Well Written, But Not For Me

I love that Audible produces so many short stories and makes them available in the catalogue. The range is vast in every way, so your mileage will vary.

I found this a well written and observed piece about an unpleasant woman that gave me the experience of spending time with her, so I didn't enjoy it. I could certainly see it being interesting and cathartic to others.

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Interesting story line that finished abruptly

I was intrigued by both characters. The modern young Indian girl who is about to be married to a man her family have deemed suitable and who she seems to think is nice. She befriends an older woman-Nadine- who is an expat with an interesting life story.
The character of Nadine is more deeply drawn. I would have liked to understand the relationship between them better. Everything was in Nadine’s terms. It is a warning story about not fulfilling family expectations but living your individual life. However I would have loved to unpick Nadine’s a bit more. It stopped too soon. Was it a taster for a full length novel in the future?

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Good vocal but the story was flaky

Tried to finish buy made it more than 50%. I just didn't get the story and where it's going. Perhaps it was just OK!

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An elegant story

Framed in an interesting way and flows beautifully. Controversial topics and personal justifications of one life.

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1 person found this helpful

I can’t work it out - I like it but I don’t know why it’s so charming

I can’t work out whether I thought this was very good and fresh or if it’s just that it didn’t take too much time and I therefore found it breezy.
I can’t fathom much of an actual plot to this novella, but somehow it doesn’t matter? It’s like just being nosey and listening in on people which I think is the main point. However I don’t think this tallies much with the blurb. There’s so little *point* to it. It just is. And that’s oddly charming. It’s necessary discussion framed as perfectly normal yet outlandish at the same time. To add to this, it’s a narrative entirely by women, written by a woman. That’s so oddly rare in literature still.

It ends very abruptly and I found it almost jarring because I was just waiting for more of Nadine’s insights into patriarchal oppressive standards and suddenly it was “audible hopes you enjoyed” - it left me wanting more, which I suppose is the mark of an excellent storyteller.

I would say that anyone who wants to broaden their literary horizons should give it a go - if you don’t like it, it’s only an hour. And if nothing else, it’s refreshing to read/hear something from a first time author, for comparison along the lines should they release more. And since the author is a woman of colour, I do hope that audible making this available for free, her name is put out there more and she is encouraged to write more. Her use of language and literary techniques is wonderful! And the fact that I’m still somewhat mystified by the appeal of this novella is very intriguing to me.

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2 people found this helpful

Good performance, but felt like half a story

I really enjoyed the reading of this story, and the characters were well thought out and realised. It just finished very abruptly and without a conclusive ending.

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1 person found this helpful

loved it

I loved this short story . The 2 main characters, in particular Nadine, were well thought through and beautifully.

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1 person found this helpful