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Tessa

  • 24
  • reviews
  • 4
  • helpful votes
  • 311
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Enchanting

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-25-24

What a fantastic story. Magic, books, time travel, and completely relatable, well-developed characters. Beautiful writing and excellent narration made a great storyline spectacular. The biggest disappointment came when I checked the author’s page for my next listen only to find this to be his only masterpiece. Please write more!!

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Miles and Church : )

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-19-24

Great read and stellar narrative performance. I kept hoping that Miles would find some romance and Church would find a dog friend because they’re both such lovable characters!

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Mixed Feelings

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-17-24

I haven’t finished listening yet, but as an ethical vegan I wanted to make other vegans aware of a lot of triggers in the form of killing animals and, just a few chapters in, several gratuitous descriptions of things like beef blood in a soup, lamb stew (the reason one of the characters could never be a vegetarian - loves that baby sheep stew too much), the upcoming killing of a rooster for dinner…seriously now - is this really necessary? I’m not sure if this author has some sort of vendetta against those of us who don’t eat animals, but it sure feels that way. As such, I’m finding it distracting to the point of not being able to fully concentrate on the storyline. The narration is fine and I’m going to try to stay with it, but if these needless descriptions of animal slaughter continue, I’ll move on.

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Brilliant and Poignant

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-04-24

Matt Haig is a brilliant author. This story will make you laugh (out loud), possibly make you cry (or at least tear up a bit), and most importantly, make you think. I set the bar pretty high, comparing similarly themed fiction to John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany: The Humans is right up there on the top shelf next to that classic, in my opinion. The spot on performance by Mark Meadows made listening a delight.

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Magical

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-04-23

An enchanting story beautifully narrated and utterly addictive. A bewitching distraction from the daily grind, thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end.

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Brilliant

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-30-23

Do yourself a favor and ignore the negative reviews. I had them in mind throughout and can’t for the life of me understand what people were complaining about. The only conclusion I could reach is that they must be impossible to please. My takeaway: a perfect balance of everything you’d want in a heartfelt, relatable story. Excellent character development throughout, and a great ending that makes me look forward to book three. Narration was perfect, too.

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Heartwarming

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-22-23

Beautiful, sweet, feel-good story containing surprises and some twists and turns (as in not at all slow or boring), and made even better by perfect narration.

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Tedious

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-04-23

Forget all the negative reviews about the narration: it’s the story itself that was annoying. Maybe listening to this right after having listened to Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior made the lackluster writing, cringeworthy storyline and subpar character development (not that it would’ve helped: not one of them were remotely likable) that much more obvious, but this was really a letdown. I’m also now having nightmares about breast milk, breast feeding, and various reproductive body parts. I get that the story revolves around a group of new mothers, but honestly - TMI ad nauseam. Also, I’m willing to suspend belief to an extent if the writing is superb and the story is engaging, but this was a stretch that didn’t warrant the effort.
Back to the narration, I get why many reviewers found it annoying, but I think the story was well-performed and the harshest of the comments unfair. If I wanted to nitpick, I’d just say that none of them sounded like New Yorkers.

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Stunningly Beautiful

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-19-23

The not-so-fictional past, present, and what will almost certainly and sadly come to pass woven in and around the life of a special little boy and his devoted father. Quintessentially rereadable, this is one of those novels that would never be tossed into a donation bin: I’m thinking I just may buy a physical copy to add to my library along with other treasured literally works of art.

You’ll not be returning this one. Listen. Then go outside and understand.

Narration was great as well.

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UGH

Overall
1 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-17-23

I typically write only positive reviews - or at least not scathing ones. As a musician and artist, I am hesitant to be critical of the work of other creatives. That being said, I would want to be forewarned about this and should’ve read the reviews more carefully myself. Poor, juvenile writing (even the dialogue between actual juveniles sounds ridiculous), completely unrealistic and downright false scenarios (just one example: an active duty FBI agent without his gun and willingly giving up his cell phone to a complete stranger…ummm…I have family in law enforcement and that entire situation is ludicrous), unrelatable and annoying EVERYTHING, and a cliche storyline that could’ve possibly (maybe) scraped by had all of the above been even halfway decent and believable. Back to the silly dialogue, who says, “ass-clown” or “ass-breath”? And if I hear “dude” one more time, I’m going to lose my mind - and there’s >5 hours left of this insanity. It’s playing as I write this, and I’m getting a headache. Think low-budget horror movie. VERY low-budget. I’m pretty sure this was a Daily Deal (in which case I can’t even return it), and I don’t know if I can bear the pain of listening to the end. Nope. I cannot. I’ve had several ideas for children’s books but never had the confidence to pursue them knowing how difficult it is to get published. After listening to this, I’m thinking it may not be so impossible after all. Save your time and money and skip this one.

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