Anonymous

Narrator confusion

Reviewed: 01-07-25

The narrators had very different opinions on what Rod’s personality was and then gave him VERY different characterization in a way that was confusing and almost funny in how bad it was. Skip this.

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A little heavy handed

Reviewed: 11-15-23

I bought the book because the idea of a library full of lives for you to chose from was obviously interesting. There were parts where I almost felt like I was reading a devotional or some sort of inspirational pamphlet on the value of life that it took me right out of the story. Over all great premise, a few really shining moments, definitely worth the read but not something Im likely to add to my bookshelves.

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Skip this one

Reviewed: 08-04-23

The reviews on this were very positive but didnt reflect my experience at all. Theres an absurd amount of detail to the process of installing internet in an old house and maybe a single sentence spent resolving the central conflict of the story. Skip this. Save the credit.

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Its bad

Reviewed: 12-11-22

Werewolf Stiles Stilinski meets Human Derek Hale. They were fated from the beginning and everything is awful.

This is the worst fanfiction Ive ever read, and admittedly Ive read a lot.
In the beginning the main characters are 10 and 16 but they act like a 5 and 9 year old respectively. In one instance Joe (10) is described as ‘climbing’ over Ox’s (16) head and being carried up the road was super weird and so unrealistic that I immediately came out of the story.
The voice actor uses the same voice for 12yo Ox up until hes in his twenties and the same with Joe, which is uncomfortable as a 17yo who sounds like a 10yo is trying to seduce a 23yo. I understand the idea behind it, keeping their voices the same to show when they really become men but it wouldve been better to just get another voice actor.
The repetition annoying and misused. I get that this kind of repetition is commonplace in wolf stories to show the singularity of thought but there were strings of HE SAID ‘blah blah’ HE SAID ‘blah’ that were unwarranted.

The dialogue was cringe- one of the last spoken lines is ‘how dare you die in front of me’

The sex scenes and SA references were so graphic and completely out of left field that I felt gross.

That this has so many 5star reviews is beyond me as I only finished this through herculean power of well and the little enjoyment I had hate listening.

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Interesting premise poorly executed

Reviewed: 06-15-22

There is what seemed to me to be a very big reveal between the father and son very early on which goes completely unacknowledged afterward. You are told that the main character has developed deep emotional connections with two different characters despite almost no time being spent with one and nothing of substance happening with the other. I kept forgetting that the main character, whose name I cant remember, is meant to be a 38yo man because his behavior seems more like someone in their early to mid20s. The main character has a very valid concern about being outted in his country and states how people will react to it only to have everything wrapped up so that everyone lives in perfect harmony. There are no consequences to his actions, no validity to his SEEMINGLY valid concerns, and no real climax to a story. There is a sex scene very early on that in hindsight feels like it was written about another character because nothing about that person is reflected in the other 8hrs of the story.

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Felt like my story being told

Reviewed: 06-06-22

An great portrayal of black family dynamics, especially from the south. From the raising of the father and his ‘escape’ from small town life to the deference held between the father and son when family obligations arose, I found every piece of this perfectly articulated.

As the queer son of an often distant father, I loved hearing the relationship from the father’s point of view and appreciated the redemption aspect of the story even if certain bonds were not salvageable.

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Only made it half way through…

Reviewed: 02-08-22

I find that in a lot of scifi/fantasy works there are two tropes that I run into alot that I absolutely hate and it seems like this story was written as if those two tropes were the base of the story. Trope 1: overly sassy, constantly swearing male character uses threats and fists to relay any point. Trope 2: self important main character finds themself in unnecessarily sexual situations. Alot of the quips and sass felt like one liners out of a Disney channel show that almost had me waiting for laugh tracks and diss ‘ohhhhhs’ in the background.
I came looking for a cool queer story that wasnt about coming out or unrequitted love but I couldnt finish this.

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1 person found this helpful

What just happened?

Reviewed: 01-21-19

This was my first attempt at a King novel and this one came well recommend in addition to being one of his shorter audiobooks, which for me was a positive.
I found myself having to backtrack more times than I can count because even though the narration was fantastically done the writing had me thinking about anything but what I was listening to. Half way through the story I realized nothing had happened, the most interesting parts were told in flashbacks that were not crucial to the plot of the first book but served to give a more in depth understanding of a main character whom I still found little interest in.

This book was very much like Annihaltion to me: there were some characters I was supposed to care about, but I don’t. There were some plot points that were supposed to captivate but they didn’t. And when I put the book down I really couldn’t tell you what the hell it was even about.

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Worth the buy

Reviewed: 10-17-18

A book that felt like a mix of The Fault in Our Stars and the film Trick, but manages to work very well. Despite knowing from the title and the many reminders of the endgame of this book, Silvera caught me off guard several times with how intense the characters occasionally got with their emotions on mortality. Like The Fault in Our Stars it occasionally felt sort of juvienlle, though I think Silvera’s books are generally considered YA.
Otherwise good story telling and world building

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