Audiobook Review: The List by Kiersten Modglin
The List
Author: Kiersten Modglin
Narrators:
Jennifer Jill Araya
David Bendena
Michael Crouch
First Published: April 3, 2019
To Be Published in Audio: August 22, 2023
Audiobook: 7 Hours 44 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: August 7-10, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Audiobook Description:
Ten years ago, the small town of Bates, South Carolina was changed forever with the appearance of a slip of paper:
Six names.
Six people set to die.
Six months later, they were gone. But the list maker was far from done with their town.
Like clockwork, new lists come out every six months. To keep their names off of them, the citizens go to extraordinary lengths and keep terrifying secrets.
Someone is controlling their town. But who? And, most importantly, why?
When Connor and Jordyn Atwood move to Bates, they see firsthand how far their new neighbors are willing to go to protect themselves. Will the Atwoods succumb to their newfound surroundings? Or will they fight to protect the town they now call their home?
With everything at stake and no one to trust, the Atwoods quickly learn the list maker has one important rule: do what you’re told…or find your name on The List.
Jessica’s Review:
The premise of this one sounded interesting and I thought it was going to be like an updated version of The Lottery, but it is not! You have to drop all believability with this one as it just isn’t possible and then go along for the ride that is The List.
It has been available in e-book and physical copies for a while, but is new to the audiobook format as of August 22nd, and I received an alc. Once I received it, I found out that there are multiple narrators with one of them being Michael Crouch; I got excited as he is one of the narrators I am on the lookout for! His narration was a smaller role, but all three did a fantastic job! Jennifer Jill Araya gave us the voice of Jordyn and David Bendena also was fantastic as the villain!
Connor and Jordyn Atwood move to Bates not knowing about ‘the list’. Every 6 months a list comes out with six names on it… And those people die in the order of the list itself. Over time Jordyn becomes entangled in a web of ‘What’s going on’, ‘WHY is this happening’, ‘Why these names?’ and, ‘We must stop it!’. Other than that, I can’t say much about the story. The types of people on the list become apparent early on, and in others reviews the reviewer gives this away. But I do the most I can without giving spoilers in my reviews. The particular persons on the list could also be a trigger warning for some.
I was pulled into the story and what was going to happen! I became frustrated why no one does anything or why don’t people just leave? That gets answered. The who and why are answered as well in the last act, and remember… It’s just not plausible for this to happen in real life, so just go with it and enjoy the novel!
I really did enjoy this one. Many thanks to the publisher for granting me an alc to listen to and review!
The Fifth to Die #4MK
Author: J.D. Barker
Published: July 10, 2018
416 pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: July 2- 15, 2018
Jessica’s Rating: 4.5 stars
Book Description:
In the thrilling sequel to The Fourth Monkey, a new serial killer stalks the streets of Chicago, while Detective Porter delves deeper into the dark past of the Four Monkey Killer.
Detective Porter and the team have been pulled from the hunt for Anson Bishop, the Four Monkey Killer, by the feds. When the body of a young girl is found beneath the frozen waters of Jackson Park Lagoon, she is quickly identified as Ella Reynolds, missing three weeks. But how did she get there? The lagoon froze months earlier. More baffling? She’s found wearing the clothes of another girl, missing less than two days. While the detectives of Chicago Metro try to make sense of the quickly developing case, Porter secretly continues his pursuit of 4MK, knowing the best way to find Bishop is to track down his mother. When the captain finds out about Porter’s activities, he’s suspended, leaving his partners Clair and Nash to continue the search for the new killer alone.
Obsessed with catching Bishop, Porter follows a single grainy photograph from Chicago to the streets of New Orleans and stumbles into a world darker than he could have possibly imagined, where he quickly realizes that the only place more frightening than the mind of a serial killer is the mind of the mother from which he came.
Jessica’s Review:
My review of The Fourth Monkey, the first in the series is here.
J.D. Barker is back with The Fifth to Die, sequel to The Fourth Monkey (4MK). This is another brilliant novel in the series. Be warned in advance: there is a cliffhanger to this one…. I need the third (and possibly final??? ) book now! I really like Detective Porter and Bishop is just frightening and now we see where he gets it from: His mother!
I would say you could read The Fifth to Die before 4MK, but I would not recommend it at all! You would see what’s going on as this novel goes into the past some, BUT you would miss so many of the details and you NEED to know 4MK’s gruesome background! You will not understand the brutality or how extreme of a sociopath Bishop is without reading 4MK.
There is quite the punch of activities that occur in a short amount of time in Fifth. We have multiple POVs and more than one bad guy. The mystery with what is going on with the girls keeps you reading wondering what will happen next. And thank you J.D. Barker for totally freaking me out by the overdose one character dies of: I am currently taking that medication!!
Bishop is fast becoming a favorite serial killer of mine and I look forward to see what Barker brings us next in this series. I just hope it isn’t too long!
The reason I rated The Fifth to Die 4.5 stars (rounded up to five for Goodreads, Amazon, etc) was that I personally wanted more of Bishop in the novel. His presence wasn’t as high in this one as I wanted. BUT we do get another frightening serial killer! J.D. Barker, how do you come up with these characters in your mind?????
Special thanks to the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and J.D. Barker for my arc copies!
The Fifth to Die is highly recommended!
Giveaway Alert!!!:
**Be sure to go to Jessica’s Reading Room on Facebook for a chance to win a SIGNED arc copy of The Fifth to Die sent to me by J.D. Barker!! It runs through Saturday morning!!!!
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