Audiobook Review: Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher

The first book I remember reading by T. Kingfisher was What Moves the Dead, followed quickly by Nettle & Bone. After that, it was buying every book I could afford on digital. I even managed to get a 2nd printing special edition of the book The Halcyon Fairy Book. Basically, I see a T. Kingfisher book upcoming release and I order it, no questions asked. Well, maybe I ask if there will be some kind of special edition, now that I think about it. For Wolf Worm, I ordered my copy LAST year only for THIS year to find out there will be this amazing looking edition from a subscription book service I adore. So I ordered the super fancy edition and informed my Dad that I would be giving him a copy of T. Kingfisher's next release for Father's Day. When he understood that it was a Kingfisher book, his eyes got big and he gave me a big smile. Because yes, I have managed to get him to read T. Kingfisher books and he has loved them so far. I'll be happy to tell him this latest gothic tale had enough creepies to make my skin crawl, literally.

Wolf Worm follows Sonia Wilson as she arrives for a new job in North Carolina to work as a scientific illustrator. She has been working at a girls school as their watercolor instructor and has jumped at the chance to help Dr. Halder with illustrating his collection of insects for a book he working on. The job comes with a place in Dr. Halder's house out in the woods and when Sonia arrives, she hears stories about a devil in the woods from her driver. The more Sonia learns about her new job, the more she wonders about the person who used to do the work she did, whose illustrations are extraordinary work in their own right. Sonia also starts to notice that the animals are acting out of character, bringing to mind the warnings she has heard about "blood thiefs" in the woods. As things start to get more eerie, Sonia starts to realize that Dr. Halder has moved on from the simple studies of insects to starting experiments to help him understand more about the insects he has dedicated his life to, experiments that could destroy Sonia too if she isn't able to figure out what Halder has done and how to stop him.

Sonia was a character that again felt familiar thanks to the inner thoughts of anxiety that Kingfisher has shared with the audience. Sonia was constantly having moments of spiraling fears followed by a stern talking to that made her feel real with her thought process. This was a woman who had learned to cope with her fears and developed methods to deal with the impact of her negative thoughts and I LOVE when a character feels like someone who has real struggles. Sonia's every move, her every thought, felt real, felt familiar, felt like a woman that was in many ways just like me. I loved the way Kingfisher added in a use of diagnosing colors for Sonia to deal with the world. Sonia works as an illustrator and there were many moments of her looking at things or people and explaining the color of the paints she would use to recreate the image in her paintings. It was both a coping mechanism and a way to understand the inner workings of Sonia's mind. It was a beautiful way to fill in the colors that make up Sonia for the readers.

I loved the Kents, the housekeeper and her husband who work for Halder at his home. I loved Mrs. Kent's no nonsense attitude and I loved the stories Mr. Kent told Sonia as she was settling in and I loved the way this couple was together, a united front that took Sonia under their wings and helped her to settle in. Halder on the other hand was just murky enough to keep me on my toes. I had half the story figured out from the synopsis alone and with the way Halder was written, I could see certain things coming and was not surprised by the things he did. As discoveries were made and revealed to him, he acted the way I expected him to, which made me eager to see what would come of everything by the end of the book. That being said though, there was a twist to this book that I truly NEVER saw coming, I had absolutely no inkling this was a possibility, even with the information sprinkled in through the chapters. My skin was already crawling, I was checking all surfaces over for bugs, I was shaking my hair out and then THAT happened and I thought, okay then, moving on, but with the blanket over my hair to make sure nothing lands on me in the dark.

The work on this production was in a word, perfect. First of all, when I heard Mary Robinette Kowal state her name, I immediately rewound the audio and listened again because while I vaguely remembered that Kowal was an audiobook narrator, I had not listened to one of her works as a narrator. I also can't forget to mention that I have several of Kowal's own books in my library, specifically the Lady Astronaut series and my personal favorite, Ghost Talkers. After that I was immediately enthralled by the performance because Kowal is just that good. Every character had their own voice, a cadence, an accent and even a pitch that made it easy for me to understand who each character was without getting lost once. I felt like I was listening to an ensemble cast instead of just ONE narrator giving a flawless performance. The pacing was perfect and the delivery was clear. Kowal was able to convey the emotions of every character with easy inflections, from Sonia's anxiety to Mrs. Kent's calculating observations and even Halder's menacing moments. I will be listening to more audiobooks performed by Kowal, it was just a truly brilliant performance and I'm still in awe of it.

The production of the audiobook itself was perfect as well. All of the audio was even, the transitions between chapters and the editing, the sound, the volume, everything was exquisitely done. I've sometimes been able to pick up on when audio has been looped together but with this book, I MIGHT have heard ONE change but it was literally blink and you miss it, I didn't even bother to make a note of the location because it was so slight I can't even be sure I heard anything. Macmillan Audio, you have outdone yourselves with this work, it is superbly done, I bow down to everyone involved in the creation of this audiobook. Seriously, job EXTREMELY well done. I've made a note that if an audiobook comes from Macmillan Audio, I should try to get a copy to listen to because the work they do is just amazing, you forget you are listening to a book and just kept swept away by the words. I've only come to the world of audiobooks in the last year or so but I'm so grateful to have found audiobooks, especially when they are done as well as THIS BOOK was done.

Rating on my Scale: 10 Stars for T. Kingfisher. I can't wait to get my copy of the hardcover to put on my shelves and I hope to get a copy of the audiobook as well in the future. Listening to books while doing everything during the day is quickly becoming my go-to for everyday tasks.

My thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio and T. Kingfisher for the audiobook of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

Book Review: Devious Prey by Scott Reintgen

At the start of this book, I was ready for the adventure. The way it opened hooked my attention and the characters were interesting. I really, REALLY, liked this book. This is the first book I've tried from Scott Reintgen and I have plans to try reading more of his books. That being said, I'm still wondering about some things. Is this going to be a series? Will there be more books set in this world? Inquiring minds need to know.

Devious Prey starts with the death of an airship's windmaster, who helps control the course the ship takes as it travels. With the death, the airship is overtaken in a storm and crash lands on an island that according to the maps, should not be there. The survivors of the crew and passengers try to come to terms with their crash and what they need to do to survive until rescue arrives, except that a dragoness is also on the island with them. The dragoness was in the hold of the ship and escaped during the crash. Now it has decided to hunt the survivors to ensure its freedom. The only hope the survivors have lie with a young woman, Pearl, who helped smuggle the dragoness onto the ship and a young man, Marken, with a military escort on his way to answer for dangerous crimes. The pair of them have to learn to trust each other with the truths about their pasts in the hopes of having a future.

The story starts off fast, with everyone on the ship on their way to the next destination. Pearl and Marken are both in the midst of the turmoil on the ship. Marken is a chained up wizard who is unable to use his power to help save the ship from the crash. Pearl is on edge because of what she and her aunt have hidden in the hold of the ship. When the windmaster starts struggling, Pearl tries her best to step in and help when no one else makes a move. This is where the deviation between the characters start to take place. Pearl doesn't know what she is doing but she tries to help anyways and she is just a kid compared to the captain, the crew members and some of the passengers. Marken wants to help with the safety of the ship now that they are at the mercy of the storm but at the same time believes he can take control of the ship so he can get away from the warden and the guards who are in charge of his capture.

I liked Pearl and Marken, they stood out from the rest of the cast of characters with their actions. I did like Marken more than Pearl though because Marken had more of a tendency to be transparent with his thoughts compared to Pearl. I could understand Pearl's motivations but only to a certain extent. However, the rest of the cast just seem to be there. I've just finished this book and I can only recall a handful of character names because they all only did so much with the story. I know the name of Pearl's aunt, who was partnered with Pearl in the smuggling business. I know the name of some of Marken's guards and a couple of the crew. That's the extent of it though. There was even a joke in the book where Pearl was unable to remember some of the crew member's names and I thought, yeah, that's the long and the short of it.

I thought the ideas behind the dragoness was one of the most interesting parts of the story. The reasons for why they were smuggling the dragoness and what it's purpose was now that it was on the island were very interesting. The powers the dragoness had were also very unique. That being said, readers don't get to see enough of her threat to the survivors as she spends a lot of her time in hiding to "study" her prey. I wanted to know more about the dragoness and what she knew of herself and where there were others like her. For such an interesting threat, she did not spend enough time on the page.

Which brings me to the rest of the threats on the island. Marken's guards are military and determined to be in charge but they are making foolish decisions. The crew is led by a young woman and her sister who don't like the guards but we don't get much more information than that about their motivations, what led them to be on the ship, what role they had when they still worked on the airship or even how is it that the rest of the crew is so quick to defer to them in this quest for survival. In the end, because of the lack of information about the other survivors, the story felt a little cut and dry. The threats are there but they are dealt with quickly and then the story moves on. I think the best way to describe it is there was almost a lack of tension. Events happen and then the story just continues on.

Also, there were little asides about characters that felt like they'd lead to interesting developments but nothing happened with these things. Pearl's aunt needs medication but it was lost in the crash and she called Pearl by a different name. I think it was supposed to be linked to health issues that the aunt and Pearl's mother both have but I wanted to know more about what this was concerning and it gets lost in the background of the story. Was it actually a serious head injury making her mix things up, like Pearl thought, or was it the lack of medicine? It seemed to be meant to add to the concerns that Pearl had to contend with but the story moves on without more focus on it. I guess it wasn't THAT important but it's still rumbling around in my head so there you go. Then there was Marken who is at odds with the warden who has captured him and there are conversations that make it sound like the warden has more information about Marken than he should be able to know and AGAIN, it's left to the side. The book had a few of these things that seemed to be meant to create more problems for the leads but as intriguing as they are, there's no resolution to these things. It left me feeling a little bereft as a result. I also wanted to understand the magic system better. How do they find the people who have magic to train them? What kind of importance do they have to the country? What responsibilities do they have? How many of them are there, how do they govern themselves? And so on with my questions, you see what I mean.

The resolution was very imaginative with how the survivors manage to deal with the dragoness. That's a big plus for this book and the reason why I'm interested in finding Reintgen's other books. Still, as much as I liked this book, I was expecting more with everything after the big opening with the storm and then the crash. As a result, I LIKED this book but I didn't end up loving it as much as I hoped I would.

Rating on my scale: 7.5 Stars. This is a great adventure story and as I was reading it, the book kept my attention riveted. At the same time, I feel like there was room for more to make me truly care about how this group was going to survive. Very respectable and I hope to read more from Reintgen in the future.

My thanks to Netgalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and Scott Reintgen for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.