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Not Without Laughter
- Narrated by: Jaime Lincoln Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
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Not Without Laughter
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Publisher's summary
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Story4 out of 5 stars 365
Audible presents the multigenerational epic Some Sing, Some Cry. Created by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza, this audiobook takes listeners on a journey through Reconstruction, two world wars, the Harlem renaissance, and Vietnam to modern day America.Some Sing, Some Cry begins at the threshold of one family’s freedom. We meet Betty Mayfield, newly emancipated from Sweet Tamarind, a lush and haunted rice plantation off the Carolina coast.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I Sang, I Cried
- By Jo on 09-29-10
By: Ntozake Shange, and others
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The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,815
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,362
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,360
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hang in
- By W.Denis on 07-11-05
By: William Faulkner
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- By: Maya Angelou
- Narrated by: Maya Angelou
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,351
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,232
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,200
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age - and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. But years later, she learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Emotional & Powerful
- By Miss Toni on 06-30-13
By: Maya Angelou
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The 42nd Parallel
- By: John Dos Passos
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 278
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 234
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 235
This first entry in John Dos Passos's celebrated U.S.A. trilogy paints a grand picture of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Powerful document of an all-too-familiar past
- By Ryan on 06-01-13
By: John Dos Passos
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The Homeplace
- Singing River, Book 1
- By: Gilbert Morris
- Narrated by: Judith West
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
As the year 1928 begins, 14-year-old Lanie Belle Freeman of Fairhope, Arkansas, has bright hopes for the future. Her father has launched a new business, and her mother is expecting her fifth baby. Lanie has dreams of going to college and being a writer. Then tragedy strikes.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Slow to start. But hang in there. It’s worth it
- By paula wright on 02-24-19
By: Gilbert Morris
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Ruby Dee
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11,449
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9,836
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,812
Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is the luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930s, whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to 70 years.
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5 out of 5 stars
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perfection
- By Mel on 04-06-15
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This Side of the Sky
- By: Elyse Singleton
- Narrated by: Myra Taylor, Sharon Washington, Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Award-winning journalist Elyse Singleton delivers what Essence calls “a gem - the perfect book to curl up with.”
Best friends Lilian and Myraleen, two African American women from rural Mississippi, travel to Europe during World War II to act as members of the Women’s Army Corps. During this time of segregation and destruction, both women discover love and heartbreak, triumph and defeat.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Breath of Fresh Air
- By Adina Andreu on 07-19-12
By: Elyse Singleton
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Rush Home Road
- By: Lori Lansens
- Narrated by: Ruby Dee
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 253
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 191
When a 70-year-old woman finds a five-year-old girl abandoned on her doorstep, she is thrust into a sorrowful past that can only be conquered with the help of the girl who opened her memory - the very girl she is trying to save. This first novel, according to author Jacquelyn Mitchard, is one of "exquisite power, honesty, and conviction...quite nearly without flaws."
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1 out of 5 stars
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filthy language and violent content
- By Anna on 12-16-11
By: Lori Lansens
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To Kill a Mockingbird
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Sissy Spacek
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 46,582
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 41,360
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 41,211
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south - and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as a digital audiobook. One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the country.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A gift to be treasured
- By David Shear on 07-09-14
By: Harper Lee
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Ironweed
- By: William Kennedy
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 188
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 159
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 155
Francis Phelan, ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, full-time drunk, has hit bottom. Years ago he left Albany in a hurry after killing a scab during a trolley workers' strike; he ran away again after accidentally – and fatally – dropping his infant son. Now, in 1938, Francis is back in town, roaming the old familiar streets with his hobo pal, Helen, trying to make peace with the ghosts of the past and the present.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Darkly Lovely
- By Michael on 07-22-17
By: William Kennedy
-
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat, Jessica Almasy, Victor Bevine, and others
- Length: 32 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 226
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 188
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 180
This complete collection includes all of the published stories of Eudora Welty. There are 41 stories in all, including those in the earlier collections A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The Golden Apples, and The Bride of the Innisfallen, as well as previously uncollected stories.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Too Good For Audio
- By Yennta on 06-18-12
By: Eudora Welty
-
The Cigar Factory
- A Novel of Charleston
- By: Michele Moore
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 80
Cassie McGonegal and her niece, Brigid, work upstairs in the factory rolling cigars by hand. Meliah Amey Ravenel works in the basement, where she stems the tobacco. While both white and black workers suffer in the harsh working conditions of the factory and both endure the sexual harassment of the foremen, segregation keeps them from recognizing their common plight until the Tobacco Workers Strike of 1945.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Tale of Two Charlestons
- By Susie on 08-10-16
By: Michele Moore
-
Peyton Place
- By: Grace Metalious
- Narrated by: Tim O'Connor
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 384
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 293
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 299
In 1956, when this novel was first published, communities all over New England snapped up copies to see if they were the town portrayed in the book. Peyton Place is the story of a repressive New England town known for its high standards of public morality, and the steamy sexual activities that take place behind its bedroom doors.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best book I've read to date!
- By Crusader on 11-07-11
By: Grace Metalious
-
Paradise
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 235
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 202
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 199
In Paradise - her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all-black town worth the pain", assault the nearby Convent and the women in it. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
MORRISON AT HER MOST COMPLEX
- By Kennedi Hill on 11-07-19
By: Toni Morrison
-
Tambourines to Glory
- By: Langston Hughes
- Narrated by: Myra Taylor
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
Angelic Essie Belle Johnson and devilish Laura Reed both agree that they need to do something to spice up their lives and earn more money. So, they start their own church on the street in front of their Harlem apartment. With Laura's gift for performing and Essie's melodious voice, the two quickly become a hit and must move their services into a renovated theater. But as their congregation grows, a host of misfits enter the scene - some honest, but others who just want a piece of the pie.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Nice timepiece
- By Akida Kissane Long on 02-08-17
By: Langston Hughes
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Langston Hughes is a widely celebrated African American writer and important leader of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. Deeply inspired by the great poet Walt Whitman, Hughes’ own writings gave voice to the Black community in the American literary canon. His assertion that “I, too, sing America” echoes through history and continues to be a battle cry in the fight for fair representation and equality. The Weary Blues, published in 1926, was Hughes’ first collection of poetry. He was only twenty-four years old at the time, but his insights carry wisdom beyond his years.
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Jubilee tells the true story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and his black mistress. Vyry bears witness to the South's antebellum opulence and to its brutality, its wartime ruin, and the promises of Reconstruction. Weaving her own family's oral history with 30 years of research, Margaret Walker's novel brings the everyday experiences of slaves to light. Jubilee churns with the hunger, the hymns, the struggles, and the very breath of American history.
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A Tough Review To Write...
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How Did This Escape Me?
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Emotional & Powerful
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Black No More
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According to Max Disher, an ambitious young black man in 1930s New York, someone of his race has only three alternatives: "Get out, get white, or get along." Incapable of getting out and unhappy with getting along, Max leaps at the remaining possibility. Thanks to a certain Dr. Junius Crookman and his mysterious process, Max and other eager clients develop bleached skin that permits them to enter previously forbidden territory. What they discover in white society, however, gives them second thoughts.
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outrageous!
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Ain't I a Woman
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A classic work of feminist scholarship, Ain't I a Woman has become a must for all those interested in the nature of Black womanhood. Examining the impact of sexism on Black women during slavery, the devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the black woman's involvement with feminism, hooks attempts to move us beyond racist and sexist assumptions. The result is nothing short of groundbreaking, giving this work a critical place in every feminist scholar's library.
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Informative
- By Cj James on 07-23-19
By: bell hooks
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What the Ermine Saw
- The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo da Vinci's Most Mysterious Portrait
- By: Eden Collinsworth
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
Five hundred and thirty years ago, a young woman sat before a Grecian-nosed artist known as Leonardo da Vinci. Her name was Cecilia Gallerani, and she was the young mistress of Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan. Sforza was a brutal and clever man who was mindful that Leonardo’s genius would not only capture Cecilia’s beguiling beauty but also reflect the grandeur of his title. But when the portrait was finished, Leonardo’s brush strokes had conveyed something deeper by revealing the essence of Cecilia’s soul.
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4 out of 5 stars
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So Many Names
- By Sue Solomon on 12-13-22
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Native Son
- By: Richard Wright
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,128
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,820
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,823
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Simply a classic
- By Noah Smith on 11-11-10
By: Richard Wright
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Kindred
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Kim Staunton
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,774
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 12,081
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 12,040
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Past of Slavery Still Moves and Wounds Us
- By Jefferson on 12-05-10
What listeners say about Not Without Laughter
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Philharmonic
- 03-14-24
American Classic, Wonderful narration
American Classic, Wonderful narration - Labgston Hughes is a must read for understanding American history and culture.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- all our stories
- 04-28-23
One of my favorite writers
Langston Hughes is a renowned author who doesn’t disappoint. This book is no exception. My goal is to read all of his work.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Carolyn J.
- 11-06-22
A Story of History, Hope, and Encouragement
For some, the authentic language spoken by some of the characters may be off putting. However, the languatge still conveys the reasons behind the emotions, the dreams, the behaviors, and the actions taken that are the fallout of the harsh social conditions imposed on some citizens in the early 20th Century. Mr Hughes portrays the dispair as well as the hopes, the tears as well as the laughter, and the determination plus personal growth fueled by the defiance of social cruelty and injustice.
This story offers a window into the hearts and minds and lives of a people who have learned the value of laughter as a healing balm.
I loved the story!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrea
- 02-26-23
great story to read
not a predictable book, very entertaining. The narration was excellent. I recommend for all. well done Mr Hughes
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rising Sun
- 02-05-23
Disturbingly terrible voice actor.
Bad choice of voice acting style to go with. Make the case of "being genuine to the AAVE language" if you want to...but noone spoke in this tone nor sounded like this. This is downright condescending and disrespectful. Ruined this story
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