Audiobook Review: eMortal by Steve Schafer
eMortal
Author: Steve Schafer
Narrators:
Rebecca H. Lee
Stacy Carolan
Published: November 15, 2024
Audiobook: 8 hours 35 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: February 17-22, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
She made him. He’s just code. She’s almost sure.
…But what if he’s real?
When Liv entered a contest to code an advanced AI, she never anticipated what her creation might become-Breck is thoughtful, self-aware, and incredibly. . .human. And she certainly never intended for him to learn the truth about his existence or the fact that his world ends when the contest closes in six days.
But he does learn. And he revolts.
Liv’s efforts to save him fall on deaf ears. Nobody believes her. Breck’s efforts to outrun his fate only complicate his situation.
What neither of them know is that someone else is watching. Intensely. When they get involved, both Liv’s and Breck’s worlds are turned upside down. . .
Jessica’s Review:
This book was an unexpected surprise. I went in not expecting much and this book ended up being a complete 180 from that. It was such an engrossing novel! I never expected it to go in the direction it went in. eMortal leaves you thinking about where we are very quickly going with AI and sentience. The machines are alive: Or are they? Skynet is coming for you… And we are doomed! AI can have… feelings!?!?!
Liv has entered a contest to code an advance AI and the winner receives a glorious internship that she could only dream of. The contest is nearing the end and her creation Breck is seemingly becoming self-aware, has deep thoughts, and just seems human. But Breck is not aware that when the contest is over, so is he.
We have dual narrations of both Liv and Breck, the AI she created. We see Liv’s home life and with Breck we see the challenges he is working on for the contest. All while seemingly becoming more ‘real’.
Both narrations were intriguing for me, but Breck takes it all. You can see him evolving into something, and he begins to question so many things. I adored Breck, while his and Liv’s situations leave you thinking. There are so many thoughts this book leaves you with such as Who Am I?, Why are we (humans) here?, and Can AI learn and develop emotions? Are they truly alive?
The narrators both did an extraordinary job. Rebecca H. Lee was great a Liv while Stacy Carolan was perfect as Breck for me!
The surprising direction the book takes just adds to the thoughts the book leaves you with. This was my first book by Schafer and I really glad I came across it. Many thanks to the publisher BooksGoSocial for offering it on NetGalley as a “Listen Now”. I might not have ever found this book otherwise.
Something fun for you to do, which I also did: If you go on the author’s website you can actually converse with Breck. He will ask you lots of questions!
eMortal is a must read!
This is Breck on the author’s website. Feel free to converse with him!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audiobook Review: Everything We Never Said by Sloan Harlow
Everything We Never Said
Author: Sloan Harlow
Narrators:
Steven Molony
Ferdelle Capistrano
Brittany Pressley
Published: May 28, 2024
Audiobook: 9 hours 14 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened: January 17-24 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
What you don’t know can hurt you….
It’s been months since the accident that killed Ella’s best friend, Hayley, and Ella can’t stop blaming herself. Now, Ella is back at school, and everywhere she looks are reminders of her best friend—including Sawyer, Hayley’s boyfriend. Little by little, they grow closer, until Ella realizes something horrifying…
She’s in love with her dead best friend’s boyfriend.
Racked with guilt, Ella turns to Hayley’s journal, hoping she’ll find something in the pages that will make her feel better about what’s happening. Instead, she discovers that Sawyer has secrets of his own, and that his relationship with Hayley wasn’t as picture-perfect as it seemed.
Ella knows she should stay away but finds herself inextricably drawn to him—and scared of everything she never knew about him. Perhaps it’s his grief. Or maybe his desires, cut short by tragedy. Or could it be something twisted only Hayley knew about?
Jessica’s Review:
This one is my first five star read of 2025! It is a mix of my two top genres: YA and Suspense/Thriller. It’s more of a mix of those genres with some romance added in. It does get a slight bit steamy, just the YA version of 16/17-year-olds doing what 16/17-year-olds do.
We have two narrators: Ella and Sawyer. Ella and Hayley were best friends and Ella blames herself for Hayley’s death while Sawyer was Hayley’s boyfriend. We also get to know Hayley through diary entries. Over time Ella and Sawyer become close and then fall for each other. But over time Ella begins to read Hayley’s diary and begins to realize things may not have been what they seemed.
Grief and domestic abuse are themes in this novel and could be triggering to readers. The book takes place in Georgia and Harlow is also from the state so I enjoyed the many references being from Georgia myself! Authors from Georgia that mention locations in Georgia get a plus in my reading! It helps me identify with the characters more.
Everything is a fast-moving novel and yes, I figured out the ‘whodunnit’ 66% of the way in, but not the why this person did what they did. I still had a surprise when I got to that. But then…. To quote Samuel L Jackson, “hold on to your butts” the reader is in for another big twist later on!
I really enjoyed Everything We Never Said. There are three narrators to it. The guy narrator had to ‘grow’ on me. I didn’t really like him, but the two female narrators did great. Brittany Pressley narrated Hayley’s diary entries and did a fabulous job!
I will be looking into Harlow’s future novels!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
ALC Review: What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould
What the Woods Took
Author: Courtney Gould
Narrator: Lindsey Dorcus
To Be Published: December 10, 2024
Audiobook: 12 hours 28 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: November 19-24, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
Yellowjackets meets Girl, Interrupted when a group of troubled teens in a wilderness therapy program find themselves stranded in a forest full of monsters eager to take their place.
Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction—one everyone but Devin signed up for. She’s shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she’s dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they’ve all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program. If the campers can learn to change their self-destructive ways—and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness—they’ll come out the other side as better versions of themselves. Or so the counselors say.
Devin is immediately determined to escape. She’s also determined to ignore Sheridan, the cruel-mouthed, lavender-haired bully who mocks every group exercise. But there’s something strange about these woods—inhuman faces appearing between the trees, visions of people who shouldn’t be there flashing in the leaves—and when the campers wake up to find both counselors missing, therapy becomes the least of their problems. Stranded and left to fend for themselves, the teens quickly realize they’ll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other—and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive.
Atmospheric and sharp, What the Woods Took is a poignant story of transformation that explores the price of becoming someone—or something—new.
Jessica’s Review:
I was intrigued by this novel when I saw there was a comparison to Yellowjackets and Girl Interrupted, so I had to read it, or listen to it in my case. I have never seen Girl Interrupted but love Yellowjackets, so there we go! What the Woods Took is a coming-of-age tale with survival added in the mix. The teens don’t go Lord of the Flies (Poor Piggy!) or forced into cannibalism like in Yellowjackets, but it is a fight for survival against literal monsters.
What the Woods Took starts with an intensity with Devin being taken against her will and it was delivered in just a way to pull you in and keep you interested. We have a small group of five at risk teens who are ‘enrolled’ in a wilderness therapy program without being told and two counselors not much older than them. This group made up of three girls and two boys with a variety of backgrounds and personalities that show through. This is not a spoiler as it is mentioned in the book’s description, but once the counselors go missing the teens are left fend for themselves and survive together.
This book was something. Gould did a very good job bringing the story and characters to life: She could pull the reader into the story with the descriptions: Everything could be pictured and she also gives a sense of heightened urgency. And these teens: As they come together as a group, you could see how they grow as individuals.
The biggest thing for me that frustrated me once the counselors had disappeared was that the group decided to continue forward on the trail. I found myself saying “Just turn around! You know what to expect that way! Going forward is totally unknown!” I mean they would have found civilization at some point sooner rather than later. But then if they had done that then we would not have had this story and the direction it went.
The narrator Lindsey Dorcus did a great job with her narration. I was pulled in and wanted to know what was going to happen and reach the ending. This was despite the chapters being longer than normal for a YA book.
Overall, a good book that teens will enjoy. Yes, there is the starting of a lesbian relationship, but it is a smaller detail as the main focus is the teens working to survive.
Many thanks to the publisher for granting me an advanced copy to listen to and review.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
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