Wildwood

By: Ellis Carson, Colin Meloy

Narrated by: Amanda Plummer

Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. At least until her brother is abducted by a murder of crows and taken to the Impassable Wilderness, a dense, tangled forest on the edge of Portland. No one’s ever gone in – or at least returned to tell of it.

So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend, Curtis, deep into the Impassable Wilderness. There they uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval - a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater, as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

Wildwood is a spellbinding tale full of wonder, danger, and magic that juxtaposes the thrill of a secret world and modern city life. Original and fresh yet steeped in classic fantasy, this is a novel could have only come from the imagination of Colin Meloy, celebrated for his inventive and fantastic storytelling as the lead singer of the Decemberists. Wildwood is truly a new classic for the 21st century.

©2011 Unadoptable Books LLC (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

The narration is such a let down

To be honest we only got 5 minutes into this book and had to shut it off. My kids said they just couldn’t even get an idea of who was talking. The narrator does this book no justice. We literally just finished The Whiz Mob and Grenadine kid and that narration puts every other narration to shame. Can’t you get Bronson Pinchot to do this book? He’s amazing.
I’m just going to have to buy this one - but what a shame....

Annoying narration

I was sort of okay with the narrator’s babyish voice, but so annoyed with the jarring pauses that break up the flow of phrasing that I could hardly listen. This might have been helped if the narrator had actually read what she was going to read beforehand.

Decent Story, Rough Narration

After listening to Meloy's Whiz Mob and Grenadine Kid I was hoping for another great story and I think I got it but it was almost impossible to figure this out with the narrator. This is one of the worst narrations I've ever heard, it made the book a slog until the action started and made later chapters painful as she desperately struggled to do what I assume was meant to be an Irish accent for some characters. She may be an excellent actress but the effort of getting through this book was significant because of her failures as a narrator.

Terrible narration

I am just starting with this book so I’m not sure how much I like the story but the narration is terrible, it sounds like someone’s grandma reading a fairy tale to a very small child and the characters just sound awkward and weird. I’m sorry for Amanda Plummer but she’s a better actress than an audiobook reader.

Narration could be a lot better

I love this story but the narration makes the characters sound kind of annoying/ awkward and can make it very difficult to understand

Terrible narration

Not as exciting of a story, ghastly narration. This lady performs these kids voices as if they were toddlers just learning how to talk. I’m sure she’d be great narrating some baby books, but this was completely awful. It was unbearable and made me cringe every time she mimicked anyone yelling, which was quite a bit.

Loved it and loved Amanda Plummer's performance!

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

I would definitely recommend this.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Wildwood?

The humor, imagination, and complexity of the story

Which character – as performed by Amanda Plummer – was your favorite?

I disagree with the other reviewers who found fault with her performance. I felt her narration and character voices were varied and nuanced. I'm disappointed she wasn't the reader for Under Wildwood.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Poor narrator

Good story but often distracted by the narrator. Often read statements as questions and had a strange baby-like voice for dramatic or action parts of the story

Narrator doesn't do story justice

The whispering of the narrator ruins the story. Same with the yelling of the protagonist, who somehow seems to yell. Read the book, don't listen to it.

Distracting narration

If you could sum up Wildwood in three words, what would they be?

Fantastical, lyrical, gripping

What did you like best about this story?

The concept of another world nestled in reality

What didn’t you like about Amanda Plummer’s performance?

Way too distracting; her voice has an odd quality to it that I can see might be considered a match for this uniqu tale but I found it to detract from the story as I found myself thinking about her voice and wondering why she made certain inflection choices rather than the story she was telling.