Audiobook Review: The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Pub. Date: July 7th, 2011
Length: 8 hours, 31 minutes

Genres: YA / Mystery / Crime Drama / Suspense / Fiction

Synopsis

Thirteen-year-old Lizzie Hood and her next-door neighbor Evie Verver are inseparable, best friends who swap clothes, bathing suits, and field-hockey sticks and between whom-presumably-there are no secrets. Then one afternoon, Evie disappears, and as a rabid, giddy panic spreads through the balmy suburban community, everyone turns to Lizzie for answers. Was Evie unhappy, troubled, or upset? Had she mentioned being followed? Would she have gotten into the car of a stranger?

Compelled by curiosity, Lizzie takes up her own furtive pursuit of the truth. Haunted by dreams of her lost friend and titillated by her own new power at the center of the disappearance, Lizzie uncovers secret after secret and begins to wonder if she knew anything at all about her best friend.

What Did I Think About the Story?

I've never been a  huge fan of Young Adult novels, but when this Kindle/Audiobook combo went on sale I thought it sounded like an interesting enough audiobook to give a go on my commute to work. I've become quite a sucker for a good mystery, and the promise of finding out what really happened to Evie and what these characters could possibly be hiding was a huge draw. I'm glad to say the story provided me with hours of entertainment, as well as an interesting coming-of-age tale that I wasn't quite expecting.

I think the "big mystery" surrounding what really happened to Evie and the effects her disappearance has on everyone around her - especially Lizzie - and it's aftermath was well done if somewhat underwhelming from what I was expecting. It kept me listening as I was pretty sure what was unfolding was not the whole truth. Lizzie herself was such an interesting character, not only because the story is told from her point of view but because her growth outshines everything else for me, including Evie. This girl, who's in that awkward point in life when you're not really a girl but not yet a woman, thinks she knows so much about life but really knows so little and ends up making some horrific choices that change everything, all in the name of doing what she thinks is right for her best friend. I found it so sad to see Lizzie's magical illusions about her friend and her friend's family fall apart once she discovers the truth. Her innocence seems to disappear before the reader's eyes, and as everyone knows you can't un-know what you learn. This end of innocence ends up happening for more characters than just Lizzie, but it's Lizzie's struggle in growing up and facing the truths before her that I really enjoyed.  

The other big aspect that I enjoyed was the narrator herself. For me, a huge part of really enjoying an audiobook is the voice and talent of the narrator (or narrators if you're lucky enough to get more than one). The narrator of The End of Everything was phenomenal (Emily Bauer), having the perfect voice to represent a girl in her early teens. Beyond her ability to make me believe she was this young girl, she did an excellent job of keeping up a constant urgency and tension in her voice, making me feel like the strain and uncertainty always in the background of the story was going to burst open at any minute. 

At the end of the day, I found The End of Everything to be more of a coming of age story than a solid mystery. I did enjoy that we actually find out what happened to Evie, however it seemed somewhat anticlimactic compared to what I was expecting from the description. However I still found it quite enjoyable and I was impressed enough with the writing style of the author to have added more of her books to my wish list. 

What Did I Think About the Cover?

I like it, although I don't think it represents the story as well as it could. The colors are pleasant and I like the idea of one of our main girls (I like to think it's Lizzie) being sort of incapsulated in this silent world of water away from the realities actually happening around her, but I think I might be stretching to find meaning in the image.

My Rating: 3.5/5.0

I purchased the Kindle/Audible audiobook versions of The End of Everything for my own collection. You can read more reviews about the book and find links to where you can purchase your own copy on Goodreads. 

Review: The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan

Format: Kindle eBook/Audiobook

Publisher: Hogarth/Audible Studios

Publication Date: July 23rd, 2013/November 13th, 2012

Length: 322 pages/9 hours, 22 minutes

Synopsis

Anais Hendricks, fifteen, is in the back of a police car. She is headed for the Panopticon, a home for chronic young offenders. She can't remember what’s happened, but across town a policewoman lies in a coma and Anais’s school uniform is covered in blood.

Raised in foster care from birth and moved through twenty-three placements before she even turned seven, Anais has been let down by just about every adult she has ever met. Now a counter-culture outlaw, she knows that she can only rely on herself. And yet despite the parade of horrors visited upon her early life, she greets the world with the witty, fierce insight of a survivor.

Anais finds a sense of belonging among the residents of the Panopticon – they form intense bonds, and she soon becomes part of an ad hoc family. Together, they struggle against the adults that keep them confined. When she looks up at the watchtower that looms over the residents though, Anais knows her fate: she is an anonymous part of an experiment, and she always was. Now it seems that the experiment is closing in.

What Did I Think About the Book?

I was first drawn to The Panopticon after reading the synopsis. Right after college I worked with "troubled" kids, first as a Mental Health Associate in a Behavioral Health Center and then as a Behavioral Specialist at an alternative school, and Anais sounded like many of the kids I came into contact with during those years. I worked with kids that had experienced unspeakable childhoods and some that did horrible things, but what I learned from all of them was that each had learned how to survive and cope with the world they lived in the best they could. Many had been let down, time and time again, by those adults and institutions that were supposed to help them and keep them safe and were therefore incredibly suspicious of any that came into their lives. How could anyone blame them for that? This aspect of the story, combined with the mystery of whether or not Anais had harmed the policewoman and what part "the experiment" played in the whole thing, drew me in. While I can't say all my questions were answered by the last page I can say this character-driven story was powerful and heartbreaking, and important reading for anyone trying to understand the mind of children let down by the same society that views them as the problem.       

I purchased The Panopticon as an eBook/audiobook combo but ended up listening to the audiobook for the majority of the story. The narrator (Gayle Madine) has a very heavy British accent and this, combined with the profuse slang used, made it difficult at first to keep up with what was happening. Once I got used to this, however, I really enjoyed the inflections and feelings she put into the story. Even with the heavy subject matter being discussed, the lives of these young offenders are infused with humor and love that felt very real and made me hope they would somehow all come out the other side of their tangled young lives happy and healthy (which, of course, is not realistic). While some readers might find the slang, heavy cursing, violent actions and drug use discussed a turnoff, I think it was completely necessary to present this world of damaged and neglected children as realistically as possible. 

The majority of the story takes place in Anais's head, which is an interesting perspective as it  makes some aspects very fanciful or gritty while also making some of what she tells us unreliable. As the synopsis points out, Anais has been moved around from one home to another since she was a baby and she has developed a long list of habits and rituals to help her cope and control what she can, as I imagine most children in her situation would do. Anais is a remarkable character, clever and sensitive (about certain things at least) but also cynical and desensitized given her experiences.  I spent much of the story going back and forth between believing she had severe mental issues - with her believing she is part of an experiment where she is constantly watched and manipulated by unseen people that want to see her locked up for life, panic attacks were she sees faces on the walls and feels like she is shrinking, her inability to remember what happened at the time the policewoman was beaten so badly she ends up in a coma - and feeling like she had a better handle on this world than most adults do. She's caring, abusive, generous, selfish...in other words she is a complex and flawed person like everyone else.  It isn't often I come across a character that is as destructive as Anais and that I wholeheartedly cheer for nonetheless, but that is exactly what happened.

My only real issue with The Panopticon was the author's failure to wrap up the various threads she started in the story. Two of the main aspects - the policewoman in a coma and the experiment tracking Anais - sort of drifted off by the end. The reader isn't given any concrete answers to either issue and this made the drama and mystery just sort of deflate for me. There are other more minor threads, like the disappearance of a fellow Panopticon resident and the fate of Anais's incarcerated boyfriend that used her in a most horrible way, that are left unresolved as well. The fate of Anais herself is left somewhat unresolved and, while I can see that the author is leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions, I would have preferred a little more resolution when it came to the future of these captivating characters.

Author Jenni Fagan clearly knows how to get inside the heads and hearts of young people who are forced to cope with things that no human should have to cope with and I think she presents these mistreated and neglected children perfectly. The family that develops at the Panopticon is remarkable and I absolutely loved spending time with them. While I would have preferred more concrete resolutions, those readers that enjoy drawing their own conclusions will revel in the material given. I won't soon forget Anais or her compatriots and I will definitely watch for more novels by Ms. Fagan. 

 

What Did I Think About the Cover?  

 

It does absolutely nothing for me. I'm honestly not even sure what it's meant to represent.


My Rating: 3.5/5.0

Spotlight on Two for the Road by Ekta Garg + Free Book Alert!

Please join me in welcoming back to A Literary Vacation author Ekta Garg, who's newest book, Two for the Road, was recently published! She's also got a special surprise for readers so make sure to read all about Two for the Road and continue to the bottom of the post for more information.

 

Publisher: Prairie Sky Publishing

Publication date: Smashwords, June 30, 2015/Amazon, July 7, 2015

Length: 60 pages

 

 

 

Ah, summer. Long days full of warm sunshine and one of the most popular times to travel. But what happens when something throws your travel plans off course?

 

 The First Story, “Excess Baggage”: Allison has just come home from a grueling business trip. All she wants to do is spend a quiet weekend at home parked in front of the TV or maybe curled up with a blanket. When a friend calls to ask her for a favor, though, all of Allison’s plans hit rough air.

 

 

The Second Story, “Wrong Way”: With one daughter married and another in college, Rachel and Jim should be enjoying their time as a couple again. But Jim’s worries about his widowed mother force Rachel into a spur-of-the-moment road trip to check on the old bat. When Jim catches Rachel complaining to a friend, tension will ride with them in the car. Can Rachel make an apology stick?

 

 

Buy the Book

 

Amazon

Smashwords

 

 

About the Author 

Ekta R. Garg’s love affair with words began at the age of 4, and by the age of 8 she was writing poetry and short essays. In elementary school she participated in a word junkie's ultimate past time: spelling bees. She won the South Carolina state title four times, the regional title once, and competed in two national level competitions, including the 1993 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

 

Her love for spelling supplemented her love for writing. Ekta was the co-editor

of her high school yearbook for her junior and senior years. In college she worked briefly for the University of South Carolina campus literary magazine, The Garnet and Black, and in 2002 she got her MSJ in magazine publishing from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

 

Since the start of her career in 2005 Ekta has edited and written about everything from health care to home improvement to Hindi films. She has written for and edited: The Portland Physician Scribe, Portland, Oregon’s premier medical newspaper; show magazines for home tours organized by the Portland Home Builders Association; ABCDlady.com; The Bollywood Ticket; The International Indian; and the annual anthologies published by the Avondale Inkslingers, based in Avondale, Arizona.

 

In 2010 Ekta began The Write Edge as a personal commitment to take her writing more seriously. What started as one blog now functions as four. Every week Ekta publishes brand new short fiction on TheWrite Edge Writing Workshop, which she designed for herself. She blogs about parenting on Growth Chart and posts original book reviews on The Write Edge Bookshelf. The Write Edge also acts as the umbrella for Prairie Sky Publishing where she blogs weekly about the entire indie publishing process.

 

A year later, in 2011, Ekta stepped off the ledge and became a freelancer. She edits short stories and novels for other writers, contributing to their writing dreams. She is also a part-time editor for aois21, and she posts her book reviews on NetGalley, Goodreads, and Bookpleasures.com.

 

When she's not writing, Ekta is a domestic engineer—known in the vernacular as a “housewife.”  She’s married, has two energetic daughters who keep her running, and she divides her time between keeping house and fulfilling her writing dreams on a regular basis.

 

To find out more about Ekta’s publishing goals and plans or to get in touch with her about editing your work or reviewing your book, visit her at The Write Edge.

Free Book Alert!!

 

 Ekta is offering readers a free book!

 

Get a free Stories in Pairs book! Go to Goodreads by following THIS LINK, click on “Download eBook”, and enjoy a special bonus book absolutely free!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Releasing Today! Cecelia Holland's Historical Fiction Now Available in Ebook

Today Open Road Media is releasing a collection of ebooks from renowned historical fiction author, Cecelia Holland! Since her literary debut in 1966, Holland has published twenty-one historical novels covering periods from the middle of the first millennium CE up through parts of the early twentieth century, and ranging from all parts of the world. Today fans and new readers alike can buy five of her previously released novels in eBook format, making her wonderful stories accessible to even more readers. Here is the information for the five novels releasing in this new format today:



A self-serving political player in sixteenth-century Rome is caught up in the ruthless and powerful Borgia family’s deadly intrigues of murder and betrayal


It is known as the City of God—but Rome at the dawn of the sixteenth century is an unholy place where opulence, poverty, and decadence cohabitate sinfully under the ruthless rule of Rodrigo Borgia, the debauched Pope Alexander VI. Englishman Nicholas Dawson is secretary to the ineffectual ambassador of Florence and, as such, finds himself linked to Borgias’ murderous machinations, specifically the brutal power plays of the warlord Cesare, the pope’s bastard son. A skilled liar, conspirator, spy, and manipulator—a man drawn to power and the pleasures of excess—Dawson coolly plays his part in Rome’s draconian political dramas with an eye to personal gain and no true allegiance to any side or player. But his attraction to a beautiful and very dangerous young man soon threatens to bring Dawson’s secret enterprises crashing down around him, dooming him to a brutal and ignoble fate.

The great Cecelia Holland is acclaimed as one of America’s premier creators of historical fiction. With City of God she brings a remarkable epoch and a legendary family of scoundrels and murderers to breathtaking life—the corrupt patriarch pope; the suspiciously widowed and incestuous daughter, Lucrezia; Cesare, the bloodthirsty conqueror; and the tragically imprisoned and damned Caterina Sforza. Holland has written a stunning tale of betrayal, deception, and blood.

Buy the eBook of City of God at Amazon or iTunes.





A breathtaking novel of primitive England and the astonishing birth of the miracle called Stonehenge 


In a time before recorded history, on an island that many centuries later would come to be known as Britain, Moloquin, the Unwanted One, dreams of a pathway to the heavens. Cast out as a child, he survives by his wits alone on the fringes of tribal society and grows into manhood driven by one powerful and unshakable ambition: to build a link between the earthly and the spiritual worlds through the raising of an impossible structure. But to accomplish such a momentous feat in this primitive age of stone will not only require superhuman strength, it will entail unraveling the very fabric of life. Still, Moloquin will not be deterred in his quest, and he will stand courageously against all enemies, court untold disaster, sacrifice what he must, and remake his entire world to see his great vision gloriously realized.

One of today’s foremost historical novelists, Cecelia Holland explores the strange and enduring mystery of Stonehenge, one of the true wonders of the ancient and modern world. A breathtaking speculation, Pillar of the Sky is an unforgettable tale brimming with action, colorful characters, vivid detail, intelligence, and wonder, while presenting a possible history of the man-made miracle on Salisbury Plain that confounds scientists, scholars, and archaeologists to this day.

Buy the eBook of Pillar of the Sky at  Amazon or iTunes.

In an exotic ancient land, a foreign stranger’s sworn mission of vengeance leads him into the perilous circle of a ruthless Byzantine empress 


In the early years of the ninth century, the road home from Jerusalem winds through Constantinople for two Frankish noblemen-warriors. But when an encounter with a young woman running for her life results in the murder of Hagen the White’s brother, he vows to find the perpetrators, no matter how highborn or powerful, and take his revenge. His hunt will carry him into the royal circle of the Basileus Irene, a ruthless despot who blinded her own son to force him off the throne. The beautiful and calculating empress is fascinated by this supposed barbarian who has sworn allegiance to the great Charlemagne, and she welcomes him into the imperial court—and into the dangerous fires of countless royal conspiracies. Suddenly Hagen must tread carefully through a vipers’ nest of plots, lies, and bloodthirsty power plays, for if the stranger trusts the wrong serpent, he will certainly die.

One of the world’s premier purveyors of historical fiction, acclaimed novelist Cecelia Holland ushers the reader into a thrilling, exotic, and colorful world ruled by one of history’s most complex and fascinating women. The Belt of Gold is a stunning tale of power and vengeance set against a breathtaking backdrop of Byzantine opulence, from the conspiracies of the empress’s court and the intrigues of the bedchamber to the heart-racing clashes of champions in the public arenas where famed charioteers seek ultimate glory before the eyes of an adoring populace.

Buy the eBook of The Belt of Gold at Amazon or iTunes. 

The remarkable story of the courageous young pioneer who endures the hardships of the wilderness to become the first American woman to enter California

 

A hard life in the Missouri wilderness has made young Nancy Roberts Kelsey strong, fearless, and ready for anything. In the year 1841, the seventeen-year-old wife and mother joins her husband, Ben, and with an infant in her arms, sets off in pursuit of the dream called California. Halfway across the continent, with the worst of the journey still to come, most of their party opts for the safer passage to Oregon, but the Kelseys and their friends choose a more direct route to the western coast—a fateful decision that will lead them across the Great Basin and over the Sierra Nevadas, through confrontations with native tribes and merciless weather. But a different sort of peril awaits them at farthest edge of the frontier from the powerful Mexican dons who view all new arrivals as threats to their sovereignty—setting a seemingly ordinary woman on an extraordinary path that will ultimately change the course of American history.

Based in part on the actual letters and writings of Nancy Kelsey, An Ordinary Woman is a stunning tale of courage, determination, and grand adventure that celebrates the remarkable life and achievements of a little-known but essential character from the pages of history—yet another masterful blending of fiction and fact from Cecelia Holland, one of America’s premier historical novelists.

 

Buy the eBook of An Ordinary Woman at Amazon or iTunes.

 An enthralling fictional account of Howard Carter’s famous search for the tomb of King Tut and the mystery behind the tragic death and disappearance of ancient Egypt’s child ruler 

In ancient times, a boy king occupied the throne in a troubled desert land. His name was Tutankhamun. Both his reign and his life were shockingly brief, and his burial place was unknown—mysteries that would intrigue the inquisitive for centuries to come.

An English archaeologist irresistibly drawn to Egypt and her secrets, Howard Carter arrives in the Middle East in the second decade of the twentieth century to uncover the hidden final resting place of the tragic child pharaoh. But from the outset his search is plagued by misfortune and obstruction—a corrupt and unbending Egyptian bureaucracy, a British lord and patron more interested in profit than in knowledge, and Carter’s own inability to connect with his fellow human beings. Still, he will not be deterred from his obsessive hunt for the answer to one of the most astonishing puzzles in the history of the world.

In her magnificent novel Valley of the Kings, Cecelia Holland has created two worlds, brilliantly re-creating Egypt in the 1920s and in the time of Tutankhamun. A stunning tale of determination and discovery, brimming with color, mystery, and life, it confirms her standing as one of the true masters of historical fiction.

 

Buy the eBook of Valley of the Kings at Amazon or iTunes.

 

 

 

Readers, have any of you read Cecelia Holland before? If so, do you have any favorites?