The Voice of Waterfalls

By: Natasha A. Salnikova

Narrated by: Michelle Marie

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Inga manages to escape from a house of terror where she was held as a sex slave along with other girls who were kidnapped. She is chased into the woods and runs onto the road, almost falling under the wheels of an approaching car. She thought, it would be better to die that way than to return to her captors. The driver of the car, to her surprise, saves her. He brings her to his house and introduces her to his family: his mother, his father, and his younger sister. He gives Inga a key to a separate room and brings her food. She appreciates his help and calls him her knight from the road. All she needs now is a phone to make a call to her mother. Her savior, Alman, says they don't have one in the house. He's also not in a hurry to take her from his house in the woods to the town of Quiet River where she can talk to police. And Inga began to doubt the noble intentions of her savior. After some time she starts to think this house is worse than the one she was imprisoned in before, if that was possible.

©2016 Natalia Salnikova (P)2017 Natalia Salnikova

Nice and spooky!

A very interesting and fun horror novel! The point of view change took some getting used to, but it was brilliant how it all came together.

wow, from one bad life to anther

This poor girl, really, what else could go wrong for her?
She is finally on her own out in the big girl, naïve and ready to be in model and just live life a little bit. well it all goes down hill from there. The story starts off with her at what she call the house of torture where she is a captive sex slave. She finally escapes, and finds herself in a worse hell, if that is even possible.
I read a few reviews about how it needs to be edited. It seems the audiobook was edited. This book was translated I believe from the Russian to English, there maybe a few parts that have maybe a funny saying our two but nothing really to noticeable.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Cookie cutter plot

Skilled writing and an interesting if predictable story. A bit to cookie cutter for my tastes.

The narration was mediocre. Not the best.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Not what I was expecting!

I found this book to be both intriguing and repelling at the same time. The author was new to me, while I have listened to the narrator on other books. I think I had a hard time with the evil in this book. The setting was a small town not far from Seattle, but it seemed like it was in another country. Per other reviews, this book was translated from another language. The book almost had two stories woven into one. This book was described as a thriller and I felt it was more horror. My genre preferences are Mystery and Romance and I thought it would be fun to try something new. I just am not ready to listen outside my comfort zone. My low rating on the story was because I did not like the evilness of the story. Some of the twists and turns appealed to me, but this book wasn't for me. My review is not a synopsis of the book, but rather my opinion of it. I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, narrator, and/or publisher in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

Horrifying and Totally Awesome

Any additional comments?

"The Voice of Waterfalls" was an incredibly pleasant surprise! As many other reviewers have noted, the book has a premise that has been done before (girl escapes evil, finds herself entrapped in a greater evil!). However, I completely disagree that this story was cliched. I think Salnikova hit on all the points we would expect, but did it in such a way that I found it satisfying, surprising and compelling. The villains in this tale are unimaginably twisted; I couldn't stop listening for I absolutely had to know how Inga was going to get out of that mess. The characters were believable despite their sinister behavior; the paranormal element was a unique and interesting plot point.

Michelle Marie, however, was the rockstar of this book for me. She pulled me in right from the beginning and made me feel pity for the characters even when I thought they were being stupid. Her voice performance was absolutely stellar - I intend to seek out more books narrated by her!

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Think 2ce before visiting obscure towns...heheheh

OMG! This book was awesome!!! Think of Dean Koonz and Stephen King...yeah...
Inga escapes from a house where she was a sex-slave. She is almost caught when a stranger stops his car and fends off her captors. The stranger takes her to his home and promises that they will get help in the morning. He introduces her to the rest of his family...dad, mom & teen sis. Then things get interesting...the stranger, Alman, keeps coming up with excuses for not running Inga into town and his family is plain weird. Inga runs away and makes it to the small town sheriff's office...only to be picked up by Alman & his family. Meanwhile, attorney-Anthony, is in town to visit his grandmother as well as recover from a case gone wrong. Anthony witnesses the encounter at the sheriff's office and dismisses it, but soon the strange vibe in the town has him investigating. Inga is back at Alman's family's home and is trapped! No spoilers...just know that there is some serious supernatural stuff...murders...and a town that is dangerous to outsiders. After listening to this story, I'm less likely to visit teeny tiny towns...lol
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Creepy and unsettling

I felt bad for Inga, the main character, throughout this story. It was an unsettling story about her going from one horror to another. The family was creepy and the writer did a good job of slowly dripping out the horror and unease. It wasn't a full blast all at once. Well done there.

At first, I thought the story wasn't as interesting whenever it switched to Anthony's POV. You have the excitement with Inga, then suddenly we are in Anthony's shoes. But! Once their paths cross, Anthony became more interesting. It just takes a few chapters of knowing him before there's crossover. I still preferred Inga to Anthony, though.

Other reviews mention that the story relies on well-trodden tropes. It helps that the writer applied those tropes well and kept up the interest. The supernatural elements...it was a twist and a surprise for me. Even though the cover and title says it's a supernatural piece, it takes a while for that element to show up.

Narrator did a decent job of differentiating the characters. Anthony sounded stiff, which suited his character. Almond sounded like a dimwit, which also fit his character. Inga's emotions were done well. My favorite voice for the narrator was Mira's, the teenage girl in the family. Delightfully antagonistic, that voice was.

I received a free copy of this for review. I chose to review this voluntarily.

Loved this story!

I was given a free copy of this story for an honest review. I wasn’t completely sure if I’d like it or not, although it did catch my attention and sounded interesting. I’m glad I asked for a copy. This was such a great, well-written story and it held my attention the whole time. When compared to a lot of stories I’ve read or listened to, I come across boring spots in which I’ll just set the story down for a while or skip ahead. In this case, that didn’t happen once, in fact, I had a hard time setting it down even for bedtime. I knew that Anthony would end up meeting and helping Inga out, in the end, yet I had no idea how the story was going to play out.

This was my first time listening to an audiobook by this narrator. While I feel she did a great job, I’m not sure if her hesitation when speaking was because of how she naturally speaks, whether it was added into the story because of the subject matter, or because she hasn’t narrated many audiobooks. Either way, it worked! The hesitation provided a nice way of showing how unsure the main characters were when confronted with some questioning situations.

In the end, I’m definitely interested in reading/listening to more by Ms. Salnikova.

a very cheesy perdictable ride

The Voice of Waterfalls hits just about every cliche you'd expect. That isn't to say it's not an enjoyable way to spend a weekend. However I felt little connection to the plastic lifeless characters, each of which you've seen dozens of times before. it's a bit like a Lifetime movie, in that you know what will happen and why but you watch it anyway. It's apparently part one if a series and it succeeded at making me want to read the next part. So, umm yay? I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Keeps you guessing all the way through

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

Yes, it was a good story, kept me wanting to listen and curious about what would happen next. It wasn't too obvious at any point, what would be the outcome of the current scene, sometimes you had a pretty good idea but weren't sure how it would play out and I found myself wanting to continue and see how the story would unfold and what the secrets would turn out to be.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Voice of Waterfalls?

Well, that would be giving it away, but suffice it to say that there was a fairly unexpected surprise near the end

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

Pretty much - I listened to it in a few sittings because I had to work, but I could easily have listened in one go

Any additional comments?

The narrator was very good - good variety of characterisation across quite different people.