Kat Cubed

By: Lesley L. Smith

Narrated by: Kathryn Supina

Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

How much does your world affect who you are? In Kat Garcia's world, only the Rocky Mountains are above sea level and the sun is hot enough to kill. She goes through a mysterious portal seeking weapons to keep her friends safe from the remnants of the decayed government. In Kaitlin Garcia's world, the Unified States is constantly bombarded by severe storms. She goes through a mysterious portal to implement her climate mitigation strategy before her world becomes uninhabitable. In Katherine Garcia's world only draconian government control over the citizens has kept the droughts, floods, and diseases from killing everyone. She goes through a mysterious portal seeking nuclear fusion to throw off the oppressive governmental yoke. When the actions of the three Kats start to destroy the universes, can they join forces and save them?

©2016 Lesley L. Smith (P)2016 Lesley L. SMith

Interesting premise, let down by narrator.

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

The book had an interesting premise. But the below-par narration kinda ruined it for me. I would later try to read the story in kindle I guess.

Would you be willing to try another one of Kathryn Supina’s performances?

This sounded like someone's first attempt at narration and when I checked Kathryn Supina’s audible page, that turned out to be true. She narrated the whole book like reading it line by line. At several places, she didn't pause between two lines. Some lines were voiced over-dramatically etc. In other words, the narration was amateur. I wish her best of luck though. Hope she will get better at it with more n more books that she reads in future. I'll maybe try out her 4th or 5th book.

Could you see Kat Cubed being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Maybe a Netflix or Amazon Prime movie, direct to streaming.

Any additional comments?

I voluntarily received a free copy of this book from the author / narrator / publisher and am leaving an unbiased review.

Kat Cubed

Any additional comments?

The story itself is entertaining and interesting. It's a creative, complex and enjoyable story that can be confusing at times. It's a perfect story for YA/Teen audiences.

It was little hard to follow at times especially in the beginning. It changes back and forth from one universe to the next and it took a while to get familiar with what was going on in each universe and separating each characters place within that universe. While the story is constantly moving forward, it is at a slower pace. Chapter 15( about 2 1/2 hours in) is when things really started to get interesting with plenty of action and suspense, that's when the story really pulled me in. I have listened to other stories by Lesley Smith where the writing was great and the story flowed smoothly so I believe the "choppy" feel at times in this story has more to do with the narration not the writing.

The story is told through the POV's of Kat, Katherine and Kaitlin. All basically the same girl with slight differences from 3 different (realities) universes Each universe has their own issues they are dealing with on a vastly changed earth in each reality. Along with the 3 Kat's there are the some of the same people in each universe… parents, friends, etc. some in the same role, others not. Even though you are told at the beginning of each chapter which universe you are in I have to admit at times I was still confused. Not only with the characters but keeping them straight not only in their respective worlds but also when they go from one universe to another. I don't know if all the science talk makes sense but it sounded realistic/good and added a plausible explanation to the events taking place. It does have a good epilogue for each of the universes.

Kathryn Supina did a okay/good job with the narration. Some things were good, other areas need work. This was a tricky book to narrate if this is really her first narrated book. She has a nice voice that is easy to listen to for long periods of time. Her voice fit the age of the main characters. She does a good job with the emotions of the characters. It states in the story that all 3 of the different Kats are suppose to sound the same and she does them all very well. The problem for me is, she is just reading it for the most part. As the story goes on there is a little more "oomph" an life to the narration but there is no real difference in character voices, they all sounded basically the same, which just makes all the characters blend together. There needs to be a little more difference in her other character voices though. She just may have not been the right choice of narrator for this book. She is by far not the worst narrator I have listened too. With a bit more practice she could be a really good narrator.

In the sample it is only characters from universe 1, so you can't tell what the other characters in the other universes are going to sound like until you are farther into the book. It would have helped the story if there had been more difference between the 3 Kats voices at least.

Chapter 22 there was a kind of static/clicking noise a couple of times. Chapter 24 the quality of the volume changes and gets a lower forcing you to turn up the volume the narration also gets softer, it almost has a" putting you to sleep cadence" Occasionally there is a slight clicking/static sound in the background noticed it in chapter 22,27,36, and 41. There are other area's as well but I could not always write them down. You can hear the narrator swallow several times throughout the book as the story goes on it becomes more frequent and noticeable.

If I had purchased the book I would have returned it based on the editing errors.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily provided this review.

Wonderfully unexpected.

I want to say more about this story but I absolutely hate spoilers, so I won't do it to you by going into details.
The narrator brings the story to life.
Reasons I enjoyed this audio book:
Tear-jerker, Happily Ever After, Romantic, Wonderful characters, Page-turner, Great world building, Unpredictable, Original, Easy-to-read/listen, Entertaining, Action-packed, Twisted, Tragic.
Bookshelves/tags:
adventure, alternatively-reality, angst, dystopian, futuristic, romance, science-fiction.
This Audio book was given to me at my request from the publisher, author or narrator and I provided this unbiased voluntary review.

Great read

It was a good book. Not the absolute best ever but very good, creative, original & certainly entertaining. It was almost hard to follow at first but eventually you get all the versions of Kat figured out. It's clean & would be good for young adults & teens.

I was voluntarily provided this review copy at no charge by the author, publisher and or narrative.

Complex and action-packed

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, very interesting and complex story.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Kat Cubed?

When the three Kats first meet.

Which character – as performed by Kathryn Supina – was your favorite?

Kaitlin

Any additional comments?

I requested a free copy of this book from the author via Audiobook Boom and I have voluntarily written this review.

Another winner from Lesley L. Smith

Already being a fan of this author, it was loads of fun going into Kat Cubed. I love sci-fi and alternate universe stories, so I was hooked from the start.

The narrator, Kathryn Supina, has a young voice. That may be why other reviewers thought this would be a young adult book. I found this book to be fine regular adult fiction. Just because the narrator sounds youthful, it seems silly to categorize the book that way. Just saying.

If you like good sci-fi and strong, capable female main characters, I recommend this book for a great listen. I was voluntarily provided this review copy at no charge by the author, publisher and or narrative.