Death Tally

Real Monsters, Book

By: Sarah Sokol

Narrated by: Elise Hoffman

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Taliesin Throckmartin killed her family on her wedding day.

She remembers everything. Her own two hands ripping them apart. The screams. The shocked, blood-spattered face of her fiancé. The only thing she doesn’t know is...why? She loves her parents, and likes helping people. She might be a little different, as an autistic druid, but that doesn’t make her a murderer. With no other culprits in sight, however, her fiancé commits her to the Broadmoor Asylum, where she will be forced to live out the rest of her days on medication that stunts her magical abilities.

Enter the wild and likely insane Louis Blou, a man who claims to be the last of an extinct clan of shapeshifters. Refusing to let Taliesin waste away with the rest of the inmates, Louis orchestrates their escape, leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake. On the way home to his ragtag pack of criminals, evidence of a conspiracy is uncovered. The Five Families who hold sway over Louisiana territory are plotting to resurrect forbidden magic, using it to enslave an entire race. With a chance to finally discover the truth of Taliesin’s tragedy, heal old rifts and thwart dastardly plans, Taliesin and Louis must join forces to stop the Five Families before it’s too late.

©2019 Sarah Sokol (P)2020 Sarah Sokol

loved it!

I loved this book. Full of action and it has a great storyline. It shows that even people who normally would not even be friends can come together and work for a common goal. Great narration it brings you into the book and makes you feel part of it all!

made for a fun weekend listen

couldn't put it down - it's a creative, fast paced story with a great narrator!

Loved it!

This book was very intriguing. I needed to know what was going to happen next. There are so many layers to this story and I can’t wait to see how this series evolves. The narrator's voice pulled me and helped bring each individual character to life.

Great Story

Loved the narration, the voices kept the story easy to follow. I have a hard time listening to a lot of audiobooks because I tune out, but this story was interesting and the narration was easy to listen to without losing focus.

Baskerville Book Reviews

While I normally finish every book I start, this is one of those books that I’ve spent hours listening to and can’t stand it. I have 2 hours of listening time left and I can’t take another minute of it. It can’t tell if it wants to be a mafia story, a supernatural story, smut, or a fantasy novel.

Every now and then, characters hit on each other, make sexual references and talk about their cocks and shit. But it never evolves into smut. So it just feels aimless and meandering. I feel like I’ve been dropped into the middle of a 12 part series and have been expected to follow along, understand or care about the lore of this world.

With characters talking about the “5 Families”, murdered parents, a dead shapeshifter pack, etc. All I can think while listening to this is how much more interesting any of those events would be over the plot of the story. It has action scenes, but I’ll be damned if I can remember any of them. Nothing about them is memorable or interesting because the characters and the world aren’t memorable or interesting.

I didn’t encounter any issues with the audible narration or the narrator. I think they did a good job, but I’ve been listening to this book over the course of days. I’ve been putting off listening to it and finishing it because it’s such an unenjoyable experience. So I can’t really say I gave the narration much thought.