I loved the first book in this series ‘The Stranger Times’ so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sequel, which I used my audible credit to buy as an audiobook.
Strangely I think I would have preferred to have had it as a kindle book, as there were a couple of aspects of listening to he audiobook that put me off. Firstly, and no fault to the recording, I think I wasn’t always paying enough attention to the book. Normally I do most of my book listening when out on a run, which is great because I’m fully immersed in the story with not much else occupying my mind since running is pretty mindless! Sadly, even though I’m finally fully better from Covid, since getting better I’ve had a really bad back (perhaps due to my three weeks lying on the sofa?) but anyway, I haven’t been able to run yet, so I’ve been listening about the house while doing other things and sometimes I’m distracted.
The other thing was the accents. The narrator is Irish (I love Irish narrators) and the book has many characters, all with different accents – various British and Irish regional accents as well as a couple of Afro-Caribbean and Rastafarian accents. The narrator does the accents really well – you can always tell who is speaking, and they certainly bring life and colour (no pun intended) to the reading. I’m just not sure if it’s appropriate for a white person to put on an accent of a black person – I honestly just don’t know. The fact is he was doing lots of accents, not just racial ones, and I don’t think anyone was being made fun of, but still it gave me pause.
Anyway, that aside, I think this was another great book from Ciamh McDonnell. Urban Fantasy (which I love), great characterisation, humour, pathos etc and a great set up for book three, which I now can’t wait for!
Sarah Wray Writer 