The Laughing Listener
July 2018
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Natalie Ross
Length: 11 hours & 16 minutes

Story Rating: 2 Stars
Performance Rating: 4 Stars
Overall Rating: 2.5 Stars

Ugggggghhhhh, okay… *Rubs face tiredly*



I don’t exactly know what to do with this book??? It wasn’t completely unfortunate, but I also rolled my eyes a lot more than normal. Just like my venture into [b:A Kiss of Shadows|139417|A Kiss of Shadows (Merry Gentry, #1)|Laurell K. Hamilton|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1486707201s/139417.jpg|3341459] a while ago, this was a buddy read I did with my best friend because we like to tackle trashfire books together for entertainment. And although this wasn’t Merry-Gentry-level bad, I did think this was a complete snooze fest.

First of all, here is who this book is about:
Raylene—A completely paranoid, jaded vampire who lives in solitude, babbles too much and gets paid to steal stuff for other people.

And here is who this book COULD have been about:
Domino & Pepper—Two siblings who somehow came to be orphans living on the streets of Seattle. To survive, they steal food and squat wherever they can find shelter. When they stumble across an old factory, Domino and Pepper set up camp in one of the upper unused levels until the owner Raylene comes by and threatens to throw them out. When the siblings refuse to leave, they all eventually form a bond.

Ian—An older vampire with a mysterious backstory that was somehow kidnapped by the government, held captive, and experimented on. These experiments made him lose his eyesight even though he’s a vamp and that should be impossible. With his ghoul friend Cal, they’re on a mission to figure out how to restore his vision and take down the people who did this.

Adrian—A former Navy Seal who’s sister Isabelle went missing in his early 20’s. He never gave up searching for her and every time the police tried to shut the case, he fought to keep it going. Now years later, he works at the Poppycock Review as a SASSY DRAG QUEEN NAMED SISTER ROSE. When a vampire named Raylene stumbles into his life, they ban together to solve the mystery of his sister, take down the people performing these experiments, and generally kick ass.

I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW FREAKING AWESOME A BOOK FROM ADRIAN’S POV WOULD BE.



It seemed like every other character surrounding Raylene had a WAY more interesting story to tell and it made her pale in comparison (HA! Get it? PALE?? Vampire puns people!). That fact coupled with her tendency to babble on and on made this a little painful to get through. Most of the time I just really wanted her to GET TO THE POINT. And she also had a weird habit of talking directly to the reader, which really irked me. It’s like breaking the fourth wall in movies—you just don’t do that without a good reason and when you do, it’s used sparingly. But Raylene talks to the reader the entire book saying things like “Oh there I go again,” or “Well, you get the idea,” and it just made her drivel feel extra incessant.

The last half of the book was a lot better because that’s when the action really started. And I actually kind of liked Raylene when she was out performing jobs or talking to the other characters. It was just that damn inner monologue that put me to sleep. I mean, this book is about a VAMPIRE and DRAG QUEEN DUO FIGHTING CRIME. That should be the best book EVER. How in the world was I bored?!?!

And I was also more than a little salty in the end when Domino and Pepper, the two kids staying in Raylene’s warehouse, just kind of drop off the face of the earth??? There’s a very dramatic phone call between Raylene and Domino that takes place halfway through the book where the warehouse gets raided and they can’t find Pepper. By the end of the call they still haven’t located her and... then they just… never… talk about Pepper again?? WTF?!?! At the very very end (like, the-last-few-paragraphs-of-the-book end) the author kind of vaguely solves that mystery, but BARELY. Don’t create this high-drama moment if you’re NOT GOING TO FOLLOW UP WITH IT LATER. I WAS VERY CONCERNED OKAY???

FINAL WORD

Ugh. Don’t bother. This isn’t even really funny-terrible, it's just boring.