Roadtrip Listen

Audiobook Rating

THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION

by Nancy Farmer

read by Raúl Esparza

8 out of 10

Highly Recommend! This listen is perfect for a family road trip because the novel is well written and engaging enough to capture the interest of a variety of story-lovers, young and old. The audio voices are well-performed by actor, Raúl Esparza (Ferdinand, Law & Order: Special Victim’s unit) and the story lends itself easily to the listening ear.

5 Reasons for such a strong review:

1. Initially, there are few characters to follow and as new ones are introduced, the listener can maintain a grip on who everyone is…including, there are a number of characters with accents and very distinct voices (performed well by Esparza).

2. The point of view is third person, it stays close to Matt. It does not jump around from character to character.

3. The repetition of little stories told mostly by El Patrón, work like anchors for the listening brain. I write about this in my review of the novel, THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION Repetition is a common story-telling technique, much like songwriters or poets will use a chorus or a repeated stanza to drive a point home.

4. The writing is top notch, which means, the dialogue is well written. The dialogue feels authentic, like real people talking.

5. Description of Opium takes place slowly and organically. The listener doesn’t have to absorb a huge amount of exposition, the describing of places, houses, rooms, plants, animals, people etc..takes place incrementally. Matt’s life starts out small and his view of Opium is narrow, but little by little, as he learns, the listener learns. Details are added that are important, but not all at once. It makes the audio format easy to follow.

For more on how to choose a good audiobook, see Part II  The Rise of the Audio Book