The Waves: The Island, Book 2
Written by: Jen Minkman
Narrated by: Matthew Mickenberg
Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
Series: The Island Series, Book 2
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date: 03-28-14
Publisher: Jen Minkman
The Waves is the second book in The Island series by Jen Minkman (review of the first audiobook here). Curious to see (more like hear) what new adventures await our young protagonists, I dove straight into the second installment of the series which is almost double the length of the previous audiobook.
However, many of the things that made the first book good are somehow worse this time around. Starting with the narration which understandably is done by a different narrator since we’re witnessing a different story arc. Matthew Mickenberg who is somewhat of a good fit for the young Walt in the sense that he sounds young and innocent himself just put me to sleep with his performance. I mean, his the dynamic range of expressing emotion is pretty much non-existent.
Obviously he’s inexperienced and that’s fine, no one is born a good narrator but there are a lot of good narrators around that can voice act young characters wonderfully and express emotions while doing it. It’s baffling how much worse the narration is compared to the previous book. I found myself constantly distracted from the story which got pretty annoying after the first half of the audiobook.
The mishaps continue with the quality of the recording. It was badly edited with sound levels all over the chart, loud then quiet and sounding like microphones were changed between recordings. Pretty jarring and unpleasant. This low quality of production in combination with the sub-par narration just made me not care for the story at all. It’s a pity because the first book had potential and genuinely sparked curiosity in me.
Overall, going the self-publishing route is good for some authors, in this instance it’s a mistake. Corners were cut and it shows. Get this audiobook only if you were extremely hooked by the first one and HAVE to know what happens next. Otherwise, it’s just not worth the frustration.
[schema type=”review” rev_name=”The Waves (Audiobook Review)” author=”Audiobook Jungle” pubdate=”2015-02-2″ user_review=”2″ min_review=”1″ max_review=”5″ ]