AUDIOBOOK REVIEW⤏ BEFORE FAMILIAR WOODS

BY IAN PISARCIK

NARRATED BY SUSAN C HUNTER, NEIL HELLEGERS & MICHAEL CROUCH 

SYNOPSIS FROM AUTHORS WEBSITE⇣
On the outskirts of a town too tired for its own happenings, the boys were found dead inside a tent.
​Three years later, their fathers have disappeared.
Ruth Fenn's son was the boy they blamed. For three years, Ruth has accepted her lot as pariah, focusing on her ailing mother and the children left in her care by the struggling single parents of North Falls, Vermont. But now the additional loss of her husband is too much to bear, and she has no choice but to overcome the darkness or be consumed by it. But as she edges closer to the truth, she begins to uncover some secrets that are better left buried.
That's when she meets Milk Raymond, a war vet who comes home to find his nine-year-old son abandoned by his mother. Unable to find work, with no idea how to be a father, Milk turns to Ruth for help. But as the mystery of Ruth's missing husband deepens, the fragile stability Milk has created for Daniel is shattered by the ill-fated return of Daniel's mother, who will stop at nothing to get her boy back.
As these unsettled and interconnected lives hurtle towards a devastating conclusion, both Ruth and Milk are about to learn that their dying Vermont town has more secrets than they ever thought possible--and there are those who will do anything to protect them.

BOOK TAGS⇣

⤏ GRIT-LIT

⤏ VERMONT STYLE

⤏ FELT INCOMPLETE 

⤏ LENGTH OF AUDIO - 8 HOURS, 9 MINUTES
⤏ I LISTENED ON HOOPLA THROUGH MY LIBRARY

MY THOUGHTS⇣

MY REVIEW IN ONE SENTENCE⇢ This cover portrays exactly how I felt while listening to this...upside-down and lost in the woods...

I thought this was going to be something like The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel, which is a favorite of mine in the grit-lit category.  Sadly, it really felt like the story was incomplete to me.  I can't even really say how I feel about it because I'm not sure what even happened in it.  Maybe, it just wasn't the right time for me to read/listen to this. The ending left me hella confused and I felt like I missed something important or didn't read between the lines when I should have...I'll just say that this wasn't for me...but maybe it will be for you???

The narrators are mainly just Susan C Hunter and Neil Hellegers.  Michael Crouch (a favorite of mine) has only a very small part at the very end.  I feel like they were actually good for the content of the book...but since the book left me feeling so...meh...I'm probably not a good judge of how good they were.

MY RATING⇢ 2¾✰STARS✰

BREAKDOWN⇣

Narration Rating⇢ 3.5/5

Characters⇢ 3.5/5

The Feels⇢ 2.5/5

Pacing⇢ 3/5

Addictiveness⇢ 2.5/5

Theme, Tone or Intensity⇢ 3.5/5
Originality/Believability⇢ 4/5

Flow (Writing Style)⇢ 2/5

Twisty-ness/Mystery⇢ 2/5

Ending⇢ 2/5