Mark Twain wrote: In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards.
Category: Suspense
Average Rating: 4.0
A terrible accident. A horrible loss. A regrettable tragedy. That's all anyone in Fenix can talk about when a fire consumes the local high school, taking the life of a student. The town mourns, except who really knew--let alone cared about--Eden when she was alive? And why was she in the building that night?
Five teens each hold a piece of the truth about what happened. They also have their own secrets, secrets they will fight to protect with the same fury as the blaze that killed Eden. But silence is meant to be broken, and this story can't be extinguished...
Rating: 4
After We Burned by Marieke Nijkamp is a compelling contemporary novel that combines emotional depth with an underlying sense of suspense. The story unfolds through multiple points of view while moving back and forth in time, but each chapter is clearly labeled with both the character and the timeline, making it easy to follow. Rather than relying on constant action, the novel is driven by its characters and the gradual revelation of their relationships, motivations, and past decisions. The result is a moving story that kept me engaged until its satisfying conclusion.
The audiobook is narrated by Helen Laser, Laura Knight Keating, Taylor Meskimen and Avi Roque. The narration is somewhat uneven but overall enjoyable. The narrator portraying Eden delivers an outstanding performance, bringing genuine emotion and personality to the character. Theo's narrator, on the other hand, occasionally felt off in both pacing and inflection, making some scenes less natural than they might have been. The other two narrators provide solid, dependable performances that fit their characters well. One minor distraction throughout the production is that none of the narrators seem to agree on how to pronounce "Fenix," resulting in inconsistent pronunciations from chapter to chapter.
Overall, this is an engaging, character-focused audiobook with memorable characters, emotional weight, and enough suspense to keep the pages--or in this case, the hours--turning. Despite a few inconsistencies in the narration, it's a rewarding listen with a conclusion that feels well earned.
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