Narrator Bahni Turpin brings a haunting melancholy to VanderMeer’s enormous weird world, transforming what initially seems an outlandish dystopian tale into a deeply personal journey. In a ruined and polluted city persecuted by a vicious giant bear, Rachel survives by scavenging—which is how she first discovers “Borne.” As Borne begins to grow, move, and learn to speak, Rachel begins to care for him more than she should—especially when the real danger that Borne poses becomes chillingly clear. Though she manages this challenging narrative with aplomb, Turpin doesn’t differentiate between characters, so the dialogue can be difficult to follow. She manages, however, to build a palpable and audible bond between Rachel and Borne that makes this story gripping, unsettling, and thoroughly memorable.
Pub Date: 2017
Duration: 12 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781504779777
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
American colleges are favorable locales for ghastly event and hair-tearing circumstance. There is, for instance, a good deal of pleasure to be had out of professor and past-prodigy Grady Tripp's awful life, as portrayed by Michael Chabon in WONDER BOYS. There is a certain amount of slapstick here, but it's balanced by Chabon's superb portrait of a gale-force mid-life crisis, a soul-destroying albatross of an unfinished novel and the mind-numbing inconsequence of writers' conferences. David Colacci sounds a little starved for oxygen in his reading, but that's not exactly out of keeping with Grady Tripp's personal gestalt.
Pub Date:
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
As a group of men bring their own emotional baggage to their football-obsessed reunion, R.C. Bray delivers his usual solid narration. He shifts his tones slightly but enough to put the listener in the motel with the men, revealing their foibles as the story progresses. The narrator's role in this book is a descriptive one, and Bray is a good guide. His narration becomes extra important because this is a rare instance when there almost isn't a protagonist. The author's well-written story--which alternates between serious and laugh-out-loud funny--uses quarterback Joe Theismann's 1985 injury, a broken leg, as a McGuffin.
Pub Date:
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781681680057
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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