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Offense  By  cover art

Offense

By: Anna O'Donoghue
Narrated by: Emma Galvin, Olli Haaskivi
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Publisher's summary

After a soul-crushing Tinder date, a woman returns to her apartment to cook some squid and seethe. Her eye starts to itch; her memory starts to skip, and she starts to spiral. Offense is an auditory explosion and an exploration of the rash of loneliness...and what happens when the voices inside our heads start to warp. 

©2022 Anna O'Donoghue (P)2022 Audible Originals, LLC.

About the Creator

Anna O’Donoghue is an actor, writer, and dramaturg from New York City. Her plays have been developed and produced in New York, New Orleans, New Mexico, and Minneapolis, and she works as a speechwriter, ghostwriter, and story consultant for entrepreneurs, artists, and non-profits. She currently serves as Chair of Arts in the Armed Forces’ Bridge Awards for Playwriting and Screenwriting, which seek to identify and support exceptional creative work by members of the military community, and she is a founding member of the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award Subcommittee, the largest monetary prize for new American plays and musicals. As an actor, Anna made her Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard’s **Rock ‘n’ Roll, and has performed off and off-Broadway and on regional stages around the country. She was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for her performance in the world premiere of I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart at the Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. BFA: Juilliard

About the Performer

Emma Galvin has had over a decade career in theatre, television, and voice over. She holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Some favorite off broadway credits include: Stage Kiss, Playwrights Horizons. Blood Play, UTR and Williamstown. Our Town, Barrow Street, and Lidless, P73 at Soho Rep. Favorite television credits: Veep (HBO), Nurse Jackie (Showtime), and Younger (TV Land). She has recorded over 100 audiobooks and is a prominent award winning narrator in young adult fiction having voiced titles as: The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth, Winters Bone by Daniel Woodell, and Tiger Eyes by Judy Blum. Emma is also a recurring featured role of the Barbie Netflix Series Barbie Dream House Adventures and the title character for 5 seasons of Cake Entertainment's Angelo Rules. She identifies as female and queer and currently getting her masters in social work from Smith College.

About the Performer

Olli Haaskivi can be seen in recurring and guest starring roles on many television shows including Winning Time, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, The Deuce, The Sinner, Queer as Folk and Manifest. Off-Broadway, he has originated roles in new plays and musicals such as Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons), The Rafa Play (Flea Theatre), Who’s Your Baghdaddy? Or How I Started The Iraq War (Actors Temple) and many others. Film-wise, he can be seen in Motherless Brooklyn, The Miseducation of Bindu, Nancy, Freak Show, and Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming Oppenheimer.

What listeners say about Offense

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

1st short story on audible

I really don't have any comparison, however, it kept me engaged & the subject matter was interesting.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Deep & Insightful

By far my favorite audible novella. It’s a very different writing style. It’s dark, deep and insightful. The great narration keeps you in and wanting more. You’re in the mind of the main character. You hear all of her thoughts as they come to her. It seems like rambles but it’s much deeper and real. The author definitely wants you to understand or be empathetic of those with mental health struggles.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Scintillating and flawlessly executed

The genre of body horror (which I’ve only just recently discovered) may perhaps not be everyone’s cup of tea, BUT it may also be exactly what you’re looking for in a vast sea of, perhaps, tame and redundant fiction— and this piece is a stunning introduction to the form. The writing is immediate and incisive (and grotesque in the best way), and Emma Galvin’s performance deserves high praise for its specificity, intelligence and brilliant comedic timing. The sound design is also of the highest caliber (No surprise from the masterful and prolific Daniel Kluger). I was really, really into it, for its tone, its dreamlike pace, and its transporting view into the protagonist’s charming, twisted mind. Five stars.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Whoa...

Not at all what I was expecting but I truly enjoyed it! Definitely a weird one though!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Odd and disturbing

I don’t see the beauty in this people claim to see although I did find it interesting. But I think on the whole I’d rather get my mental health insights from a text book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great Dialogue/innovative Use of Medium

Beautifully written and performed. An innovative radio playlet where no blind date has gone before.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

weird.

Apparently I missed the point of this. Honestly without the little title synopsis I wouldn't have had any idea what the point of this story was.
The performance and other sounds/music was great which is why I gave it the stars I did.
But really not so great to waste a half hour I could have been listening to something better.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

fantastic

What a fun ride. Loved her inner dialogueI. I felt she was enjoying the ride too. If you’re not laughing you’re crying.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A Portrayal of Mental Health Struggles

The way the story is written and performed, you really get into the head of someone who struggles with anxiety, depression and schizophrenia (or maybe schizoaffective disorder, I'm not sure). People really experience life like this... I think the message of it is that we should be grateful if we have our mental health in-check and have empathy for those who are struggling. Very well done, thoroughly disconcerting.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellently crafted

This piece is delicious. The writing is dark, brisk, and bizarre in the best ways. The performances are grounded yet dynamic and compelling. And the soundscape is flawlessly crafted. It’s a fully formed audio experience that pushes boundaries and expands the conventions of storytelling.

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