my 3rd gen AirPods that this production sounds echoing- as if the narrators are the only people within a giant theatre. It is unbearable to listen to in that state. On my older AirPods, I didn’t experience that effect, however. One last small gripe here - over 2GB for an audiobook this small? They must be insane.
Overall - still a fun listen as background noise, and the content that is actually new information is very fun and exciting. Personally I feel this could have been better formatted as a podcast series, rather than an audiobook.

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Beauty in life

Revisado: 02-26-24

Bastone has done it again. This is a wonderful and feel-good story that you cannot miss. The narrator breathes reality into Eve’s perspective.

Can’t wait for more from this author.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Jeez, talk about obvious!

Revisado: 08-14-23

If you were hoping for characters with nuisance that don’t give away their intent from the start, this is not for you.

I felt the same about book 1 (The Prison Healer), but I have read other works from Noni and thought “Okay, book 2 is usually a lot better since the world setup is complete after book 1”, but that’s not the case here. I cannot believe how many stereotypes were core to this book. There are multiple characters where it’s obvious they have ulterior motives, and it’s sickening how overt their intents were. Not as sickening as how often Kiva throws up while working out, but close.

I’m just sad I could see the outcome of this story from the first few chapters. If you don’t see it coming, you’re not really paying attention so maybe that’s for the best, and if so, then you got to enjoy this story the way it was intended. But that also means you should be exposed to more popular media, which already covers every stereotype found here thoroughly.

At this point I’m committed to finishing the series even if I can easily figure out how it ends. At least it’s good background noise while I’m working.

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Brace yourself for nothing but sad on sad in sad.

Revisado: 08-12-23

I had some major qualms with needless repetition - whether it be the constant refrain of the same two secret notes, or a concept of the prison experience being explained one way and then immediately explained a slightly different way in the next sentence or paragraph. This book really could have been sized down to about 18 chapters and been a lot better.

Repetition aside, there is absolutely nothing light-hearted happening between traumatic experiences. The protagonist goes through trauma and then pretty much never acknowledges it again in lieu of only panicking in the moment or worrying ahead to the next desperate moment. It’s hard to swallow how easily she can brush everything off the moment the distress has ended.

Don’t even get me started on how obvious the plot “twists” near and at the end turned out to be. I had the entire story pegged from the start. I was really hoping things would get more exciting, rather than heartbreaking, but I was mistaken. I’m not sure how much I care about her finding her family in the next book, because they’re obviously incompetent and going to inevitably be a disappointment.

Maybe save your time with this one. It’s overrated for sure.

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Meh

Revisado: 12-28-22

My first Stephen King novel, but based on the ravings of my older sister and mother I know he has superior works. The story is well written and extremely well narrated, but everything about the plot itself was painfully predictable. The pace of the story is kind of meandering, with very slow development and almost no “blood racing” moments of action or excitement. It’s still a good listen, but this one shouldn’t be getting any accolades for originality. I would recommend this for individuals who want a book to listen to while they work, since many of the details can slip by without the necessity of rewinding to pick up on where the story is going.

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A decent hunger games knockoff with original ideas…sort of

Revisado: 12-08-22

A very good crossover of 3 popular media titans; picture the Hunger Games meets Fallout (the video game series) meets Divergent, plus some original inspiration on these three starting points. I’m enjoying the unique blend. Admittedly, I’m 8 chapters into the sequel and plan to continue with this series.

First off, I saw another review mention that this narrator speaks too quickly. I agree entirely, you’ll need to set the play speed to .9 if you want to appreciate the story fully. This seems to hold true for the sequel as well.

There is not as much nuisance to the characters as in The Hunger Games, but there are enough false-positive clues to keep you wondering who is really an ally and who is not. Sometimes I do get the sense that this really was a Hunger Games fan-fic converted into a new novel (re: Twilight fanfic became Fifty Shades), but if that’s the case there are more than enough unique scenarios to mark this as it’s own unique work, even if it is highly derivative.

All said and done, I’ve enjoyed this and plan to see the entire series through. I hope I don’t find myself disappointed. The start of book 2 has brought me some hope that this series could shine more as an original work, but I can’t say for sure yet. Take the leap with me if you enjoy this first book! :)

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Extremely predicable, but exceptional execution

Revisado: 01-21-22

Admittedly I could see every major plot twist way ahead, because stories like this have been told time and time again, and the foreshadowing is rather heavy-handed. However, I still enjoyed the narrative and pacing. This was an excellent execution of this particular story premise. I would definitely listen to this again and intend to start on the next book right away.

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A difficult listen thanks to many narrators

Revisado: 12-03-21

At best I can say this entire series was -okay-. This book is particularly repetitive, with many of the characters reflecting on their same past failures over and over again. I got quite sick of them quickly.

I also found myself having to rewind constantly because the narrator for Mare talks so much faster than the ones for other characters. I had to adjust the speed of playback for almost every chapter, which was infuriating as it broke my focus on the already complex narrative. You really can’t tune out this story or you miss a ton of nuisances buried in the repetition that actually move the story forward.

I also hated that in every single action scenario in this series, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Without fail, every time. It gets boring knowing that tragedy guaranteed in a fight, and makes me care less when important characters take a fall. Perhaps if you’re a fan of seeing the characters suffering constantly, this is up your alley.

It doesn’t help on top of everything else that all of the female leads are basically the same character archetype copy/pasted with different companions to react to.

All in all, I’m sort of relieved to leave this series behind me.

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