Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Audiobook: Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket

 
Read by Liam Aiken

Synopsis: In a fading town, far from anyone he knew or trusted, a young Lemony Snicket began his apprenticeship in an organization nobody knows about. He started by asking questions that shouldn't have been on his mind. Now he has written an account that should not be published, in four volumes that shouldn't be read. This is the first volume.
 
My Thoughts: I have greatly enjoyed Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. When I saw that he had a new series out and I saw that the audiobook was available at my library, I quickly took the chance. Lemony Snicket's quirky style was still there bringing back memories of his other books but sadly, I was disappointed with this audiobook.

What made this story compelling was Lemony Snicket being the main character and the word choice that was used. We were introduced to Lemony's character in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and here we came to learn more about him as a child. It was fascinating to have him as the protagonist and I liked having the insight as to who Lemony really was. Next, just like the other books, the word usage was similar. The author explained unknown words and the sense of "doom" was predominant. It made me giddy with Lemony's writing style.

However, these things did not make me enjoy this story as much. First off, I was very confused as to what was going on. Even though the author liked to explain himself, I still found myself being unclear as to what the plot was. I found myself replaying chapters just so I could get a small gist of it. After a few times of going back, I became disinterested with it. This could have been a factor that it was an audio.

Liam Aiken was the narrator of this book. He was the actor who played Klaus Baudelaire in the movie version of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I was excited at first to learn of who he was because how connected he was with the series. But my excitement only lasted for a few minutes when my confusion began. Liam's voice stayed monotone the whole time. It did not rise or fall with events. He didn't even change his voice when it came to different characters. I became bored listening to him, thus my confusion when I would try to pay attention.

At the end, I wished that I would have read the print version instead of listening to the audio. I feel like perhaps I would have liked the book more. For now, I rate it:

 

1 comment:

  1. I didn't really love this book either. I agree that the plot is a bit confusing.

    ReplyDelete