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

Love the story; not a fan of the narration.

Please make the narrator confirm the pronunciation of names and the accents of characters when they step into the middle of a series like this. I'm sure I would have enjoyed Ms. Bermingham's narration if she had not changed the pronunciation of primary character names and used such different accents for known characters. I spent the time listening cringing every few minutes and if I didn't already love the series so much I would have returned the audible version.

Performance Drags Book Down

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

To continue with the series it was worth it, but if Gigi Bermingham was the narrator for the remaining books i would not have bothered and got hard-copies

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Word pronunciation changes, tone of voice changes from previous narrator

Any additional comments?

Overall i don't agree with publishers switching narrators in a series, especially one told in the first person, mid way through. That said, there are often budget reasons or other reasonable reasons for doing so, so i tried to have an open mind when i downloaded this book.

The choices Gigi Bermingham made in her interpretation of Rachel and even general word pronunciation were so far off the mark from the previous narrator that i would have put the book away never to go back to the series on audio if she continued. Aside from her tone of voice, changing the way certain words (Like Piscary and Ley Line) are pronounced really threw me off and made it hard to listen to at times, especially when a string of them were put together.

At the end of the day, it is entertainment and not the end of the world - but i wanted to put my 2 cents in.

I liked the Narrator change

A lot of people haven't liked the narrator change but I found her much easier to listen to than Marguerite Gavin who I find a little dull. Yes some pronunciation is different which can often annoy but it didn't bother me too much. Gigi is much more up-beat in her narration which for me, made it easier to listen to.

Anyhow..back to Marguerite for the rest of the series anyway...I have listened to worse narration changes so this one was a pleasant surprise.

Different narrator

How could the performance have been better?

I understand that sometimes things happen and choices are made. I never did get used to the narrator for this book. I've heard the previous ones and this narration would have been better if she had listened as well. If for no other reason than to get the pronunciation correct, had that been better then the higher pitch of her voice might not have been so annoying. It's not the narrator's fault and if this had been a stand alone book or the first one then it wouldn't have been an issue. She gave a good performance, it was the change in the middle of a series that didn't really work. Overall it wasn't bad, my mind just kept correcting the pronunciation and the voice of characters.

Gigi Bermingham

What to say about this book? All I can think of is how the narrator chooses to pronounce certain words and the way that she uses her voice to make the action in the book stilted and hard to follow. I love Kim Harrison's works and the hollow series is my favorite of hers. I cannot however listen to this audiobook anymore. Without a doubt it is the hardest thing that I've ever had to sit through and I will be getting a refund. I look forward to the next book which is a return to the previous narrator. I suggest that this is one title that you get physical copy of to read.

Pronunciation is a thing.

I'm not sure which was harder to get past, the orator's insistence on mispronouncing key words, or the "for dummies" style audio marker at every plot milestone. If you can get past those, you'll love this book.

Narration and story

Kim Harrison did a wonderful job with this series. Bringing together so many different characters and having them evolve the way they did was fantastic. For this particular book, I'm not fond of the narrator. For some reason the narrator switched for this book only and I was not impressed by her performance. I'm sure she does well when there aren't too many different characters to voice but this particular series requires a range in voices.

Loved the story

loved the story, not a fan of the narrator. Luckily the next book is back to the "regular" narrator.

Gigi doesn't do the story justice

If you could sum up The Outlaw Demon Wails in three words, what would they be?

Tink's a Disney whore!

How could the performance have been better?

It's like going to the play, only to find the actor that you expected being replaced by the understudy. While it's the same play material, it's NOT the same play without the main actor.

Hard to listen to the end, but for good reaaon

With all due respect to Gigi, it is hard to walk into a much loved series and take over where another well accepted reader was unavailable, for whatever reason. I admit that there were times when I thought I would have to order the electronic version of this volume. I'm rather forgiving but this recorded version should have been put on hold until the original reader could resume.

It would also have made it better had she listened to the pronunciation of the names and accents previously used. At times she was practically shrill and at others she shredded the accents. Now, that said, Gigi is very capable and with the right book, she would be great but with this many accents and replacing a popular reader, poor Gigi was set up to fail and fail she did.

It was a good book. I suggest you buy a printed version and continue the series.