Hey guys it's Trina and this is another audiobooks review video so I'm going to
be reviewing the last five audiobooks that I have finished this year and just
as a reminder I'm only talking about the narration of these books, like reviewing
it and how it added to or took away from the reading or listening experience and
I have actually already reviewed every single one of these books in like a
reading wrap-up so if you want to hear me talk about plot, characters, overall
enjoyment, and rating of the book itself you can definitely see my last reading
wrap up but today I'm just talking about the narration. So first up I
have recently listened to One of Us is Lying by Karen M McManus. It's a
YA thriller novel about five kids that have detention together, one of them
dies, the other four are suspects, who did it? Snd so because there are four points
of view there are actually four narrators for this audiobook and the narrators
are Kim Mai Guest, MacLeod Andrews, Shannon McManus, and Robbie Daymond. Now, this is
kind of trivia, Kim Mai Guest and MacLeod Andrews both also narrated Their
Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, which I have reviewed
recently, I've listened to it this year. I love both of these narrators and so I
went into this book like really excited because it was like"oh I know these
narrators and I really love their previous work!' and guys they did a fantastic job in
this book. I thought the other two narrators did as well. This was a debut
novel and I know that sometimes debut authors do have trouble creating
distinct you know character voices. I don't know if that's the case in the
print book but I have to say I really enjoyed having four unique narrators for
these main characters. Now, a lot of you may know I really disliked the book One
of Us is Lying. I didn't like it. I didn't like this story or where it went. I found it a little
bit harmful to myself. I've written up a full Goodreads review on it, I've talked
about it in a reading wrap up, so if you want to know my issues I will point you
to those. I probably am not going to be doing a solo review because I just kind
of am tired of talking about this book. But as much as I dislike the book, the
narration was fine. All four of these narrators they did a great job. They
brought the story to life, they did their jobs well, so I want to make it clear
that although I did not like the book, the narrator's were just doing their
jobs you know and they did a great job so if you're interested in this book and
you want to know if it's any good on audio, yeah I would recommend the audio format.
Then I listened to Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire,
which is the sequel/prequel to Every Heart a Doorway. This one is
following some of the side characters from the first book and we're giving like
all of their backstory about their world and stuff. This is like a series about
teenagers who have gone off into like fantasy realms and then they're shoved back
out into the real world and they're trying to deal with that and so this
book is following these two characters and what their experience in their realm
was and this audio book was actually narrated by the author herself, Seanan
McGuire, and that was a really cool experience.
Cynthia Hopkins narrated the first book. Every Heart a Doorway and I loved her
narration and so when I saw that she wasn't doing this book as well I was a
little bit disappointed but Seanan McGuire did a great job and it was really
cool because I don't think I've ever heard an author narrate their own story
that was fiction before but she knew this story and she's a great storyteller
vocally as well. So again, I love both of these narrators and I don't want to
choose and say one was better than the other because they're both fantastic. I
loved it. It was great. It was amazing. I would definitely recommend the audio
format for these books. Then I listened to Lord Of Shadows by Cassandra Clare,
which is the second book in the Dark Artifices series, which is one of the
series in her overall Shadowhunters universe so it's a YA urban fantasy
series and this audiobook was narrated by James Marsters who is the actor that
played Spike in the TV show Buffy. His voicing was really good. He did distinct
voices for each character. He was doing the most, like going a little bit over
the top for certain characters. He would do like really high-pitched squeaky
voices for some like fae characters or really gravelly voices for some of the
like monsters. It was a very interesting reading experience so like, most of the
voices were just normal sounding and then he like went over the top for some
of the more fantastical creature voicing and I really enjoyed it. Now, I did
actually have to switch from the audio book to the print format of this book
because my audiobook expired on me when I was about 100 pages from the end so I
finished out the book, the last hundred pages or so,
in the print format and it was really seamless to switch formats in the middle
of the book. I really enjoyed both formats. I don't know that I would
recommend one over the other because they're both great. They're both fine. But
I personally have been really enjoying listening to this series on audiobook.
Then I listened to Juniper Lemon's Happiness Index written by Julie Israel.
This is a YA contemporary book about a girl who's recently lost her sister and
she discovered that her sister left a letter behind and she's trying to figure
out who this letter was to so that she could deliver it so there's kind of a
mystery edge to it but mainly it's just a contemporary especially dealing with loss. The
audiobook narrator was was Abigail Revasch and I had a really great time with this
audiobook. I've never heard this narrator before or anything but I definitely want
to find more audiobooks that she has narrated because I enjoyed her narration
so much. She did a little extra things that I don't hear a lot of narrators do
like when the book says the character laughed she would read that in the
narration and then she would actually laugh when the dialogue started, or if a
character sighs she would sigh as she was saying the line. So she was
definitely more expressive than most of the narrators that I listen to and I
really enjoyed that. I didn't find it distracting at all it just made this
character feel much more real to me. I would definitely recommend this book on
audio. There is a little bit of formatting in the print version of the
book that you will miss out on, just like some handwritten letters or lists and
stuff like that but it's no big deal. Some of the things that are in list form
in the book, you could clearly tell that they were in list form when the narrator
read them so I had no trouble with the way that things like that translated to
audio. I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend checking this book
out on audio if you can. The last audiobook that I am reviewing today is
Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh. This is a YA fantasy story. It is the start
of a new duology and it is set in a Japan inspired world and it's about a
girl who is seeking revenge so she dresses up like a boy in order to
infiltrate this notorious black clan that she hates. I chose to listen to this
book on audio because I had a lot of trouble getting into Renee's previous
series. The Wrath and the Dawn, and I wanted to give her another chance
but I wanted to listen to the audiobook to just kind of help me along. This
audiobook was narrated by Nancy Wu. Personally, I felt like her narration
sounded quite robotic, and granted I listened to it on like 1.6 times speed.
There were times I would be listening and she, like her voicing of it reminded
me of a less computerized version of the A.I. villain from the video game Portal.
It's not the same voice actor. I haven't heard anything else that she's narrated
so I don't have a good accurate gauge of her voicing. Her character voicing on the
other hand was fine. It was mainly just like the reading the long long long
passages of descriptions that sounded very monotone and robotic. It's not the
worst I've ever heard. I have called several audiobooks that I've reviewed
monotonous and robotic, it's definitely not the worst, but it just prevented me
from having any real connection to it and although I didn't enjoy the
narration I also know that a large part of why I did not enjoy this book was
because of the world-building, and descriptions, and characterizations
themselves. So I don't want you to think that the only reason I disliked this
book was because of the audio format that I chose and because I didn't like
the narration. It was admittedly a combination of the two. I don't think I
would have enjoyed this book in any other format. So yeah, that's all I really
have to say about it. Not my favorite. So those are the last five audiobooks I
have finished and if I had to recommend just one of them and tell you guys which
of these five was my favorite I think I'm going to have to go with Down Among
the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire. I think that the audio format definitely
fits the storytelling quality of these books so I have really been in enjoying them.
They are some of my favorite audiobooks that I've listened to this year overall.
So out of these five, Down Among the Sticks and Bones was my favorite. It's the one
that I would recommend the most highly to you guys if you're looking for
something to pick up next. If you have listened to anything recently that you
really loved please share that with me down below or if you've listened to any
of these books and just want to chat more about the narration or if you can
recommend me anything else that these narrators have done that you enjoyed I
would definitely love to hear that down below. Thank you guys so much for
watching and I will see you in the comments. Bye!
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