The Beautiful Bureaucrat
A Novel
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The Beautiful Bureaucrat
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Narrated by:
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Dina Pearlman
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By:
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Helen Phillips
About this listen
A young wife's new job pits her against the unfeeling machinations of the universe in this dazzling first novel Ursula K. Le Guin hails as "funny, sad, scary, beautiful. I love it."
In a windowless building in a remote part of town, the newly employed Josephine inputs an endless string of numbers into something known only as The Database. After a long period of joblessness, she's not inclined to question her fortune, but as the days inch by and the files stack up, Josephine feels increasingly anxious in her surroundings - the office's scarred, pinkish walls take on a living quality, the drone of keyboards echo eerily down the long halls. When one evening her husband, Joseph, disappears and then returns, offering no explanation as to his whereabouts, her creeping unease shifts decidedly to dread. As other strange events build to a crescendo, the haunting truth about Josephine's work begins to take shape in her mind, even as something powerful is gathering its own form within her. She realizes that in order to save those she holds most dear, she must penetrate an institution whose tentacles seem to extend to every corner of the city and beyond. Both chilling and poignant, The Beautiful Bureaucrat is a novel of rare restraint and imagination. With it, Helen Phillips enters the company of Murakami, Bender, and Atwood as she twists the world we know and shows it back to us full of meaning and wonder - luminous and new.
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 633
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 544
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 551
In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful
- By Anonymous User on 11-17-17
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How Like a God
- By: Brenda W. Clough
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 328
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 286
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Story4 out of 5 stars 286
What would it be like, to get absolute power? Would you wear a cape and fight crime? Rule the planet? Or perhaps you would be like Rob Lewis, and watch your world collapse around you. Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? Rob is going to find out.
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1 out of 5 stars
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At one point the main character rapes at 13 year old girl
- By Richard Davis on 05-29-21
By: Brenda W. Clough
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Future Home of the Living God
- A Novel
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Louise Erdrich
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 863
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 784
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Story4 out of 5 stars 784
The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backward, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Thirty-two-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, adopted daughter of a pair of big-hearted, open-minded Minneapolis liberals, is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America around her. But for Cedar, this change is profound and deeply personal. She is four months pregnant.
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3 out of 5 stars
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“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum”
- By Mel on 11-27-17
By: Louise Erdrich
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Black & White
- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter from the ages of three to 14. As Clara charts a path connecting her childhood with her adult life, Shapiro's novel weaves together past and present in images as stark and intense as the photographs that tore the Dunnes apart.
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3 out of 5 stars
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It was okay
- By Lucy7 on 02-13-19
By: Dani Shapiro
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All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
- By: Janelle Brown
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 786
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 683
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Story4 out of 5 stars 680
A smart, comic pause-resister about a Silicon Valley family in free fall over the course of one eventful summer from the author of Watch Me Disappear and Pretty Things. When Paul Miller’s pharmaceutical company goes public, making his family IPO millionaires, his wife, Janice, is sure this is the windfall she’s been waiting years for - until she learns, via messengered letter, that her husband is divorcing her (for her tennis partner!) and cutting her out of the new fortune.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Perfect Life Ain't So Perfect
- By Theresa on 12-28-08
By: Janelle Brown
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Blue Blood
- A Debutante Dropout Mystery, Book 1
- By: Susan McBride
- Narrated by: Amy McFadden
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4 out of 5 stars 80
To the dismay of her high-society mother, Cissy, Dallas heiress Andy Kendricks wants no part of the Junior League life - opting instead for a job as a website designer and a passel of unpedigreed pals. Now her good friend, Molly O'Brien, is in bad trouble, accused of killing her boss at the local restaurant Jugs. Though no proper deb would ever set foot in such a sleazy dive, Andy's soon slipping into skintight hot pants and a stuffed triple D bra to gain employment there and somehow help clear Molly's name.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Cheesy
- By Shubnum on 10-22-15
By: Susan McBride
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Lie Still
- A Novel
- By: Julia Heaberlin
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 218
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 195
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Story4 out of 5 stars 194
Nursing the faded scars of a long-held trauma, Emily Page and her husband, awaiting the arrival of their first child, move from New York City to the uber-wealthy Clairmont, Texas. There, Emily is swept into a world of opulent privilege and shifting loyalties. But the secrets she keeps follow her south, and with them comes the danger that her new friends can't protect her from, and her new enemies will not hesitate to use to destroy her once and for all.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Lie Still
- By Mary K on 06-27-17
By: Julia Heaberlin
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You Know When the Men Are Gone
- By: Siobhan Fallon
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 148
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
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Story4 out of 5 stars 103
In Fort Hood housing, like all army housing, you get used to hearing through the walls. You learn too much. And you learn to move quietly through your own small domain. You also know when the men are gone. As Siobhan Fallon shows in this collection of loosely interconnected short stories, each woman deals with her husband's absence differently.
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5 out of 5 stars
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You know when you've got a great read!
- By Pamela Harvey on 01-22-11
By: Siobhan Fallon
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Revenge
- Eleven Dark Tales
- By: Yoko Ogawa
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith, Johanna Parker
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 128
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 116
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Story4 out of 5 stars 116
An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor - who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Maybe, more Gray then Dark?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-28-14
By: Yoko Ogawa
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Superheroes
- By: Peter S. Beagle, Daryl Gregory, James Patrick Kelly, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Joe Barrett, Christina Delaine, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 169
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
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Story4 out of 5 stars 148
Modern gods and goddesses, remote, revered - and like the pantheon of heroes and heroines of ancient myth - possessing great power tempered with flaws. Now, find within this anthology great tales by gifted and award-winning authors who move superheroes from the four-color panels of comic books to the fantastic pages of fiction, stories that will remind anyone who ever wanted to wear a cape or don a cowl of the extraordinary powers of the imagination!
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1 out of 5 stars
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Pretentious tired old concepts
- By BookofJoy on 12-29-14
By: Peter S. Beagle, and others
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Breaking Night
- A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard
- By: Liz Murray
- Narrated by: Liz Murray
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 910
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 813
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 812
Liz Murray was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. In school she was taunted for her dirty clothing and lice-infested hair, eventually skipping so many classes that she was put into a girls' home. At age 15, Liz found herself on the streets when her family finally unraveled. She learned to scrape by, foraging for food and riding subways all night to have a warm place to sleep. Then, when Liz's mother died of AIDS, she decided to take control of her own destiny.
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5 out of 5 stars
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unbelievably inspiring
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-12
By: Liz Murray
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The Kill Clause
- By: Gregg Hurwitz
- Narrated by: Peter Friedman
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 855
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 749
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Story4 out of 5 stars 750
Tim Rackley, a deputy U.S. marshal, watches helplessly as his daughter's killer walks free on a legal technicality. He is suddenly forced to explore his own deadly options, a quest that leads him into the welcoming fold of "The Commission".
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3 out of 5 stars
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Did not realize it was abridged
- By David Kindell on 11-13-18
By: Gregg Hurwitz
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The Opportunist
- By: Tarryn Fisher
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 877
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 795
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Story4 out of 5 stars 792
Olivia Kaspen has just discovered that her ex-boyfriend Caleb Drake has lost his memory. With an already lousy reputation for taking advantage of situations, Olivia must decide how far she is willing to go to get Caleb back.
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2 out of 5 stars
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overall: irritating book
- By DD on 02-14-17
By: Tarryn Fisher
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The Invisible Circus
- By: Jennifer Egan
- Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 395
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 351
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Story4 out of 5 stars 351
In Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan's highly acclaimed first novel, set in 1978, the political drama and familial tensions of the 1960s form a backdrop for the world of Phoebe O'Connor, age eighteen. Phoebe is obsessed with the memory and death of her sister Faith, a beautiful idealistic hippie who died in Italy in 1970. In order to find out the truth about Faith's life and death, Phoebe retraces her steps from San Francisco across Europe, a quest which yields both complex and disturbing revelations about family, love, and Faith's lost generation.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Too bad zero was not a choice...
- By IVAL on 04-28-13
By: Jennifer Egan
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Stolen Soul
- By: Alex Rivers
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 121
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 120
There’s an underground magical vault, protected by sorcery, security cameras, guards, and whatnot. Think of the most impenetrable place in the world. Now triple it. It belongs to a dragon, and I was hired to break into it and steal his hoard. I might be an alchemist extraordinaire and the best burglar on the East Coast, but this is not a solo job. I’ll need a team for this one. Accompanied by a powerful sorcerer, a fortune teller, a scam artist, and a hacker, I embark on the heist of the century. If we succeed, we’ll be legends. If not - crispy dragon snacks.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great start to a great series!
- By Mother Of Cats on 08-29-18
By: Alex Rivers
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Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head
- By: Lauren Oliver, H. C. Chester
- Narrated by: Greg Steinbruner
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4 out of 5 stars 67
Blessed with extraordinary abilities, orphans Philippa, Sam, and Thomas have grown up happily in Dumfrey's Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders. But when a fourth child, Max, a knife thrower, joins the group, it sets off an unforgettable chain of events.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Mix the Circus and a Murder Mystery
- By Crystal on 06-23-16
By: Lauren Oliver, and others
What listeners say about The Beautiful Bureaucrat
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- vurnt22
- 04-29-16
Helen Philips is Kafka strolling through Night Vale
Impeccable dissection of the silent horror of forms, filing, collating, & redacting. Dina Pearlman is PERFECT.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Natalie
- 09-12-22
Difficult to follow at times
Great narration. Interesting story but soffits follow at times. I kept waiting for something to happen. Is all happens in the last 30 mins. But a good twist - definitely not what I was expecting.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- RueRue
- 09-15-15
Bizarre
Just too bizarre ! Not sure what this was supposed to mean, although the last line of the story was revealing. This was really weird.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Cynthia
- 10-11-15
Not much to it.
This is a dull story about a dull future where not much happens. Immediate reaction after slogging through it is -- really? That's it??? Can't believe I spent this many hours listening only to have the big reveal be something that was pretty obvious from the get-go and not all that interesting.
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