The Outlaw Demon Wails

By: Kim Harrison

Narrated by: Gigi Bermingham

Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

To save the lives of her friends, Rachel did the unthinkable: she willingly trafficked in forbidden demon magic. And now her sins are coming home to haunt her.

As Rachel searches for the truth behind a terrifying murder, an even greater menace threatens, for the demon Algaliarept will stop at nothing to claim her, and the discovery of a shocking family secret throws Rachel's entire life into question. If she is ever to live free, Rachel must first walk willingly into the demonic ever-after in search of long-lost ancient knowledge.

But when you dance with demons, you lay your soul on the line...and there are some lines that should never be crossed.

©2008 Kim Harrison (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Great Book-Miserable Narrator

Again I'll agree with everybody else. This is another great book in the series but a horrible narration, grating, to put it kindly. Jenks sounds like he is on helium! The new narrator could have listened to For A Few Demons More to pick up on names and words she couldn't pronounce. Instead she had to make it painful for us who were looking forward to this audible.com release.

Are you listening?

I have just read the last 4 or 5 reviews prior to the one I am entering now and I am so glad to know that I am not the only one that feels the way I do about this book. I am an avid Kim Harrison fan, and this book is no exception. The story is wonderful and it hurts my heart that I was hoping it would be over soon simply because the voice of the narrator grated on my nerves so badly I could barely stand it. I honesty thought about asking for my money back simply because I just could not tolerate her voice. The way she pronounced the characters names and words and places that I have become so accustomed to in the previous 5 books with the smooth and silky voice of Margarete Gavin was simply vile. It was almost insulting. I just don't understand what happened. I was uplifted to see that our regular narrator is back in the next book and I hope that this does not happen again because if it does I WILL NOT be purchasing it. GREAT BOOK, WRONG narrator!

Awful narration ruins a great story!

Awful narrator! She mispronounces a good portion of the key words and major character names in the story (that is, she pronounces them completely differently than they were pronounced in the last six audiobooks.) That lack of consistency was terribly distracting--I found myself saying the correct pronunciation aloud each time. This seems like such a serious lapse on the part of the company/narrator--shouldn't listening to a few chapters of the preceding books to master often-repeated terms and names when taking over as narrator of an ongoing series be standard procedure?

To top it off, as many other reviewers have noted, she makes all of the characters sound vapid, at best. If I didn't already love the characters, I would probably never read or listen to another Kim Harrison novel (and I read so much that if my standards were very high, I'd run out of books before long, so that's saying a lot). This recording does Kim Harrison's strong, interesting morally complex characters--and the listener--a serious disservice.

Narrator is awful.

Love all the Hallows Books but this narrator ruined this book. Stick with the previous narrator.

Listen to the sample before purchasing!

For some strange reason the publisher changed narrators, from Marguerite Gavin to Gigi Bermingham, and I found this very difficult to listen to being used to Ms. Gavin's voice for the first 5 books. I wish I had noticed the narrator change before purchasing and listened to the sample first. I totally agree with the other comments here regarding the narrator issue. I had to give up listening and downloaded the book to my Kindle so I could read it instead.

Great book, but please use the old reader

I loved this book as I did all in this series. The reader is different than the one for all the previous books. I miss her! Please use her for new books ;-)

Give me some tomatoes to throw

Would you try another book from Kim Harrison and/or Gigi Bermingham?

I'm enjoying Kim Harrison's books more than I thought I would and have been powering through them. I'll definitely buy more from her. I will go on record though as saying if Gigi Bermingham is ever the narrator of a book I want on Audible, I'll go by it in print and read it myself no matter who wrote it.

What other book might you compare The Outlaw Demon Wails to and why?

The series is fun and touches on the supernatural in a similar fashion to the Nightside series about John Taylor. I like that. It completely lacks the irritating writing style of the author from the other series. I totally love that!

How could the performance have been better?

This was the first book in the series with a new narrator. She is possibly the worst narrator I've ever heard in my entire life. Words are mispronounced all through the book.
Spelling in a phonetic fashion here folks:
Lay-lines become Lee-lines
Pa-scary becomes pis-carrie
Ma-ne-us becomes minnie-us
Ta-cata becomes TA-KA-TA
I can't even begin to recreate what it sounds like when she says Al's full name.

I should probably warn you that there is cheesy music playing at parts in the book and at other parts she says the chapter name. I don't know what is up with that. As if all of this weren't bad enough, Jenx and Madalena are voiced as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. No lying. Go listen to an old Mickey Mouse cartoon, and you have her inspiration for the voice.

Did The Outlaw Demon Wails inspire you to do anything?

Yes, I was inspired to never buy a book with Gigi Bermingham as the narrator again.

Any additional comments?

The story is just as good as the others. All of the reviewers aren't just being dramatic. It really is hard to get through this one. If stuff like this bothers you, actually read this one and come back to the series in the next book with the original narrator.

What was with the weird piano interludes??

So, with the odd piano chords that happened at what I can only assume the reader thought was a dramatic point, I really did not like her voices for the characters. Ciri and Rachel's mom sound identical in the worst ways. Just awful pixie voice too. Was not pleased with this narrator. Other than that is one of my favorite Hallows book. I love how we get to see a new view of the Demons, and I always love me some Al time.

Trouble with narration

While the book was okay it was awkward to listen to. With the narrator change, you expect sublet differences. But it changed the whole tone of some of the characters . I suppose this is understandable as well. But I couldn’t get passed the multiple pronunciation differences with key words used. Either they didn’t spend time reviewing the previous narrations or they didn’t care but in my opinion the pronunciations should be pretty consistent

Out of turn narrator

this narrator has a pleasing voice. the main problem is that the names are all pronounced differently and the feeling of the characters are all off and feel wierd.