Failed experiment

I utterly love Neil Gaiman, so I'm going to pretend this never happened. Even with the incomparable Katherine Kellgren as narrator, this is almost unlistenable. It's a hot mess of loose ends and inconsistencies desperately patched together with cliches and compromise. The impression left is that Gaiman's Twitter followers came up with ideas that were either stupid or obvious, and didn't listen to each other, and it was left to Gaiman to try and force it all together. At least, I sincerely hope so.

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15 people found this helpful

overly twee voice actor

I found the performance of this piece unbearable. It was read as if for small children.

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5 people found this helpful

Loved it!

I loved this story! This was a neat little fairytale retold at least that’s what it felt like to me. It has shades of Alice in Wonderland in fact there is a cute little epilogue I enjoyed too. I don’t want to say too much since it is a short story I don’t want to give anything away to detract you from enjoying this one!

I must say that I am a Neil Gaiman fan and a Katherine Kellgren fan but I think even if I wasn’t I would have enjoyed this story!

This audiobook is only an hour and forty-five minutes long and well worth the $1.95 audible is charging.

5 stars

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3 people found this helpful

Wimsical... sort of.

This story kept me guessing, and was fun to listen to. I loved the lilting voice of the performer, and Neil Gaiman has been my favorite author for years. It was fun to see how the story changed each time something new came up, but it didn't read like a role-playing game the way it could have. I would love to see the book in a picture-book format, if it isn't already.

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1 person found this helpful

sorry but no

boy, nice try Neil. Innovative, but ultimately an exercise in Why We Don't Do This.

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Unique collabrative writing project

This was a fun idea. The story has merit. Although it is overall enjoyable, it understandably lacks cohesion throughout. The different voices and styles of the overlapping authors did make the narrative feel disjointed at times, and like a nonsensical fever dream at others.
The late great Katherine Kellgren's narration helps to keep the listeners steady through out this off-kilter children's parable. She of course gives a wonderful performance and lovely distinctive voices for the many, many interesting characters we meet along the way.
Even though I liked it, I think I loved the idea of this experiment more than it's final results. It goes a long way to prove why creativity by committee rarely works out well.

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I normally love Neil Gaiman but…

Usually with Neil Gaiman’s work, I hate to see the story end. This was not the case here. It was okay, meh, but I wouldn’t recommend this one. Also, the narrator’s voice was grating except for when she sang. Then it was lovely.

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Mash-up of Alice and Pinocchio

A Twitter post by Neil Gaiman calling fans to write a "round robin" story started out with one sentence: "Sam was brushing her hair when the girl in the mirror put down the hairbrush, smiled, and said, "We don't love you anymore." What followed became an hour-and-a-half audiobook narrated by Katherine Kellgren, who did a fantastic job of bringing the story to life. I quite enjoyed listening to what made me think of Alice in Wonderland mashed together with Pinocchio, although a bit darker than the Disney tales. In my opinion, it is worth listening to, even if just to hear the narrator. I'm a Neil Gaiman fan and he does not write this story, but the fans did him a solid.

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Better than Most.

Not Neil Gaiman's best; but its better than most stories you find.

Quality Children's Lit

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Good but not great

One of my favorite authors…. But not one of my favorite stories. Still it’s better than most.

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