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A Brief History of Seven Killings
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Cherise Boothe, Dwight Bacquie, Ryan Anderson, Johnathan McClain, Robert Younis, Thom Rivera
- Length: 26 hrs
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Publisher's summary
Winner, The Man Booker Prize, 2015
On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert, gunmen stormed his house, machine guns blazing. The attack nearly killed the Reggae superstar, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Marley would go on to perform at the free concert on December 5, but he left the country the next day, not to return for two years.
Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters - assassins, journalists, drug dealers, and even ghosts - A Brief History of Seven Killings is the fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time and its bloody aftermath, from the streets and slums of Kingston in the 1970s, to the crack wars in 1980s New York, to a radically altered Jamaica in the 1990s. Brilliantly inventive and stunningly ambitious, this novel is a revealing modern epic that will secure Marlon James' place among the great literary talents of his generation.
Editor's Pick
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"I wish I could write something as genius as this story. It’s a long one, and it’s a deep dive, but it is so masterfully crafted and engrossing that it goes by a lot quicker than you’d think. Plus the multicast narration really brings this novel to life."
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- By: Walter Dean Myers
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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At a young age, Lil J. Skin started stealing pain pills from his mom whenever he started to feel stressed - but now he's graduated to the big leagues. After Lil J. partners with a pusher named Rico on a sweet deal, events take a shocking turn when the buyer - an undercover police officer - is shot and Lil J. winds up wounded and hiding in a crack house.
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Cool story bro
- By Edward on 02-01-16
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Hot Water Music
- By: Charles Bukowski
- Narrated by: Christian Baskous
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Hot Water Music is a collection of short stories by Charles Bukowski, published in 1983. The collection deals largely with: drinking, women, gambling, and writing. It is an important collection that establishes Bukowski's minimalist style and his thematic oeuvre.
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If you like Bukowski...
- By Amazon Customer on 09-08-19
By: Charles Bukowski
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From Here to Eternity
- By: James Jones
- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
- Length: 36 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Diamond Head, Hawaii, 1941. Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt is a champion welterweight and a fine bugler. But when he refuses to join the company's boxing team, he gets "the treatment" that may break him or kill him. First Sgt. Milton Anthony Warden knows how to soldier better than almost anyone, yet he's risking his career to have an affair with the commanding officer's wife. Both Warden and Prewitt are bound by a common bond: the Army is their heart and blood...and, possibly, their death.
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Genius on Every Level
- By aaron on 06-13-13
By: James Jones
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Devil in a Blue Dress
- An Easy Rawlins Mystery
- By: Walter Mosley
- Narrated by: Michael Boatman
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.
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Beware of Mysterious Sexy Women with Big Suitcases
- By Jefferson on 02-13-11
By: Walter Mosley
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Rabbit
- The Autobiography of Ms. Pat
- By: Patricia Williams, Jeannine Amber
- Narrated by: Patricia Williams
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
One of five children, Pat watched as her alcoholic mother struggled to get by on charity, cons, and petty crimes. At age seven, Pat was taught to roll drunks for money. At 12, she was targeted for sex by a man eight years her senior; by 13, she was pregnant. By 15, Pat was a mother of two. Alone at 16, Pat was determined to make a better life for her children. But with no job skills and an eighth-grade education, her options were limited. She learned quickly that hustling and humor were the only tools she had to survive.
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Amazing story but dry reading
- By SpazzyMaggee on 11-03-17
By: Patricia Williams, and others
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The Last Detail
- A Novel
- By: Darryl Ponicsan
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Unlike other branches of the armed services, the Navy draws its police force from the ranks as temporary duty - Shore Patrol. In this funny, bawdy, moving audiobook set during the height of the Vietnam War, two career sailors in transit in Norfolk, Virginia - Billy "Bad-Ass" Buddusky and Mule Mulhall - are assigned to escort 18-year-old Larry Meadows from Norfolk to the brig in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he is to serve an eight-year sentence for petty theft. It's good duty, until the two old salts realize the injustice of the sentence and are oddly affected by the naive innocence of their young prisoner.
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Surprising ending
- By bella on 09-11-20
By: Darryl Ponicsan
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KooKooLand
- A Memoir
- By: Gloria Norris
- Narrated by: Gloria Norris
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Gloria Norris grew up in the projects of Manchester, New Hampshire, with her parents; her sister, Virginia; and her cat, Sylvester. A snapshot might show a happy young family, but only a dummkopf would buy that. Nine-year-old Gloria is gutsy and wisecracking. Her father, Jimmy, all dazzle and danger, is often on the far side of the law and makes his own rules - which everyone else better follow. Gloria's mom, Shirley, tries not to rock the boat, Virginia unwisely defies Jimmy, and Gloria fashions herself into his sidekick - the son he never had.
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this was so awful I could only listen to a little
- By Wyowoman on 09-14-18
By: Gloria Norris
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Ham on Rye
- A Novel
- By: Charles Bukowski
- Narrated by: Christian Baskous
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
In what is widely hailed as the best of his many novels, Charles Bukowski details the long, lonely years of his own hardscrabble youth in the raw voice of alter ego Henry Chinaski. From a harrowingly cheerless childhood in Germany through acne-riddled high school years, and his adolescent discoveries of alcohol, women, and the Los Angeles Public Library's collection of D. H. Lawrence, Ham on Rye offers a crude, brutal, and savagely funny portrait of an outcast's coming-of-age during the desperate days of the Great Depression.
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Men's version of Virginia Woolf
- By I Ate Your Pug For Lunch and It was Tasty on 12-09-13
By: Charles Bukowski
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Flood
- A Novel (Burke, Book 1)
- By: Andrew Vachss
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Burke's newest client is a woman named Flood, who has the face of an angel, the body of a high-priced stripper, and the skills of a professional executioner. She wants Burke to find a monster for her - so she can kill him with her bare hands. In this thriller, Andrew Vachss's renegade private eye teams up with a lethally gifted avenger to follow a child's murderer through the catacombs of New York, where every alley is blind and the penthouses are as dangerous as the basements.
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Noir!
- By Snoodely on 03-06-14
By: Andrew Vachss
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Leather Maiden
- By: Joe Lansdale
- Narrated by: Tom Butler
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Edgar Award winner Joe R. Lansdale writes outrageous fiction that rockets along with violent spikes of action and intense humor. Gulf War vet Cason Statler has moved back to his East Texas hometown after losing his job as a reporter in Houston (sleeping with both the boss' wife and 30-year-old stepdaughter has a way of ruining career prospects). But when his new gig has him investigating a local girl's disappearance, Cason opens a can of worms that might get him killed.
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Good Story with So-So narration
- By Daniel McAfee on 09-11-12
By: Joe Lansdale
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Hyena
- By: Jude Angelini
- Narrated by: Jude Angelini
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hyena is a collection of autobiographical stories by Jude Angelini, which takes the listener on his journey of heartbreak, depravity, and hilarity, deftly moving between his adult life and his childhood growing up in a factory town outside of Detroit. Each story is told with brutal honesty yet maintains a gallows humor that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief.
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Awesome book, would steal it
- By Dylan S on 09-20-17
By: Jude Angelini
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It is 1866 and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.
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What listeners say about A Brief History of Seven Killings
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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- KP
- 05-07-16
A Tough Read
I’m finally finished. Whew. Much of A Brief History of Seven Killings used a heavy Jamaican dialect. It took so long to read and listen to it (way too long, in my opinion) that I am thinking in that Jamaican dialect now! I’m afraid I might now burst out with a, “Me no like when you do dat ,” or worse, “ bombo pussy r’asscloth,” or , “fuckery,” or “pussyhole.” Oops.
I will never think about Jamaica in the same way again. Ocho Rios? College parties? Sandals resort? Forget it. This book embodies the Jamaica behind those scenes – at least from the 1960’s through about 1991. My biggest question remains: what is Jamaica really like NOW? Are the gangs still in power? The JLP? The PNP? Is the violence, poverty, illiteracy, and hopelessness as bad as it was in this book?
The characters in A Brief History had no redeeming qualities, but their circumstances do have to be considered. The gang members portrayed grew up in horrendous circumstances, so how else would they turn out but violent, amoral, and psychopathic? The only character who is sympathetic at all is Kim Burgess. Her story is also the most coherent, easy to follow, and is somewhat redemptive at the end. Other than gangsters/thugs and Kim Burgess, well , there were CIA characters and government officials, and they are evil as well. The only other character is Sir Arthur Jennings, a ghost of a murdered politician who acts like a Greek chorus commenting on the events of the novel from the grave.
I don’t mind evil characters necessarily; they were interesting in the book. The main problem with the novel for me was how very, very difficult it was to understand what was going on. There are 75 characters, and the story is told from these characters alternating points of view. Events are not examined directly, but are fractured and referred to much later. The reader has to keep the characters straight and remember events from earlier in the book so that when they are tied in to other, related events later on, things finally begin to make sense. Clarity is elusive.
SPOILER ALERTS:
One example of this is the death of Josey Wales at the end. We see Dr. Love, a CIA consultant, talking to him in his prison cell. Dr. Love gives him some kind of pill that puts him to sleep or kills him, ostensibly to save him from the pain of his coming assassination? Or ? not totally clear. Then, a couple chapters later, we hear that Josey Wales was burned in his cell. I found that resolution somewhat unsatisfying. I suppose Dr. Love or the CIA or … someone… burned him. It’s like the main event is skipped after a big build up, and then only referred to later. The same method is used for the death of “the singer.” The whole first half of the book builds up to that event, but then the actual event itself is very foggy, muddied, and unclear. Then it is referred to tangentially through many small revelations later in the story. Again, clarity remains elusive. This technique seems overused throughout the book.
Another big problem with the book for me was the dialect and the language. The dialect and sometimes the character’s syntax is really hard to understand. One chapter was completely incomprehensible. I was reading AND listening at the same time, and it was just hard going the whole way through the book. Even when the characters were white men without a dialect, the method of writing only from that character’s point of view and usually as an interior monologue was often really difficult. Sometimes a character would have a conversation with another character, but you, the reader, only got to hear one side and wouldn’t get to know the other character’s name for many pages.
The writing was powerful at times. For example, hearing the inner thoughts of one of the very young assassins who is being buried alive…. Wow, that was horrendous and powerful at the same time. And the chapter where Weeper is having sex with a man and trying to convince himself that he is not a “faggot” was extremely graphic but interesting in a voyeuristic way.
The name of the book seems to derive from the seven men who were killed over the course of the book after the they attempted to assassinate “the singer, “ as well as the name of the article that the journalist, Mark Pierce, was writing for the New Yorker at the end, which was “A Brief History of Seven Killings.”
I don’t really know if Jamaica has actually changed or not, but I like this quote from Kim Burgess in the book:
“Two years since the election,” she says. “Jamaica never gets worse or better, it just finds new ways to stay the same. You can’t change the country, but maybe you can change yourself.” Most of the characters in the book, however, don't ever think about changing… or think that they could change. They are victims as well: victims of their horrible circumstances. However, this possibility of change or movement is why, to me, Kim Burgess is the heart of the story. Only her character has any kind of positive resolution at the end, albeit only a hint of one.
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- Philip A
- 01-30-16
Just Brilliant!
I've been an Audible member for the past 10 years and this is simply, without a doubt, the best written and the best . . . well, narrated doesn't really do the character acting justice . . . the best read audio book I have listened to in all that time.
It's poetic and historic. It's vulgar and violent and beautiful. It's tragic and comic. But most importantly . . . it's so damned interesting and engaging.
Wow!
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- W Perry Hall
- 11-08-15
Me Bredren, a Lectrifyin Novel on Jamaican Mob
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS is a riveting novel -- the best novel that I can recall in the past nearly 50 years focused on organized crime, and it may be the best ever mob-centered novel in terms of literary structure and scope. It's destined to make all the lists for best books of this decade and probably for the best books since 2000. It's already been garnered for author Marlon James the 2015 Man Booker Prize.
I cannot recall a novel in the past two decades so powerful, so searing in its combination of unique voice, intriguing characters and captivating storylines, such as when it gives a number of thrilling and feverish first-person accounts for a December 1976 shooting of the character known as The Singer and the immediate, devastating aftermath, and later provides a fascinating, fictional (though plausible) explanation for Bob Marley's (I mean, the Singer character's) death in early 1981 from cancer.
The book is told almost solely in the first person narrative accounts of various characters. It follows the Greater Kingston, Jamaica gangs (chiefly, the one known as the Storm Posse) and related characters over 3 decades - in Greater Kingston for the first 2, then mainly in New York from 1985 to 1991.
The 2 complaints about this audiobook seem to be limited to: 1) difficulty in understanding the narration of some of the characters due to their broad Jamaican accent, particularly one (a teen from the slums) who slurs together his words; and, 2) too many characters to follow. Please allow me to answer each because I'd hate for anyone to miss such a treasure based on either of these two fears, both of which are simply resolved.
As to the first, I'll admit that I nearly gave up on the book with the narrative accent of the character Bam-Bam, a teen gang member. I decided that instead of abandoning the novel, I'd listen again to his first chapter. Shortly thereafter something funny happened: I began to comprehend all the Jamaican characters, including Bam-Bam, after that one re-listen and from listening to that of other Jamaican characters (maybe 90% of the book is in Jamaican accents, most of which are relatively easy to immediately comprehend). The way Marlon James wrote the novel, having multiple narrators was imperative and proved well worth it. Moreover, the accents tremendously enhanced the experience of the book.
By the way, this book has me searching for other Marlon James novels. What a talent!
As for the number of characters, I simply downloaded the kindle sample of the book which has a straightforward list of characters. With this list, I had no problem keeping up with the characters.
Also, I'll note that some females may be offended by the number of times they use the P word and the repetitive use of the derogative Jamaican slang term "bumbaclot." You don't wanna know what this means literally, trust me.
Aside from that, I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.
An' one more ting me need you don fahget, me ute:
Don pess on da gorgon!
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- Andy Keck
- 06-11-15
Had to buy the hardcover book to accompany
What would have made A Brief History of Seven Killings better?
I am still listening to this book, but I have to admit I had to buy the hardcover accompany the audiobook. The book actually has a three page list of characters that I needed to track the story, especially in the beginning. Also, the chapters were titled by the voice of the narrator, so that made it a lot easier to track. I am really enjoying the performances, but don't think I could stay the course without the character list.
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- Darwin8u
- 09-12-16
Killing don’t need no reason
"God puts earth far away from heaven because even he can't stand the smell of dead flesh. Death is not a soul catcher or a spirit, it's a wind with no warmth, a crawling sickness."
-- Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings
First, it is hard to push all that is into this novel into a bottle. So, I'll just say it felt like some weird hybrid of (here is my brief history of seven fathers/mothers): James Ellroy (think Jamaican Tabloid), Don DeLillo (think Libra), Zadie Smith (think Shiny Teeth), Elmore Leonard (think Get Singer), Roberto Bolaño (think Savage Possy), Gay Talese (Think Bob Marley has a Toe), and with the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez.
Anyway, this novel seemed to grab me and I didn't want to let it go. There was power and pull in this novel. It attracted and repelled me at the same time. I wanted to read it, but I didn't want to finish. Just as I would fall into the mix of the dialogue, I would be pushed back out. It wasn't easy and wasn't always fun, but it was constantly amazing. It really did, emotionally, feel like I was reading one of Ellroy's best novels. It could have been Ellroy's Underworld USA #4. This was also a master juggling a bunch of themes and textual ideas. James framed this twisting story of violence, place, race, poverty, power, drugs, sex, language, and death in a funky way (but not too funky and I'm not going to give it away). It reminded me of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem 'Constantly Risking Absurdity':
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience ..."
James puts it all out there. And he tends to hit most of his marks, and the ones he doesn't hit perfectly can also be excused because of the difficulty of what he is trying to pull of. This wasn't a perfect novel, but it was a perfect thrill.
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- Colin
- 04-08-15
a Jamaican goodfellas.
this is one of the most intense, gritty, violent, and insane books I've ever read. it's also one of the most unique and brilliant. moves at a rapid fire speed and very suspensful. this book had some of the most vile characters I've ever heard/read/seen in anything, yet I was mesmerized and actually felt sympathy for some of them. the Jamaican dialect takes some getting used to and almost ruined it for me but I stuck with it and now I couldn't imagine the book being nearly as good without it. good narrators too minus a few frustrating chapters here and there. if you're looking for an epic read I highly recommend.
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- M. Shults
- 04-22-17
Long, ugly, drawn out...
I stuck with this tome because of my personal connection and infatuation with Jamaica, but it was a tough slog. The words in this book must be 35% profanities, and much of the rest is ugly beyond profanity. Yes, it aptly describes the human condition, yes the multiple character approach is interesting, if extremely hard to follow, and yes this book has a fair amount of authenticity being loosely based on actual events; --but do you really want to get all this filth and excrement on your brain?
Furthermore , it's one thing to have your brain dragged through human waste for awhile, but this book just goes on, and on, and on. Half of this muddy horror show could have been cut without losing any of the pith.
If you are wanting to delve deeper, and seemingly interminably into the descent of Jamaica's Kingston ghettos into Lord of the Flies savagery (along with other miscellaneous filth and depravity for gratuitous grossness), then the this book will do; --though Lord of the Flies is one of a goodly number of much better books, shorter and sharper, with more meaning and no F-bombs.
If you are not interested in closely studying some of the rottenest manifestations of human rottenness, but rather. you seek entertainment, well, "no here mon".
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- JB
- 10-26-14
Read the hard copy book. The performance sucks
How could the performance have been better?
The performance detracts from a good book. The people reading have very fake Jamaican accents and its very distracting and sounds foolish. This problem is detrimental to an otherwise great book.
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- Brendan
- 03-27-16
A Disappointing "History"
Too many damn characters makes this a joyless and unrewarding read. Certain characters disappear, their storylines left out to dry, others that the author does focus on - "Weeper" comes to mind - are far less interesting. What happened to the female Columbian drug dealer? Nothing... We get a couple of paragraphs about her, and then she never appears again.
Oh, what could have been...
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- MCP
- 09-28-15
Incredibly detailed
Many reviews of this audio book commend how well written it is and many condemn how hard it is to get through. Yes it's long with many characters and incredible detail (including much violence), but it's so worth sticking with and finishing this amazingly well written book! If you like books that come together and are wrapped up in a nice little bow at the end, you won't care for this book. This book is an incredible story and the audio version is very well read by many different readers making it sound almost like a play. I now want to read the book.
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