Revenge

Eleven Dark Tales

By: Yoko Ogawa

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith, Johanna Parker

Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor - who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent bystanders - their fates converge in an ominous and darkly beautiful web. Yoko Ogawa's Revenge is a master class in the macabre that will haunt you to the very end.

©1998 Yoko Ogawa. Translation Copyright 2013 by Stephen Snyder. (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Although the stories may be perceived as gruesome, the author paints each tale exquisitely. Well-written." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Eloquent stories, uneven narration

Well worth the short read. The male narrator was wonderful, but the female narrator’s voice and annunciation was highly annoying.

All Over

If you want a linear story, this isn't it. It's a story jumbled together by a bunch of one shot stories that try to have a cohesive umbrella story and it just.... fails.

On top of that the narration was nothing better than just okay. The male narrator was significantly easier to listen to. The way the woman said many of her words drove absolutely crazy because it sounded like she forced herself to speak that way. A few stories were almost unbearable to sit through.

Overall I'm extremely disappointed, and will likely ask for a refund.

Maybe, more Gray then Dark?

These are not bad stories. Matter of fact there is not a bad story in the lot, pretty unusual for a group of stories. I always have a story or two I don't like. What else is unusual, is that there is not a great story in the bunch either. I always find a story I love. Neither are these stories dark by today's standards. The first story is a good example. A mother is in a bakery to buy a cake for her son who died 12 years ago. She talks to other people about him almost like he is alive, yet she come right out and says he is dead. The dark part of the story is her attitude toward her dead child. In many of the stories the dark deed is implied as something that happened or will happen.

These are off the wall human interest stories about a few difficult subjects, but none of the stories are scary, gory or dark.

The narrators are excellent and give the audio an extra star.

One of my absolute favorites

This is the only book that I keep in my phone's Audible library at all times. I first bought this book a few years ago thinking its stories would fall more in the horror/thriller genre (which I listen to almost exclusively), but they instead depict more of a subtle, delicate, yet unrelenting unease. The book is comprised of several short stories that stand strong on their own, but are also intertwined in the most beautiful, delicate way. The re-listen value of the book is huge because of this – you'll definitely want to go back and see if you can discern any of these connections that you may have missed the first time.

This stories in this book are definitely dark; but they are a subtle, gentle, almost minimal brand of darkness. It is not loud, and there are no occasions of extraneous exploitation or gore. Its masterful use of imagery, allegory & character development instead bring forth a sometimes-shocking, sometimes-heartbreaking, always-unique darkness that you don't see very often in short stories/novels these days, especially in the West.

Revenge may not be for everyone, but for me, this book is absolutely captivating and one of my all-time favorites.

Revenge

I enjoyed this set of short stories that leads to a shared ending.There is joy and hope and suffering through out.Kaleo Griffith and Johanna Parker were fine narrators for this book.“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

Not horror at all

This is a collection of stories that have no point. There’s no element of horror in these stories in the slightest.

Higher expectations

After several people recommended this book I was looking forward to it. The stories were entertaining enough but nothing to hook me into wanting to find out more. The common elements from one story to the next were a nice touch to thread together these short stories. Nothing dark. No revenge .