Tracy

cheap & icky cougar fantasy

Revisado: 07-26-14

This wildly improbable plot line tries to meet a whole heap of bored cougar fantasies. I am sure some people will love this book - if you don't care about character development or believability, and can get past a premise that at best is self indulgent and at worst is kinda 'icky'.
Plot line: "Self-obsessed and immature 30-something WASP princess/teacher seduces an incredibly vulnerable and naive teenage cancer survivor, they survive a whole heap of totally implausible life threatening situations without having a clue or breaking a nail, eventually have some boring sex, and she manipulates everyone around her mercilessly to ultimately get what she wants - apple-pie, home-sweet-home, millions of dollars and a much younger and intellectually inferior lover husband that she can control for ever. The writer has created unlikeable and unrealistic characters that use the word F*&% half the time, and the other half use phrase like "darn it" and "jeez" making me think the swearing was only added to try and give some shock value (yawn).

Couldn't help but find the teacher/student love affair cringe-inducing and "icky' despite the authors attempts to justify it - if the teacher had been a 32 year old male and the cancer surviving teen a 16 year old girl would it be viewed any differently?

The female protagonist was shallow and passive aggressive, and I found her really unlikable. She was supposed to be a teacher, yet came across as thick as a plank. She parades around in a bikini and g string and is surprised when her teenage charge develops a "crush" - yeah right! She conveniently packs several years worth of razors, toothpaste and deodorant into her bag but doesn't have ANY survival skills - water, shelter, warmth.

I listened to this while driving so don't feel too bad about the lost hours of my life, but certainly don't recommend it

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excellence

Revisado: 02-23-13

I bought this title for my teenagers for along car trip, thinking it would be a young adult/dystopian nove that they might both like (1 age 15, the other 18), and not having huge expectations. Turned out that not only they, but my husband and I were completely hooked! Probably the best audio I have heard since I joined Audible.

The story was well paced, with edge of seat suspense, a plausible concept and enough surprises to keep even old hands at the genre intrigued.
Huge kudos to the narrator - the right mix of restraint and emotion, great character range: unlike other narrators, she actually read the story, rather than thinking she had to over-emote to get your attention: the narration was calm but my attention never wavered.
100% satisfied,and wondering if there are sequels!

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Over-actors anonymous!!

Revisado: 01-17-13

This book was definitely aimed at the "Hunger Games" audience, with it's female protagonist & dystopian future. BUT. Unlike Catniss, this heroine came across as less believable & less likeable. One minute she was uber-capable, next she was waiting for the boy to save her, sigh. Also, it came across a bit like a screen play - little character development, lots of "action" scenes, little continuity. Biggest regret is that we got this on audio instead of reading it - the narrator was really irritating - there was little nuance or subtlety. It seemed that she over-emoted EVERY line of dialogue, so it felt we were being yelled at for a lot of the story. If it read "'Jack!' she yelled," then the narrator YELLED. Don't need the narrator literally yelling & sobbing, that is what our imaginations are for. Just read the book, dammit! Also, she made the two female girls seem a lot younger (eg, 9yr old sounded 6; older teen sounded 12), and annoyingly whine-y, while the male "love" interest sounded smug & a lot older. Saba always sounded petulent & sulky, and every line she delivered was the same tone regardless of what she was saying. As a result we ended up really disliking the characters. My daughter (15) & I agreed the story was ok, BUT... Perhaps more suited to younger teens?

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Better than Shipbreaker

Revisado: 01-17-13

I found Shipbreaker a bit of an anticlimax, but loved this. So did my husband (45), son (18), & daughter (15). Subject matter was gritty but beautifully written with a well-paced plot and engaging characters - didn't feel preachy or too earnest at all, though it did have a social "message" about humanity (& man's inhumanity to man), and the narrator did a fabulous job.

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pleasantly surprised

Revisado: 09-30-12

never really been a fan of this type of story (thriller/whodunnit/airport-ish novel) - I decided to try it out because I had read some good reviews of the author. I went into it with low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised = this was a good "read" - the pace was great, it was easy to engage with the characters, characters were believable & the details were gruesome without being too gratuitous. I worked out the bad guy a fair way before the end, but this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the story.

I imagine if you like murder mystery/thrillers with a bit of "smart" then you will enjoy this.
The narrator did a fantastic job, and I was really pleased with my purchase.

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great story, dreadful narrator

Revisado: 09-30-12

I enjoyed reading this series, so did my 14 year old daughter, so thought we would get the audio books to listen to. Sadly, the narrator just doesn't do it justice. She sounds like a robot, and sounds FAR too old to believably convey the characters of Katnis & co - she makes Katnis sound like a 40 something stepford wife!

I still recommend the recording for those who can't/won't read the books. My daughter enjoyed listening but would laugh out loud now and then at the dreadful narration. Listen to the sample - if you can handle it, go for it!

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ho hum

Revisado: 04-02-12

What disappointed you about Spider's Bite?

like a poor-mans True Blood - the story is mundane, the plot simplistic, the characters one dimensional, the sexual references like an adolescent's idea of shocking - just because there are supernatural elements does not mean this is anything other than mundane; Just because the writer tries shock us with her grrr-nasty-girl-dirty-talk does not make this remotely sexy.

I will read/listen to almost anything, but I had to really struggle to finish this - kept checking how much time was left! To quantify my opinion by talking about similar-ish titles: I like Charlaine Harris, love the True Blood TV series more, thought Twilight was silly.

Gave it a try because it was on special. Glad I didnt pay full price!

What do you think your next listen will be?

certainly nothing by this writer!

What aspect of Lauren Fortgang’s performance would you have changed?

the reader did their best with a dreadful script

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Spider's Bite?

hmmm. less about removing scenes and more about adding an interesting plot, engaging and/or remotely likeable or believable characters - I just didnt care what happened to any of them.

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