Armchair Audies Young Adult Category~ And the winner is.....

Armchair Audies~~ Young Adult Category….And The Winner Is…..

The Armchair Audies is a group of listeners who get together every year, pick a category, listen to all the nominated titles and predict who they think will be the winner. I have been involved for a couple years and have really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone this year to try this new category this year. Although I didn’t love all the books I did enjoy all the narrations but there was a clear winner as you will see at the end of this post.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, read by Kirby Heyborne and Ariadne Meyers

I am in the minority here but I did not like this book at all. I will just leave it at that.

The Narration--- Kirby does his usual wonderful job and Ariadne did well too. However, I think the good narration couldn’t get me past how much I disliked this story.

Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray, read by January LaVoy

I went back and listened to the 1^st book and went right into this one and really wish book 3 was out. I really enjoyed this book and the narration just added to that.

The Narration—January LaVoy’s narration is spot on her characters are great, everyone has their own voice and you knew who was talking all the time, I also thought her male voices were really well done.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman , read by Julian Rhind-Tutt, Lara Pulver, Niamh Walsh, Adjoa Andoh, Peter Forbes, John Sessions, Michael Maloney, Sean Baker, Jane Collingwood, Clare Corbett, Allan Corduner, Katherine Kingsley, and Daniel Weyman

This was an interesting fairytale retelling and really does Neil Gaiman ever write anything subpar? I enjoyed the story.

The Narration— I must start with saying I think I would have enjoyed this better if Neil himself would have narrated this. The full cast production was good but honestly don’t think this should be in this category.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, read by Edward Herrmann

I think unless you’ve been living under a rock you know this is a great story.

The Narration—It is Edward Herrmann, he was wonderful and fabulous but should we vote for him just to honor his cherished memory? I’m sorry I can’t do that. Though I do love him!

 The Winter Horses by Philip Kerr, read by James Langton

 This was a very different story, I knew nothing about these horses and there were times you had to suspend disbelief.  But an interesting story .

The Narration— James Langton’s narration was good he had good characters even though a few times they were almost caricatures but I did enjoy his narration and thought this one came in a close second.

X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon, read by Dion Graham

This book sure didn't make me like the man this book is his teenage/young adult years and he was just a selfish hoodlum and the book ended as soon as he converted to Islam and was still in prison, I would rather read about how he became the man he was not this unlikable teenager.  I would rather see a YA story of the man not the hoodlum he was before he became the man and the ending seemed an odd time to end the story. Just my humble opinion.

The Narration— Dion Graham's narration was like poetry and I wish he had read the authors notes too. But it was pretty much a straight read.

              For me there is a clear winner and that is January LaVoy’s narration of Lair of Dreams I loved everything about this narration every character had their own voice, all the voices were so well done and enjoyed the book.