How You Ruined My Life

By: Jeff Strand

Narrated by: Andrew Eiden

Rod's life doesn't suck. If you ask him, it's pretty awesome. He may not be popular, but he and his best friends play in a band that has a standing gig. Yeah, it's Monday night and they don't get paid, but they can crank the volume as loud as they want. And Rod's girlfriend is hot, smart, and believes in their band - believes in Rod. Aside from a winning lottery ticket, what more could he ask for?

Answer: A different cousin. When Rod's scheming, two-faced cousin Blake moves in for the semester, Rod tries to keep calm. Blake seems to have everyone else fooled with his good manners and suave smile, except Rod knows better. Blake is taking over his room, taking over his band, taking over his life! But Rod's not about to give up without a fight. Game on. May the best prankster win....

©2018 Jeff Strand (P)2018 Tantor

Surprisingly cute, quick listen.

How you ruined my life was a cute - quick listen audiobook that was kinda adorable. It is a book that you could listen to while sitting in traffic and it would make you smile at the length the author goes to make this book wholesome, no curse words, high school angst without all the hyperbole. Age appropriate for anyone. And the narrator does an awesome job.

Surprisingly interesting

I went into the story blindly and almost quit because it felt too YA. Although it definitely read very young adult it held my interest and I binged to see how it would play out. Thoroughly enjoyed.

Love the book

My very first audible and loved it, I will never say I hate books ever again 😂

The Audio version of this book is Fantastic.

This was an awesome story. Jeff has a real knack for getting inside the thoughts and logic of how teenagers think and react. I love the whole “4th wall” part of the narration. I was hooked from the beginning, anxious through the entire book, and so relieved in the ending. Also, and I’m just throwing this out there, I’m an Awesome cousin... and totally NOT crazy. I’m just saying.
Loved the book. Excited to share it with my middle school students.

Hilarious and yet so painful to sit through

The story is really good - but be warned this one is a bit weird and offbeat even for Jeff Strand. Its silly, lighthearted and yet its so difficult to sit through the awkward downward spiral and psychological games going one. At times it was more difficult to listen to than the horror of Jeff's other books. You'll be wanting to throttle some of the characters and be sent into a rage.. you've been warned. This book will get to you. It's childish and silly, but with hidden lures beneath its surface. I won't forget it.

Andrew Eiden narrated this - and he's amazing. (This book must have been so difficult to narrate. And he did it with total perfection) I'm going to search for more work Andrew has worked on simply because he's that good.

Quick read, rather fun

How You Ruined My Life has some moments of Jeff Strand's twisted humor and is relatively entertaining. It's definitely not as eerie as many of Strand's books and not half as clever as some of his best like Wolf Hunt, Kutter, or Blister, but I got the book free through the Audible Plus catalog and it was quite good for free. Narrator Andrew Eiden did a great job conveying the angst of a teen boy.

Breaking the fourth wall was never so fun

“I’ll even try to use fewer parenthetical asides from now on (just kidding).”
Often, when a protagonist speaks directly to us listeners, it takes me out of the story. Here, however,
it was one of the two things that made the story. Loved the parentheticals and tangents. Squirrel!

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to go with the pants wetting option.”
The other thing that makes the story great is the narration- the comedic timing and band lyrics were hysterical. So, why not five stars? The narration of Rod, and especially Blake, made these two sound like middle aged bachelors still living with their parents instead of the high schoolers they were.
Also, the psychological warfare was a tad too successful and stressed me out a bit 😜.

“We’re Fang Grapefruit, are you ready to rock?!”
Good clean fun that my high schoolers will love.

UGH, Blake!!!!

I felt like MY life was ruined because of his antics!! I almost gave up reading this!

Really good

The person reading the story was the best I have ever listened to. He was in character and very entertaining....