Six Stories

best not to try to resolve the mystery ...

Would you try another book written by Matt Wesolowski or narrated by the narrators?

Yes. The strengths outweighed the weaknesses for me.

Would you be willing to try another book from Matt Wesolowski? Why or why not?

Looks like the same question repeated here.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Added some additional support to characterisation. The stories might well be weaker without these voices.

Was Six Stories worth the listening time?

The sixth story was a disappointment. I suspect that this was almost bound to be the case so long as the writer attempted to resolve the narrative with a solution. Interestingly this is exactly what the fictional blog caster promises not to do.

Any additional comments?

I suggest the author has a second stab at the final chapter but this time avoids the temptation to resolve the mystery. I'd pay to hear an alternative final chapter.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

An unusual and gripping book

I very much enjoyed this book. I had first tried to read it on the Kindle app, but found it a struggle. The audio version brings the story to life however. There are different narrators for the different characters and the performances are all very good. You can believe you are listening to a podcast, as the book intends.

Six stories is a set of six podcasts about the death of a fifteen year old boy. Each one focusses on a different character though there are others too. I can't say much more as I don't want to give anything away but there is a twist and all the way through I was wanting to know what would be revealed next

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Amazing!

Six Stories is a series of six interviews with the now-grown teenagers who were at Scarclaw Fell the night Tom Jefferies died over twenty years ago. The interviews make up a series of six podcasts, aired online over six weeks. Each week, a different member of the original group of friends recalls what they can of that period of their lives, each one revealing a little more than the last.
Now, as I was saying before, this is the first audio book I have listened to with a cast, more than one narrator, in fact, there are EIGHT narrators!!! EIGHT!!!!!!! And they cover every word in the book as the whole script is told in the words of one of the characters!
What did I tell you? GENIUS!!!!!
Wesolowski has managed to combine literary brilliance with modern technology - what a fu*king achievement! Absolutely mind blowing!!! Honestly ... I could not stop listening to this, it was like having the movies in my ears for eight hours and eleven glorious minutes!!!! And trust me, glorious is the right word.
This is an absolute must listen to folks, it really is, and if you don't do audio books, go and get the book instead, you will not be disappointed at all! The cast are amazing, they captured the feel of the book perfectly. Just wonderful!
Well paced, thoroughly intriguing, and with a whole cast of unreliable witnesses, you are in for a belter of a story!!!

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Ghastly.

I purchased this on the back of reviews. I should have been more wary. It seems that some have fallen for the quirky format, which seems to have overshadowed the poor narrative; it was the same , years ago, with 'Cloud Atlas'. This is the second time I've been persuaded by reviews and regretted it because the text I've purchased is tedious.

11 of 16 people found this review helpful

Very different, but possibly a trend setter

I'm not an internet podcast listener so don't know if the premise of this story goes on much but I really enjoyed this. If you don't know its akin to a series of separate interviews of a 'cold case' for listeners to digest. They aren't there to solve a crime and you don't hear from them - just those being interviews and the host. You become the listening fan base to make your own decisions in an old murder case, where new evidence presents itself.

I'm onto the second in the series at present (so the second audiobook 'Hydra' not chapter two in this one), and still think back to this. It's very clever in both the way its written and delivered in the story. How you can go back to what someone said after hearing new information.

Multiple narrators fit the medium well and helps express the story from different and perhaps contrasting or corroborating perspectives.

I hope there are more in the pipeline, as Hydra is currently even better.

Follow the clues to what happened on scarclaw fell

I will admit that Six Stories has been on my TBR pile for a very long time but everyone I have spoken to has had nothing but good things to say about it. So from this coupled with quite a few “you really must read it” from my sister I decided the best thing to do was to download the audio book so that I could listen to it whilst out walking.
Set as a series of podcasts this book automatically stands out as being different. Each chapter is an individual podcast looking at the events surrounding the death of Tom Jeffries at Scarclaw Fell from a different person’s perspective. You get to try to play detective to find out who did it and why.
By the end of the book I found that I had little sympathy for the victim. What comes across is the definite feeling that he was not a nice person. Not that excuses his murder or the burying of his body. Over the course of the podcasts you get to learn about the things the group got up to in the run up to that fateful night and one thing becomes evident - Tom Jeffries was a bit of a bully. I also felt that the group were not being entirely honest about what happened… but I was not sure if that was due to the time that had passed between the murder and when the podcasts were being recorded of if they were ashamed of that time and didn’t want the listener to know everything that happened. The only person you are sure is telling the whole truth is Henry Saint Clement-Ramsey who along with his friends found the body. To add to the mystery of the book you learn of old folk tales of beasts and apparitions that haunt the fell, preying on the unsuspecting people who wander at night.
I have to say that listening to the audio book really brought this story alive for me as unlike most audio books where you have just one narrator, this one had multiple narrators so you really got the feeling you were listening to the pod casts. In fact I had listened to the first five without realising how far I had got in the book. My only struggle with this was that for the final chapter I switched to the book itself. After being spoilt of having so many different people bringing the characters alive I then struggled to find a voice for the final podcast, but that’s just me. I absolutely loved this book and would heartily recommend it to anyone

Brilliant!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

WOW! No words can describe how good this was! I read the kindle version but the audio book was even better. This is a chilling mystery set in the Northumbrian Fells with a bit of supernatural folklaw mashed into the mix. Beautifully narrated and absolutely captivating throughout, for those who enjoy a YA thriller I cannot recommend this highly enough.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Six Stories?

The Beast.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favourite?

Brian Mings without a doubt.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It chilled me to the bone.

Any additional comments?

Brilliant twist. I already knew it was coming having read it on Kindle but it was even better narrated through the voice of audio.

Predictable story, very well presented

Listened tio this book because the earlier reviews gave me high expectations. On the plus side, it is perfectly suited tio the audio format... But on the negative, I'd worked out more than just the gist of the mystery when I was about a third of the way in, so the ending was so surprise at all.

Loved this book!

Enthralling format told through podcast interviews of the well-drawn cast. Great balance of realistic and supernatural forces led me through intriguing plot twists. Great listen.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Interesting idea sadly not delivered

Poor management of the plot for example where did the real world go ? There were no bystanders in a village with large enough population to support a shop ?