Great story, miscast narrator

Adam Neville always writes great horror, and this is no exception, but not a great audio book. Sadly the narrator is woefully miscast, performing the book like a whimsical children's novel, rather than a horror. Complete with some truly baffling pronunciation that I've never heard before!

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Returned Due To Narrator

This is narrated as though it is a fairy tale being read to five year olds. The narrators phlegmy voice is also very off putting. For these reasons I returned this book after about an hour. I suggest you listen to the sample before you choose the book.

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3 people found this helpful

Maybe 3 stars is harsh but 4 feels too high

This is a difficult one because, after powering through Nevill's Hasty For The Dark, I was a massive fan and extremely excited for this one as soon as I saw it announced.

Folk Horror has been a real passion of mine ever since watching Ben Wheatley's Kill List and my love for the sub-genre only increased after his A Field In England.

The idea of nightmare neighbours isn't a new one but I did enjoy the after-dark trips into the woods with them. What's weird is that I leave the book in two minds; I grew frustrated at parts with the sheer amount of scene-setting and description to the point where I felt the metaphors used in places were needlessly hyperbolic but, at the same time, I don't feel the story was given enough time to develop in the way it did. I just can't accept that two weeks from moving in, one character is at death's door in hospital while another is hunting down the antagonists with a gun? The pace just felt janky.

Ultimately, yes, the swiftness of the story detracted somewhat from my enjoyment but, and this was first an observation made by a friend so I do not take credit, there was an entirely human horror here not satisfactorily explored - being financially trapped in a house and having nowhere to go. As a father (which is my least favourite way of beginning a sentence), one of my greatest fears is bringing my family into ruin like the protagonist does here. Being enthralled by the dream of happy-ever-after, clawing out of poverty in a capitalist system, only to fail dramatically and admit defeat is a horrible thing to imagine and I think the protagonist's main motivation of rage and fear of the supernatural should have been replaced with the human fear of failure and destitution. There could have been some really thought-provoking inner monologues on the subject.

Finally, the narration was entirely average but there were issues with the sound at points; a constant white noise in the background, obvious re-recording of small sections just stuck in the middle of a passage which broke immersion, and the narrator was too posh to convincingly narrate a working-class character. You wouldn't have Derrick Jacobi take Ray Winstone's place in the film Scum, would you?

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Cunning folk

Another fantastic book from Adam Nevill, discovered the author through the Ritual adaptation and haven’t looked back. This one really got under my skin probably more so than No One Gets Out Alive. A tour de force in folk terror, culminating in something quiet cosmic and otherworldly. Here’s hoping it won’t be to long a wait for Adam’s next book. Tremendous!

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strange and grotesque

The horror comes in different shapes in Adam Nevill’s books. This time is NEIGHBORS! Embrace yourself because you are about to sink into a world of craziness and grotesque!

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Great story but…

I swear to god if he said trauma or decade ONE MORE TIME I was going to lose it!

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2 people found this helpful

Enjoyable

Well worth a listen. Black magic in the english countryside. Pagan deity. Main character not espicially amiable, which is good here.

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Pray you don't get neighbours like this..

Really enjoyed this audiobook and look forward to listening to more titles from the author.
You really feel empathy for the main characters and their struggle to create a new life for themselves whilst battling against an insidious evil manifesting itself from the awful neighbours.
I felt the narrator was a bit miscast for this particular title and would have preferred, say, maybe Jonathan Keeble,who did such an amazing job on some of James Herberts titles. Although whilst saying that, i would like to hear this narrator on maybe some different genres, as he did have a voice that was pleasant to listen to and maybe this was just the wrong title for him.
That aside,i did rate this title very highly and as i said, cannot wait to get listening to othet titles from Adam Nevill.

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Disappointing

I'm a big fan of Adam Nevill, having either read or listened to all of his published work.

The problem I have with this book is that I can't decide if it is a good story or not. The reason for this is that the narration is just so poor. The character voices are laughable and at times the pacing is just all wrong.

In a month or two I'll buy the paperback and give it another go but I can't recommend paying for the audio version.

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4 people found this helpful

I really tried but no. No no.

I frankly live on a diet of audible books. I listen continuously while I work and among my favourite are supernatural/ghost stories. I had this in my wish list for a while debating over it and having finished all of the excellent CJ Cooks books I decided to give it a go. Possibly, possibly, it may have been better if I had read it rather than listen (am currently reading Perfume by Patrick Suskind however so decided to listen to this one) the narrator was…. NOT SUITED to this book. I’m sure he is suited to some books but his delivery was slow and he made every female character sound like an old hag. Frankly I disliked the protagonists wife from the outset because of the way the narrator portrayed her and the protagonist sounded all wrong. Many times I zoned out and many times I found the story didn’t make sense and then it culminated in nonsense.
Will return this title and I sadly do not recommend it.

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