Audiobook Review: Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff

Standalone
Narrator: Carla Mercer-Meyer
10 hrs. 3 min.
Unabridged
Published 8/11/14
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Source: Hoopla/Library

Clementine DeVore spent ten years trapped in a cellar, pinned down by willow roots, silenced and forgotten. Now she's out and determined to uncover who put her in that cellar and why.  

When Clementine was a child, dangerous and inexplicable things started happening in New South Bend. The townsfolk blamed the fiendish people out in the Willows and burned their homes to the ground. But magic kept Clementine alive, walled up in the cellar for ten years, until a boy named Fisher set her free.  

Back in the world, Clementine sets out to discover what happened all those years ago. But the truth gets muddled in her dangerous attraction to Fisher, the politics of New South Bend, and the Hollow, a fickle and terrifying place that seems increasingly temperamental ever since Clementine reemerged."

My thoughts:

Looking for something dark ethereal and odd? This book is for you! I loved the lush gothic worldbuilding as we learned much about this community and Clementine in particular. It is also filled with good characters but since it is all told from a first person POV, we get to know Clementine most of all. 

I have to say I really enjoyed this book on audio. While at times it did seem that Carla, the narrator, needed to lower her voice for Clementine it also lent itself to some immediacy in the telling of the story. It helped to make you think something sinister is around the corner. She also does a great job of voicing the other characters and I didn't mind her male voices at all. She did a great job with everyone.

I give this audio 4 stars. It's dark, cryptic, mysterious and very odd. It is perfect as a standalone and the ending was well done. I recommend it to those that want something different, gothic and meandering but building to a purpose. One that shows how love can conquer hate and how everything has consequences.