"Amazing that this was written by such a young girl"
Selma Blair did a great job of narrating this heart-wrenching story. A must-read/listen. The story shows a unique perspective of the terrors of the time, the type of problems we can hardly imagine today. Anne's fate is such a shame, she really had a great gift.
"Disturbing story, well read"
In a "Big Brother" type of scenario, this book makes me fearful that we're headed in this direction. I think that means it's effective. :)
"Pretty much a waste of 37 hours."
The only reason I gave this 3 stars is because the reader was quite good. I have no idea why this book is a classic. The story just sort of peters out at the end, like Tolstoy got tired of writing and gave up. I'm so disappointed that I invested so much time in a story that I ended up not caring about in the least.
"Loved everything about it!"
The choice to have 2 narrators for this book was fantastic and added a realism you couldn't get otherwise! I loved the story, loved the narrators. Easy and fun to listen to.
"The reading does not do this book justice..."
I read the first half of this book and just couldn't find the time to finish reading it. I got the audio book, wanting to finish the story, but I couldn't get beyond 4 hours. I love the melody of this book and Hugo's command over words and sentence structure (strange since it is a translation). Unfortunately, the reader never grasped the beauty of the words he was reading. His voice is largely monotone and uninteresting; he sounds disdainful and as if the story was causing a bad smell under his nose. Perhaps it's like Shakespeare -- difficult to read but amazing if performed by someone who both understands and loves it. It's very sad, and I hate to say it, but I don't think this reader does either. Disappointing.