The Execution of Noa P. Singleton

A Novel

By: Elizabeth L. Silver

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Amanda Carlin

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

A beguiling debut novel about the stories we tell ourselves to survive, the scars that never fade, and the things we choose to call the truth.

Noa P. Singleton speaks not a word in her own defense throughout a brief trial that ends with a jury finding her guilty of first-degree murder. Ten years later, a woman who will never know middle age, she sits on death row in a maximum security penitentiary, just six months away from her execution date.

Seemingly out of the blue, she is visited by Marlene Dixon, a high-powered Philadelphia attorney who is also the heartbroken mother of the woman Noa was imprisoned for killing. She tells Noa that she has changed her mind about the death penalty and Noa’s sentence, and will do everything in her considerable power to convince the governor to commute the sentence to life in prison - if Noa will finally reveal what led her to commit her crime.

Noa and Marlene become inextricably linked through the law, shared sentiments of guilt, and irreversible mistakes in an unapologetic tale of love, anguish, and deception that is as unpredictable as it is magnificently original.

©2013 Elizabeth L. Silver (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"In this grippingly off-kilter thriller, a young woman sits on death row after being convicted of murder until a high-powered attorney – the victim’s mother – intervenes, leaving everyone to wonder why." ( O, The Oprah Magazine)

"Silver has written a darkly witty, acerbic jigsaw puzzle of a first novel about legal versus moral culpability…[and] explores convolutions of guilt and innocence beyond the law’s narrow scope with a sharpness and attention to detail that can be unnerving but demands attention." ( Kirkus)

"Vividly written debut novel...Silver definitely delivers a thought-provoking examination of the criminal-justice system, providing a clear-eyed view of the artificial theatrics that dominate criminal trials and a heartfelt look at both grief and remorse. An intriguing debut from a writer to watch." ( Booklist)

Could have benefitted from a strict editor

I think the author of this book is going for an award of the pretentious literary persuasion. That's the only real explanation - besides true pretentiousness - for the overdose of metaphors, similes, and unnecessary wordiness of this book.

Noa is a hyperarticulate prisoner on death row. As she looks back to the crime for which she was convicted, doling out details a little at a time, she inserts flowery commentary on almost every detail. And why stop at one metaphor when you can do three. First, a short one somewhat related to the subject, like the children of two step cousins. Second, another short one, but striving to be different like a goth kid at prep school who thinks a third ear piercing is daring. Then, last, a long metaphor or simile during which the listener forgets what the actual subject was as thoroughly as a sixth year Alzheimer's patient forgets the names of her night nurses at the assisted living facility his son sold his house to pay for.

Tiresome, right? Wait to you get to the lists.

When she isn't pelting us with ridiculous comparisons or saying the same thing multiple times in different ways, she is preening for literary praise with phrases like "that indignant evening" that seem to be made up entirely of words she likes without much regard for clarity or meaning. I don't know if the distraction from the plot is accidental or on purpose, her trying to hide that the minor characters who drive the story really don't make any sense; since relationships and character motivations are the key reason for a confessional novel such as this one, that means that the skeleton she hangs her book on doesn't make sense. I felt let down by this, and by the farfetched reveals and twists that were supposed to explain everything. The author spends a lot of time explaining Noa when she isn't doing anything, when she really should be explaining Noa when she is doing the things that got her convicted.

Maybe it's on purpose: maybe the author's goal is to show that we don't act in stressful moments the way we think we will when we have time to think. But somehow it feels like it was just a shot and a miss.

Over written, pretentious, indulgent ,boring

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A good story well written.

Would you ever listen to anything by Elizabeth L. Silver again?

I didn't mind her performance. It was not her fault.

What about Rebecca Lowman and Amanda Carlin ’s performance did you like?

They were stuck with the material.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

boredom and annoyance

Boring

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Something happening. Characters I don't care about.

Has The Execution of Noa P. Singleton turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Any additional comments?

Boring. 2 hours into it and I have no interest in what happens to Noa or the rest of the characters. Seems like she should be executed.

Like reading a diary or a "Dateline" episode

The reviewer from "O" magazine described this as a thriller. Not. You know the premise way too much from the get go and we hear all about this story as if we are reading a diary of all the characters or watching a "Dateline" episode. A few surprises - I was glad to get to the end. I will scrutinize my "thrillers" more carefully in the future.

Lackluster

I just couldn't care what happened to her. I expected a thriller and instead it was just blah.