Read this, don't listen

The narrator's (author's) voice ruined this one for me. The story was interesting and well-researched if rather farfetched. However, I couldn't get past the fact that neither voice nor accent matched who the characters were supposed to be. I'd read it, not listen to it.

281 people found this helpful

Can't get past the narrator

It doesn't seem to ever be a good idea to read your own work. I took a chance, and just couldn't listen to this. The narration is so off-putting as to be distracting (to me, anyway). An interesting premise that might have been a good story, but I just couldn't get past the presentation.

193 people found this helpful

Attention Authors!

Attention Authors! You are authors, that is your profession and your specialty. PLEASE do not try to be a professional narrator! Fans of your work wait a long time for your books to come out and it isn't fair to the listeners to have the book compromised by poor narration! You are authors not professional narrators. Let them do the narrating and you do the writing and every one will be better off for it. This is twice this year that I have listened to great books by great authors who for some reason feel they should be the narrator and in turn make the listening experience a tough listen to endure.... With that said, If you listen to Donna's "Goldfinch" THAT WAS AWSOME NARRATION!

The story was compelling and a great story to follow however I kept feeling like the big plot twist was right around the corner and it never came. by the end of the book I felt like the entire story turned out to be fairly predictable.

124 people found this helpful

A little dark, but a great character study

If you're familiar with Donna Tartt's work (notably, last year's Pulitzer Prize winner, Goldfinch), you will not be shocked to hear that this is a well-written, but darker read. Ms. Tartt loves to explore the lives of vulnerable coming-of-agers placed in situations which challenge and eventually change them. This story is no different as the reader/listener is introduced to Richard, a young man completely out of place in the very "yah" environment of an elite liberal arts college in New England. He falls in with a group of peers within his cult-ish Ancient Greek program and enters a world of privilege, literary elitism, and, eventually, murder.

The story follows one year of his studies at the university and deals with how each character internalizes/externalizes their crime, from Richard's perspective. Ms. Tartt's writing is simply marvelous and her ability to capture experiences from the mundane (removing a pair of glasses) to the general (sights, scents, schedule of a college student) to the hypothetical (what is the perfect crime?) to the paranoid (are you hiding something from me?) takes the reader out of his/her reality and into the life of Richard and his peers.

On the downside, I simply didn't like many of the characters. They were, frankly, people I would have avoided in college. It became a little hard to lose yourself in the story when you truly weren't rooting for anyone.

Additionally, while I HATE to dissuade other authors from taking on the task of narrating their own novels, I have become accustomed to professionals and found it somewhat distracting hearing a southern woman read the roles of males. Furthermore, some of her "voices" changed my impression of the characters (notably, a fatherly character for whom she adopted an almost coquettish, high-pitched voice more appropriate for a 5-year-old girl or dying grandmother), in ways that did not correspond to their characters' roles.

98 people found this helpful

Addictive

One of the few books I've listened to that I really couldn't stop listening! Very different from what I expected and not at all the typical murder mystery. The tragedy of murder is heightened by the fact that it is done by the protagonists. The story is not so much about the murder(s) but rather the emotional and psychological effects on the murderers.

My only complaint is that, because this is an audiobook, some of the foreign language phrases were hard to understand or even try to translate (sometimes none was given). I do much better if I can see the words rather than hear them, and, if so driven, I could have looked up the meanings. So I may have lost some of the intricacies of the story during these moments.

88 people found this helpful

Intriguing story, unfortunate narration.

How could the performance have been better?

She could have hired an actor to narrate the book.

Any additional comments?

Even though the story was intriguing the narration was not. I can not comprehend why Donna Tartt would narrate her own book, her voice could be shrill and annoying at times. I could also hear what sounded like street noises in the background, did she record the audio in her livingroom?

68 people found this helpful

I may go back to it. . .

I've listened to more than half of this book, and I had to take a break. Unbelievable and unlikable characters, combined with a very slow moving story, topped off with a terrible narrator, made it easy to set this one aside for a while. I would eventually like to know how it ends, but maybe I'll just get the print version from the library and skim the rest.

I don't understand why the author is narrating the story. The story is "told" by a male character, and most of the other characters are male as well. The author's attempt to pull off all the male voices is distracting and annoying.

I don't recommend this audiobook, and I'm sorry I wasted a credit on it.

61 people found this helpful

good but not great story; appalling narration

The story is a little bit Heathers, a little bit The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Reminded me a great deal of Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Unlike the narrator in Calamity Physics, though, there's no suggestion that this character is a genius - and yet, we are expected to believe that with only 2 years of non-exclusive Greek language study, he has read not only ALL of Plato in Greek, but a wide array of other classical literature. It would have been forgivable, I think, had the narration not been so absolutely godawful. The voice of Bunny is a high pitched nasal whine, like a voice someone would make while mimicking someone annoying and ineffectual. Everyone else sounds more or less alike - slightly nasal, with hints of a southern accent. I'm on the fence about whether I'd recommend this. The story is interesting, although some of the details are pretty unbelievable. But the narration is grating, at best.

56 people found this helpful

Treachery on Campus!

Any additional comments?
This is the 2nd time I've "read" The Secret History (the first time I actually read it). I had to go back and listen to it again because I remember being entranced by the relationship of the main characters. Well, it was even better the 2nd time around. The story lets you know at the very beginning that one of them dies, but the book isn't really about that -- it's about what happens to people after they've committed a horrendous act and they have to live with it. The knowledge that they can't go back and un-do the past. And how it binds them together forever. One person may be dead, but the others will live with the regret for the rest of their lives. #Dark #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

49 people found this helpful

wonderful interpersonal relationships

This book was just superb. The story was extremely strong and engrossing. If, like me, you are a murder mystery fan but appreciate a long in depth story with good character development and realistic human relationships this book is for you.

48 people found this helpful