AUDIOBOOK REVIEW⤏ PURGATORY --2 BOOK SERIES

BY AMY HARMON

NARRATED BY EMILY WOO ZELLER

SYNOPSIS FROM AUTHORS WEBSITE FOR BOOK #1⇣
The hallways are empty, the school day long over, the din of lockers and youthful laughter have dissolved into silence. It's as if the very walls are waiting. And then through the intercom, a song starts to crackle, the soundtrack of a forgotten life. And the band begins to sing - "Lovely Maggie falls for Johnny, a boy no one else can see. Heartthrob Johnny, 50s bad boy, trapped for eternity. Lonely boy and lonely girl, unsolved mystery. Maggie and Johnny, only high school sweethearts, because Johnny can't ever leave. Do wop, Do wop . . ."
In 1958, a rumble goes down outside the brand new high school in Honeyville, Texas. Chaos ensues, a life is lost, and Johnny Kinross disappears. But in 2010, someone finds him. Orphaned at the age of ten, 17-year-old Maggie O'Bannon finally finds a permanent home with her elderly aunt in a small Texas town. Working part-time as a school janitor, she becomes enmeshed in a fifty-year-old tragedy where nothing is as it seems and the boy of her dreams might vanish when the bell rings.
This volatile and mismatched romance is doomed from its start, as Maggie struggles to hold on to yet another person she is destined to lose. Secret love and hushed affection are threatened by outside forces, resulting in a desperate race to keep a secret no one would understand. Deeply romantic, funny, and tender, Slow Dance in Purgatory captures the heartache of a love story where a happy ending might be decades too late.

THE DETAILS⇣

⤏ TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE

⤏ CONTEMPORARY MIXED WITH SUPERNATURAL

⤏ CURRENT CENTURY VERSUS THE 50'S

⤏ YOUNG ADULT

⤏ LENGTH OF AUDIO - #1-7 HOURS, 27 MINUTES

⤏ LENGTH OF AUDIO - #2-8 HOURS, 18 MINUTES
⤏ I LISTENED ON LIBBY THROUGH MY LIBRARY

MY THOUGHTS⇣

I really liked this two-book series.  It's part modern-day mixed with the '50s and also part supernatural mixed with science fiction.  Amy Harmon can write some stories with swoon-worthy romances...and all of them different from one another.   I haven't disliked a book by this author yet...and I doubt that I will.

Slow Dance in Purgatory felt more like a ghost story...with dual timelines.  Prom Night in Purgatory had more of a time-travel/science fiction feel to it.  You could just read/listen to Book #1 and call it good but the story morphed into so much more in book #2...it really delved into the time-travel theme.  Her way of explaining the time-traveling/ghosting/space-time continuum or "the science of it all" felt just right for me...explained well enough without being bogged down with too much scientific-ness...just right for a romance story.

Narration by Emily Woo Zeller was actually pretty well performed...I don't always like her, it depends on the character she's reading for, I guess.  It could have used a male narrator for the male POV, though.

BREAKDOWN⇣

Narration Rating⇢ 4/5
Plot⇢ 4.2/5

Characters⇢ 4.2/5

The Feels⇢ 4.2/5

Pacing⇢ 4.5/5

Addictiveness⇢ 4/5

Theme, Tone or Intensity⇢ 4.3/5
Originality⇢ 4/5

Flow (Writing Style/Ease of Listening)⇢ 4.3/5

Romance/Chemistry⇢ 4.2/5

Ending⇢ 4.2/5