What's a Ghoul to Do?

A Ghost Hunter Mystery

By: Victoria Laurie

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

M.J., her partner Gilley, and their client, the wealthy, de-lish Dr. Steven Sable, are at his family's lodge, where his grandfather allegedly jumped to his death from the roof-although Sable says it was foul play. But the patriarch's isn't the only ghost around. The place is lousy with souls, all with something to get off their ghoulish chests. Now M.J. will have to quell the clamor-and listen for a voice with the answers...

Keep chilled: listen to another Ghost Hunter Mystery.

©2007 Victoria Laurie (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

A Ghoul?

Would you be willing to try another book from Victoria Laurie? Why or why not?

I don't think so. I was not really drawn into the book. I found it interesting but not great and it got into a lot of legal stuff, all of which did not make a lot of sense unless you were willing to do research and who wants to research a book? It lacked depth of the characters as well. I didn't feel I knew the characters any better by the end of the book than I did when I started.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Eileen Stevens?

I'm not sure at this time. There was nothing particularly wrong with her narration it just lacked .. i don't know.. color. It seemed so black and white, if that makes sense.

A super-fun series!!!

If you could sum up What's a Ghoul to Do? in three words, what would they be?

Funny, entertaining, different

Who was your favorite character and why?

I LOVE Gilly, he just tickles my funny bone.

What does Eileen Stevens bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I like Eileen Stevens' ability to keep individuals discreet with subtle voice differences. I have just one 'peeve' which is that she ends many of her sentences on a rise like she's asking a question.

Any additional comments?

This is a fun series that fits my love of paranormal, mystery, light romance, and comedy. I highly recommend it!

Sorely Disappointed

I love the Psychic Eye series by Victoria Laurie. I avoided this series for a while because I thought it was for teens. Well, I wouldn't say it's for teens. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The characters were cliched and shallow. The ghost busting scenes lacked imagination. Steven's reason for wanting MJ to investigate his grandfather's death is weak at best. The book, at least as far as I got, lacked the fresh entertaining energy of the Psychis Eye series that I enjoy.

I can not recommend this audio book

I am surprised at how many stars this audio book has. I found it predictable and boring. Unfortunately, I can't find anything redeeming about it. The narration was bad. The way she portrayed women, men, and gays was insulting to all. I can't believe in this day and age someone could be so insensitive to gender biases.

Really tried to like it....

Every other sentence included some sort of idiomatic phrase, either delivered correctly by the main female lead or incorrectly by the male lead at which time she would correct him. This was "cute" for the first hour but after that it became EXTREMELY tedious. I had hoped the book would be similar to the Molly Harper series but I was so turned off by the writing style I could hardly force myself to finish the book - and the parrot - what purpose did that serve other than the annoying voice. I have read hundreds of audible books and this is the first one I truly wish I had not purchased.

READ THE REVIEWS

I wished I had done so before investing time and money in this book. Boring, tedious, and I had trouble listening to the whole thing.

How A Narrator Can Ruin A Story 101

I fully realize that I run the risk of receiving "Unhelpful" votes from those who loved this book/series, so here goes. I purchased this book when it was on sale. If I had paid more, or used a credit to buy it, I would be seriously disappointed right now. I finished the book only because something inside me made me do it. I bought it mainly because it seemed a little different from much current paranormal lit. I had just finished "Nice Girls Don't Live Forever" and admittedly I was going through a bit of withdrawal; however, it is grossly unfair of me to compare this book to anything written by Molly Harper and performed by Amanda Ronconi; a more talented author/narrator team you will not find!

After finishing the book, I'm still uncertain whether or not this might be a good book to actually _read_, but I think more than likely it would not. The storyline was, as I said, a bit different than other books I've read; however, included in it are tons of cliches and phrases that the English language is better off without like "all that and a bag of chips". MJ, the main character regularly refers to herself as a "ghostbuster". Puh-lease. And I quickly grew tired of Stephen's colorful use of English, frequently confusing similar-sounding words and being constantly corrected by MJ or Gilly. The author exaggerated that caricature to death.

I can describe Eileen Stevens' "performance" in one word: inconsistent. At times her reading sounded quite good, but at other times it became halting, as if she was momentarily distracted or perhaps hadn't read that particular passage prior to recording. She would pause in unusual places and put the emphasis on the wrong words in a sentence. And I cringed at her mispronunciation of words like mischievous, pronouncing it "mis-CHEEV-i-ous (ugh!). The story is told in the first person so I had no doubt that M.J., the main character, was speaking when she used the words "I said". But her portrayal of Gilley, M.J.'s business partner who is gay, was SO stereotypical. She made him sound like a very unpleasant drag queen, while not differentiating his voice at all in tone from that of M.J. And while I realize that M.J.'s love-interest, Dr. Steven Sable's way of speaking is _supposed_ to be an odd mix of Latino and European, I found the strange-sounding accent Ms. Stevens used for him, and her monotone delivery of his lines, to be down right unpleasant. I very nearly stopped listening because of this, but soldiered on hoping that I'd get used to it. I didn't. Also annoying was the parrot. There should have been a tad more post-production mixing because that "voice" always came through my earbuds far too loudly.

In conclusion, the sound of a narrator's voice, the way he/she delivers dialog, the tone and inflection that he/she gives to the characters, should all be considered when purchasing an audiobook. Always listen to the sample because a bad narrator can ruin a great story! The problem is, I have no idea if this even could have been a great story. But the fact that I constantly kept checking to see how much time was left should have been telling.

Difficult Reader

Would you try another book from Victoria Laurie and/or Eileen Stevens?

Doubtful. The author has previously made some public, distasteful comments, that make me want to stay away from more of her books. I read this because I had already bought it.

What didn’t you like about Eileen Stevens’s performance?

Well, several things. It's a pet peeve of mine when a reader mispronounces words, especially constantly. My second biggest pet peeve is when a reader uses an incorrect accent for a character. A very heavy monotone Latin accent does not jive for a character that says he grew up in Germany. Very Annoying. And this may be harsh, but in my opinion, if you can't tell the difference, then don't be a reader.
Another issue that made me cringe is less important for the general population, but was nerve-racking to me, at least. I can't be too mad when a reader, someone who's career is essentially acting, stumbles over terminology related to another career field. But since I belong to that field, I end up gritting my teeth when readers struggle over Computer/IT/Computer Science talk. And since the main character's best friend,cousin, and roommate is an M.I.T. C.S. grad, it was brought up often. I mean, just take a quick course on the topic, or ask when you run into a term you're not sure how to say. Otherwise, the ignorance takes away from the actual story.

What character would you cut from What's a Ghoul to Do??

Gilly, Steven, the parrot. So pretty much all of the supporting cast. All they did was manipulate and push M.J. around. It was more than frustrating.

Any additional comments?

I know I picked on the reader over the computer talk, but really the blame should be shared with the author too. Who clearly was only vaguely familiar with the topic. Or who makes her German bred medical doctor struggle over every....single.....sentence...he has in the entire book. (Germans, like many Europeans are actually taught multiple languages -including English. Americans aren't for the most part. It was mildly insulting that the handsome awesome doctor makes very easy mistakes, especially in medical terms.)

First example - 'His cholesterol was elevator.'

Overall, it was just bad writing. M.J. has no back bone, everyone that she cares about takes advantage of her left and right or pushes her into things she clearly has no interest in. And the guy we are supposed to fall in love with, can barely speak of a word of English and has the ego of Charlie Sheen. My final thought? Ew.