Night Shift [Dramatized Adaptation]

Jill Kismet, Book 1

By: Lilith Saintcrow

Narrated by: full cast, Julie-Ann Elliott, Thomas Keegan, Steven Carpenter, Colleen Delany, Yasmin Tuazon, Gregory Gorton, Christopher Graybill, Elizabeth Jernigan, James Konicek, David Coyne, Christopher Scheeren

Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Not everyone can take on the things that go bump in the night.

Not everyone tries.

But Jill Kismet is not just anyone.

She's a Hunter, trained by the best - and in over her head.

Welcome to the night shift....

Performed by Julie-Ann Elliott, Thomas Keegan, Steven Carpenter, Colleen Delany, Yasmin Tuazon, Gregory Gorton, Christopher Graybill, Elizabeth Jernigan, James Konicek, David Coyne, Christopher Scheeren, Tony Nam, Ken Jackson, Joe Brack, Mort Shelby, Ren Kasey, Richard Rohan, Nanette Savard, Drew Kopas.

©2008 Lilith Saintcrow (P)2011 Graphic Audio, LLC

too much music in background

I've always loved this story. It was good but some parts of it had the music a bit loud or in unnecessary areas. It was confusing at times. I had to focus more to hear past the music. Her mental voice echoed so have fun with that. Everything else was great. Lots of sound effects and many narrators! All the audible movies are always fun to listen to.

Positively Ordinary

This was okay, but nothing to write home about. It is definitely not an example of what Graphic Audio usually puts out there.

There isn’t any actual world-building at the start. You’re thrown into the deep end with the universe and the characters and expected to figure it out. The MC’s romance is equally abrupt. The love interest component was dumped in our lap without explanation. It was set up as profound and intrinsic but just came off as confusing. The most confusing bit was that half of the story is inside the MC’s head as she talks to herself mentally. I usually like it when readers get insight into the character through narration or active tense thoughts. However, this was like she was actively talking to herself in an almost-breaks-the-fourth-wall way. It was an odd way to experience half the story.

The performances were adequate. I don’t feel like the voice actors helped me connect positively with any of the characters. I didn’t see any performance as unfavorable, but I didn’t love them either. Some of the sound effects were way over the top. There were scenes where music rolled in that made no sense. Several times, I paused while listening, thinking I was accidentally playing weird music in the background somewhere. There were a few moments where the MC threw up, and the audio was excessive. Hearing a voice actor act out tossing her cookies multiple times for several long seconds didn’t add anything to the experience. The primary villain also made this licking noise that was excruciatingly reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter's famous slurping noise as he talks about liver with Chianti and fava beans. The few times he made the slurping chuffing sound made me laugh because it sounded like a karaoke cover of a sound effect. It was an odd choice.

I’ve read worse and heard poorer voice acting, but this isn’t a shining example of quality work. At the end of the listen, I mainly felt lackluster about the hours I’d given this. If I could go back in time, I'd skip the listen.

The world sounds amazing

I love the world and plot.
I hate the main character I couldn’t finish it because she was cussing up a storm. I understand doing a cuss word once in the blue moon but to have it in every paragraph is just annoying.