A good listen

After listening to 4 other Peter Clines books, this took me a while to get into.
I’m guessing it’s written In the same fashion as the original Robinson Crusoe, but not having read that, I can’t confirm.
Whilst being a good story and being very well narrated by Tim, I feel it was probably restrained by its links to the original and so wasn’t as good as his other books... but still worth a listen!
I listened at x1.25 speed and felt it improved the pace.

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2 people found this helpful

A disappointing mash-up, with a few high points

This is a rare miss by Peter Clines. I have loved all this other works, from his short stories to his full novels. I've listened to most of his other works and have always enjoyed his mixture of great character dialogue, humour and interesting mysteries. This story lacks all these hallmarks. It feels very different from his other stories as a result.

Peter Clines does a very good job at making the story sound just like the original Crusoe story, with a narration that feels very era appropriate. However, the additions of the more supernatural elements, which was the main appeal to me for a story like this, I felt were very lacking. I was expecting a story about a werewolf stranded on an island with HP Lovecraft entities about to be a lot more fun than this story turned out to be. Most of the Lovecraft references have very minimal impact on the story and the exploration of being a werewolf from a first-person perspective was underwhelming.

I never found myself being sucked into the story so ended up half listening to it at times and never felt like I was missing anything significant. There isn’t really enough meat on this story to feel satisfying as a stand-alone. By the end of the story, you get the impression that this is a long set-up to a much more interesting story that would be told by a sequel that will never come.

The Narration by Tim Gerard Reynolds is top notch for the style of writing here, it’s just a shame he doesn’t have better material to work with. I would say this is only for the Peter Clines completionists.

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A hard book to finish.

I loved Robinson Crusoe as a kid and, as a grown up, I love horror and particularly the works of Howard P Lovecraft.

Due to this, I was really excited to see the marrying of these worlds but, regretfully, it was not a happy marriage.

Let's start with the good. The narration is great and the voice and timbre suit the era and setting perfectly, really offering a real sense of reality to the reading.

Additionally the idea is a great choice. Robinson Crusoe, marooned on a desert island and dealing with both the act of survival and the beast that hampers his efforts all the time.
Equally, what better setting to inject some esoteric terror than a forgotten island inhabited by evil tribesmen.

Sadly, while both these settings would be great Individually, together it is to the detriment of the whole as there just isn't enough of either facet to really make them work. Additionally, the diarist-style of writing simply doesn't work for a werewolf tale as it prevents the current-tense 'tension' of action and threat from working and it's all left very rote and formulaic.

In all, I struggled to finish the book but finish I did but was left wholly unsatisfied and sadly Tim J Reynolds excellent narration was insufficient on its own to alleviate my boredom.

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2 people found this helpful

A disappointing mash-up

Though I regularly enjoy Peter Clines' lovecraftian stories, this was not one of them. It was a struggle to finish, and I couldn't relate to any of the characters. In my opinion, the diary keeping format kept me out of it, something that I didn't expect when I started listening, but realized less than an hour in.

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Very disappointed

Ordered this book, time says 8 hours + but it only plays about 2 minutes worth...great value for money for £16+ Very unhappy!

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not a good clines novel.

by far the least engaging clines book I have read or listened to. It feels like what it is which is a butcgeting together of 3 kinds of story into an old classic. it feels like an academic exercise not something i would choose to listen to. i kept listening to give it a chance to redeem itself but it just meandered on in the same limp fashion.

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