Team Whisper

De: Inelia Benz

Narrado por: Gary Maholm

Somewhere in the shadows of his mind, the war never ended. Josh Tracksbears—codename Squirrel—wasn’t just any child. He was born into power. Recruited young into The School, a covert government program built to exploit psychic and shamanic gifts, he was trained to be a weapon. But now, as an adult drowning in cheap liquor and cheaper regrets, those memories are gone—erased, hidden, buried deep. Until she shows up.

Panther—the fierce, brilliant girl he once loved—returns like a ghost from a forgotten past, dragging him out of his drunken oblivion and into a world he no longer recognizes. The rest of their team—Weasel, Monkey, Gazelle, Bear—remember everything. And they need Josh back. With dark forces closing in and reality fraying at the edges, Josh must reconnect with the forgotten bonds of childhood and reclaim the skills that once made him the heart of Team Whisper. As enemies from both the physical and psychic realms rise, the stakes become clear: failure means more than death. It means the end of free will. For everyone.

A gripping blend of suspense, mysticism, and raw emotion, Team Whisper is a high-stakes psychic thriller that explores the power of friendship, the cost of forgotten love, and the fight to reclaim truth in a world built on lies.

©2024 Inelia Benz (P)2024 Inelia Benz

💖✨💖

We are the all of everything 💖✨💖
Wonderful. Totally enjoyed the characters, story and narration. Thanks Inelia 😍

This is an Excellent Story

I found this whole story very informative and it made me do some deep thinking. With the way the world is progressing this book could be an insight to rapid changes.
I look forward to the next book and hope it comes out Very soon. Narration is well done throughout this Audible book.

Better Editors Needed….

This book came to my attention because of the cover.

Yes.

I am shallow like that.

But after I read the blurb I was intrigued and expected to read about the exploration of a complicated relationship between two individuals that survived horrific experiments. It was also presented as having romantic undertones.

This was a blatant example of false advertising.

I’ll first mention the things that I liked.

The premise was interesting. I could see the bones and skeleton of what the author wanted to do.

The world building was also something I could get behind and the idea of the survivors of the experiments banding together and forming their own found families was endearing.

Also and this is just a personal quirk of mine, I like stories with Native American characters in contemporary settings and appreciate when the lore of various tribes is explored. For example Deer Woman is a fascinating figure and I did get a little happy when she came up towards the end of the book.

That said….I did not like the execution of this in the least.

Writing:
I could just say this was poorly written (and it was) though I feel like some of that could have been tempered with better editing.

There was A LOT of repetitiveness that I could not ignore. The dialogue was very clumsy and I could not distinguish the character’s voices.

The way the characters behaved and spoke also felt very juvenile, like middle schoolers with that same range of emotion.

Characters:
Like I said, could not tell them apart.

Josh aka Squirrel had about as much personality as white bread. And it upset me BECAUSE HE HAD POTENTIAL!! Rough childhood, complicated family history, issues with addiction and recovery. It was all squandered.

At first I thought Panther was cool but as the “story” progressed I realized there isn’t anything there. She was just the quippy love interest that had cool superpowers.

Monkey was the smart guy that was rooting for Panther and Josh to get together (even though Panther is married and is on amicable terms with her husband and three kids but more on that later.)

Amethyst was actually interesting for the five minutes she was in the book.

And Bear was-the antagonist maybe kind of, perhaps, yes, no, yes definitely yes, no it’s okay he’s fine now….

Romance:
It did not exist. And I would have been fine with that of it had not been advertised as such.

At most we get some childish thoughts from Josh feeling jealous because PANTHER IS MARRIED-but it’s okay cause it is marriage of convenience and he knows it is easier to break them up.

I beg your finest pardon!

I’m not ragging on the concept of open marriages (I personally don’t like them for myself) but it is alarming that if Panther’s husband expresses that he finds Josh threatening because he is perfect for Panther it sounds less like an open marriage and more like a recipe for an eventual unwanted cuck situation.

In other words, Josh had better chemistry with Ruby aka Amethyst (a “one night stand”) than with Panther.

Plot:

I still am not clear on what it was. Was it finding Josh and bringing him back to the team? Was it finding Bear? Was it healing Bear’s mind? Or was it uncovering the shadow government.

Not much happens. There is no progression, there is no character development it just felt like I was being told whatever story ideas came to the author’s mind.

And they were good ideas but fragmented, incomplete and with no cohesion. Almost like a stream of consciousness.

This feels like it could have been three novels.

Also-Aliens!???

Tone:
The way in which the darker elements (child abuse, torture, murder, SA, suicide, etc) this novel tackled was lacking.

My belief is the author was trying to balance situations that were emotionally devastating with humor as a way for the characters to cope.

But I wasn’t given time to process any of these events. I was simply told what was the result of them.

Which brings me to…

Pacing:
This book felt simultaneously too short for what it was trying to accomplish and too long.

This was a lot. Again the concept was good but it really needed better editors and more cohesion.