The Birthday Girl

Good Story, Poor Narration

What made the experience of listening to The Birthday Girl the most enjoyable?

Good story line, pace kept moving along, believable characters.

What did you like best about this story?

The building up to Mersia ( the main character in the story) telling about her past.

How could the performance have been better?

The Narrator tried to put on voices for the characters and failed miserably. He clearly has no idea what a 15 year old girls sounds like and the italian and russian accents he attempts are just awful and seem to fade out within the same sentence.

Any additional comments?

If you can put up with the Narrator, this is a good story.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Unusual story line

An unusual story line. Fairly fast paced and quite exciting. The ending I found a little implausible

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Just couldn't listen to the narrator any longer

I listen to audible books every day and of course I have my favourite narrators...doesn't everyone? Occasionally I decide, having listened to the sample, that a new narrator is worth a try...sometimes I come across a real gem...but not with Martyn Read I'm afraid. Very shortly into the story I found his "female" voice so irritating I had to delete the book! Happily, the other Stephen Leather book I have is read by Sean Barrett so I will listen to that instead. :-)

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Shockingly bad

I tried twice to listen to this but gave up both times. The story is one of those where the characters are always lighting and putting out cigarettes every thirty seconds because the writer can't think of anything else for them to do - never a good sign. Everything about it comes across as implausible and the narrator's accents are dreadful. In short, it's completely unlistenable and you should give it a miss if you have any taste whatsoever.

That said, maybe it gets better after the first half hour. ;^)

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

TawdryI did not enjoy this book at all.

Not 1 ot the characters to me seemed real or plausible. The story was that of a bad soap opera. I never ever give up on a book , but this 1 I kept looking at the timer to see how long I'd got before it came to an end.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

enjoyable book

enjoyed it.great read. hope for more books like this. waiting for next book very good

Good listen

This is another great book by stephen leather its a bit of a slow starter but when you get into it you cant put it down until its finished

Good book shame about the accents.

Really good book with lots of twisty turny bits. Narration however was so poor when it came to European accents that you couldn't help but laugh. Which detracts from the drama the author is so good at creating. Definitely worth a listen.

a gripping listen

a good story and a healthy pace, some sexual descriptions that I feel didn't need to be in there but a great book anyway.

A good story but!!

This story is ruined by the awful narration. Comical accents destroyed the book for me and they come through thick and fast from the first chapter. The plot would be OK, as always, with a Stephen Leather book... this may have been one of his earlier books but I only just made it to the end.