Why Did I Listen To This Book?
One thing that I have learned while participating in the bi-annual Dewey 24 Hour Readathons is that short books are key. For me, this is the one time where I feel it’s totally cool to FINALLY listen to the shorter audiobooks that I’ve scooped up for free on Audible. Friends, I have had Reaper by Rachel Vincent just chilling in my Audible library since THE DAY I GOT AUDIBLE. Yes, for real. It was free and I scooped it up and I never listened to it. This is likely because I have not read Vincent’s Soul Screamers books either. However, when the Readathon rolled around, I just dived right into this novella. It was actually a pretty okay listen.
What’s The Story Here?
Rachel Vincent’s novella is character Tod’s backstory of how he became a reaper. Basically there is a car accident that is kind of Tod’s fault and his brother is supposed to die, right. However, Tod makes the ultimate sacrifice and decides to become a reaper in order to save his brother. Reaper then follows how Tod deals with becoming someone who takes souls. We get to see him in a nursing room learning the tasks of reaping, and that’s pretty much the story. No spoilers, or anything yo.
Would I Recommend Reaper?
Honestly, yes with a caveat. You see, I was kind of out of my league with this novella as I did not really have an understanding of what was going on or the significance. THEN, I was like I bet these characters would matter or mean more to me if I had read Vincent’s Soul Screamers series. On the one hand, if you are in a readathon and numbers spur you to read like the wind, then yes, I highly recommend this one as a 24 hour readathon listen. I admit that this novella made me curious about the other books in the series and I think I will end up making more of an effort to check them out. Yo, my effort is not to be discounted as I am super lazy.
How’s The Narration?
Published by Harlequin Enterprises, LTD, Reaper is an incredibly short audiobook – it’s only 1 hour and 51 minutes unabridged. It is narrated by Anthony Hayden Salerno. Salerno has a voice that kind of reminded me of Nick Podehl’s a little bit, only his is more, teenage sounding– I suppose that is good for the purposes of this story. I did not find him grating which is the most important thing. ALTHOUGH, I was not entirely in love with his way of voicing females. Alas, you cannot win them all.
Sum It Up With A GIF:
My confusion all summed up.
Other reviews of Reaper by Rachel Vincent:
Step Into Fiction – “This novella is a perfect glimpse into Tod’s life.”
Midnight Book Thief – “full of laugh out loud moments”
Feeling Fictional – “this is a must read novella”
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LOL, April, how can you read a novella that belongs to a series without reading any books in the series first??? xDD
Ok, so this is good. I like this.
First of all, I like novella reviews. So SCORE FOR YOU.
Second of all, I kind of want to read this series, but I had resigned myself to waiting until it was completed because it is a lenthy series. I love the covers and it sounds like just a fun, indulgent series, ya know? I know my library has them so it would be fairly easy to breeze through them.
Third of all, I just checked Goodreads and this is the #3.5, so it would be a little while before I would get to it but you’re right, these shorter reads are perfect for readathons and such.
The thing is, ultimately, I’m just not sure if the series is completed yet. So I’m still waiting to start on it. But I do plan to eventually get to it. I freakin love that it was free on audible because you know I too am all over that business even if I don’t normally read those titles because HEY YOU NEVER KNOW.
Thanks for reviewing this one April! I didn’t realize there was a little novella tucked in there!
I also downloaded this and will take your recommendation to heart, which means, alas, I will not be jumping the series to the top of my pile, though I probably should since I have the first omnibus from BEA 2012, but we won’t talk about that.