Armchair Audies 2014: Teens

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy YA audiobooks? (That's a rhetorical question. Of course I have.) That's why the Teen category for the Audies is generally full of delights for me. This year was no exception.

The nominees are:

As an Armchair Audies Judge (and total expert, in my own mind) I listened to all of these, and what a pleasure it was. Of course, even without the Audies, I'd have listened to 3 of these - I'm always, always going to listen to Katherine Kellgren's narration of LA Meyers, and given how intensely I loved hearing Code Name Verity, I had no doubts that I'd want to listen to Elizabeth Wein's next in the series, even with different voice talent. And as for Rainbow Rowell's books, well. I've been knows to read first, then listen, and to listen first, then read, but always to devour them in all formats.

So, not surprisingly, given my pre-ordained love of the other authors, the two new-to-me authors had my less-favorite audios in this year's slate. Noah Galvan's reading of Matthew Quick's novel embraces the quirkiness of some of the characters and is sensitive and affecting. W Morgan Sheppard's reading of Tom McNeal's novel showed me his facility with languages and accents and emotional temperature changes. Both were so good in many ways, but they didn't cross the line into exemplary.

Also very very good was Sasha Pick's reading of Elizabeth Wein's novel, fully capturing Rose's bravado and fear and heart, as well as the fragile emotions of her fellow concentration camp internees.

But, come on, it's Katherine Kellgren not only reading LA Meyer, but narrating Jacky's adventures in Spain, with gypsies, with painters, with soldiers. Accents and singing and bull-riding and letters from Jaimy and, honestly, with half a syllable from Kellgren I could tell you whether it's Higgins or Jacky or Goya speaking, which is a remarkable feat - after ten books I feel I know the recurring characters very well, and part of that is due to her portrayal of them.

So that's phenomenal, and y'all should listen to the whole series.

But first, listen to Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra's reading of Rainbow Rowell's novel, because your heart needs it. Your mind needs it. Your sense of nostalgia, and however much of you is a music lover, and a comics nerd, and a kid who once rode the bus; all of those parts of you need it. Lowman in particular basically mind-melded with the text, making Eleanor's portions of the novel intense and painful and beautiful and real. Malhotra is quite the idealized Park voice - so sweet and always with a smile somewhere, even when he is aching. The whole thing is magic, as is the novel, and my world, knowing this book and this audiobook are around. (I rave. So what? It's my blog and I can rave if I want to.)

So the Audie goes to Eleanor & Park. So should you.

Far Far Away

Far Far Away by Tom McNeal
(Listening Library, 2013)
Format: audio download via library (narrated by W. Morgan Sheppard)

From Goodreads: "It says quite a lot about Jeremy Johnson Johnson that the strangest thing about him isn't even the fact his mother and father both had the same last name. Jeremy once admitted he's able to hear voices, and the townspeople of Never Better have treated him like an outsider since. After his mother left, his father became a recluse, and it's been up to Jeremy to support the family. But it hasn't been up to Jeremy alone. The truth is, Jeremy can hear voices. Or, specifically, one voice: the voice of the ghost of Jacob Grimm, one half of the infamous writing duo, The Brothers Grimm.

Jacob watches over Jeremy, protecting him from an unknown dark evil whispered about in the space between this world and the next. But when the provocative local girl Ginger Boultinghouse takes an interest in Jeremy (and his unique abilities), a grim chain of events is put into motion. And as anyone familiar with the Grimm Brothers know, not all fairy tales have happy endings..."
This is nominated in the 2014 Audies Teens category, which I've listened to for the Armchair Audies project. 

Jeremy Johnson Johnson is a bit of a cipher, but that's not going to stop Ginger Boultinghouse (who is a bit of a manic pixie) from working on figuring him out as he works on figuring out how to save his business and his dad and his companion-ghost Jacob Grimm works on figuring out who the Big Bad is in town. (Grimm has other-worldly knowledge that there's some sort of threat to Jeremy out there, but no one knows who that threat is.) Throughout there are allusions to various Grimm tales - children encouraged to look into big ovens, in particular - which are a fun touch. It's not the usual kind of updated fairy tale story - it's a little quirkier and a lot looser.

Mostly I liked it. It's playful and fairly well put together and as long as we can suspend all disbelief about the roles of all kinds of world-saving shenanigans run by teenagers only mildly supervised by a ghost.

Sheppard is a new-to-me narrator and was a fun listen. He makes a good multi-lingual ghost. I liked the gruffness he brought to Grimm and the brightness he brought to Ginger and the touch of menace he dropped throughout the book as our suspicions about who the Big Bad in town would be were shifted throughout the narrative.