Frankenstein - Audiobook

Audio glitches rendered this book almost unlistenable

At first I was at somewhat of a loss as to how to rate this book, so I split the difference between the book itself and the audio.

For the book content I give five stars. Its status as a classic notwithstanding, it is pretty creepy. I went back and listened twice to the passage where Victor Frankenstein falls asleep on his bed shortly after seeing the creature he created open its eyes.

“I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs.”

Mary Shelley often uses the moon to set the tone of a scene.

There is, appropriately enough, a lot of horror through the book and it had a hold on me, sometimes putting me right at the edge of my seat.

As for the audio… I have to give that one star. I’d give it one star even if I didn’t have to because the reader, Charles Farrow, is quite good. But there were times when the volume of his voice got quiet and he was hard to hear. Then in the next moment the issue was corrected and his voice was suddenly booming because I had cranked up the volume when it was too quiet.

On at least one occasion, he was reading along and suddenly it was a woman’s voice. At other times the reader’s voice was replaced by the thinner voice of a different man. These occasions were brief but they occurred many times throughout the book. I feel this explains why this book was in the “free” bin.

Even though I enjoyed Charles Farrow’s work here, I was able to find a high quality, free version of the audio book in a different app (search for Dan Stevens and I’m sure you will find it.) I’m actually now listening to it all over again so I can appreciate it without those distractions. What I mean to say is that I can’t really recommend this particular version, even at half the price.