The Bird Eater

By: Ania Ahlborn

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty years ago, the mysterious death of his aunt left Aaron Holbrook orphaned and alone. He abandoned his rural Arkansas hometown vowing never to return, until his seven-year-old son died in an accident, plunging Aaron into a nightmare of addiction and grief. Desperate to reclaim a piece of himself, he returns to the hills of his childhood, to Holbrook House, where he hopes to find peace among the memories of his youth. But solace doesn't come easy. Someone - or something - has other plans.

Like Aaron, Holbrook House is but a shell of what it once was, a target for vandals and ghost hunters who have nicknamed it "the devil's den." Aaron doesn't believe in the paranormal - at least, not until a strange boy begins following him wherever he goes. Plagued by violent dreams and disturbing visions, Aaron begins to wonder if he's losing his mind. But a festering darkness lurks at the heart of Holbrook House…a darkness that grins from within the shadows, delighting in Aaron's sorrow, biding its time.

©2014 Ania Ahlborn (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

WAS THE NARRATOR ON A BREATHING MACHINE!!!!

Every other sentence the narrator took a large breath. Hey Pete, why didm' t you add some open mouthed chewing to the loud breathing, that would have been the cherry on my ear sunday!

Scary from beginning to end! Narrator- UGH

I loved the intensity from the first chapter forward. Ania doesn’t hold back. The creeping doom for the main character is not predictable. Despite my complete enjoyment of the novel and the fact that I missed sleep because I needed to listen to it, I did have an issue with the narration.
What I did not like was the narrator. Ugh. He was trying way too hard to be scary and gruff, he took in a breath to punctuate every sentence, and he had no Arkansas accent.

Dark

It was a slow burn. I feel like I could’ve finished it sooner if it was more fast paced. I can see it being a Netflix series in the future. The narrator does the best job he can bringing the dark edge of the book to life.

Captivating but interrupting

like most Ania's work, I am always at a take or leave it approach.
I heavily enjoyed this book, far more then The Seed I read/listened to prior.

The use of the same narrator is a welcomed familiar choice but I always feel as if they are just too...try hard. and thats how most Ahlborn books feel like. Try Hards to be uber edgy and spooky, gritty and coarse. I've found that re reading the books vs listening to the audio makes the story better for me and rhats the experience I've had with most her stories.

the story goes from captivating and then deeply dips off, it took me maybe a month to finish this one with how often it would get slow, narrative repetitive, and quiet frankly boring. While I can appreciate the amount of description she puts into setting a scene and how vividly she can get across the image, it truly gets exhausting after a while. Most of this book felt like run on narratives of framed art work and less of the story.

Amazing!

I wasn't too sure about this book, but let me tell you! It had me captivated from beginning to end.

Pulled me in from the beginning

Love this one. This reminded me of The Shining and Secret Window, Secret Garden by King. She is a very visual writer and the scenes she wrote were terrifying. Will be picking up more Ania Ahlborn today.

I liked this book alot!!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The story was scary, just the right amount! I like the narrator, I'd recommend this book to someone who likes supernatural books! I was never bored or too scared...just the right amount!

What about Peter Berkrot’s performance did you like?

I think he was emotional when needed, he did other "voices" well...he was pleasant to listen to.

Super creepy

This book is extremely dark and disturbing but the characters are so likeable it's tough to put down. The narration was awesome. Emotions really came through.

Good Narrator, Good (Not Great) Story

Overall, I'd say I liked this book, but I didn't really like it and and I didn't love it. The story and (most of) the characters were solid, but the narrative felt a little run-of-the-mill. The bird imagery was cool but ultimately felt like a aesthetic gimmick more than a fully fleshed-out theme. This is the second book I've read by this author (the first being SEED), and like this book, I felt somewhat underwhelmed by that one, too. They're both good, solid stories, but it feels like they're lacking something. I can't out my finger on it.

Overall, I'm glad I listened to it, and I think it was worth the $2.50 or whatever I paid for it for also having the ebook. If you're looking for a new (but not groundbreaking) take on the haunted house genre, give this a try.

Not too bad....had potential.

There were some really good parts in this story, but also very slow moving at times. I think the overall story line was really quite silly which is why I only gave three stars. It’s really too bad because the author proves herself to have a lot of potential.

I liked the narrator a lot, thought he did a fine job!

I like the genre this author writes in, primarily Horror, so I would definitely try another one of her books. The cover art for this audiobook is great (!), I love it(!!), and probably the main reason I chose it. Great to have something so cool to look at each time I brought this book up on my device. 😊