The Outlaw Demon Wails

By: Kim Harrison

Narrated by: Gigi Bermingham

Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

To save the lives of her friends, Rachel did the unthinkable: she willingly trafficked in forbidden demon magic. And now her sins are coming home to haunt her.

As Rachel searches for the truth behind a terrifying murder, an even greater menace threatens, for the demon Algaliarept will stop at nothing to claim her, and the discovery of a shocking family secret throws Rachel's entire life into question. If she is ever to live free, Rachel must first walk willingly into the demonic ever-after in search of long-lost ancient knowledge.

But when you dance with demons, you lay your soul on the line...and there are some lines that should never be crossed.

©2008 Kim Harrison (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

enjoyed the book

the story was really good. but I would have to agree with alot of people the narrator was not a good fit to this story. I enjoyed her voice when she wasn't speaking for other characters

Why is she narrating?

The narration was awful . I love these books and have read them several times. I don't know why they changed narrators but it was a bad choice. Now about Ivy. I really hate her sometimes. She supposedly this strong vampire, but all I see is an asshole. Everyone blames Rachel for everything and Ivy nothing. Every move Ivy makes is Rachel's fault. Yes Rachel can be a dumb ass and completely self absorbed but I think some of that is Ivy's fault also. she never gets blamed. I guess I just don't understand her weaknesses for being dominated and letting it happen, rather than supposedly being the strong vampire she is supposedly to be and taking Rachel's offer for a blood balance. It isirritating, I wish they would grow up already! They are not in high school!

Horrid Narration

Narrator couldn’t pronounce most of the important names and magic terms which made this hard to follow. I spent most of the time trying to figure out who she was talking about. I powered through the book so I could get to the next book! Please Audible, alway use the original voice actor. We got the WISH version in this book.

Better with other narrator (angry!)

The series is entertaining although some spots felt rushed. The main issue with book 6 is the change in the usual narrator. She sounds like she is reading a children’s book or young adult. I want to fast forward to just getting the jest of the story so I can move to book seven. Adding to my review after trying to make it through this narrator. I can’t go any further. The moment she made Keasley sound like a stereo typical black character in a Charles Dickens book I could take no more. It’s painful enough that the genre of books I love rarely have any characters that resemble me in appearance to spark my imagination, but to have one that I could imagine looking like a favorite, uncle, brother, cousin, or friend with my skin, and the narrator changes the character to uses that fake stereo typical southern accent to represent the elderly black man is sickening. wo say if you don’t get why this was so upsetting but I am to disgusted to care.

Great series Poor narrator

I will find this book in hard copy to read. The narrator for the first few books in this series was amazing and thankfully it seems they go back to her. The one they picked here can’t even pronounce words correctly. It’s extremely clear she never listened to even 20 minutes of the previous books to try and keep the same style. Great story and series the writing is superb can’t wait to read this one and get back to the rest on audible with the original narrator

Liked the story, not the reader

Didn’t like the audio reader. Her word pronunciation was odd. Wasn’t as enjoyable as the first reader

Iffy installment

First, the most common complaints about the narrator:
I really don't think she's horrible, but she is definitely different than Marguerite Gavin. Jenks & Ivy are the most badly affected, but to be honest, I cannot say for sure that I would mind Gigi's choices if I had not been binging the last 5 books and directly went to this one after finishing the last. Gigi makes Ivy sound more like an overly dramatic soap opera character, which is so jarring when we've grown to know her as extremely controlled & even. Ivy is written as a very traumatized character who constantly needs to exert vigilant control, so when we hear her sound like a cheesy soap opera diva, it's just annoying.

These books are all 1st person, so the voice of Rachel is extremely important. There's nothing really wrong with Gigi's Rachel, though I just personally preferred the more enunciated version given by Marguerite.

The cadence is sometimes uneven and doesn't fit the scene.

Mispronunciations are annoying, Especially "leyline," which is used constantly throughout these books. For some reason, Gigi pronounces this as "lee-line." It's minor, but again, it's common & so frustrating.

In production, this installment was much worse than the prior books. They added music, which always seems to be terrible in every audiobook, but in this one, there's apparently no regular trigger. Out of the blue, you get the silly sounding elevator type melody. It's in the middle of chapters, sometimes maybe in the middle of paragraphs. I really wish audio producers would stop using this, but if they really want it, I wish the placement would be sensible.

Now, for the story (ALWAYS personal opinion; ymmv):
To be honest, I cannot decide if I really like this series, or if I really hate it. I am binging it, which can just magnify some things that I don't like. The main character varies between being likable & being annoying. One of the main relationships is so wildly chaotic & full of extreme crises. So far the only two characters who remained likable through every book are Kisten & Jenks. If the intent was to create a found family, it failed. There is so much toxicity in the relationship dynamics that it's just consistent trauma to the characters.

There's enough to keep me interested in the story, & the dislike for characters is tempered by traits that are likable. The usual supernatural groups are changed from the usual lore. The magic is well-described. While not exactly unique, it also incorporates varieties that are interesting.

I would recommend this series, and I'm going to continue listening to the rest. It has enough pros to outweigh the cons, but those cons are glaring enough to frustrate.

Buy the Hardback instead

Harper Audio produced this book instead of Tantor Media which did all the other books. I don't know why they chose to change companies and narrators.. Harper audio and Gigi Bermingham ruined this book for me. She is one of the worst narrators ever. I'd recommend you buy the hardback instead. Which is what I plan to do. I can't stand to listen to her whiny voice another minute.

Seriously the narrator is horrible

Please release this book with the original narrator. The story is great but the narration is god awful it would be worth buying a copy again just to forget about how this narrator miss pronounces everything.

3 on the Narrator 5 on the book so 4 overall

It took me a while to get into the book again because of the narrator change. I understand if you have to change the narrators but if they are reading a series thats already 5 books in you'd think that they would AT LEAST annunciate certain words and character names the same as the previous narrator. The book minus the narrator voice was wonderful it definitely had a ton of twists that kept it entertaining thru out! and the narrator grows on you a bit after a while.