The Labrador Pact

By: Matt Haig

Narrated by: Simon Jones

Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

The story of a family in crisis and the loyal dog that holds them together, from the witty, imaginative author of The Dead Fathers Club.

The Hunters - Adam, Kate, and their children Hal and Charlotte - are a typical family, with typical concerns: work, money, love, the trials of adolescence. What sets them apart is Prince, their black Labrador.

Prince is an earnest and determined young dog. He strives to live up to the tenets of the Labrador Pact: Duty Over All. Other dogs, led by the springer spaniels, have revolted, but Prince takes his responsibilities seriously. As things in the Hunter family begin to go awry - marital breakdown, rowdy teenage parties, attempted suicide - he uses every canine resource to keep the clan together. In the end, Prince must choose: the family or the Pact? His decision may cost him everything.

Wry, perceptive, and heartbreaking, The Labrador Pactis a cunning and original take on domestic life, with an improbably poignant narrator.

©2004 Matt Haig (P)2008 HighBridge Company. Recorded by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Critic reviews

"Clearly destined to become a cult hit. I only wish my dog had thought of it first." (Daily Mail)
"Highly engrossing, hilarious yet heart-breaking." (Ink Magazine)
"A comic tour de force." (The Times of London)

tough ending

I knew what I was getting into, but
spoilers:

they killed him for the stupidest reason....

Not my favorite by Matt Haig

Odd really, interesting story from the animal's perspectives...but could have done without the vulgarity.
It's really rather dark, unfortunate and I didn't care for the direction the story took nor the ending.

Heart wrenching

I enjoy books from the animal’s POV, even though I know going into it that there usually isn’t a happy ending. You know from the first chapter what the outcome is, and the book is about how it gets to that point. I loved Prince, and there were some funny parts. One of my favorites was when he tried to protect one of the kids, and he said, “I have to do something. I know, I’ll shit on the floor.” I just wish the ending could have been different.

Stupidest ending EVER!!

Matt Haig does not include the conversation between the daughter, who gave Prince that fateful walk, and her parents when she comes back home after prince had accidentally bitten her. Matt Haig does not include this conversation because it would have been impossible to write. He describes this girl as the one member in the family who has a psychic connection with the dog, yet she comes home and tells her parents that he bit her intentionally? This makes no sense, and the author knows that.
Haig attempts to give us a surprise ending by having it be the family who chooses to kill the dog, what he doesn’t realize is that he destroyed any believability the book had until that point by making that choice. Why not have the dog die at the hands of the evil next-door neighbor? Because that would have been too predictable. Nothing about this ridiculous ending made any sense to me whatsoever. The dog was a part of the family, We don’t go around randomly killing family members because they misbehave. If that were the case, that entire family would have been euthanized.

Love Simon Jones, the book--not so much.

I admit I bought this book because I'm a Simon Jones Fan. I had read the Bartemeus trilogy prior to purchasing the audio book so I knew it was very good but his narration was sublime and adds so much throughout all three books. I had this odd moment of belief that maybe anything he reads would be good. So I searched Simon Jones.
Let me be very clear--the faults I find in this book have nothing what so ever to do with the narrator--I suspect that my inclination to his work carried me through a book that is, in the end, an annoying little play on the English version of the cheap Long Island summer melodrama. Spoiler--the most interesting thing about is that the dog is the murderer, but the dog is essentially the butler, so the butler did it. Honestly, it was sort of annoying.
So that's my review--Simon Jones narration great; book--almost hopelessly dull unless you are fascinated by the inanity of the Hamptoms.
Having said that, I'll keep searching Simon Jones, I enjoy him immensely.

Ugh

I don't normally write reviews but I wouldn't spend your time listening to this book. The narrator was good but the story was not great and spoiler alert, the dog dies at the end. Obviously one has to suspend disbelief when the dog is the narrator but all the things that happened in a short book just made me annoyed.

This sucked. The dog dies.

Never reading anything else from this author again. I have enjoyed a few other of his books but getting gutted by the at the ending was a slap in the face. All of these characters were scum and then he killed the only decent soul in the book.

Depressing

If the idea of reminiscing about all the dogs you’ve lost before and dwelling on the short life of your beloved current dog is something that brings you pleasure, this is the book for you.

authenticity

I really enjoy listening to thus story. although sad it is very good. it was fun to see the world thru a dog's perspective.