Every month, AudioFile Magazine reviewers and editors select the best new audiobooks for BookTrib’s readers. Cozy up with these essential audiobooks while you wait for warmer days ahead.
CANDELARIA by Melissa Lozada-Oliva
Read by Melissa Lozada-Oliva | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Tantor Media | 9.5 hrs.]
Listeners will enjoy this deliciously twisted tale dynamically narrated by the author. Lozada-Oliva explores intergenerational trauma as three generations of women find themselves caught up in a zombie apocalypse. Lozada-Oliva expertly manipulates her tone, cadence, and pacing to distinguish each character. Her emotional range conveys the predicament the women find themselves in. Using a deadpan tone, Lozada-Oliva adds levity to paradoxical situations and to witty dialogue. The audiobook touches on motherhood, familial relationships, career ambition, and male/female tension with humor and thoughtfulness.
KILL SHOW: A True Crime Novel by Daniel Sweren-Becker
Read by Megan Tusing, Desmond Manny, Pun Bandhu, Melissa Redmond, Byron Wagner, Christine Lakin, Stacy Gonzalez, Xe Sands, Fred Sanders, Sara Morsey, Chris McLinden, Robert Fass | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Harper Audio | 8 hrs.]
An ensemble of wildly talented narrators elevates this fictional true-crime case told through first-person interviews. The narrators infuse a generous amount of personality and empathy into their portrayals of the community, media, and family involved in the tragic case of missing teenager Sara Parcell. Robert Fass’s weary voice portrays Dave, Sara’s downtrodden father, as he recollects the case from prison. Melissa Redmond’s assertive performance embodies a gusty TV producer who turns the case into a media spectacle. A compelling audio with a winning combination of narrators.
MERCURY by Amy Jo Burns
Read by Maria Liatis | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Macmillan Audio | 12 hrs.]
Narrator Maria Liatis is superb at portraying both the characters in this novel and the rural environment they inhabit. Marly and her mother arrive in a Pennsylvania town in the 1990s and soon encounter two brothers, whom Marly will remain close to for her whole life. Burns’s audiobook requires a performance that balances its combination of family drama and police procedural. Liatis is skilled at capturing the spirit of these fascinating, flawed characters.
ANNA O by Matthew Blake
Read by Dan Stevens, Hannah Curtis, Sarah Cullum, Christine Rendel | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Harper Audio | 12 hrs.]
Hannah Curtis, Sarah Cullum, and Christine Rendel, led by the incomparable Dan Stevens, skillfully deliver this extraordinary twisty novel. One night, Anna Ogilvy, a young wannabe writer, inexplicably stabs two people to death while sleepwalking. She hasn’t woken up since the crime. Stevens’s portrayal of Anna’s psychiatrist, Ben, carries much of the narrative. He adds depth to Anna’s plight and Ben’s mission to awaken her so she can stand trial for her crimes. Curtis, Cullum, and Rendel also enhance this unreal-seeming but plausible story.
HAPPILY EVER ALASKA: Sweet Home, Alaska, Book 3 by Patience Griffin
Read by Kirsten Potter | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Penguin Audio | 10.25 hrs.]
Kirsten Potter provides an amusing performance of this small-town romance. Lolly has run from every relationship in her life but only regrets leaving her high school boyfriend, Shaun. Now that he’s back in Sweet Home, Alaska, every neighbor in the community is divided between keeping them apart or getting them together. The romance and awkward interactions between Lolly and Shaun are performed with bright, heartwarming charm, and Potter’s portrayals of the quirky townsfolk round out the story.
GET THE PICTURE: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See by Bianca Bosker
Read by Bianca Bosker | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Penguin Audio | 10.25 hrs.]
Journalist Bianca Bosker narrates her witty audiobook about the art world with pizzazz. She has a pleasing sound, paces the sometimes frantic-sounding proceedings well, and comes across as an authentic seeker. Performing in a comic style, she enhances the audiobook’s ironic undertone, which suggests that many in the art world see journalists as “the enemy.” Bosker is an intrepid soul with a talent for penetrating cultural demimondes.
THE BULLET SWALLOWER by Elizabeth Gonzalez James
Read by Lee Osorio | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Simon & Schuster Audio | 10 hrs.]
Lee Osorio’s deep voice with a hint of gravel is well suited to this historical novel, a blend of gritty Old West adventure and magical realism. Mexican bandito Antonio Sonoro, nicknamed “the Bullet Swallower,” wreaks havoc on everyone, unlike his good-natured grandson. Their stories intertwine as the author considers how we redress the sins of ancestors. Osorio inhabits the Mexican, Texan, and modern Californian characters with evocative accents. Adept at ramping up the action during shoot-outs and escapes, he also soothes with a sonorous narrative voice that carries listeners to the thoughtful and moving conclusion.
WE MUST NOT THINK OF OURSELVES by Lauren Grodstein
Read by Brad Griffith, Jesse Vilinsky, Sharon Freedman, Amir Levi, Rich Keeble | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Hachette Audio | 9 hrs.]
Five remarkable narrators create an unforgettable portrait of the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. Brad Griffith provides the main narration as Adam Paskow, a language and literature teacher who lost his beloved wife, Kasia. After being relocated to the Warsaw Ghetto, he is recruited by the real-life Oneg Shabbat to document the histories of the Jews there. Jesse Vilinsky, Sharon Freedman, Amir Levi, and Rich Keeble create memorable portraits of the students, housemates, and acquaintances Adam interviews. Listeners will feel as though they are witnessing history.
WHAT WILD WOMEN DO by Karma Brown
Read by Karissa Vacker, Hillary Huber | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Penguin Audio | 9 hrs.]
Karissa Vacker and Hillary Huber deliver excellent performances in this gripping audiobook. The story, set in the Adirondacks, evokes themes of empowerment and discovery as it depicts decades-spanning intrigue. Vacker voices failed screenwriter Rowan, who discovers a mysterious handbook that may have something to do with a woman who went missing in the woods. Huber voices Eddie, the rich-girl hippie who started a women’s retreat center nearby in the 1970s and then disappeared. Both narrators also voice other characters, building a distinctive set of voices that are easy to follow.
THE NIGHT SHE LIED by Lucy Dawson
Read by Rachel Atkins | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Bolinda Audio | 10.75 hrs.]
Narrator Rachel Atkins is a gift. Her performance of Dawson’s suspenseful psychological thriller will seep into listeners’ consciousness. Jude, an emergency room nurse who works on the night shift, is charged with the murder of a new suitor, Rik. He has a disturbing past with her mother, Margaret, a treacherous and miserable woman. Atkins moves the story with exquisite pacing and tone. She captures the characters’ vulnerabilities—Jude’s vulnerability and naïveté, Rik’s trauma and despair, and Margaret’s vicious narcissism. The partnership of Atkins and Dawson should be celebrated.
This story appears through BookTrib’s partnership with AudioFile and contains material originating from the AudioFile website.
