Into the Void

By: Winston Yellick

Narrated by: Scott Berrier

"What happened to you? Are you lost? Is it too late? I don't know how much more I can take, but I promised you so very long ago, I would stay."

Sam and Tobie wake up on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, with no real memory of how they got there. It is up to the two to put their growing dislike aside long enough for them to get home. Sounds easy enough, but when you throw in an all-powerful queen, a creature from the void with its own agenda, and many other oddities along the way, will Sam and Tobie have what it takes to get home in one piece or will the price for freedom be too much to pay?

©2016 Winston Yellick (P)2016 Ouroboros Prints

Only way to describe it: Pretty Good

What did you like best about Into the Void? What did you like least?

The world created by Mr. Yellick was very interesting. Part of me wished that Tobie and Sam could've spent more time in the animal kingdom. This book is under 'Gay and Lesbian,' and there are homosexual-esque themes, but barely. Basically, I'm trying to say that it hinted at gay things, but didn't have the two characters kiss or anything like that. So, the thing I liked the least is that they weren't able to express themselves as a couple in many ways.

If you’ve listened to books by Winston Yellick before, how does this one compare?

I haven't read anything else by Mr. Yellick. In fact, I googled him and I don't believe he has any other books. This makes sense, because there were a few holes and mistakes, but all around he did do a good job.

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

I think that Mr. Berrier is an great narrator, just not for this book. He has solid characters and can do many voices in terms of women, men, accents and anyone from the age of 30-100 years old. My main qualm with the performance was how old the narrator sounded. Tobie and Sam are 18 at the most and Scott Berrier has to be in his forties. If he's not, I apologize, but he has a very mature-sounding voice. For this novel, I think it would've been better to have a younger sounding male do the voice (Josh Hurley or Todd Haberkorn). Also, I didn't like how Berrier's voice was so deep. It's almost unnerving (I mean, really unnerving. If he did a book in the horror genre, he'd be PERFECT at it!); it took me a while to become comfortable with it. Once I was used to his voice (less than an hour in), I didn't have any more issues.

Did Into the Void inspire you to do anything?

I always like reading gay books that have nothing to do with sex. It's refreshing. It gives me hope that there can be books out there like 'Into the Void' and LAST SEEN LEAVING by Caleb Roehrig that are meant for TEENAGERS. Gay teens need something to read that won't introduce them to mature elements before they are ready. This is a good example of one; it's nowhere near the best, but it is a decent example.

Any additional comments?

I honestly don't think this is adult fiction. I would consider this book to be in the TEEN section. There is only one reason why I found this in the adult section. It's because there was the use of the F-word. That's all. I think teenagers say that word more than I do and I'm 30... Anyway, despite the few holes and the jumping around by the narrator (I mean the narrator on the page. There were no problems with skipping in the performance), I think that Into the Void is a solid first book from an author. I hope he's able to really hone his skill and create more worlds, because he has an amazing imagination and all he needs to do is slightly improve his skills in writing. Otherwise, I'm happy with this book.