Excellent book,very good characters.

I really enjoyed this audio book.Its certainly light

years better than the film adaptation too ,so if you've seen the film first you may be surprised how much better the book is.

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Surprised that listeners found this scary...

I purchased this book on the strength of the reviews but after finishing it (today), I'm, genuinely surprised that people found it scary. I love books with suspense and chills, rather than gore, but Adam Nevill seems to be channelling over used topics (lost in the woods), clichéd characters and both repetitive descriptive words (if I heard "verdure" one more time, I'd have screamed in pain, not horror!) and story progression.

I wanted to like it, honestly, I tried... going in with an open mind and a friendly disposition to the narrative style and placement of the story (a dense Northern forest) but it just fell flat; so much so that when the narrator said "Part 2", I sighed in agony of only reaching a mid-point. If the book achieved anything, it did, although unintended, relay the feeling of monotony and desperation that the characters felt when lost in the woods... 'when will this journey end!' I too wanted it to be over and only continued on because I'm a completist and kept hoping it would get a little better.

I won't say much more about the story itself because I'd like to avoid spoiling it for others who decide they want to read it but I'd be surprised if anyone who enjoys this genre finds anything new or interesting in The Ritual. Predictable, repetitive and feeling like 'horror-by-numbers', it is hard to recommend and I think most people would struggle to find it enthralling and scary, even were they to be reading it in a tent, in the middle of a forest, at night.

Lastly, David Thorpe's narration was good - he does his best with the source material and I only have one, very minor, criticism. I found the sing-song nature with which he says the chapter and number (think happy voice!) at odds with the tone he was trying to set with his narration (which is pretty obvious given the genre). In my opinion, it broke any tension that there was building up and brought you right back to where you were, rather than getting swept away with the story. Given that I already struggled to find the narrative engaging, this only added to the lack of engagement.

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great listen

Would you listen to The Ritual again? Why?

yeah definitely, the narrator really made this book for me, great job!

What other book might you compare The Ritual to, and why?

I've not read a book like this one, but the closest thing i can compare it to is the Blair witch project

Which scene did you most enjoy?

still in the process of listening to it. The scene where Luke and Dom are arguing in the tent, gave a little giggle.

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fantastic

I was gripped from start to finish. the story and the narrator worked so well together

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A great audiobook, with one issue...

I really enjoyed this book, but be warned, there is a twist in the tale and I feel like people will be either side of the fence with it. For me it worked well and was an interesting way to take the story, but it's a big departure from the first half of the story.

The narration is perfect apart from two things. One, a minor gripe but a pronunciation mistake occurs a few times. The second issue - the chapter announcements! Way to throw off the atmosphere, a hugely tense scene occurs followed by a super enthusiastic and cheerful "CHAPTER 6". This book has a lot of tense set pieces and the chapter announcements killed it for me, made it pretty comical at times.

Bearing in mind those points, I thought this was a great marriage of a good novel and a great read.

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Re-lighted a fire in me for story writing.

If you haven't read this book do it now, espully because there is a high change u have already had the ending spoiled because of the movie but if u haven't like me it's amazing and watching the movie after the book is great, really shows u how good the book is at capturing the atmosphere and situation they are in. After this book I can stop writing and I love it. Way better than movie but the movie is still great but I would advice to get this book read. Amazing.

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gripping paranormal thriller

a good read but rather samey after a while. plot tends to drag on for longer than necessary and a rather dubious ending.

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3 people found this helpful

Brilliant Narrator

Good horror book with a fantastic narrator. Had a knack for accents and made it easy to discern the different characters throughout and really brought them to life. Yhoroughly enjoyed it!

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2 people found this helpful

Awful narration!

Narrator did not suit the tone of the book. A darker grittier voice would have been perfect.
This narrator could easy be a guy in a pub chatting to his mates. That kind of chatty vibe and pitch. Just did not suit at all. Spoiled the audiobook for me. The story was very good though!

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I'm not sure what I expected but I didn't get it.

Before I bought this book, I read the reviews and I was excited.
However, having waded through it, as if I were in that dark forest, I was sadly disappointed.
The story begins and ends without explanation.
The narration did not help.
The book left too many questions unanswered for it to be satisfying.

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