Crawl

By: Edward Lorn

Narrated by: Maria Hunter Welles

Length: 1 hr and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

You're out in the middle of nowhere.

You've been crippled and left for dead.

There's something in the woods.

It's coming.

There's only one thing you can do…Crawl.

©2013 Edward Lorn (P)2014 Edward Lorn

Great story and one of the best female narrators I've listened to.

I listened to this today during my commute drive int London, this story is perfect length for that at 1.45 hrs long.

A married couple are on a road trip trying to salvage their marriage after one of them has strayed. A strange vehicle and owner on the road leads to a jeepers creepers type of encounter. Delightfully scary and creepy,

A great entertaining short novel that is brought to magnificent life but the simply brilliant narration.

Worth taking time out from a movie to be entertained by this book instead. I will definitely listen to again.

Suspenseful and cringe-worthy

Juliet and Colton were once madly in love but Colton ruined it all when he decided to diddle the dog sitter (better than the dog, I suppose!). Juliet is fuming mad and who can blame her? When the story begins this is all fresh and told from Juliet’s POV. Her emotions are red hot as they are driving together to drop her off at her mothers and you really “get” her. Her husband is a selfish dolt. Bad luck befalls them as their car is sideswiped and Juliet awakens dazed to find herself shackled to a post and things only get worse from there. Damn, and I thought my luck was bad!

The best thing about Juliet is that she is not a whiner. She acts.

The narrator is pure perfection for this tale. She conveys Juliet’s emotions extremely well as they range from simmering rage to pain, fear and full out anger. I’d recommend reading it this way, if you’re a fan of audio.

I was gifted a copy of this audio from the author with no expectation of a review but I “review” everything I read and, if you know me at all, you know this in no way changes my thoughts on the book. If it sucked, I would tell you. But this book was cringe-inducing awesomeness with just enough sarcasm and snark thrown into the dialogue and thoughts to make me a very happy reader.

Freaked my cats out!

Juliet & Colton are having marital issues. In fact, he’s driving her to her mother’s house so she can have her space. The road trip is uncomfortable and tense. It’s a mix of bittersweetness and anger. They revisit the good times before they were married and argue about the smallest things. They notice a creepy car on the highway, one they later bump into at a pit stop for coffee and a pee. Tinted windows and an odd vanity plate go hand in hand with the Red Priest who drives it.

The suspense builds slowly in this tale. We spend the entire story in Juliet’s head and so we get to know her feelings on the marital issues quite well. She feels anger and betrayal and perhaps the death of something that once was great. Still, you can see how she also wishes that she and Colton could forget the ugliness and go back to being a happy couple. But that’s not a possibility, so she wants some space and time to think about her next move. Also, a part of her wants Colton to be punished and this is her way of doing it.

Pretty soon another element is added in: the creepy tinted-window vehicle. At first, it is just a slow moving vehicle Colton has to pass on the highway. But the odd vanity plate sticks with Juliet. Then they stop at a diner for some coffee and a pee break and they eventually notice the vehicle. The driver, to become known as the Red Priest, bumps into Juliet as she heads towards the bathroom. Pretty intense creepy dude. But you don’t know how creepy yet. You think maybe he is just way into this faith and smug on himself.

Edward Lorn includes a bathroom conversation. Not at the sink, but while Juliet is in one stall and the other lady is in the next stall over. I found this very amusing because Juliet found it annoying and a little uncomfortable. I am right there with her. Who has chatty conversations while doing their business with another person, even a stranger, who is doing their business? So by now I feel a connection to Juliet and I want her to come out of this OK.

So they get back on the road and things happen. I don’t want to spoil it for you. Let’s just say that the suspense that has been building up suddenly leaps ahead and things get horrifying very quickly. It was very well done, this shift. The Red Priest continues to play a part and Juliet fights on for her life. A supernatural element is introduced and it is particularly hair-raising. I very much enjoyed how so much of The Horror was left to the reader’s imagination. There’s a handful of details that your mind builds upon, just as Juliet’s mind does. She’s injured and it is no easy task to try to escape. Yet she soldiers on. The ending was not what I expected but I still felt satisfied by it.

Narration: Martha Hunter Welles did an incredibly good job with this book. She was a perfect fit for Juliet and she had this excellent way of getting Juliet’s emotions across to the listener. She also had believable voices for the men in the story. Later on, there are some rather disturbing sounds the supernatural element makes and Welles’ performance raised the hairs on the back of my neck and freaked out my cats. Just a superb performance all around.

Emotional Rollercoaster

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

I would definitely recommend this book to friends. Mainly for the way it was read. The way Juliet went from thinking of the red hot sex her and her husband had enjoyed throughout their marriage and the love she felt for Colton, to the instant loathing, nearer to deadly hatred for him when she caught him with another woman.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Crawl?

Alone in the woods as she dealt with her fear, speaking to the other Juliet and Colton.

What about Maria Hunter Welles’s performance did you like?

Ms. Welles is an excellent narrator for this story. While the author gave the characters name, They could not have lived and breathed in this audiobook without the extraordinary talents of Maria Hunter Welles. If I could have rated her performance 10, I would have dobe so.

Any additional comments?

The story was written well, but the end left me with no closure. If that was the author's intention, then Bravo. the goal was achieved.