Trying to Live with the Dead

By: B. L. Brunnemer

Narrated by: Kris Koscheski, Carla Mercer-Meyer

Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's Summary

Hi, I'm Alexis Delaney. I'm your average 17-year-old girl. Except I can see the dead. And talk to the dead. And push them away and, well, help them move on.

So...okay, I'm not your average 17-year-old girl.

For years I've been struggling to survive the souls still roaming around. The shitheads always seem to find me. Moving from town to town every few months never helped either. More dead just always find me. But things are changing for me now. I'm moving in with my uncle Rory and cousin Tara. I'm finally going to be able to do normal teenage stuff I've been missing out on. Right?

Well, if this one bitch of a ghost could leave me alone on campus that would be great. Especially since I haven't told my new friends about my abilities. Can you believe this? Five good-looking guys practically adopt me on my first day of school and I still think they're a bit nuts for it. Now if I can only keep my life with the dead from mixing with my normal life everything would be great. Yeah...I don't see that happening either. But I'm going to give it a shot.

Who knows? It might work.

©2016 B. L. Brunnemer (P)2017 Tantor

Light entertainment

The story and characters in this novel remind me strongly of Japanese manga and anime series - a perky, somewhat silly female lead who is inexplicably the only one who can save the world from vague, dark threat; the inverted harem of gorgeous boys who fawn over said character; convenient opportunities for romantic setups (no parental authority, permissive uncle who allows a teeenage girl to spend unlimited amount of time, including sleep overs, with a group of teenage boys), yet everything remains relatively innocent and childlike between all the main characters. The psychic plot is barely developed and most of the narration is dedicated to describe every single aspect of each gorgeous character, the clothes they wear, and cute funny interactions among them. If you want very light reading to pass the time, or to listen in the background while doing something else (like I did) this is the YA novel for you.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Excellence

I really loved this story. I am not a young adult but the story still appealed to me even though it's high school aged kids as characters. I loved the paranormal mixed in with everyday struggles. It was both funny and fast paced at times. The connection between Lexi and the boys is both sweet and hysterical. The narration was great and I listened almost continuously. Couldn't put it down. Highly recommended !

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Started Well, Ended In Wining

The book started well. The story line was promising. And then the characters spent the whole rest of the book wining. I kept waiting for it to be just temporary, but it was pervasive and incessant. The main character is supposed to be 17, but the dialog is preteen and predictable.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

intriguing

loved it. but needed a little romance in it and more about the veil so..

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

such a awesome story!!!

oh please say there will be more, left me hanging on hope for more. loved the charectors, the story, the narrator. I highly recommend this book!!!!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Deceiving title a real let down

Would you try another book from B. L. Brunnemer and/or Carla Mercer-Meyer and Kris Koscheski ?

It will be awhile until I try another book by this author.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would never have added the cussing and the constant wardrobe updating gets boring. However, the constant manipulating, bullying and bad teen behaviors.

What about Carla Mercer-Meyer and Kris Koscheski ’s performance did you like?

I loved Carla Mercer-Meyer she did a great job of bringing to life this OK novel. Without her, I would have given up. Now I wonder if it is worth another credit to find out the next book is still a fair read.

Did Trying to Live with the Dead inspire you to do anything?

Get my credit back? It was an ok read but not a reread.

Any additional comments?

The entire book was about a group of boys that befriend a traumatized female teen. The main character sees the dead and the title Trying to Live with the Dead but there were maybe a dozen entries about the dead anything. The focus was on what the kids were wearing and a couple of weeks worth (book took place in less than a months time) of bullying at school.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

best read

I love this book. great story line. loaded with humor. can't get enough .the characters amazing

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

loved

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. this was my first time reading this author and I think the book was awesome. I listened every chance I got! cooking dinner, bathing the dog, in the car I just could not get enough of this story! will be looking to see if this author has more to choose from hopefully a second book!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

absolutely love this book.

the hearing is an amazing kick ass girl that doesn't take no b******* from anybody. I love that she has spunk but at the same time she has an amazing heart and it is super sweet. now on to the boys all of them are dream worthy you will not be disappointed

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I would have preferred...

more ghosts more about living with the dead and less about Teen wannabe Romance. I will not be listening to anymore in this series

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Awesome Story

Utterly Fantastic Storyline. Looking Forward To Next Instalment. Once You Start Reading You Will Be Unable To Stop. Fantastic Twist And Turns. I Totally Loved This Book.

Loved the book

I loved everything about this book (except for the occasional bashing of 'normal girls', which I kind of also can't fault the book for - teenagers really like to shove people into neat little boxes, so it's realistic, if disappointing). One thing I would change about the narration was that I wish the guys voices had been fully narrated by the guy at the end. The female voice actress did a great job differentiating between the voices, so good that I could pick out almost all the guys' voices before being told who was speaking. That said, I think I would have preferred and enjoyed if it had been done by the guy, instead as it was hard to get into at the start because there's only so many voices on person can do and there was a lot of characters.

Love this book

Well worth listening too with a good story line and interactive characters. look forward to the next book.

Alright if you are in your teens

I like the premise of the book, but I could have done with mainly the ghost bit and lost all the male/female bonding and who was wearing what, and how wonderful everyone was. I persevered to the end but am very relieved to have got to the end. Of course it left it all open but I won't bother to read any more. Maybe if I were 40 years younger I might have liked it.

Best book/audio ever

This series is one of the best audios I have ever listened to. The narrator has a beautiful tone of voice which is full of expression and life, she reads fluidly and her voice is soothing to the ear. So good is the quality and voice that I get sucked right into the book, it's relaxing and exciting all at once. The male narrator at the end also has a great tone of voice and it is nice to get the guys perspective in a male voice

I have listened to this audio on more than one occasion and will be listening again in the future. The storyline is epic and one of the best written series I have read so far

If you want a great story with a fantastic audio then get this one as to be honest it does not really get any better than this

Ten stars if I could

Better in audio than pixels

The storyline for this book is good - girl who can see the dead goes to live with her uncle; makes friends with some cool guys and when they realise what she can do they stick with her - which is good because the Veil that the dead pass through is broken and everything is going pear-shaped.
Issues with the print version get smoothed out somewhat in audio - you can't tell where the wrong homonym is used (there vs. their) & poor sentence structure where it's hard to tell who's speaking gets covered up leaving the listener to concentrate on the actual story.
There is some word repetition where the same word appears 3 or 4 times in the same sentence and that can be jarring but the narration itself was good and there were nice tonal differences between the characters so you could tell who was speaking after listening for a little while.
I have got the next book, because as I said - the story is good & so is the narration - there were just some minor irritations (but far less than were apparent in the written form).