A review by jenbsbooks
Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier
4.0
This was only available from my library as an audiobook ... but I'm so glad I experienced it this way! Set it Sydney, the narrators did use very strong accents to emphasis the location and time. It was very effective and pulled me into this world much more than I feel would have happened if left to my own imagination. I would have loved to have a digital "print" copy I could have peeked at too though.
There were three narrators, two women and one man. Now most books with multiple narrators (in my limited audio experience) assign one narrator to one character/POV. Almost a requirement with alternating male/female POVs, especially if in first person. Here though, it was a 3rd person POV. While the focus of the story would shift, featuring Kelphie's or Dymphna feelings, thoughts, background stories and perspective, I don't know it was necessary to switch out narrators. In fact, I must admit, I didn't even realize there were two different women narrators until the end when the credits came across. And while the male narrator tended to voice when the perspective shifted a bit to some of the male characters, he seemed to read some of the Dymphna chapters too. Some chapters would be labeled Dymphna or Kelpie, featuring their focus, while other chapters had a "title" heading. So while in other audiobooks, a change in voice really added and was necessary, here I felt any one of the narrators could have read the whole thing ... although I didn't mind the switch up either. They were all good.
For the story itself ... really not much time passes from the start to the finish, really, just a day? But there is a lot of backstory/memories added in, and we do get to know these two girls quite well. Normally I'd say I don't like so much skipping around (in time/perspectives/etc) but I just enjoyed this! In addition to the interesting tale of the gang war, both of these girls and see ghosts, adding a bit of the paranormal, although it really doesn't feel like a paranormal tale.
This is marketed as YA. The protagonists are both young women, although Dymphna comes across as much older and Kelpie much younger.. However, there is a lot of proFanity in the book, Dymphna is a "working woman" (and VERY good at it) ... nothing explicit, but quite a bit of talking about sex. Violence too. So ... just something to keep in mind from a parental perspective.
There were three narrators, two women and one man. Now most books with multiple narrators (in my limited audio experience) assign one narrator to one character/POV. Almost a requirement with alternating male/female POVs, especially if in first person. Here though, it was a 3rd person POV. While the focus of the story would shift, featuring Kelphie's or Dymphna feelings, thoughts, background stories and perspective, I don't know it was necessary to switch out narrators. In fact, I must admit, I didn't even realize there were two different women narrators until the end when the credits came across. And while the male narrator tended to voice when the perspective shifted a bit to some of the male characters, he seemed to read some of the Dymphna chapters too. Some chapters would be labeled Dymphna or Kelpie, featuring their focus, while other chapters had a "title" heading. So while in other audiobooks, a change in voice really added and was necessary, here I felt any one of the narrators could have read the whole thing ... although I didn't mind the switch up either. They were all good.
For the story itself ... really not much time passes from the start to the finish, really, just a day? But there is a lot of backstory/memories added in, and we do get to know these two girls quite well. Normally I'd say I don't like so much skipping around (in time/perspectives/etc) but I just enjoyed this! In addition to the interesting tale of the gang war, both of these girls and see ghosts, adding a bit of the paranormal, although it really doesn't feel like a paranormal tale.
This is marketed as YA. The protagonists are both young women, although Dymphna comes across as much older and Kelpie much younger.. However, there is a lot of proFanity in the book, Dymphna is a "working woman" (and VERY good at it) ... nothing explicit, but quite a bit of talking about sex. Violence too. So ... just something to keep in mind from a parental perspective.