Audiobook Review: Breadcrumbs

Title:  Breadcrumbs
Author:  Anne Ursu

Blurb:
Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. They had been best friends since they were six, spending hot Minneapolis summers and cold Minneapolis winters together, dreaming of Hogwarts and Oz, superheroes and baseball. Now that they were eleven, it was weird for a boy and a girl to be best friends. But they couldn't help it - Hazel and Jack fit, in that way you only read about in books. And they didn't fit anywhere else.

And then, one day, it was over. Jack just stopped talking to Hazel. And while her mom tried to tell her that this sometimes happens to boys and girls at this age, Hazel had read enough stories to know that it's never that simple. And it turns out, she was right. Jack's heart had been frozen, and he was taken into the woods by a woman dressed in white to live in a palace made of ice. Now, it's up to Hazel to venture into the woods after him. Hazel finds, however, that these woods are nothing like what she's read about, and the Jack that Hazel went in to save isn't the same Jack that will emerge. Or even the same Hazel.

Review:
This is one of those books that I should have loved far more than I actually did.  The writing is beautiful, the author is perfectly able to evoke a feeling of loneliness and desperation, and there are so many quotable passages that I lost track of them all. 

But.

While reading (listening) to the story, I was so distracted by the overwrought emotions and dark tone of the whole story that I kept waiting for something to happen.  Right from the blurb, any reader knows that Hazel and Jack's friendship is going to be tested and that some fairy tale elements are going to appear at some point.  Yet it takes about half the book for that to actually happen and when it does, it's almost a let-down.

The fairy tale elements are artfully woven into the story and the modernization of Andersen's "The Snow Queen" is deftly handled.  In this terrifying world of magic and shapeshifters, there are people from our world who lost their way and, for various reasons, cannot find their way back to a mundane existence.   These lost souls serve as both guides and obstacles in Hazel's quest to find her friend, all of them forming some sort of warning about making the wrong choices in this dangerous world. 

I don't know what I was expecting at the end, but the climax and resolution felt hurried and incomplete.  It wasn't unsatisfying, but I'm not sure that I can say it's exactly satisfying, either.  

The audiobook narrator did a perfect job of setting a morose tone throughout, conveying the despair and isolation that Hazel feels.  While he's a good narrator, I can say that there is only so much despair and desperation I can stand before I just wanted the book to be over.

Incredibly quotable, beautifully written, and not-quite-fulfilling.  The dark overtones might be too much for young readers and the subject might be too young for adults. 

3 out of 5 stars.

Audiobook Review: Doll Bones

Doll Bones by Holly Black
Audiobook narrator - Nick Podehl

Blurb:
Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends for ever. They love playing with their action figure toys, imagining a magical world of adventure and heroism. But disaster strikes when, without warning, Zach’s father throws out all his toys, declaring he’s too old for them. Zach is furious, confused and embarrassed, deciding that the only way to cope is to stop playing . . . and stop being friends with Poppy and Alice. But one night the girls pay Zach a visit, and tell him about a series of mysterious occurrences. Poppy swears that she is now being haunted by a china doll – who claims that it is made from the ground-up bones of a murdered girl. They must return the doll to where the girl lived, and bury it. Otherwise the three children will be cursed for eternity...

Review:
 Going by the blurb, I had expected this book to have more than a passing resemblance to Goosebumps - pseudo-supernatural scary parts mixed in a with a middle grade adventure.  I can't say I was truly disappointed in the story, since "what I expected" isn't a legal contract to a book's contents.  I can say that the story is solid, if not what I thought it was going to be.
The characters are clearly all going through the growing pains of middle school while still holding on to that magical part of childhood where imagination is just as entertaining as any game.  The three friends have made up a grand storyline with different action figure - a repainted GI Joe figurine, a pirate - and they made up glorious continuing adventures for them.  It's really a throwback to my long-ago middle school days and a pleasant nostalgic expedition.
All three have well-defined characteristic, given that the narrative is handled entirely through Zach's point of view.  Poppy is a bit of a dreamer, an occasional liar, and definitely a latchkey kid who holds herself together through the stories she and her friends tell.  Alice is a do-gooder (in the best way) and wants to follow the rules.  Zach doesn't want to look stupid, he wants to keep his friends, and he wants to please his teammates and parents.  Now that he's in middle school, he's finding that he might have to disappoint someone and it's a painful realization. 
There is a potentially terrifying story of a possessed doll which has a decidedly "Chucky" vibe.  I think this was the biggest let-down of the story.  There were definitely creepy parts of the story, don't get me wrong.  There were a few times where I honestly thought that something genuinely ghost-possession-poltergeist was about to happen, but other than setting a bleak and shifty mood, they didn't really pan out.  There were just was many moments when I thought "Poppy is just lying about this whole thing" which really rather spoiled any building-horror-momentum that the story had going.
By the time the resolution appears, I wasn't certain how the story was going to end, but I was largely happy with the result.  This book ends up being as much as coming-of-age tale as a supernatural spookfest, and I suppose that's alright.
The audiobook narrator was fine.  He made each of the voices more or less distinct and after a while I didn't notice - which I think is exactly what you should aim for in an audiobook narrator.

If you're looking for a scary ghost story, this is probably going to disappoint.  If you're looking for a bildungsroman with a creepy twist, this is probably more up your alley.
3.5 stars.