ithaca lloyd

New to me and thoroughly enjoyed

Reviewed: 03-04-23

It’s rare to find this mix of humor and storyline seamlessly tied together. First time with these characters and loved most of the voices. I’ll read more despite the somewhat dated references.

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Worthwhile story that may be tentative at times

Reviewed: 01-24-23

I knew this story was getting to me when I realized that tears were coming down my face while walking outside and listening. The real story is about the father, toxic masculinity, and coping mechanisms. It is a story about my own father and was full of reminders about how I as a Black man have to take responsibility for my own actions as I raise my two sons. The writing needs to be stronger in places but that will come. The southern roots, impact of racism on self-respect, and the generational consequences of ignorance all rang true. Read it to understand those around you.

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Lack of reality unusual for this author; I wasted a credit!

Reviewed: 01-05-23

While I have never felt that this author was particularly good at writing non-white characters, I have no idea how he could go for seven chapters without so much as a passing mention that there were other than White folk in southern Mississippi in the novel’s time period. His usual slow start I was willing to deal with, but when you spend that much time painting a backdrop for your great novel ignoring major chunks of the population and the main character’s reaction to that population ——- that’s just not good writing. I wish I could get my credit back!!!

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Complete waste of a credit

Reviewed: 12-14-20

This was either the worst or the second worst title I have received from audible. The storyline was farcical, and was more about dropping names and having anything to do with creating a real story. I did not like any of the characters though A couple of them had some potential. I have grown to expect less from Paterson over the past few years but not this little.

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1 person found this helpful

Surprisingly good

Reviewed: 06-16-20

I certainly did not expect to be totally engaged in this book within 2 minutes. Great narrator ( I will look for more of Harper), conversations were quite believable despite the absurd nature of the story line. The touch of self-awareness and stepping outside of the story while continuing the story line was great. Nice use of adolescent naivete without over doing it and sinking into a full blown YA - made for tv soap opera. I will be looking for more from this writer as well.

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Alternate History w/ Heart

Reviewed: 03-09-19

Having not read any of Ms Ireland's previous works I used a credit based on the brief description. I have rarely been happier! I am now a devoted fan of hers and believe that the narrator, Bahni Turpin, must be a genius. Turpin smoothly ranged from cultured, old fashion language to red necked ignorance to field hand banter. She was believable as a racist, demented white old preacher, and as an educated white 1800's misguided scientist.
Ireland provides enough hints and familiar references to do some subtle world-building without disrupting the flow and without the reader having that sense of congruency that can sometimes happen.
Finally, the heroine is human in her emotions, mistakes and desires. It was probably that attention to detail that won me over. High marks across the board for entertaining me and for making me think!!!

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Good idea but stunted in development

Reviewed: 12-19-18

Molles had a good idea here. Unfortunately it got a bit loss along the way. Too much detail in some of the escape scenes and not enough explanation of motives, thoughts of aliens resulted in a bit of disjointed feeling. The story could easily be expanded into something quite interesting but I really thought it was being written to be a tv script. Sorry!
While Vietor does a decent job with the voices, the last 'chorus' of voices just came across hokey. It was actually jarring at that point.

I will try the author again but I will be a bit more careful with my credits.

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2 people found this helpful

Unfortunate characters weakened otherwise strong story line

Reviewed: 09-13-18

First, I really enjoyed the story line and felt there was great promise. Dolphins and aliens and the South Pole! But things are clearly a bit dated as of my reading this. There was almost too much material in the one story. The Dolphins were fun but the science surrounding them and the ice fields needs to be updated. Also, how do you not spend extra time dealing with the back story of the aliens. That was not realistic. Finally, two really issues for me. 1. The women in this came off as borderline stupid in their naïveté and emotional expression. I would like to see Grumley work on his characterization so far women. 2. The top science advisor being a jerk and not listening to good science made no sense.

I will read the next book to see if any of this got worked out. That is how strong the rest of the book was. I hope I am not disappointed.

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Great promise but story and performance need lots of work

Reviewed: 08-24-18

I am very sorry I got this one. I don't say that often. But the 'mystery' was neither deep nor was it interesting. Never got beyond the most surface of any character and even then you were left not knowing if you had been given a real picture of that person. Ended up not caring if ANY of the characters came out ok in the end.
Narration did not help. Seemed very forced even with the change in voices. I don't do this for a living so I know it is much harder than it seems but I would say this one could have been helped immensely with more editing from beginning to end. There is promise here but the author needs to work on developing the themes and the characters more!

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Strong potential but lost its way.

Reviewed: 08-04-18

When I read an earlier review that there was potential here but that that I would find the narration annoying, I took all of that with a grain of salt. I was wrong. VERY annoying narration throughout. Non-white / non-English speaking characters were almost clownish and more like charicutures. Similar to what someone said earlier, the story idea could have been strengthened without so many ties to the famous without a solid explanation for how the main character could come up with such great ideas. The ending felt more like needing to add fluff to the end of a term paper. Again, good editing would have helped, even if it left us with big questions. And finally, the author's strong dislike of how the Catholic Church operates was obvioius. There were more subtle ways to portray the disingenuous nature of some of the key players without resorting to mockery.
And lastly, on what grounds does the author base a curse coming from Jesus? It just did not fit with all the other references.
Overall disappointment with what could have been a great story idea. I hate to sound so judgement all and I know I could never write this kind of story. I just which he had done it better.

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