The Listeners

A Novel

De: Maggie Stiefvater

Narrado por: Erin Bennett

National Bestseller · An Oprah Daily Best Summer Read of 2025 · A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of June

“A wonderfully observed—actually, flat-out wonderful—historical novel.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Richly imagined . . . Stiefvater’s prose is as pungent as the sweetwater, with a snap that suggests the whimsy of a veteran storyteller.”—The New York Times

#1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

©2025 Maggie Stiefvater (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Around every corner of this richly imagined world, we discover some new wonder. . . . Stiefvater’s prose is as pungent as the sweetwater, with a snap that suggests the whimsy of a veteran storyteller.”—The New York Times

“Mesmeric, original, and stunning. Maggie Stiefvater is an exceptional talent, and The Listeners is by turns a beautiful love story, a fascinating glimpse into the horrors of history, and a haunting tale of loyalty and courage. A marvel of storytelling. I really couldn’t have loved it more.”—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All The Colors of the Dark

“The Listeners is cinematic and so very satisfying. This is a rich, multilayered ride of a novel not unlike the hotel at its heart—grand, patient, leaving no particulars unnoticed. A phenomenally immersive read.”—Claire Lombardo, bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

The interaction with June and the people in the hotel

I didn’t really care about the love trilogy between June and the two men but I really enjoyed her interaction with June. This read like historical fiction and I thought that this real and then there is a not that June is made up. I enjoyed reading this book and see it build up. The coding part with the wolfs really shocked me but it made sense looking back at Mrs Wolfs reaction.

Concept Fully Realized

When I think of this author my mind doesn't normally fly to historical fiction. However, she took her subject and ran with it blending elements of fantasy, romance and history into a cohesive whole. I thought at first of giving it four stars but when you finish an audio book and immediately start listening to it again, the star rating ought to reflect that altitude which is clearly 5 stars.

I wondered what the differences would be as the author jumped from YA into the adult fiction genre. She hasn't lost the things which makes her YA books so appealing. Her adult characters still jump right off the page as her YA characters do. She still makes you see the environment as if you are there. Her plotting may be the biggest change. It's much more thought out and linear and her pacing more consistent.

I think her sweetwater element, which will feel very familiar to her fans, elevates this book from just another mundane historical fiction novel to something imaginative and special. I hated checking out of the hotel.

An instant Stiefvater Classic

Some much movement you don’t see. Think of everything that happens under the water when looking at a river: that view is what is happening on these pages has you read. Lovely.

Drink up

Fantastic book with a little bit of mysticism and a lot of history and Just the right amount of love. I loved the perspective of hospitality in dark times. Favorite book of the year

Hotel with Mystical Waters Hosts Unwilling Guests

Maggie Stiefvater has been one of my go to authors for great stories since I first listened to The Scorpio Races over a decade ago. She was one of the few YA writers I stuck with after moving on from most YA. The Listeners is her first shot at an adult novel and while much different than her prior writings it was interesting, engaging and I flew through it in just a day and an half.

I didn't look to see what this book was about before I pre-ordered it, so I went in completely surprised by the premise. At the beginning of WWII, when people weren't sure what to call it and hoped it would be over in a few months, the state department needed a place to house all the foreign Axis dignitaries left in the United States. They picked one of the grandest hotels to host the contingency filled with Japanese, German, Italians and others as hostage negotiations went on to exchange them for American's in Europe. The Avalon has catered to the wealthy for decades, but this new clientele is outside their normal skillset and the energy they bring to this posh Spa may sour it forever.

***What is luxury? In a drought, it was a glass of water; in a flood it was a dry place to stand. Whatever made the Avalon luxurious a year ago would not be what made it luxurious now. ***

I'm really glad I didn't know what this would be about. I don't read many books set in WWII and might not have given it a fair shot. While that is the backdrop of the story, the main plot is this fantastic Hotel that has magical waters that run through it. They are part of what make the hotel special, but there is a price to be paid for the care and maintenance of the water. June has been the general manager of the hotel for years and has tended to the waters, staff and hotel through many circumstances, including the great depression. She has never been through a trial like the one she is about to encounter, keeping the hotel's waters calm and happy in light of all of the chaos around them.

I enjoyed the story Maggie decided to write. While there are the atrocities of the war happening on the periphery, the main body of the story notices them, but they do not take over the story. Much like how A League of Their Own is a fantastic story set in a time of war and there are moments that happened only because of the war but that isn't what the story was about. June carries the story with her love of her hotel, now overrun with people who have become the enemy. It is about how she helps her staff with precision and figures out that the man she might have been waiting for all of her life could be one who just showed up in her life and has a history with the waters himself.

There were so many great details thrown in throughout this book that seemed real. While the ending didn't really give me the epilogue I was hoping for, it did let my imagination take over as to what happening to all the characters I grew to love and the hotel that housed them all. At the end of this story I wanted to visit the hotel, taste the sweetwater and go on a snail hunt. If I'm ever in West Virginia, I might just do that.

***The say youth is wasted on the young. Why do we hate the foolishness that made us unfoolish?***

Narration:

Performance: ★★★★★
Character Separation: ★★★★★
Diction: ★★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★★★
Sound Effects: None

Erin Bennett shouldn't be a new to me narrator with over five hundred titles, but I couldn't find anything I'd listened to her narrate. She is seasoned and it shows in the cadence of the voices that fit the historical age of the book to the use of various accents for the different unwilling guests at the hotel. Her narration of June is so fitting and made her feel like a real person.

What a story!

I throughly enjoyed the paranormal aspect as well as the history during WWII. My family is from West Virginia.

Stiefvater’s exceptional writing

If you like history; if you like fantasy; if you like Stiefvater: you are in for a treat. Spend that credit and enjoy. You can thank me later.

Interesting idea, disappointing book

I was intrigued by this premise of a hotel housing Axis diplomats during WWI. The narrator did a nice job but the story was so scattered and writing melodramatic. I still do not understand the supposedly magical realism element, the sweetwater. Characters had potential but there were so many trying to activate different plot lines that I came to care for few of them. Overall I did not enjoy this book and would not recommend it.

This book is terribly boring

This book was on several amazon lists due to the authors other successful books. I kept listening to this hoping it was going somewhere but the story never evolved much and ending is lackluster at best. Probably my worst listen of 2025.

Actually Boring

I was pretty excited about this as a fan of most of the author’s previous work, but it really fell flat for me. The narrator did no help to this story with her nasally voice and terrible accents. I should’ve DNFd it, but pushed through because of other positive reviews, but sadly it never interested me at all.