Haunted

A Tale of the Mediator

By: Meg Cabot

Narrated by: Alanna Ubach

Length: 2 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

My name is Susannah Simon, and I am a mediator, a liason between the living and the dead. If you think this gets in the way of my attempt at a normal 16-year-old life, you'd be right. You try going to the mall while constantly being accosted by the undead.

Not that this is a bad thing all the time. Like, for example, when I discovered my bedroom is haunted by Jesse, the ghost of a 19th-century hottie. While I haven't made much progress with him (only one kiss so far), I remain optimistic. Jesse's inexplicable resistance to my charms is not my only obstacle, though: there's this other guy. A live one, who has the same gift of gab with the undead I have. In the same way I'm after Jesse, this guy is after me. And he knows how to send Jesse to the Great Beyond. For good.

So I guess you could say I'm haunted. I just never thought it would be by someone who isn't dead.

©2003 Meggin Cabot (P)2003 Random House, Inc. Imagination Studio, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"[Teens] will enjoy meeting the brave, nonchalant heroine and following her romantic dilemma." (Booklist)

Love the Book, But Not the Narrator...

I really love the series! I also enjoyed the nararrator for the first 4 books, but I'm having a hard time with the new one... I just think her voice is all wrong for the series! She makes Paul sound like an old man, Jessie sould like a smooth talking guy with devious intent, and Suze sound like Ceecee would! Hopefully they will have someone else be narrator for the next book, or better yet, the old (and I think best) one.

Story ruined

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who doesn't mind the story being chopped up into a shorter, less interesting rendition of the original.

Would you be willing to try another book from Meg Cabot? Why or why not?

Yes, I have enjoyed reading her books for years. They are entertaining and well-written. This is my favorite series by this author. I had hoped to get audible versions of them, but not all are available. This one doesn't really count since it's not the complete novel.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Alanna Ubach?

The previous narrator.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Haunted?

The book is good, but it's not very long. I would not cut anything. Actually, I wanted the complete narration, not half the story.

Any additional comments?

For a book that's less than 300 pages in its entirety, only offering an abridged edition makes no sense at all. It's only two hours long. As a general rule, I don't care for abridged audiobooks, and would not have purchased if I had realized. I'm usually more careful, but this one got buy me. Very disappointed in this one.

Disappointing!

The story is great but this narrator changes the personality of all the characters abd not in a good way. The parents are not snide in the previous books ... and the character Jesse sounds creepy as well as many of the others.

The previous Narrator Johanna Parker did a superior job by far - it would be fantastic to have this audio book redone by her. I gave the book a 3 because I like the series. If I had to rate the narrator I'd give it a 1. I don't plan on buying any of the audios moving forward and will read the books instead.

Love the books-- TERRIBLE NARRATOR

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The other books are presented wonderfully. This narrator makes the characters seem whiny and silly... what a bummer for such an important book in the series.

Where's the rest of the book?

I read this book a long time ago and loved it, I love the whole series. But they did not do this book justice. They took an already short book, and made it even shorter (which makes absoultely no sense). I don't understand how you take a 6 hour book and make it into a 2 hour book. What happened to the other 4 hours???Why would you abridge only the fifth book in a seven book series and change the narrator? The narrator was okay, but I prefer the other narrator who has done all the other books in the series. I'm disappointed in this audio book. I'm only keeping it because it goes with the series.

to short

wanted more

Annoying narrator

The story is great. The performance is trying way to hard to be interesting but just comes across as annoying.

another great one!

I enjoyed this book from meg cabot, it kept you guessing. I am hopeing that audible gets all the series available to download. I would like to find out what happens in the next of the series!

Loved the book...Narrator? Not so much...

OK so when I first saw that this audiobook was only two hours long which is a lot shorter than the rest of the books I was a little disappointed. But then after a few minutes of listening to the narrator I was suddenly relieved that it was short. Yikes! I just didn't not care at all for her inflections and voices for the characters. Suz always sounded like she was constantly anxious which is not really her character. I always imagine her having a calm/collected sense of urgency. The previous narrator portrayed that far better. Paul sounded like a total weirdo (I think he was meant to sound alluring). Didn't care for Jesse's voice. Just nahhh. Didn't like it. Can't wait to get back to the other narrator!!

mixed feelings

This is one of my favorite books! I don't really like the narrator. The other audio books in this series have a narrator that reads just like I remember reading the characters myself over ten years ago. This one, though, makes Suze sound whiny, Father Dom sound feeble, Brad sound even more annoying than he is in the book, and Jesse sound like a villain. It's confusing to say the least.