Escape to Witch Mountain

By: Alexander Key

Narrated by: Marc Thompson

Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

With renewed interest in Alexander Key's extraordinary 1968 novel, fans can dive into Escape to Witch Mountain as it was meant to be listened to. The powerful, thrilling story of Tony and Tia - twins joined by their paranormal gifts, on the run from evil forces that seek to suppress their forgotten pasts - is more gripping and relevant than ever.

©2009 Alexander Key (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Excellent, bewitching story, animated narration

This incredible story swept me away as a kid and continues to captivate me as an adult. Key’s beautiful, heartfelt writing contains wonderful, memorable characters, as well as all the tension and suspense and mystery you could ask for. It’s a quest for identity in a broken world, where people all too often bully and ostracize those who don’t look and act like every one else. But as he handles masterfully in all his stories, Key shows both the worst and the shining best of humanity—what too many are but also what we all could become. His stories dazzle me even now.
The performer who does the reading is very animated and a master of accents and various voices which often had me laughing, although they were so over the top I found them a little distracting. And, as is often the case with cross-gender reading, I found his performance of Tia’s voice really annoying. Fortunately she doesn’t talk much. Overall very well done.
I hope in the future more of Alexander Key’s marvelous stories will be brought to Audible.

Not like the Movie

The book is not like the movie except that character names were used in the movie and that is the total extent of similarity between the two. So, if you are looking for that story in audio or print, this is not the book for you. If you want the original story, this is a decent listen. It is not great. It is not horrible. It is decent, though. I did not expect the book and movie to be the same, but the divergence here is so complete I'm surprised they bother to admit the connection. Not one of my favorite books but one I will probably listen to again sometime down the road.

Amazing book!

Possibly one of the best books I have ever read! I would definitely recommend listening to it.

Wishing for 3.5 stars again

An interesting story for tweens

Narrator - The narrator does a good job. Not the greatest and not the worst. A few mispronunciations were irritating. But that may have been the "Americanisation" of the language, who knows.

The Story - I just didn't care. These kids could have dropped off the face of the earth for all I care and the priest was just annoying. Talking about the priest, his views were certainly very out of the ordinary for a devout catholic. In fact many of the characters were just odd, like fish out of water. I do not like it when an author uses character in such obvious plot devices. Having said all of that; this book is for tweens and they may enjoy it, but it wouldn't be the first book I would give them simply because of the clumsy literature that it is.

I’ve always liked this story, but…

I remember reading this story when I was young and loving it. Truth be told, I still do so I was happy to see it available on audible. I must admit I found the narration a bit off putting. I understand that the narrator was trying to differentiate between the different character’s voices, but the accents and different tones detracted from the story rather than enhancing it. At the first “line” the narrator spoke in Tia’s voice my immediate reaction was “that’s going to get really annoying really fast.” And it did. I listened all the way through and in my humble opinion feel the narrator would have been better served by reading sans accents and simply expressed the actions of the story with voice intonation. A grown man trying to speak like a little girl, then switching to an Irish brogue, and than to an indeterminate European accent did not enhance the story. I still liked the story but I think the narration could have gone better.

Better than Disney, by far

Loved this story since the first time I read it. The voice work on this version is excellent, and the story holds up well, despite its age.

Good read.

This is a fun story. It has likable characters and a good plot. Very enjoyable.

Better than Disney

I grew up watching Disney movies, so I was familiar with this story, but the book is, as is often the case, so much better. The story is similar, but much more believable, and although I knew the ending, I couldn't stop listening! I enjoyed the narrator - I thought the voices he did were good, I loved the different accents that were done. The book showed the prejudices of the time / era, and I liked that - Disney took all of that away. I recommend this book.

Voice

Person doing the reading has a very nice story voice. Interesting little story. If you liked the movies the book is worth a listen.

Beloved childhood favorite

I remember reading this book as a child and also loving the Disney film adaptation. It still holds up and is a great story. Fantastic performance by the narrator. His accents were fabulous!