The Death and Life of Bobby Z

This was potentially an excellent read. The story is interesting, the author has form. Unfortunately, the book has been abridged so far that it reads like a screenplay and jumps all over the place.

Having thoroughly enjoyed several of Don Winslow's other audiobooks, I figured I would give the The Death and Life of Bobby Z a shot. I did realize I was buying and abridged version of the book; what I did not realize is what an injustice the abridgement does to the story. Rather than the detailed and well-spun tales of previous Winslow books I listened to, this one served up little more than chopped up scenes with varying degrees of connectivity.
I was left wishing that Audible has a full version I could purchase, instead. No such luck. I am thankful (and I am certain Winslow would be as well) that this was not my first purchase of one of this author's books because, if it were, I doubt that I would have ever sought out another. To make matters worse, the narration did absolutely nothing to bring any value to the time I invested in listening to this version of The Death and Life of Bobby Z.

My recommendation; do not waste your time, credit, money on an abridged version . . . at least not this particular book. I'll chalk it up to being a lesson learned. That being said, I would not let this abridged version taint my enjoyment of Winslow's other books.

I hope you find this review helpful in making your reading and listening choices easier.

...from Don Winslow. Compare to his the latest and the best book "The Cartel ", it's a lighter reading. However, it doesn't lack Don Winslow writing mastery. The plot is a little bit predictable, but I have enjoyed it very much. The best narrator of Don Winslow's books is definitely Ray Porter. I understand the theme of the "Z" novel is situated in the surfing community and that's why Don chose the younger narrator. Overall the book is a good reading.

The story seems pretty good, but I bought this without realizing it's abridged, which I hate. My bad.

A different narrator would've been great. This guy is horrid.

Where Bobby and the Kid take on all of the guys at the split rock.

He was just bad. Poor reading, errors throughout, no emotion. He didn't bring anything to the story, but he took a ton away from it. Never will order a book narrated by him again.

Darrell Larson.

The story is as painfully predictable as a tv movie. The style is what I call present tense pitch; the sort of thing you would expect a producer to narrate to a tv movie executive. The characters are unbelievable and stereotypical. The main character is a three time loser who also happens to be a US Marine hero. Those skills learned in the Corps sure help him subdue the bad guys, who are also predictable and stereotypical. The narration is good, though. And it is brief. The problem is that this book attempts to be so hip that it forgets it has a story, some characters, and an atmosphere to provide.