The Invited

By: Jennifer McMahon

Narrated by: Amanda Carlin, Justine Eyre

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

A chilling ghost story with a twist: The New York Times best-selling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house - they build one....

In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on 44 acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams. 

When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house - a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse - objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. 

As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.

©2019 Jennifer McMahon (P)2019 Random House Audio

OK story so far - but I cannot take the narrator

I have tried to get past the narration - but I keep finding myself not listening to the story - but to the Amazingly annoying narrators way of reading. She puts emphasis on the last syllable in each sentence, and pronounces it just a bit more high pitched. I cannot explain it better, English being a second language for me, but it completely ruins the story for me. I have given up now - and will ask for a refund.

What is with the narrator????

Jennifer M.’s books are wonderful. Have no complaints about the story. But I could not get past the awful narration!!! It was grating, to say the least! It sounds like the narrator had on a corset or something constraining her airways. Horrid. I will read this book instead of listen.

Awful narrator

I love her books, and I was saddened by the choice of narrator. It was hard to get past her odd speech “ticks”. I hope they rerelease it with another narrator

Narration is distracting

So far the story is ok but I am having a hard time getting through it because of the narrator’s voice. She has an inflection in her voice that makes it sound like she is going to cry. It is very distracting.

Didn’t want it to end

I loved this book! It was creepy and entertaining and even held the family relationship dynamic. So good.

good read

I picked this book because I enjoyed this author's previous book, Winter People. I couldn't put this one down either. I liked the slow development of the characters as the story progressed to a peak.

awful narrator

Wondered what the story was about after it ended. Found the narration irritating and difficult to bear.

enjoyed ish...

I enjoyed the book overall but wasn't a fan of the narrator. it's like she put emphasis in the the wrong spots and ran out of air while speaking. I enjoyed her actual voice but the way she did the reading it was like nails on a chalk board 😬. the story was decent I enjoyed the amount of history, facts about animals and witch craft the author put into the book but feel like at times it was repetitive or didn't quite fit right? I hate saying it sucked, it wasnt to the point where I didn't finish or returned the book it just was t my cup of tea I guess.

Good book, OK performance. Download sample first.

A good story. Although it took longer than usual to get invested in the characters, but could’ve been the narration. I found the narrator Justine Erye’s performance distracting. It improves a little around chapter 28, or maybe I got used to the inflection. Overall good story, but I’ll be sure to sample the narrator before buying my next book.

Awful narration; great story

The story was really good, enjoyed all of it thoroughly. The voice of the narrator was downright irritating! It was raspy, nasal, and uneven in portrayal of the different characters. The inflections and intonations sounded so very off. Most sentences, despite having a period at the end, were uncertain in their ending as the voice went up in pitch rather than down. I will avoid this narrator in the future; kind of ruined a great story.

fun

fun murder/mystery/ghost story. unsure why there is a random second actress thrown in, the story becomes a little incredulous towards the end and a bit predictable, but not a bad listen.