The Gray House

By: Mariam Petrosyan, Yuri Machkasov - translator

Narrated by: Scott Merriman

Length: 36 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

The Gray House is an astounding tale of how what others understand as liabilities can be leveraged into strengths.

Bound to wheelchairs and dependent on prosthetic limbs, the physically disabled students living in the House are overlooked by the Outsides. Not that it matters to anyone living in the House, a hulking old structure that its residents know is alive. From the corridors and crawl spaces to the classrooms and dorms, the House is full of tribes, tinctures, scared teachers, and laws - all seen and understood through a prismatic array of teenagers' eyes.

But student deaths and mounting pressure from the Outsides put the time-defying order of the House in danger. As the tribe leaders struggle to maintain power, they defer to the awesome power of the House, attempting to make it through days and nights that pass in ways that clocks and watches cannot record.

©2009 Mariam Petrosyan. (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2017 Yuri Machkasov.

Is there supposed to be a plot?

Couldn't stand the narrators over-annunciations, and there is more empty detail than actual story. 10 chapters in I'm still trying to figure out if there's a plot or if it's just bland babble. Couldn't finish it.

I'm still trying to figure out what I just read.

I think some of the magic got lost in translation, and the narrator didn't really help to distinguish one character from another. Add to that the lack of linear time and the unreliable narrators, and a premise that had really intrigued me just made me confused.

Trying to decide whether to listen to Gray House?

It's a combination of Lord of the Flies, Alice in Wonderland, and Dead Poets Society. It's rambling, psychedelic, dark, and chaotic. Each paragraph is a new adventure, and I don't mean that in an entirely good way. It's often unclear whether descriptions and names are literal or figurative. If you get sick or injured, go see the spiders, but whatever you do, don't sit on a chair. I mean... okay.

The guy reading this really makes sure to pronounce every T . Doesn't sound like a big deal but I can imagine it's a deal breaker for some people.

More importantly, there's not much of what I'd call a "story." A lot happens, but it doesn't build a and pay off, create and resolve tension; If there's a plot, I've stopped trying to find it, instead I use this book to listen to while I'm cleaning, or trying to fall asleep. It's like a fidget for my brain, and if I miss parts, it doesn't really matter.

I'd say, listen to this book if you don't mind over-annunciation and any of these are true: (a) You are into metaphors and finding meaning in madness; (b) You're in the mood for something weird; (c) You are looking for something to play while you're half listening or listening on and off. You'll also have to not hate hearing about children engaging in violence and drug use and sometimes turning into dogs (?) and running around in the woods.

Narration problems

I almost never leave negative reviews for anything but I figured that if there is any chance that Scott Merriman reads this and takes my advice, we will all be better off for it. Please, please stop over-enunciating every word. TreaTing. EVery. Syllable. As. A. DisTincT. PerCussive. SounD. Is. BaD. Every time he pronounced the letter "t" was painful. Words can and should flow together sometimes. The style he uses breaks immersion and it completely ruined my experience of a book I was excited to listen to. I kept trying to overcome my annoyance, thinking it would get less troublesome as time went on but it never did. Mr. Merriman, I think everything else about your reading is fine but a more conversational delivery on your part would have kept me from being a bit embarrassed by ranting like this in a review.

Amazing Book, Terrible Narrator

The book itself is wonderful. I've never experienced anything quite like it. The house, the characters, they draw you in, and you want to just sit with them as long as possible. Thirty hours wasn't enough, not nearly... But, for the love of God, don't listen to the audiobook. I'd go as far as to say it ruins the book entirely. All the characters are reduced down to some cynical YA over-enunciated drone. The character, the flavour, the unique quality of each person, the mystery and wonder—all gone. So yeah, overall 10/10 I would recommend this book, but only on Kindle.

Narrator hard to listen to

I really couldn't give this one a chance because Scott Merriman's narration was so annoying that after 2 hours of listening to him hyper-pronounce hard consonants, I just couldn't listen to him another minute. Also, although his narration couldn't be described as robotic, he spoke in the EXACT same "voice" for every character - adult or teen, male or female - which made it very hard to understand who was speaking. I will probably try reading this one on my Kindle.

Boring ALERT!

This is the most boring book I have "read" in a very long time...total waste of time and money...

Press on...it's worth it! But new narrator PLEASE!

Wow...what a ride! I went from forcing myself to press on and finish it, to wanting to start over the minute I was done! I listened to it (36 hours!) while also going back frequently and re-reading portions. I have to say the narrator is abysmal, but it's the only way I would have had time to get through it. If you can read it rather than listen, by all means do! He almost ruined for me. I would definitely lobby for another narrator to give it a go. But overall this book was haunting, beautiful, absurd, mesmerizing, and has more layers than one can fully grasp in a single reading. I will for sure be revisiting the gray house (or the better Russian title - "The House, in Which... ") again in my lifetime! I also found some fan art depicting the characters...look it up - they're fabulous!

Disabled and confused

I found this book to be obscure and difficult to keep track of the characters. Not my cup of tea.

What is going on!?

I could NOT get into this at all. I marked it as finished without reading the last 6 chapters.