Black Wave cover art

Black Wave

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Black Wave

By: Michelle Tea
Narrated by: Michelle Tea
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Desperate to quell her addiction to drugs, disastrous romance, and '90s San Francisco, Michelle heads south for LA. But soon it's officially announced that the world will end in one year, and life in the sprawling metropolis becomes increasingly weird.

While living in an abandoned bookstore, dating Matt Dillon, and keeping an eye on the encroaching apocalypse, Michelle begins a new novel, a sprawling and metatextual exploration to complement her promises of maturity and responsibility. But as she tries to make queer love and art without succumbing to self-destructive vice, the boundaries between storytelling and everyday living begin to blur, and Michelle wonders how much she'll have to compromise her artistic process if she's going to properly ride out doomsday.

©2016 Michelle Tea (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Coming of Age Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Urban Women's Fiction City

Listeners also enjoyed...

 USA Noir cover art
An American Demon cover art
Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See cover art
Sodom Road Exit cover art
Eat Only When You're Hungry cover art
Haunt cover art
Elena Knows cover art
Marrow cover art
I'm Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering cover art
The Long Run & Other True Stories cover art
Veronica cover art
The Animators cover art
Wasting Talent cover art
I Swear I'll Make It Up to You cover art
All About Love cover art
Boys Keep Swinging cover art
All stars
Most relevant
When I first read (listened to) BW I wasn't sure about it, but on re-visiting it I'm absolutely converted. I disliked Tea's narration at first, but it grew on me after a while, and eventually seemed to fit well with the form and plot of the story. The novel itself is about lesbians, the apocalypse, love, sex, drugs, death, books, and the West Coast; I love it, but if you're not into lots of drugs and sex you might not. Also if you're not interested in experimental fiction -- the form unspools as the novel goes on, author Michelle separating from fictional Michelle in interesting and compelling ways, but maybe not for everyone. But for me it's a gorgeous and powerful novel about love and identity at the end of the world, and I would recommend this reading of it if you have the time to get lost in it and let Tea's voice wash over you.

Postmodern apocalypse tale

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed this story - it was a bit hopeful, a bit stressed, a bit depressing, and the world was vibrant and violent.

The narration was a bit stilted, but didn't detract too much from the content. Also the content of the book jumped between being a fiction, a memoir, a story being told to us, the novel that the protagonist is writing, the protagonist's memoir, and no lines were clearly drawn between any of it. Maybe this is less disorienting in print? I can't decide if I want to reread it to work it out, or if it tried a little too much of my patience.

Overall I had a decent time.

3.5 stars

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
what a journey! I don't know what took me so long to get to it

incredible book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Jesus, she shouldn't narrate her own books. I couldn't focus on the story, or finish.

Narration like a child learning to read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.