Eloise Oxer has ruined this for me.

What did you like best about City of Lost Souls: Mortal Instruments, Book 5? What did you like least?

Unfortunately I couldn't get more than twenty minutes in. Nothing to do with the writing, I wouldn't have got this far into the series if I didn't enjoy it, but the narrator is so painful to listen to, I'm going to have to wait until a better reading is found.

What was one of the most memorable moments of City of Lost Souls: Mortal Instruments, Book 5?

See above.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Grant was fine, though I preferred the gentleman from the previous book. Eloise on the other hand... Slow speaking, painfully slow. Dreary, stressing words seems more important than the story. The voice was so monotonous, I couldn't follow the story. She seems to breath words to attempt to make it more mysterious where it is just plain irritating. The last word in every sentence is breathed long, frankly weird.

Was City of Lost Souls: Mortal Instruments, Book 5 worth the listening time?

I may keep trying as I want to hear the book, but I certainly will avoid the narrator in future books.

Any additional comments?

Other ratings are based on previous books, and expectations for this book.

10 persone l'hanno trovata utile

struggled with performance

love Cassandra Clare but really struggled with Eloise Oxer. Found her so grating that I nearly stopped listening ☹️

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Eloise oxer ruined this book

Narration was so bad I ended up downloading the Simon and Schuster version that has a different narrator for this and city of heavenly fire I just couldn't listen to eloise over her voice just goes through me I would suggest finding somewhere you can download the simon and Schuster version don't waste your money on this. The story of course is fantastic I love all of Cassandra Clare's shadowhunter novels

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Narrators were awful

I really enjoyed the story but only stuck with it cos of that. The Narrators were really painful to listen to Eloise is bland and boring, Grant was marginally better to listen to.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Good but tedious in parts

The whole series is amazing and the story has moved on however some of the clary and jace scenes are very tedious and quite boring in parts

Am looking forward to the next part :)

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Not great narration

Female narrator kept mispronouncing well established words, since when is Alec & Isabel's mum called Maurice?? 🤦🏼‍♀️

As for the content, it did drag a bit, too much of the whole oh but I love him, aw but I miss him, ah I have to save him and the constant 'he's jace but he's not my jace' honestly I had enough of Clary and Jace in this one.... Mostly Clary though. Loved Magnus, Isabel and Simon ❤️ Alec made some annoyingly bad choices but it did work for his character. Overall, id probably skip this one if I was to read it again...

Awful performance

The narrator/reader is atrocious. She has a breathy quality and maintains it throughout the narrative. If you have the novel, I would recommend you read it instead of listening to this.

Loved it!!!

This one doesn't need a review as anyone who read the first book in the series will just want to keep reading and this one is no different!
Really like the narrators too, they read the story well together and it was clear which each character was as they read.

Let down by narration...

I really wish the same narrator(s) could be used for a series of books. It's so annoying to start the next title and find the style of narration has changed.
The guy on this one is OK but dull and a let down after the guy from the last one.
The woman is bizarre; I don't know why she needs to emphasise Every. Word. Of. A. Senteeeence. but it's really off-putting.
Also; I wish they'd decide at book one how to pronounce names of people/things and stick to it. Are runes drawn with a stell-ay or a steely? Is Mrs Lightwood called May-riss or MAURICE?!
The book itself is standard for the series; it'd be 20% shorter if we didn't have to listen to the description of what everyone's hair is doing or what the cold feels like on every characters' skin (except Simon who reminds us 8 times a book that he doesn't feel the cold) but otherwise I'm reasonably invested in whether it's all going to work out for these crazy kids.

Enjoyable

Was a bit concerned as I had read criticism over the narration. But I adjusted the speed made it slightly faster and found then the narrative was fine. I am probably a bit old for these books but must admit to enjoying them