Tales of Pain and Wonder
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Tales of Pain and Wonder
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About this listen
This collection of 22 short stories by the author of Daughter of Hounds and Alabaster firmly established Caitlín R. Kiernan as one of the preeminent voices in dark fantasy today. Through a cycle of interconnected narratives, Kiernan unflinchingly explores a surreal world where the fantastic and the mundane are never separated by more than the insubstantial thickness of a shadow.
From the murderous backstreets of New Orleans to an abandoned shipyard of the Hudson River, from sun-weary Los Angeles to a maze of dank and forgotten tunnels beneath Manhattan, these stories present a landscape at once alien and undeniably familiar.
©2020 Caitlín R. Kiernan (P)2020 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernan’s 14th collection of short fiction, comprising 28 uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Here are 28 tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse.
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Dark, haunting, ominously sensual. Grade A Kieran!
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In Caitlín R. Kiernan’s The Ammonite Violin & Others, one of contemporary dark fantasy’s most bewitching and distinctive voices is back with another banquet of the weird and unexpected. Within this book, you’ll discover a dazzling suite of stories situated on the borderlands between the unspeakable and the erotic, the grotesque and the sublime.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Nobody Writes Like Ms. Kiernan
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A Is for Alien
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
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A Is for Alien is award-winning author Caitlín R. Kiernan’s first collection devoted entirely to her science-fiction work. It includes the critically acclaimed novelette Riding the White Bull, along with seven other tales of a less-than-utopian future. Ranging from the wastelands and mountains of Mars to the streets of a late 21st-century Manhattan, from the moons of Europa and Saturn to an iceless Antarctica, these tales bring Kiernan’s trademark brand of the eco-gothic to bear on what it means to be human and the paths and decisions that may face mankind....
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To Charles Fort, with Love
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 5
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5
To Charles Fort, with Love is award-winning fantasist Caitlín R. Kiernan’s third collection of short fiction, a haunting parade of the terrible things which may lie beyond the boundaries of science, the minds which may exist beyond psychology, and the forbidden places which will never be located in any orthodox globe. A deceptively even dozen, this collection includes Kiernan’s celebrated stories “Onion” and “Andromeda Among the Stones”, as well as a number of more obscure pieces.
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The Dinosaur Tourist
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- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3
In The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s 15th collection of short fiction, 19 tales of the unexpected and the uncanny explore that treacherous gulf between what we suppose the world to be and what might actually be waiting out beyond the edges of our day-to-day experience. A mirror may be a window into another time. A cat may be our salvation. Your lover may be a fabulous being. And a hitchhiker may turn out to be anyone at all.
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Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1
Here is a celebration of the bizarre and beautiful, and a marriage of unlikely worlds. From a reverence of the dead to the sacrifices the living make to unspeakable gods, from clockwork dreams to tales of merciless revenge, Kiernan blurs the artificial lines of genre, and shows us a world where there is no division between the light and dark.
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Dear Sweet Filthy World
- By: Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens, Xe Sands, Paul Woodson, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 6
What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernan’s 14th collection of short fiction, comprising 28 uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Here are 28 tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Dark, haunting, ominously sensual. Grade A Kieran!
- By Ski Bear on 06-13-23
-
The Ammonite Violin & Others
- By: Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson, Kevin Kenerly, Chelsea Stephens, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2
In Caitlín R. Kiernan’s The Ammonite Violin & Others, one of contemporary dark fantasy’s most bewitching and distinctive voices is back with another banquet of the weird and unexpected. Within this book, you’ll discover a dazzling suite of stories situated on the borderlands between the unspeakable and the erotic, the grotesque and the sublime.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Nobody Writes Like Ms. Kiernan
- By blubeagle on 06-16-21
-
A Is for Alien
- By: Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Natasha Soudek, Nancy Wu, Keith Szarabajka, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2
A Is for Alien is award-winning author Caitlín R. Kiernan’s first collection devoted entirely to her science-fiction work. It includes the critically acclaimed novelette Riding the White Bull, along with seven other tales of a less-than-utopian future. Ranging from the wastelands and mountains of Mars to the streets of a late 21st-century Manhattan, from the moons of Europa and Saturn to an iceless Antarctica, these tales bring Kiernan’s trademark brand of the eco-gothic to bear on what it means to be human and the paths and decisions that may face mankind....
-
To Charles Fort, with Love
- By: Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Robert Fass, Paul Woodson, Kevin Kenerly, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 5
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5
To Charles Fort, with Love is award-winning fantasist Caitlín R. Kiernan’s third collection of short fiction, a haunting parade of the terrible things which may lie beyond the boundaries of science, the minds which may exist beyond psychology, and the forbidden places which will never be located in any orthodox globe. A deceptively even dozen, this collection includes Kiernan’s celebrated stories “Onion” and “Andromeda Among the Stones”, as well as a number of more obscure pieces.
-
The Dinosaur Tourist
- By: Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers, Xe Sands, Tavia Gilbert, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3
In The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s 15th collection of short fiction, 19 tales of the unexpected and the uncanny explore that treacherous gulf between what we suppose the world to be and what might actually be waiting out beyond the edges of our day-to-day experience. A mirror may be a window into another time. A cat may be our salvation. Your lover may be a fabulous being. And a hitchhiker may turn out to be anyone at all.
-
Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart
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- Narrated by: Jayme Mattler, Suzanne Toren, Lauren Ezzo, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1
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Alabaster
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- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 12
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story5 out of 5 stars 10
A year after her death in a burning barn, Dancy Flammarion now finds herself in a Hell of her own creation. A new evil haunts the sun-scorched back roads and ghost towns of the American South - murderous twins who command a legion of ghouls. Once again, Dancy must face down demons, those who walk the world unchallenged and those in her own shattered mind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incorrect summary. These are the original stories!
- By Ross on 10-13-20
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The Ape’s Wife, and Other Stories
- By: Caitlín R. Kiernan
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- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 2
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2
In The Ape's Wife and Other Stories - Kiernan's 12th collection of short fiction since 2001 - she displays the impressive range that characterizes her work. With her usual disregard for genre boundaries, she masterfully navigates the territories that have traditionally been labeled dark fantasy, sword and sorcery, science fiction, steampunk, and neo-noir.
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Houses Under the Sea
- Mythos Tales
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- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens, Tavia Gilbert, Neil Hellegers, and others
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 19
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 14
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 14
In this remarkable collection the author has selected over two dozen of her best Lovecraftian tales ranging from 2000s “Valentia” to her more recent classic “A Mountain Walked” as well as including the complete Dandridge Cycle, as well as a new story, “M Is for Mars.” In short, this is a cornerstone volume for Kiernan fans and Mythos devotees alike.
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1 out of 5 stars
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incomplete release
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Agents of Dreamland
- Tinfoil Dossier, Book 1
- By: Caitlin R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell, Chelsea Stephens
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 115
A government special agent known only as the Signalman gets off a train on a stunningly hot morning in Winslow, Arizona. Later that day he meets a woman in a diner to exchange information about an event that happened a week earlier for which neither has an explanation but which haunts the Signalman. In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea, a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible - the Children of the Next Level - and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming, and they will help to usher it in.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I Really Enjoyed It
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Two Worlds and In Between
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- By: Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: various narrators, Jayme Mattler, Helen Lloyd, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan presents a stunning retrospective of the first 10 years of the author’s work. It is a compilation of more than 200,000 words of short fiction, including many of her most acclaimed stories as well as some of the author’s personal favorites; several previously uncollected, hard-to-find pieces; her sci-fi novella, The Dry Salvages; and a rare collaboration with Poppy Z. Brite.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing collection!
- By Ross on 08-24-20
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Low Red Moon
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- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 17
Several years after the events of Threshold, Chance and Deacon have married. They're looking ahead to the future, trying to put the horrors of the past behind them. But new nightmares await them as a woman with a thirst for violence enters their lives. And something even worse has followed her.
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Once Upon a Time
- New Fairy Tales
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- Narrated by: Kate Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 19
Eighteen extraordinary authors devise all-new fairy tales: imaginative reinterpretations of the familiar, evocative new myths, speculations beyond the traditional realm of "once upon a time." Often dark, occasionally humorous, always enthralling, these stories find a certain Puss in a near-future New York, an empress bargaining with a dragon, a princess turned into a raven, a king's dancing daughters with powerful secrets, great heroism, terrible villainy, sparks of mischief, and a great deal more.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Pleasantly Surprised
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In That Endlessness, Our End
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story4 out of 5 stars 17
Hot on the heels of her 2018 This Is Horror Award–winning short story collection Spectral Evidence, critically horror author Gemma Files compiles fifteen more of her most startling recent nightmares—a creepily seductive downward spiral of dark poetry and existential dread, entirely suitable to the slow apocalypse going on all around us. So take your mind off your troubles and send it somewhere the rules still operate, if only to punish those who violate them.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Solid collection, if a bit repetitive
- By DP on 08-13-24
By: Gemma Files
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Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 64
John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with ten new tales of cosmic horror in Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies. In these stories, he continues to chart the course of twenty-first century weird fiction, from the unfamiliar to the familial, the unfathomably distant to the intimate.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Finally more John Langan in audiobook form
- By Anonymous User on 09-10-23
By: John Langan
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Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
- By: Thomas Ligotti, Jeff VanderMeer - foreword
- Narrated by: Jon Padgett, Linda Jones
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
Thomas Ligotti’s debut collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and his second, Grimscribe, permanently inscribed a new name in the pantheon of horror fiction. Influenced by the strange terrors of Lovecraft and Poe and by the brutal absurdity of Kafka, Ligotti eschews cheap, gory thrills for his own brand of horror, which shocks at the deepest, existential, levels.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible!
- By Erik McHatton on 02-27-23
By: Thomas Ligotti, and others
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The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell
- Stories
- By: Brian Evenson
- Narrated by: Mauro Hantman
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
A sentient, murderous prosthetic leg; shadowy creatures lurking behind a shimmering wall; brutal barrow men: Of all the terrors that populate The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, perhaps the most alarming are the beings who decimated the habitable Earth: humans. In this new short-story collection, Brian Evenson envisions a chilling future beyond the Anthropocene that forces excruciating decisions about survival and self-sacrifice in the face of toxic air and a natural world torn between revenge and regeneration.
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5 out of 5 stars
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22 Stories by a Master of the Form
- By Darwin8u on 11-16-22
By: Brian Evenson
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Out There
- Stories
- By: Kate Folk
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Hannah Choi, Michael Crouch, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Story4 out of 5 stars 64
With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk’s debut collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our current moment. A medical ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the setting of a perilous love triangle. A curtain of void obliterates the globe at a steady pace, forcing Earth’s remaining inhabitants to decide with whom they want to spend eternity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very good! Best book I have listen to yet.
- By Anonymous User on 04-28-22
By: Kate Folk