Over the Christmas break of 2019, I ordered myself an Amazon Fire tablet, and just after New Year I had downloaded Audible and tried an audiobook just in time to go back to work. I quickly became addicted to listening to books. I love to read, but due to having some health issues I find it hard to concentrate on reading an actual book. That, and the fact that I'm always doing some sort of craft (which I also hope to share!), meant that Audible is the perfect match for me!
Since I'm now not able to leave the house for the next 11 weeks due to the Coronavirus pandemic, I thought I'd start to share my opinions on the books I listen to. The format of this blog isn't yet concrete, so if you don't like it, please let me know! I just want to put a smile on your faces during the testing times we're currently in!
My first review is the first book I listened to. PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE POSSIBLE TRIGGERS BECAUSE OF THE STORYLINE. IF YOU ARE TRIGGERED BY KIDNAP OR DISASSOCIATION, PLEASE DO NOT READ!
Please feel free to let me know your opinion if you have read the book, along with any recommendations!
Narration - 5/10 Storyline - 8/10 Ease of listening - 7/10
This is the first book in the Alex Cross series. I know it's been out a while, but I'm always late to the party so please bear with me! The storyline is about 2 young children who are kidnapped by their maths teacher. It transpires that said teacher, Gary Soneji possibly suffers with disassociation and Alex Cross suspects that he blacks out regularly, causing memory loss. The story follows Alex Cross and his mission to save the missing children.
I'd never read any books by James Patterson, but I know he is a popular author. I have to admit, I felt slightly like I'd been missing out! It was a well written book, but there are some aspects of the book that are not believable, or down-played. It was quick-paced, but not too quick that you missed what was happening, and there weren't any moments where I wondered whether or not I should carry on listening. In fact, I started to find excuses to switch my fire tablet on!
Personally, I wasn't keen on the narrator of this audiobook. He threw his voice a lot higher than it needed to be to play Jezzie, and sometimes he took the emotion out of a scene. Because it was the first book I listened to, I did wonder if all of the audiobooks sounded this way (they don't!).
Because of the storyline, I found Along Came a Spider Easy to listen to. I have a weird brain that doesn't like too much horror, and if I watch films that go past whatever threshold "too much" is, I end up with nightmares. The odd thing is that I can read horrifically scary books (for example Misery and Pet Sematary by Stephen King), but if it gets too scary, I just end up reading the words instead of putting them in context. It's like my brain filters how I read. This also occurs with audiobooks. So although there was some questionable content, I didn't have to skip any of it.
To the important question of would I recommend this book... The answer is yes, but I would perhaps recommend reading it, rather than listening.
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