When the Sky Fell on Splendor

By: Emily Henry

Narrated by: Amara Jasper

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The Serpent King meets Stranger Things in Emily Henry's gripping novel about a group of friends in a small town who find themselves dealing with unexpected powers after a cosmic event.

Almost everyone in the small town of Splendor, Ohio, was affected when the local steel mill exploded. If you weren't a casualty of the accident yourself, chances are a loved one was. That's the case for 17-year-old Franny, who, five years after the explosion, still has to stand by and do nothing as her brother lies in a coma.

In the wake of the tragedy, Franny found solace in a group of friends whose experiences mirrored her own. The group calls themselves The Ordinary, and they spend their free time investigating local ghost stories and legends, filming their exploits for their small following of YouTube fans. It's silly, it's fun, and it keeps them from dwelling on the sadness that surrounds them.

Until one evening, when the strange and dangerous thing they film isn't fiction - it's a bright light, something massive hurtling toward them from the sky. And when it crashes and the teens go to investigate...everything changes.

©2019 Emily Henry (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Loved it all!

The characters, the plot line, the dramatic reading. I was hoping it was the start of a series. I want to hang out with the ordinary more and more.

Excellent scify mystery

Hard to follow so deducted a star because they could have divided the chapters by time or character. The reader was good. The story was great. Just SO hard to follow..no space between flashbacks and current timeliness. The ending was a twist! If they could fix this problem it would be totally worth a credit.

Unexpected

I found it to be a good story. I didn’t expect the ending to be what it was but also felt a little let down at the end. But I would recommend it.

Beautiful Writing, Wonderful YA Coming of Age

I listened to this entire reading in one day. I found myself immersed in Frannie’s life as well as the simple teenage friendship circle which turned out to be deeper and more committed than any of them thought. The ending lifted me with light and hope. I recommend this story to anyone who likes YA Coming of Age narratives, with sometimes luminous writing and varied moments of tension driving the characters onward.

Narration

I loved the book, but the words trailed off when the narrator used a deep voice. It made it seem like the volume was being turned down during that part of she was trailing off.

Yeah....ummmmm

I tried, I'd rather read the story than listen to her. I like her female voice but her male voice is just not quite it. I couldn't finish

Metaphysical alien philosophy....?

This is one of those stories you can't describe or else you'll ruin the the whole book. I really enjoyed the fast pace, the majority of the story, and couldn't wait to get to the end of this mystery, but then it seemed to have an end that was for a different book altogether. Take the story Stand By Me, mix it with X-Files for 3/4 of the book and end it with What Dreams May Come. All 3 stories are excellent individually but chop them up, don't mix together, and make them one story not so much.

This is usually my type of story…

…and it was very good, although I was hoping for a more supernatural payoff. Instead it turned out to be a rather Stand By Me, coming of age, revelation story, which was lovely, in it’s way.
It’s just that the beginning of the book promised Sci-Fi and then delivered warm and fuzzy feelings at the end. The narrator was very good in her own voice, but I didn’t care for how she did the boys.

Childhood Trauma: Alien Themed

I really like this voice actor’s work. I’m very picky and I like the way she does male voices. The story is fun, heart wrenching, and really scary at one point. It didn’t quite stick the ending for me though.

Compelling story, unpleasant narration.

This is the first Emily Henry book I've read/listened too, and I'm impressed! The cast of characters is complex and well-developed, and the plot is compelling. My only complaint with the audiobook: the voices the narrator used for dialogue, especially lines spoken by the male characters and the younger version of Franny (in flashback scenes), which range from cartoonish to whiny to gratingly gravelly. I had to turn the volume way down and turn the speed up to get through some dialogue-heavy sections. If you're particular about audiobook narrators, this might not be for you.