A Life to Waste

A Novel of Violence and Horror

By: Andrew Lennon

Narrated by: Steve White

Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Dave liked nothing more than to sit and waste his life away - until one night his world was turned upside down and his life ripped apart, throwing him into a must-win battle with an unknown enemy. With time running out and the odds against him, can he stop this "thing" or is it too late?

©2013 Andrew Lennon (P)2016 Andrew Lennon

Andrew Lennon is hardcore!!

I had read a few of Andrew's writings before this story and loved them all. This story is no different. Dave is a going nowhere moocher in his thirties who lives off his mother. As we learn about his tragic past we begin to understand the reasons.
One night a new terror invades his neighborhood. Dave must "man up" to save his own mother.
This was a great story reminiscent of Richard Laymon's Beasthouse series or Dean Koontz Intensity. I would highly recommend it for any who asked. Awesome job Mr. Lennon!!

The whistle is creepy!

Read in November 2019
First of all, I want to thank Andrew Lennon for a free code for an audio version of this book. This was my first full audiobook. All the samples of other books I listened to seemed boring and dry. After testing this one, I found out that I can change the speed and that helped greatly with my boredom. It's nothing against this narrator (he was great), all of them seemed slow to me. So anyways, I sped it up and listened to this in one sitting.
The beginning of the story seemed to drag. I was getting bored with it... But then it started. This book was great on audio because this bigfoot villain has such a creepy whistle! Not only did this audiobook give me the creeps, but towards the end I was hanging onto every word. I had to know what happened next. You've got a crazy guy in a bad guy's lair and I loved it! The details of the mutilated people were great. I like a little bit of gore. Actually, I prefer alot of gore, but this book was enough to satiate my taste

Great story

Loved A Life to Waste... It has an amped up urbanized Jeepers Creepers kinda' vibe to it. You won't be disappointed.

Great Story

This is a really good audiobook. highly recommended, great story and overall. narration fit this story great.

Sneaks up on you

At first when I started listening to this I was like wow this is a great story but where is the horror. I mean it started off just super sad as you find out about this man and his life just going through a downward spiral. And I am a fan of Andrew Lennon and was still wondering where is the horror that’s what he is known for, and the. Boom like a slap in the face the horror comes out of nowhere. The build up was so worth it. A fantastic story loved it. It seems like I’m never disappointed when it comes to this author!!!

A fun, short read.

I enjoyed A Life to Waste. This is the work of Lennon’s I have had the pleasure of reading but I definitely look forwards to checking out more of his writing. He definitely had me invested and hooked, hating this main character but ultimately ending up loving the turn around.
I will say, the audio performance was a bit off for me. It is good but I feel like I would have enjoyed this story more if I were reading the book myself. Either way, I highly recommend this story!

Good moments and bad

First, thank you to the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

First third of the story was a bit flat for my taste. There is a lot of background building to explain why Dave is Dave. He is portrayed as a real jerk – at best. I need someone to root for in a story. I loved flawed characters but they need some redeeming quality. Dave didn't have any. I understand why he is as he is. I don’t believe in second chances for the most part so his excuse for his decline doesn’t elicit any sympathy from me. There just wasn’t anything in the character development to cause me to think “poor guy”. Life's tough. Deal with it. I also didn't feel the circumstances that brought about the change in Dave were plausible. I need a center core of goodness (not there) to make that leap of faith. Dave needs more variety in his vocabulary. About everything he says seems to start with “Oh shit!” or “Holy shit!” Dave is also inconsistent. When he hears noises in his home he flip flops from scared to annoyed and back. If you really think you are going to be butchered, I think you will hit fear mode and stay there. There are a lot of holes in the story that are never answered.

The positives... the narrator did a good job. The premise of the story was good. If you can suspend belief, ignore the questions, and just accept it as is - it's a decently entertaining few hours.

Worth every minute.

1st. the narrator was good. solid performance.
2nd : character creation is perfect, having a rollercoaster of emotions about the characters is a must for me, and even now thinking about the plot and characters has unnerved me.
3: creep factor is 100 on this and truly I wish this story was longer, it leaves you wanting to know more about the characters!

UGH

The first thing that you learn in any class, in any book, in any YouTube video on writing is to show the reader... Not tell them.

This "novel" is an exercise in exposition. The narrator never shuts up while the cardboard cutouts passing for characters sometimes have interactions... Then more exposition. The timeline is limp and said exposition doesn't give a good idea of when we are in the lives of these flat people.

A great example of this exposition is chapter 4. Talking about how depressed the mother is... Show me what that looks like.

There's a rule, as well, about reminding your audience about better works than your own this guy does so many horror movie titles in the first hour that I wanted to watch one of those instead of listen to this.

This book clocks in at just over 3 hours, but if you cut the repetition and pointless narration, you could likely fit it happily into a midi file.

In short, it's short, poorly written and absolutely uninteresting.