AUDIOBOOK REVIEW⤏ HIDDEN BODIES

BY CAROLINE KEPNES

NARRATED BY SANTINO FONTANA

SYNOPSIS FROM AUTHORS WEBSITE⇣
Hidden Bodies marks the return of a voice that Stephen King described as original and hypnotic, and through the divisive and charmingly sociopathic character of Joe Goldberg, Kepnes satirizes and dissects our culture, blending suspense with scathing wit.
In the compulsively readable follow-up to her widely acclaimed debut novel, You, Caroline Kepnes weaves a tale that Booklist calls “the love child of Holden Caulfield and Patrick Bateman.”
Joe Goldberg is no stranger to hiding bodies. In the past ten years, this thirty-something has buried four of them, collateral damage in his quest for love. Now he’s heading west to Los Angeles, the city of second chances, determined to put his past behind him.
In Hollywood, Joe blends in effortlessly with the other young upstarts. He eats guac, works in a bookstore, and flirts with a journalist neighbor. But while others seem fixated on their own reflections, Joe can’t stop looking over his shoulder. The problem with hidden bodies is that they don’t always stay that way. They re-emerge, like dark thoughts, multiplying and threatening to destroy what Joe wants most: true love. And when he finds it in a darkened room in Soho House, he’s more desperate than ever to keep his secrets buried. He doesn’t want to hurt his new girlfriend—he wants to be with her forever. But if she ever finds out what he’s done, he may not have a choice…

THE DETAILS⇣

⤏ JOE IS BACK...WITH REVENGE IN MIND

⤏ AND HE IS IN FULL-ON KILLER MODE

⤏ HE EVEN DENYS BEING A SOCIOPATH

⤏ WHAT'S "LOVE" GOT TO DO WITH IT...

⤏ LENGTH OF AUDIO - 13 HOURS, 3 MINUTES
⤏ I LISTENED ON LIBBY THROUGH MY LIBRARY

MY RATING⇢ 4½ ✰STARS✰

MY THOUGHTS⇣

Have you ever heard the song Bodies by Drowning Pool...I think it could be Joe's theme song.  Joe is back and he's really going off the rails this time.  Santino Fontana is also back voicing the harried thoughts of Joe...and his personification of this mind-warping, seriously delusional point of view is spot on.  I don't know if his way of narrating will translate well to other characters, as a lot of people didn't like his narration of Snow in The latest Hunger Games book, although, I didn't have any issues with it.  

This book made me laugh out loud so many times...and I flew through my night at work while listening.  Kind of glad that most everyone else at work also listens to their own stuff...so hopefully they didn't hear me.  

Joe gets taken advantage of by his latest love interest and chases after her all the way to LA.  He ends up having a difficult time tracking her down and gets hella sidetracked by Love...and the shenanigans ensue.  This is definitely one of those series that you should put some time in between reading/listening to each one...because being in Joe's head is a little exhausting at times.  Better if you do it in doses.  While there are numerous quotes that made me laugh out loud, I'll leave you with this quote because this one was really good...

“He snorts more cocaine, I could pull over and roll him out the door, but he's on so much blow right now that he would probably just turn into a roadrunner, catch up to me, and jump back in.”

BREAKDOWN⇣

Narration Rating⇢ 4.5/5
Plot⇢ 4.2/5

Characters⇢ 4.3/5

The Feels⇢ 4.5/5

Pacing⇢ 4.3/5

Addictiveness⇢ 4/5

Theme, Tone or Intensity⇢ 4.2/5
Originality/Believability⇢ 4.2/5

Flow (Writing Style/Ease of Listening)⇢ 4.5/5

Raunchiness⇢ 4.5/5

Ending⇢ 4.3/5

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW⤏ THE DIRT: CONFESSIONS OF THE WORLD'S MOST NOTORIOUS ROCK BAND

BY NIKKI SIXX, TOMMY LEE, VINCE NEIL, AND MICK MARS WITH NEIL STRAUSS

NARRATED BY SEBASTIAN YORK, ROGER WAYNE,
FRED BERMAN, MACLEOD ANDREWS & HILLARY HUBER

SYNOPSIS FROM GOODREADS⇣
NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL MOVIE STARRING MACHINE GUN KELLY, DANIEL WEBBER, DOUGLAS BOOTH, AND IWAN RHEON, DIRECTED BY JEFF TREMAINE.
Celebrate over thirty years of the world's most notorious rock band with the audiobook edition of The Dirt--the outrageous, legendary, no-holds-barred autobiography of Mötley Crüe. Fans have gotten glimpses into the band's crazy world of backstage scandals, celebrity love affairs, rollercoaster drug addictions, and immortal music in Mötley Crüe books like Tommyland and The Heroin Diaries, but now the full spectrum of sin and success by Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, and Mick Mars is an open book in The Dirt. Joe Levy at Rolling Stone calls The Dirt without a doubt . . . the most detailed account of the awesome pleasures and perils of rock & roll stardom I have ever read. It is completely compelling and utterly revolting.

THE DETAILS⇣

⤏ SEX, DRUGS & ROCK N' ROLL
⤏ MÖTLEY CRÜE

⤏ NIKKI SIXX

⤏ TOMMY LEE

⤏ VINCE NEIL
⤏ MICK MARS

⤏ LENGTH OF AUDIO - 14 HOURS, 43 MINUTES
⤏ I LISTENED ON LIBBY THROUGH MY LIBRARY

MY THOUGHTS⇣

I read this book back when it came out...this was reread/listen in Audio format.  When I noticed that it wasn't narrated by the members of the band, I was disappointed...but after listening...I'm not anymore.  These narrators are all seasoned narrators and very good at it.  Since narrating is a form of acting, I get why they had other guys narrate for them.  After listening to the Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx, which he narrated himself, he did tend to sound stilted...like he was just reading it for you.

Now that I'm older and I'm listening to this book...I have to say that towards the end of the book, I found Tommy Lee to be a whiny little baby, I found his sections from when he did jail time, stemming from his relationship with Pamela Anderson...to be so freaking boring.  They could have left that shit out.  Also, the coolest guy in the band is actually Mick Mars...and Nikki, once he got off the drugs. 

This book is raunchy, decadent, self-absorbed, and raw at times...so I loved it.  With lots of sex, like a lot of it...and drugs...pretty much all of the drugs...cheating, death and even cheating death.  The movie doesn't quite go into the depth of the book...but it would have had to been a limited series for it to do that.  Honestly, the best part about the movie is the music.  Actually, I should have had it playing in the background while I was writing this.

BREAKDOWN⇣

Narration Rating⇢ 5/5
Plot⇢ 4/5

Characters⇢ 5/5

The Feels⇢ 4.5/5

Pacing⇢ 4.5/5

Addictiveness⇢ 5/5

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

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

Ending⇢ 4/5

The Accidental Bad Girl by Maxine Kaplan

FEATURING⇢

High School Drama

Date Rape

Slut-Shaming

Drug Dealers

Social Media Mystery

and eventually...

Owning Your Mistakes & Your Accomplishments

Real Friendship

Undercover Cops & Take Downs

With Audio Performed by Julia Knippen

LINK TO SYNOPSIS (AUTHOR'S WEBSITE)

MY RATING⇢ 4 STARS | GRADE B+

MY THOUGHTS⇢

On the outside, this feels like a vapid high school drama, with a dose of forced drug dealing.  You might even pass it up because of this.  But, you should give it a chance because it might just surprise you.  For the first half it felt just like all that to me...what with her incredibly lax parents and her shitty so-called friends...but it does eventually go somewhere. 

With a little mystery, and the tackling of some tuff issues, including slut-shaming, date rape & rape culture, and by the end, even her parental units step it up a bit.  Ultimately, it had a fairly good overall message and it surprised me how much I ended up liking it.

Narration by Julia Knippen was effortlessly executed, and this would make an excellent movie, too.  It actually reminded me of the movie Easy A.

THE BREAKDOWN⇢  

Plot⇢ 4/5

Narration Performance⇢ 5/5

Characters⇢ 4.2/5

The Feels⇢ 4/5

Pacing⇢ 4/5

Addictiveness⇢ 4/5

Theme or Tone⇢ 4.2/5

Flow (Writing Style)⇢ 4/5

Backdrop (World Building)⇢ 4/5

Originality⇢ 4.2/5

Ending⇢ 4.2/5 Cliffhanger⇢ Nope.

_____

Book Cover⇢ Love it!

Setting⇢ Brooklyn, NY

Source⇢ Audiobook (Library)

Length⇢ 9 hours, 36 minutes

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

Love the title...and I know everyone is hanging out without me, I see the evidence on my Facebook, after all...

๏ ๏ ๏  Book Blurb ๏ ๏ ๏ 

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?” 

Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka

๏ ๏ ๏  My Review ๏ ๏ ๏ 

I don't usually read many memoir type stories, and I really only listened to this because I needed a title that ends in a question mark.  I would say this more the musings of a comedian than a memoir, though.  I've never seen The Office or The Mindy Project, but I don't think that matters entirely, at least not to enjoy this.  I laughed out loud many times and if I didn't laugh, I at least smiled.  I can't really say anything bad about something that makes me laugh...

๏ ๏ ๏  MY RATING ๏ ๏ ๏ 

☆3.7☆STARS - GRADE=B

๏ Breakdown of Ratings ๏ 

Pacing⇝ 4/5 

Addictiveness⇝ 3.5/5

Flow (Writing Style)⇝ 3.5/5
Did It Make Me Laugh⇝ 4/5

๏ ๏ ๏

Book Cover⇝ Pretty...

Narration⇝ Mindy Kaling...It was good, I mean who else is going to narrate your book about your thoughts properly other than you???

Source⇝ Audiobook (Library)
๏ ๏ ๏
Goodreads
Amazon
Booklikes

#Triple X by Christine Zolendz and Angelisa Stone

SYNOPSIS: 

Does size really matter? 
Two women spin a tale of comedy and new beginnings after they wake up and find themselves in a jail cell over 3000 miles away from home. Rehashing their adventure in front of a less-than-sympathetic judge, they give a laugh-out-loud and extremely detailed story of a road trip that finds them in a ton of trouble. 
Battling age, weight, and their own personal demons, not only do they discover the open road and a life they misplaced somewhere in their 20s, they also find themselves. From breakups and stealing cars to blurry memories of something that might have happened in New Mexico, these two women will take you on a real journey, full of fun and, well, situations that people only write about and never really do….or do they? 
"My girl parts are aflame at the poetry falling from your lips. Pardon me while I fan my vagina."

MY RATING: 4.25 STARS

DETAILS:

Over-the-Top Funny
Road-Trip Thelma & Louise Style
Raunchy Girls Behaving Badly

●Plot: 4.3/5 
●Characters: 4.5/5
●Theme: 4.8/5 Ultimately, it's about finding yourself and loving yourself.
●Flow: 4/5 I would constantly forget whose head I was in.
●Originality: 5/5
●Book Cover: 5/5 Love it.
●The Feels: 4.3/5
●Ending: 4.5/5 Cliffhanger: No 

MY THOUGHTS:

This book was laugh-out-loud funny. When I was reading it on break at work, I got a lot of strange looks because I was laughing so much. It wasn't like I could tell them about it either because I would probably get even stranger looks then.

I didn't think this had any specific direction that the story was going in, but about halfway through, I realized that it did, and I really started liking it for the story then. At first, I just liked it for the humor. The scene with the "hot" yoga is freaking hilarious. I loved it.