The Eleventh Plague Jeff Hirsch Audiobook Review

When I have the chance to legally download free audiobooks, I don’t turn it down. The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch read by Dan Bittner was among the first pairing offered up by SYNC this summer. The Eleventh Plague is the story of a boy, Stephen Quinn trying to survive against the odds in a world on the cusp of apocalypse.

The Eleventh Plague Jeff Hirsch Audiobook Cover

The Eleventh Plague

After P-11, which is a harsh virus, spreads and kills a large percentage of people, America’s societal structures break down. The vast majority of the remaining population survives by roving in nomadic scavenging bands. There is also an unsavory group of people called the slavers who obviously go around enslaving people. So, the nomadic lifestyle is pretty harsh, but this is the world that Stephen Quinn grows up in.

Stephen is wandering around with his dad when suddenly an incident occurs and his dad ends up in a coma. Stephen finds his way to a place called Settler’s Landing. Settler’s Landing is like blast from the past and is comprised of a group of people living together in a community taking care of each other.

Of course, there is a threat to the safety of Settler’s Landing as this happens in most YA dystopias. However, what makes a book stand out is the characters’ reactions to the threat. Unfortunately, I was not entirely riveted by Stephen. I found him fascinating in the beginning and at the end, but had a lot of trouble paying attention during the middle. I just kept zoning out, honestly thinking about things like what I am having for dinner and whether I will have to commandeer hangers for my clothes. I know, I know. Awful. Take that as you will.

The audiobook of The Eleventh Plague is narrated by Dan Bittner and is produced by Scholastic Audio. It is 7 hours and 3 minutes long. Dan Bittner’s voicing is quite earnest and matches the tone of The Eleventh Plague. I think it works very well for the book and is pleasing to my ears. Honestly, this is not my favorite audiobook by far, but also it is not the worst.

Disclosure: Downloaded for free as part of SYNC YA.

Other reviews of The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch:

Mundie Moms – “In the end this was a good read for me

The Book Smugglers – “a terse, bleak environment that is believable because it is so understated

Smash Attack Reads – “All in all, it didn’t deliver the total package

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April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.
About April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

Comments

  1. Saw your tweet about how you kept zoning out. With boring audiobooks, that totally happens. In some of them, I’ll be doing nothing but listening to it (not even multi-tasking) and I’ll realize I’ve missed a lot. Not good! I guess I’ll read a physical copy of this.

  2. I was having issues with this one too. In fact, I still haven’t gone back to it since week 1 of the downloads!

  3. ha ha, I zone out during all audio books. I almost bought this when it was on sale for kindle. The only thing that stopped me was my growing pile of the same genre-ish books. I might get to this one someday but probably not soon.

    btw, love how honest you are in your reviews. :0)

  4. I totally agree. I started listening to this, but I too found it hard to keep my attention on the audio, so I ended up just turning if off and not finishing.

  5. I think this is one of the books I downloaded from Sync but I haven’t had a chance to listen to. I laughed when you mentioned thinking about other things, because I do that too while reading and before you know it, I’ve read a page but haven’t take anything in, always a sign that a plot has lost it’s way!

  6. Wonder if you would have enjoyed it more if you had actually read the book? Sometimes I have a hard time with a book when the person reading it is not good. The cover looks great and the premise sounds interesting enough. 🙂

  7. I have this one from Sync but haven’t had a chance to listen. Sometimes I zone out with audiobooks too, maybe when the narrator’s voice has a hypnotizing quality or something, or when the protag isn’t too interesting such as in this case. It’s nice that it’s only 7 hours though – those 20-hour audiobooks are a killer. Great review, April!

  8. I grabbed this one when it was free too, so I was glad to see that you reviewed it! I honestly hadn’t heard anything about it until I saw it pop up as SYNC’s free audiobook of the week.

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