I can see why many other reviewers gave this audiobook high ratings. The writing styles of these co-authors is great for this type of story. I’m ambivalent about the use of present first-person tense – I think I absorb and enjoy stories more when they’re written from a third-person omniscient perspective. Because it’s written in a first-person style that alternates between a male point of view (POV) and a female POV, it’s necessary that we have a male and a female narrator. I’m glad the authors made this decision! Having one narrator voice both the male and female POV would probably have been less effective (especially when narrators exaggerate the other-gender voice, usually to ridiculous extremes), so two thumbs up for using two narrators.
The narrator for the female voice was very effective and authentic, in my opinion. She sounded youngish and a wee bit naïve, good-hearted, and stubborn — just like my mental picture of Poe. The narrator for the male voice grew on me after a while, but at the beginning I was distracted by the drawl of his voice (reminded me of the actor Patrick Warburton, which was not the mental image that I had of August). I increased the playback speed a bit, and things were fine after that. No major complaints.
Regarding the story itself, the main reason why I gave this story four stars instead of five was because of the pacing and placement of the ‘big reveal’. It’s like, for 95% of the story, as we’re narrowing the distance between August and Poe, we learn about their strange experiences (which I won’t describe, to be spoiler-free) as time passes. However, near the very end of the story, we’re suddenly given the entire explanation, which is kind of complicated and hard (for me, anyway) to absorb. I think it would have been easier for me to process if the authors had dropped more breadcrumbs along the way. As it is, don’t be surprised if you have to rewind a few times and re-listen to the explanation of what the story was about. It kind of felt like the authors were telling a joke, and they told the punchline… but then felt like they had to explain what the joke was because the audience got confused looks on their faces. So, don’t be surprised if you get through most of the story without understanding what’s happening – all will be revealed at the end!
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.