The Girls Are Gone

The True Story of Two Sisters Who Vanished, the Father Who Kept Searching, and the Adults Who Conspired to Keep the Truth Hidden

By: Michael Brodkorb, Allison Mann

Narrated by: Michael Brodkorb, Allison Mann

Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

On the evening of April 19, 2013, Samantha and Gianna Rucki disappeared. Two of five children born to David Rucki and Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, the teenage sisters vanished in the midst of their parents divorce.

The girls father, David Rucki, worked tirelessly with law enforcement to search day and night for his two missing daughters, following every lead while raising three remaining children at home. Their mother, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, used her newfound freedom to vacation around the world, abandoning her children. And as the investigation intensified, catching the attention of the media, Sandra also disappeared.
 

The Girls Are Gone is the true story of two sisters who went missing, the father who kept searching, and the adults who conspired to keep the truth hidden.

©2018 Michael Brodkorb, Allison Mann (P)2019 Michael Brodkorb, Allison Mann

Worst Narration Ever

I'm writing this while not done with the book. Let me start by saying that i listen to a lot of books and podcasts. I feel like I'm probablay a pretty good judge as to whether or not someone does a good enough job with reading the book or script. I've fought through ones that I felt weren't great, becuase I'm interested in the content. This one is so bad, that I am hopful that I can make it all the way through. But, it remains to be seen. The content is great. It's the kind of story that I can get interested in. But, the woman reading sounds like she can't get through it fast enough. She sounds like she's at the front of the class reading her book report. There's no real inflexion or anything. it's just read the words quickly. Sometimes so quickly that she sounds as if she's running out of air before she can get the sentence out. In addition, they felt is was a good idea to include the other author on teh recording. My understanding was that he was going to read parts of the book. As of right now, his contribution as been to read, what I'm gathering is the bold print at the beginning of a new chapter. So, sometimes it's simply ONE WORD! As I said, I'm interested in the content, so my goal is to fight through this. But, I think if I were going to recommend this book, I'd say it would be wise to read it instead. The positive is that I have a new found respect for the professional book readers that make these recordings. Sometimes I think they over dramatize the books. But, they are WAY better than the alternative. I apologize to the authors of this book for this review. I'm certain that they are great journalists and people. But, I would want to know if I was them! Pay someone to read your book.

Did anyone edit this?

The story was interesting and I really appreciated all the info and court records. But the editing was terrible. I’ve listened to lots of books where the narrator occasionally repeats lines and I am pretty understanding about. But towards the end of this book I was just like 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ did no one listen to this before publishing? Sometimes they repeated lines 3 or 4 times? Would definitely recommend re-releasing with editing and professional narrator because content was interesting.

Audio updated!

If you previously downloaded The Girls Are Gone audiobook that contained the chapter with some audible redo errors, please re-download the audio of this book. This is Ian Levitt with Studio Americana. We recorded and edited this audiobook and have revised the files to fix the erred lines in one of the later chapters. Listeners will now hear the corrected version when downloading. Again, if you downloaded the audio previous to December 6th, please re-download to hear the updated version.

Authors should not read their own books

The narration is awful - why some authors either choose or are asked to read their material is puzzling if the end result sounds as amateur as this selection. Michael Brodkorb and Allison Mann alternate narration and both struggle or rush through reading as if a gun was to their heads. It made some passages difficult to get through. Mr. Brodkorb in particular is poor narrator, coming off as mechanical and dis-impassioned, even though it's his tale to tell. The whole book was incredibly difficult to listen to, but the story is so fascinating that I pushed past my irritation to get to the end. I'd recommend the book, but not the audiobook.

Narration is bad!!!

I was very interested in this story but the narration made it very difficult to get through the book.

It's a no for me

The authors should have hired a professional to read. Their tone is monotonous and uninteresting. The story drags on without going anywhere.

Good story, need better narrators

Important story to understand but sadly the narration was stiff and lacking. As someone who listens to a lot of audiobooks /podcasts, I think that having a professional narrator would have made this story more interesting. Maybe reading it on your own in the hardback version would better.

Narration was monotone

Felt I was listening to a courthouse transcript for ELEVEN HOURS
Needed more voice animation

Interesting Story, awful narration

I found myself drawn into this story but the narrators were very difficult to understand. I managed by changing the speed to .75 and bearing with it. The story itself was compelling although sometimes a bit hard to follow and was often repetitive. This book would have benefited greatly by better narration and some diligent editing.

Never hire a court reporter to narrate an audiobook!

I don’t know if this person is a court reporter but she read this book in such annoying rhythm that I would guess she was. There is no award for speed reading through a audiobook! Slow down an give the story life through your voice! If you’re not a court reporter, you’ve missed your calling but I would not have this person read another book for audio listeners, even if you writ the book!