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A review by eldritchreader
The June Boys by Court Stevens
3.0
The story
There was something enchanting and intriguing about The June Boys. There was also something dull and disappointing.
The concept of a mysterious person religiously kidnapping children is something that immediately had me interested in this new release by Court Stevens. It spoke to a dark and ongoing story - something with depth and background and suspense. But the execution just wasn't there.
Our main characters, Thea, her friends and her family were overall pretty dull. Yes, her father had this weird quirky thing with a castle. Which, I honestly still don't get. But, there was no depth to the odd father-figure, or any other, character.
The story itself was interesting. I enjoyed the twists and the conjecture of whodunnit. But the story was nowhere close to a thrilling story. Even the sections of the story where we encounter the perspective of the captive boys was - underwhelming.
And then there was the ending. Which honestly, while I didn't straight-up hate it, just felt incredibly out-of-left-field.
The narration
While I was lucky enough to get access to both an eARC and an audiobook edition, I primarily picked this story up with the latter.
The narration was entertaining enough, but it didn't save the slowness of the story. With a cast of characters, I was carried throughout the story fairly easily.
My biggest concern with the audio, however, was the jumpy-ness between different story perspectives. Quite often, I felt lost and felt myself trying to figure out which perspective I was listening to. Despite having a cast of narrators, I still seemed a couple of steps behind between switching of perspectives.
Overall, I did enjoy the story. But with my initial interest and anticipation from the blurb, I was disappointed at not-thrilling the story ended up being.
Thank you to Libro.FM, NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC and audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review!
There was something enchanting and intriguing about The June Boys. There was also something dull and disappointing.
The concept of a mysterious person religiously kidnapping children is something that immediately had me interested in this new release by Court Stevens. It spoke to a dark and ongoing story - something with depth and background and suspense. But the execution just wasn't there.
Our main characters, Thea, her friends and her family were overall pretty dull. Yes, her father had this weird quirky thing with a castle. Which, I honestly still don't get. But, there was no depth to the odd father-figure, or any other, character.
The story itself was interesting. I enjoyed the twists and the conjecture of whodunnit. But the story was nowhere close to a thrilling story. Even the sections of the story where we encounter the perspective of the captive boys was - underwhelming.
And then there was the ending. Which honestly, while I didn't straight-up hate it, just felt incredibly out-of-left-field.
The narration
While I was lucky enough to get access to both an eARC and an audiobook edition, I primarily picked this story up with the latter.
The narration was entertaining enough, but it didn't save the slowness of the story. With a cast of characters, I was carried throughout the story fairly easily.
My biggest concern with the audio, however, was the jumpy-ness between different story perspectives. Quite often, I felt lost and felt myself trying to figure out which perspective I was listening to. Despite having a cast of narrators, I still seemed a couple of steps behind between switching of perspectives.
Overall, I did enjoy the story. But with my initial interest and anticipation from the blurb, I was disappointed at not-thrilling the story ended up being.
Thank you to Libro.FM, NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC and audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review!