Interesting variation, made unbearable by the narrator

While the story itself was very original (I have read more than my share of P & P variations) and I have listened to hundreds of audible books, the narrator was without question absolutely terrible. She spoke so slowly and breathily, and with so many odd inflections, particularly at the end of every single sentence, that I was forced to increase the speed of narration to even try to listen. Worse, she quite literally has a speech defect that caused her to mispronounce every word ending in “d” or its cognate, “t” so that it sounded like a soft “th”, making, for example, “did” become “dith.” Do you know how many words end this way? I will be certain NEVER to buy another book narrated by “ Mary Sarah” or “Mary Sarah Agliotta. “

5 people found this helpful

Mixed feelings

the story was very good and I loved the reimagining of characters. Narration was insipid had to ran it at 1.15 speed to listen to it. I'll not be buying any books she narrates.

3 people found this helpful

DON'T waste a credit, seriously horrible narration

OK - so I was that person, you know you ready the "this is a bad narrator" comments and think, well I'm just gonna try. There have been so many times that has worked for me, where I find that narrator annoying, but by mid book you get used to it. This story is SO GOOD, the bad narration is a travesty. I'll clarify, I don't think the narrator herself is horrible, she has a pleasant voice in some ways (despite adding a th to tend of every sentence - throughout the ENTIRE book, ugh). I'm sure she would be great for other books. But for this one, she read the book too slow (had to listen at 1.25 speed to even make it bearable), every single voice is done in a soft sing-songy style, witty conversations were performed with no inflection and no humor, no style - they were all droll and boring. And there were so many great conversations in this story.

So disappointing -- PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE re-record this book with Stevie Zimmerman or Elizabeth Klett 🙏 I have over 50 PP variations in my library, I adore them. With the right narrator, I'm convinced this would be one of my absolute favorites. One I would listen to again and again! Please re-record!!!!

So - until (if) it is re-recorded, buy the book. Don't take a chance like me thinking you can put up with it, I promise you it's NOT worth it.

2 people found this helpful

Where was Stevie Zimmerman???

This was a great story, and I will look for more by Jann Rowland. If it is narrated, again, by Ms Sarah I may hesitate however in using a credit.

Please listen at 1.25 (minimum) and be prepared for extended pauses, even at that speed, and what can only be described as a lisping sound. Although, it is not a true lisp as there are also other hard consonant sounds and very long A sounds. For example, Aunt Is pronounced Ont, dispatch is disspadch, purpose is purrposs, not is nawwt, active is ocktive, and I have no idea how many Ts are at the end of Bennet.🧐😂

Had it not been such a good story, I would not have gotten through it.

2 people found this helpful

Nice Take on P&P

The story itself is good. The narrator has a beautiful and soothing voice. However, she seems to have an affected lisp that is irritating. I would be interested to see if she does the same in other books.

2 people found this helpful

Narrator is a wrong fit

Great story. Horrible whispering narration with lots of dramatic pausing. Please rerelease this book with a new narrator. She has a lovely voice, but the performance is way off. Do yourself a favor and listen to the sample before you buy.

1 person found this helpful

Excellent story - painful narration

I loved this variation. Lots of excitement and a completely new personality for all the character’s. Delightful! However the narrator’s interpretation was very grating. Her cadence was so strange and drawn out that the only way I could get through this book was by speeding up to 1.3. Still well worth it!

1 person found this helpful

The narrator is distracting

The overall story is a good one and quite unique. But given this is an audiobook, the narration can be just as important.
The narrator’s inflection is often odd for the action in the book. Her tone of voice doesn’t change much even is someone is shouting. I found myself needing to turn the volume up significantly because she almost whispers at times. But turning up the volume allows the listener to hear a most distracting lisp. Any word ending in -ed or -t sounds like “th”.
Goodness! Most distracting.

1 person found this helpful

Excellent story!

Have listened to this story now twice. Clean story, different from the original, but with many of the known characters. Will read again!

Would that I'd listened to a sample

I very much liked the story and the author and purchased on the strength of this. But, it's ruined by the narrator's voice.