The House of Discarded Dreams

De: Ekaterina Sedia

Narrado por: Robin Miles

Trying to escape her embarrassing immigrant mother, Vimbai moves into a dilapidated house in the dunes and discovers that one of her new roommates has a pocket universe instead of hair, there's a psychic energy baby living in the telephone wires, and her dead Zimbabwean grandmother is doing dishes in the kitchen. When the house gets lost at sea and creatures of African urban legends all but take it over, Vimbai turns to horseshoe crabs in the ocean to ask for their help in getting home to New Jersey.

©2010 Ekaterina Sedia (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"[A] quirky, joyous fantasy....[T]he overall effect is dreamily compelling rather than farcical, as Sedia shows how competing natural and supernatural worldviews can enrich each other." (Publishers Weekly)

“Robin Miles’s steady, easy presentation of the mundane details of daily life creates a subtle contrast with the bizarre events unfolding…Miles bestows a sense of the ordinary that helps the story and characters stay grounded.” (AudioFile)

intriguing ideas but narration falls short

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. Narrator doesn't effectively convey what is an odd but sort of interesting narrative.Some good accents, but otherwise weak.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The story itself seems to meander, although I struggled to follow the story in spite of the narrator, so I suspect it was better than I was able to determine.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The African accents of the grandmother and parents were attractive, but the voices she used for Maya and Felix were a turn off. Mostly though, what was frustrating was trying to follow the story in spite of the narrator. I could hear the words trying to convey ideas that the narrator did not help me understand - especially on an emotional level. I felt like I was on the fence about whether to keep listening throughout the book, and unlike other audiobooks, I was not eager to get back to listening or loathe to stop. I pressed on and got to the end, but it was an effort.

Was The House of Discarded Dreams worth the listening time?

No.

Any additional comments?

It was a shame the narrator wasn't better. I would have liked to hear what someone really capable could have done with it.

Disjointed

I enjoyed the book though nearly impossible to find any cohesion. Clever and interesting

I tried

I tried but just couldn’t finish. The author uses a lot of very descriptive prose, something an English teacher would like, but after awhile, it just droned on and on. The premise is great, and I really wanted to hear more folklore, but I just couldn’t take the writing style.