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  • Hellgoing

  • Stories
  • Written by: Lynn Coady
  • Narrated by: Andi Arndt
  • Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
  • 3.4 out of 5 stars (174 ratings)

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Hellgoing cover art

Hellgoing

Written by: Lynn Coady
Narrated by: Andi Arndt
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Publisher's Summary

Winner of the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Short-listed for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Selected as an Amazon.ca Best Book and for The Globe's Top 10 Books of 2013.

With astonishing range and depth, Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Lynn Coady gives us nine unforgettable new stories, each one of them grabbing our attention from the first line and resonating long after the last.

A young nun charged with talking an anorexic out of her religious fanaticism toys with the thin distance between practicality and blasphemy. A strange bond between a teacher and a schoolgirl takes on ever deeper and stranger shapes as the years progress. A bride-to-be with a penchant for nocturnal bondage can't seem to stop bashing herself up in the light of day.

Equally adept at capturing the foibles and obsessions of men and of women, compassionate in her humour yet never missing an opportunity to make her characters squirm, fascinated as much by faithlessness as by faith, Lynn Coady is quite possibly the writer who best captures what it is to be human at this particular moment in our history.

©2013 Lynn Coady (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Hellgoing

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

needs breaks

the stories are really interesting and I enjoyed the writing. but the production needs to put audio cues that a new story is starting.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Wanted to like this...

I wanted to like this but found it difficult to jump between stories...great narrating though.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

It all blurs together

The stories just end so abruptly that you don't even realize you have entered into another chapter/story until you finally catch on that the character names or professions have changed. I had to keep pausing and looking at the app to see if I was in a new chapter, then go back a minute to relisten to the end of the last chapter because I would think I missed something. Nope, they just ended, right in the middle of the story.

Thankfully I got this for free with the Giller Prize promotion because I would have been upset if I had paid for it.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting collection of stories

I read/listen to very few short stories, usually from masters of the craft. This collection did not satisfy me completely. I saw myself peeking into people's lives that I had no interest in. Very nice experimental attempt.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Character snapshots

The beauty of these stories is in that which remains unsaid. It’s the way you colour in the potential plot which helps connect you to these meticulously created characters. I know Coady is successful in creating excellent characters and interactions because just when I want to know what happens next, the story ends. There’s an art to this.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Bof

Je n’ai pas aimé ce livre. La narratrice est bonne, mais les histoires manquent de punch. La chute à la fin des nouvelles est à chaque fois plutôt moyenne.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved her language

Great phrases, metaphors, similies…. So often a turn of phrase made me smile. Really enjoyed them, twice.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing for a Giller Prize winner

(Condensed from my Goodreads review)

This was an ordeal. I managed to finish only because it's such a short collection. I began reading the e-book version but switched to the audiobook when it became clear I'd never finish a physical reading.

No doubt the author is a wonderful writer. She's able to describe her characters in a scathing sharpness that's vivid enough to elicit "I know someone like that" thoughts. However, the unremitting snarkiness and sarcasm was too much for me (and I love Atwood, the queen of sardonic humour).

I also had an issue with the abruptness of her endings and lack of character development. Short stories or short fiction don't need a neat resolution, but they do need to give the reader enough of a jumping off point to speculate what might come next. The stories in Hellgoing felt less like giving the reader a chance to ponder the outcomes of her characters and more like a contrivance to get around a proper story arc.

This one was definitely not for me.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

just... weird.

I got this one for free on a Canada Day some years back; it's hard to describe this one. The short stories are strangely compelling enough to want to get through, but don't end in any satisfying way. It leaves me wondering whether I've really understood any of it... Superb narration, which really was the saving grace for me, bumping the review score up a star.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Did not enjoy. At all

The best thing about this book was the narration. I didn't care for the writing, pacing, characters, plot, style; none of it. I had high hopes but truly had to struggle to get through the stories.

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