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The View on the Way Down cover art

The View on the Way Down

By: Rebecca Wait
Narrated by: Mandy Weston, Carl Prekopp
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Summary

This audiobook will open your eyes and break your heart.

It is the story of Emma’s two brothers: the one who died five years ago, Kit, and Jamie, who left home on the day of the funeral and has not returned since. It is the story of their parents, who have been keeping the truth from Emma and from each other. The past is not discussed or acknowledged, until a chance encounter brings devastating secrets to the surface and once again the family must face a crisis which may ultimately save them.

The View on the Way Down captures the insidious, sometimes violent, force of depression and its ability to tip lives into chaos. Gripping, moving, and ultimately hopeful, The View on the Way Down will have you rooting for the family’s redemption.

Rebecca Wait graduated from Oxford University in 2010 with a first class degree in English, having been mentored by the poet and novelist Craig Raine at New College. She’s been writing since she was a child and has won numerous prizes for short stories and plays. Rebecca wrote The View on the Way Down in the evenings whilst working as a teaching assistant the year after graduating. In March 2013, Rebecca thrashed the competition to triumph as a Literary Death Match champion.

©2013 Rebecca Wait (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"The View on the Way Down is a novel that deserves to win awards as well as a huge readership. It’s a wise, honest, wonderful read that marks Rebecca Wait not just as a writer to watch out for, but one to appreciate now." (Daniel Clay, author of Broken)
"The View on the Way Down is deeply moving – yet unsentimental – and profound, and has a family secret at the heart of it that will remain with you for a long time after you finish reading. It is a novel that needed to be written and which will touch many people . . . a fine achievement." (Mark Gartside, author of What Will Survive)
"The View on the Way Down is written with great sympathy and an aching tenderness. Rebecca Wait’s evocative storytelling is alive to the tragedies and miracles of everyday life, illuminating the grey area between protecting and deceiving the ones we love." (Laura Harrington, author of Alice Bliss)

What listeners say about The View on the Way Down

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling Listening

Five star audio books come along so infrequently that I felt I needed to review this one. This story is so compelling that I have been unable to walk away, listening to it in less than 24 hours.



To simplify it is to say that it is about depression, tragedy, bullying and one family's inability to communicate – which makes it all sound very bleak. But among the tragedy it is chock full of hope, with beautiful observations of human nature as we bump and jostle one another whilst trying to make meaningful connections, fail and still go on to try again.



It is sad, and it did make me cry as I listened. It doesn't pretend to give any easy answers to the individual personal tragedies of the protagonists, but, in the end, it does offer a quiet form of unity between them and a way forward for them all.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Amazing debut

Like many of my listens I was introduced to this by an interview with the author on 'Woman's Hour'. I found the author rather inspiring and was keen to listen to this, her debut novel. It is a brilliant debut and well worth a listen. Her portrayal of a family in crisis and how the past tragedy has affected them all is excellent. It is well written in a simplistic but compelling style and is moving, heartbreaking and real. It is a book that will stay with you long after listening.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The narration is definitely not great

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

well-written and well-edited book, very sensitive and eye-opening when it comes to Kit and Jamie's problems. Would recommend a hard copy, not an audiobook though, I found the narration disturbing

Who was your favorite character and why?

would have to say Kit and Jamie, even though Kit didn't have a voice in the book

What didn’t you like about Mandy Weston and Carl Prekopp ’s performance?

This is what I had most issues with. With Mandy Weston, everything would be great if only she didn't read Emma so.. inappropriately!
In the book Emma's 14 and 15, Mandy read her parts as if she was 7! I get that Emma is meant to be quite immature but there is absolutely no way a 14 year old girl would speak in such an incredibly childish voice. This made me quite angry throughout the book.

Not to be mean but Carl Prekopp cannot seem to pronounce words correctly. He forgets to pronounce T - and I don't mean in the middle of the words like better, but at the and. So instead of BUT you'll hear BUH and instead of IT you'll hear IH. Okay this could just be attributed to a manner of speech and a specific accent and can be gotten over, however he also mispronounces words like: relationship - you'll hear relachionschip, rubbish - you'll hear rubbich and many many many more like this. I don't know if I'm petty and the only one who notices these things but oh my did it throw me out many a time.

Also sometimes I didn't really enjoy how he narrated some parts of the story, sometimes he would speed up when I thought it wasn't necessary or at the end of one of the chapters, the line was: Brick by brick. Layer by layer. Carl reads: Brick....By....Brick.........Layer....By....Layer. Long, as if to be meaningful pauses.

It was not as bad as for me to stop listening to the book - I was too interested in the plot to do so, but as you can probably tell, it did annoy me a lot.

Could you see The View on the Way Down being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

Definitely would be interesting as a movie.

Any additional comments?

please just re-narrate

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Poetic and painful

What made the experience of listening to The View on the Way Down the most enjoyable?

Not an easy or enjoyable listen, but compelling nevertheless.

What other book might you compare The View on the Way Down to, and why?

It's in a class of its own.

Which character – as performed by Mandy Weston and Carl Prekopp – was your favourite?

I didn't like any of them as people, but they were well portrayed.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Bring a hanky.

Any additional comments?

A visceral edge runs throughout this book. A family is pulled apart by grief in the aftermath of a suicide. It's a powerful dissection of depression; an insight into the world as seen by the one suffering the condition and the effect on close family.

The world portrayed in this compelling study is narrow, introspective and rather bleak. Although drawn into the story, it was difficult to empathise with the any of the characters. Two of the three siblings gave voice to events. Each parent added a few strands to the story. I found them all selfish and repressed, but despite that, there's enormous strength in a narrative which keeps the reader engaged. At times I found it almost unbearably dismal and hopeless. The pain was unremitting in parts. But time and again I was drawn back into the narrative which despite being bleak was totally compelling.

It's not uplifting but it's incredibly well written and there is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A book full of emotion.

I haven't listened to any books from Audible for quite a while, but I randomly selected this one and was impressed by how well it came across, expertly read by Mandy Weston and Carl Prekopp. It was mainly narrated by Ms Weston, but Carl Prekopp read the letters with the voice of Jamie, and that worked really well.

Rose and Joe have three children, Jamie and Kit, are teenagers, and Emma is their much younger sister. Emma is having problems in school and has found her niche as a member of the Christian Union. She is overweight and suffering from insecurities which alienate her from the other students. Food has become her crutch in a family where her eldest brother has died, her younger brother left home after an argument on the day of the funeral and no-one will talk about any of it.

As the story unravels, we gradually learn the background: how Kit came to die, where Jamie is and why silence is so rigidly maintained.

The young author has beautifully captured the cruelty of depression and the devastation it can wreak on a family. She writes with feeling about grief and its consequences, and the result is a book that could provide an excellent starting point for discussion on such topics.

Definitely an author to look out for.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • A
  • 15-01-14

Compelling and thought-provoking

I was compelled to keep listening to this book. The narrators breathe life into the perfectly drawn characters. This is a truly impressive novel tackling difficult themes in an accessible form.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Depressing and poorly read

I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer who took these two narrators to task - I also wondered if I would enjoy the book if I'd read it rather than listened to it. Craig Prekopp was especially bad - missing the 't' off words, and his accent sounded contrived and deliberately dumbed down to me - both narrators totally unconvincing so I don't know where these reviews full of praise are coming from - their friends I suspect.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great writing

it's not an easy book to read, but so honest and so well written. I look forward to reading more from this author. The narrators were excellent.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Will advise my friends not to read this

I found this story full of unremitting, unrelieved gloom. A dreadful family situation, getting gradually worse and certainly not to be recommended to anyone who has any tragedy in their lives, especially the loss of a child. I did listen to the end, but felt pretty depressed afterwards. The story rolled along quite enticingly and was an easy listen from that point of view. I think I must have been waiting for the chink of light, which I suppose could have been said to come eventually, but it still wasn't much of one, and I was certainly left with a feeling of doom and gloom. I did wonder how autobiographical it may be? Perhaps real life is like this, but I don't really think so. Books such as The Fault in Our Stars and The Husband's Secret feel so much more real, with not only the darkness but the chinks of light that typifies human and family life.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Depressing

Would you try another book written by Rebecca Wait or narrated by Mandy Weston and Carl Prekopp ?

Not if it is all about suicide. Would listen to a book narrated by these narrators.

What will your next listen be?

A novel with a good story line, maybe a romance next time.

Would you be willing to try another one of Mandy Weston and Carl Prekopp ’s performances?

Yes.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The View on the Way Down?

I didn't enjoy the book at all so this question is not applicable.

Any additional comments?

A more descriptive preview to warn that the book can be depressing.

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1 person found this helpful