Yay! Absolutely fantabulous reading of this supercalifragilistic book! ?❤ A+ performance by Joel Leslie, his Ardy was just dead-on perfect, *nailed it*, the Ardiest Ardy imaginable. For some reason I was very slightly uncertain with it at first, but then once he got rolling I was 1000% on board.
His rendition of Caspian was very good too, not quite as perfectly aligned with my personal idea of Caspian’s voice as with Ardy’s, but it grew on me and I was very happy with it. All the voices were well done. Bellerose was perfect too, a lovely, ice-sculpture of a voice. And with Ellery, the direction he took surprised me, there was this languid drawling note that reminded me of … a 1930’s or 40’s actress maybe? Whose name I can’t come up with, of course. Surprising, but I thought it really worked wonderfully for her.
He’s a creative narrator too. I think my favorite example of this was where he read an “Ahhhh!” from Ardy as a weird guttural vocalization that reminded me, hilariously, of nothing so much as that creepy sound effect from the early 2000’s horror film The Grudge. It’s a small thing, but a wonderfully ridiculous flash of creative inspiration and very much in keeping with Ardy’s personality. It made me giggle and I loved it. ?
Oh, and may I just say Whooaaa! about the narration of the sex scenes? Good lord! Um, seriously convincing, is all I’m sayin’ ?