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A review by jenbsbooks
Managed Care by Joe Barrett
2.5
The blurb hails this as "the funniest book" and "witty and crass" ... I've enjoyed Nick Spalding's books, and thought this might be something along those lines. I think it had randomly popped up in my FB feed. I had splurged on a month of KindleUnlimited, and added on the audio.
Story aside (which, while having a fun premise, was just so-so for me) I had some major issues with this book ...
In audio, there was a single narrator, the exact same voice, to give us three completely different personalities (Frank - a snarky 30 something, Elroy - a 12 year old misfit, Sally - a death obsessed 12 year old). All 1st person/present tense. I know it costs production more to hire multiple narrators but THE SAME VOICE SHOULD NOT VOICE ALL THREE. If it was 3rd person, some omniscient narrator overseeing and telling the story to the reader, then there can be a single narrator, but to have little 12-year old Sally saw "I'm a twelve year old girl" in the same voice as 30-year old Frank completely ruins the audio.
In the Kindle copy ... there was NO TABLE OF CONTENTS. There were many chapters (a LOT, some super short) alternating between Frank, Elroy and Sally. If you lose your place, or try to find your spot from audio to text, or want to look up "Sally" chapters to review something, good luck, because you'll just have to randomly flip through. No chapter numbers printed in the book, and no TOC. I think I've only seen this a couple of times before (and one of those the book was a long run on, no real chapters. Here there were chapters). The lack of a TOC was very annoying. Audible had the chapters listed (just the numerical, not the POV ... come on, be helpful and include the POV! It's needed, especially as the voice is exactly the same and coming back into the book, WHOSE head am I in?) BUT ... they were OFF. The narrator would say "Chapter 5" as Audible displays Chapter 6.
These annoyances bugged me so much, that it absolutely impacted any enjoyment of the story. That being said, the story was just okay. Totally over the top. "Laugh out loud"??? Um, no, more "roll the eyes" ... and repetitive, as one POV would give an account of what happened, and then as it switches POV, we get the same story repeated from another perspective.
The idea was good ... but I didn't care for the delivery.
ProFanity x8. Quite a bit of crude/crass content.
Story aside (which, while having a fun premise, was just so-so for me) I had some major issues with this book ...
In audio, there was a single narrator, the exact same voice, to give us three completely different personalities (Frank - a snarky 30 something, Elroy - a 12 year old misfit, Sally - a death obsessed 12 year old). All 1st person/present tense. I know it costs production more to hire multiple narrators but THE SAME VOICE SHOULD NOT VOICE ALL THREE. If it was 3rd person, some omniscient narrator overseeing and telling the story to the reader, then there can be a single narrator, but to have little 12-year old Sally saw "I'm a twelve year old girl" in the same voice as 30-year old Frank completely ruins the audio.
In the Kindle copy ... there was NO TABLE OF CONTENTS. There were many chapters (a LOT, some super short) alternating between Frank, Elroy and Sally. If you lose your place, or try to find your spot from audio to text, or want to look up "Sally" chapters to review something, good luck, because you'll just have to randomly flip through. No chapter numbers printed in the book, and no TOC. I think I've only seen this a couple of times before (and one of those the book was a long run on, no real chapters. Here there were chapters). The lack of a TOC was very annoying. Audible had the chapters listed (just the numerical, not the POV ... come on, be helpful and include the POV! It's needed, especially as the voice is exactly the same and coming back into the book, WHOSE head am I in?) BUT ... they were OFF. The narrator would say "Chapter 5" as Audible displays Chapter 6.
These annoyances bugged me so much, that it absolutely impacted any enjoyment of the story. That being said, the story was just okay. Totally over the top. "Laugh out loud"??? Um, no, more "roll the eyes" ... and repetitive, as one POV would give an account of what happened, and then as it switches POV, we get the same story repeated from another perspective.
The idea was good ... but I didn't care for the delivery.
ProFanity x8. Quite a bit of crude/crass content.