Caller 107

By: Matthew S. Cox

Narrated by: Lillie Ricciardi

Natalie Rausch said she'd die for a chance to meet DJ Crazy Todd, but she didn't mean to be literal.

A bitter divorce shattered her family and turned her into a 13-year-old weapon in the hands of two people who want nothing more than to destroy each other. Once an accelerated student looking at early college, Natalie let anger at her parents lead her down a desperate path of self-destruction. No amount of rebellion gets her mom or dad's attention - or stitches up the hole inside her where love used to be.

She still listens to actual radio because her stupid mom won't let her have an iPhone. Whenever WROK 107.1 ran a contest, she and her best friend would always try to call in, but even that lost its fun.

Her wildest attempt to send her parents a message, falling in with a dangerous group of older teens, goes as wrong as possible. Karma comes full circle in the form of her favorite DJ. He gives her a few hours to make up for two years' worth of mistakes....

Or be forever lost.

©2014, 2018 Matthew S. Cox (P)2018 Matthew S. cox

very good book

it was a very good and unusual story to listen to I loved it and enjoyed it so very much the story was very very good and a very good listen

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

This will make you think

WOW!!!! This book will make you think about how you treat the ones you love. It made me cry, laugh, and smile as things come together. This is a must listen?

Real world family problems.

First, I have to start off by stating that I got this book free of charge in exchange for a review, but as I always state, this does not in any way impact my review. My reviews are always honest and my own.

I did not expect to go to the places this book took me. I did not expect to be ported back into the jumbled, crazy, scared, rebellious and wild feelings that being a tween can bring. Heck, tween wasn’t even a word back when I was one. It’s been a very long time since I was trying to figure out my place in the world, caught in that area of no being longer a child but also not yet a person who feels ok on that road to being my own person. Matt has the amazing ability to grab you by the feels and place you smack in the middle of your own feelings in your own life.

Natalie, the main character, finds herself being pushed and pulled by forces and emotions of events and people that she cannot control. The old stability of loving parents and a comfortable household has been shattered in the war of divorce. Lying in ruins, her mother, unable to deal with her own feelings of abandonment, is self-medicating, alternately ignoring or commanding Natalie. Worst yet for Natalie, her beloved father has cut all ties with her, refusing to say why not answering calls or emails. Natalie no longer finds value, attention or solace in getting good grades. She turns away from her friends and attaches herself to the outliers, the trouble-makers, the gangs. It seems that not even being brought home by the police makes her parents want to start paying attention to her. But finally, Natalie takes one step too far and finds herself in a situation well beyond her capacity to handle. The results are deadly.

The story doesn’t end there; in many ways, the story starts here. Not sure exactly what happened to her, Natalie finds herself traveling through familiar places made strange. She is tasked with a journey, the outcome unclear. People, strange, real and fantasy, pop in and out, some helping and some less so. The goal is not clear and the landscape, though at times familiar, is like a bad dream.

I wholeheartedly suggest this book. Read it yourself, and leave it for the YAs you know. Use it to recall how you felt and how your decisions at that time of your life affected you, and check to see if your journey turned out as you wanted it. Use the book to develop a conversation if you are a parent. But most of all read it.