The Narrator

The narrator spoiled the story… I thought I could grin and bear it but couldn’t tolerate the slow and condescending story voice. I liked her depiction of the Irish characters, but her intonation was all kinds of wrong for the English accent.

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Good story

Shame about the narrator I think an irish one would have been better but was a good listen.

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Great story, terrible accents

I love the narrator’s ‘story voice’ but the accents where cringeworthy and distracting, good story,

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OMG I couldn't get further than chapter 12....🙄😕

I'm sorry, but this incredibly slow-moving story with all kinds of side plots that seemed to be leading nowhere down blind alleys was bad enough... but the narrator's voice with its sanctimonious, snooty gentility just set my teeth on edge!!! 😬😬😬😬 Seriously it literally sounded like she was sneering at the story and sneering at every single character. She delivered every single passage in exactly the same slow, slithery, snooty uncaring tone, regardless of whether the character was hurrying, there was any urgency, they were upset or they were happy.. she just sounded exactly the same the entire time. Her incredibly genteel posh accent also contrasted rather painfully with the down-to-earth Irish characters. At least she could do an Irish accent for the bits of dialogue ( unless they were thinking something to themselves, when their voices reverted to the posh BBC Queen's English 🤣). I just found the story so irritating because of the narrator's sing-song supercilious voice that I literally couldn't progress any further than chapter 12 (by which time nothing had happened apart from a woman imagining something bizarre in the night, some irritating work colleagues, mild domestic bickering and some neighbours moving in) and had to abandon it! I'm sorry but I no longer give a toss what happens next door and looking for another new book - which I am now carefully screening to make sure it doesn't have the same narrator!!!!

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1 person found this helpful

A good read.

The story was a bit convoluted with quite a few sidelines. It was enjoyable and certainly held my attention. If I thought someone was creeping into my house at night, I’d change the locks, install cctv, not just wait for the next instance. The narrator was a bit too Posh! But good efforts for the Irish accents. Tbh I’m not Irish but it sounded good.

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Poor choice of narrator for a book set in Ireland

Good, engaging story. Narrator was very clear and well spoken but completely wrong for this book.

Other Andrea Mara titles have Irish narrators or narrators who can do an appropriate Irish accent. At first I thought the main character was northern Irish. Then I thought the book was set in Northern Ireland. Then once it was clear that it was set in Dublin it became apparent the narrator had missed the mark.

Wish I’d listened to the preview first as I would have bought a physical copy. Perhaps I’m more sensitive to it being Irish myself but must admit it was a real struggle to get to the end. I listened to the last hour at x2 speed to find out what happens and have it be over as quickly as possible.

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Awful Narration, don't do it

What a frustration. The narrator sneers her way through this book. Everything is said in a painfully snooty manner. Nothing happens for the first part of the book that isn't in the first chapter and I couldn't wait for the end.

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Great!

Really enjoyed the story and kept me hooked. Slightly confused at times with which character was which, as it kept swapping at random parts, but didn't spoil the story.
Hated the narrator, which shows how good the story was that I didn't abandon it because of her.
It's definately one I will recommend to my friends

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Appalling narration - do not listen to this

Wonderful book, I ended up buying a hard copy of the book as I couldn’t listen to the dreadful narration. The ‘Darby O’Gill’ attempt at an Irish accent just ruined the whole book for me. The mispronunciation of names and places was just so bad. Great story though.

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Shocking narration

Narration was awful, along with pronunciation and accents. Ruined an otherwise very good book unfortunately

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