The Queen's Gambit

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The Queen's Gambit

By: Walter Tevis

Narrated by: Amy Landon

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About this listen

Engaging and fast-paced, this gripping coming-of-age novel of chess, feminism, and addiction speeds to a conclusion as elegant and satisfying as a mate in four.

Eight-year-old orphan Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is, until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control.

By the age of 16, she's competing for the US Open championship. But as Beth hones her skills on the professional circuit, the stakes get higher, her isolation grows more frightening, and the thought of escape becomes all the more tempting.

Fiction

Genre Fiction

Literary Fiction

Adaptation

Chess

Inspiring

Thought-Provoking

Biography

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Most relevant

As others have already written, the story is so engaging with brilliant characters. However I wanted to also praise the reader who I feel has been unfairly criticised in many reviews.

Yes, the delivery is flat but, to me at least, that is the whole point. The story is told from the point of view of Beth who is an emotionally cold and calculating person often strung out on tranquillisers so the trance-like delivery of the reader reflects this. The worlds Beth inhabits, first at the orphanage and then within the hotels and conference rooms where the chess tournaments are held are faceless, sterile environments and the narration captures this perfectly.

The majority of the characters are also fairly distant and reserved but if you listen carefully, the reader injects more emotion when delivering the words spoken by the one truly warm character, Beth's friend Joelene.

Whilst admittedly it does take some getting used to, in my opinion, the narration is a perfect fit to a wonderful book. So please don't let other negative reviews of the reader put you off.