Halloween Audiobooks
Last week, I barreled through several Halloween appropriate audiobooks. Rather than do individual reviews, I thought I would do a quick summary of each in a combined post. I hope you don’t mind, but I doubt I have enough to say about each one to justify individual posts.
First up is The World of LORE: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke, narrated by the author. This is the first in a series of books based on Mahnke’s podcast, LORE. I’m not a huge fan of podcasts, most just don’t work for me, even though audiobooks do, so I’ve only listened to an episode or two of the original podcast. Mahnke’s voice isn’t my favorite, but at 1.25 x speed on the Audible app, it was pleasant enough. I’ve heard that most of the stories in the book can be heard on the podcast, but I liked having them all in one place. Not too spooky overall, but there were definitely a few tales that made me uneasy. 3-4 stars, depending on my mood when you ask me, and I am sure I’ll be listening to the rest of the series.
The second audiobook I finished last week was Washington Irving’s classic Halloween tale, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, narrated by Tom Mison, who played Ichabod Crane in the recent FOX television show based loosely on the same tale. I cannot hear or read this story without thinking of the wonderful 1949 Disney animated version that was part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Disney was amazingly faithful to the original tale and Tom Mison does a good job of narrating the audiobook. It’s short – an hour and 15 minutes – but entertaining. 4 stars, definitely, and I’m considering making it an annual October listen/reread.
The third and final listen completed last week brought Agatha Christie’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot to my ears via the excellent narration of Hugh Fraser. Hallowe’en Party is a solid mystery, nothing less than one would expect of Mrs. Christie. A young girl is murdered at a Hallowe’en Party after bragging about having witnessed a murder. Everyone Poirot speaks to claims the girl is a known liar, so supposedly no one at the party believed her claim. Someone must have been worried, though. I was disappointed in some of characters, who seemed either very flat or gross caricatures, and Poirot is detestable, in my opinion. The more of his books I read, the less I like the Belgian detective. I’m committed to reading all of Agatha Christie’s books, though, so at least I have Hugh Fraser to read many of them. I highly recommend his narration.
I started The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter on Friday, and got about 60% of the way through. Short stories are something I have long struggled with and this collection is no exception. It’s a collection of fairy tale retellings, that are surprisingly risque. I went into this without any real knowledge of the subject matter, and I think that’s the best way, but I admit to being a little surprised and uncomfortable. These are NOT the Disney versions. I find that I am not enjoying them much at all, despite the exquisite voice of Richard Armitage narrating half of the tales. The other half are narrated by Emilia Fox, who I like as an actress, but abhor as an audiobook narrator. Unless something significant changes, this is going to be a 1.5/2 star listen for me. I’m just hoping to get through it by the end of the day. The audible app says I have 2 hours and 14 minutes remaining, which sounds like 3 hours too many.
Tails from the Dog-side 