Customer Reviews

Listen

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Listen, by Rene Gutteridge, takes place in a small any-town called Marlo which has almost non-existent crime, a friendly community, and someone who wants to make a point. A web site has cropped up, listing private conversations. A stark finger points to gossip all through the town. Life-long friendships are questioned. Suspicions lead to a dead pet, a teen-age girl kidnapped, and a policeman murdered.

Damien Underwood, a newspaper columnist who also does the crossword puzzle, tries to protect his family while looking for clues to how this is happening and who could be so malicious.

Listen was not an easy read. The gossip was annoying--especially since I saw myself in some of the characters and their actions. "Harmless" gossip damages not only the people you talk about, but it desensitizes us to how we should feel and care about people around us. I recommend this book as a way to spotlight what happens when we don't "tame our tongues."

By the way, it's a great mystery, too!

I loved this book. It was amazing. Words are so powerful and most of the time we do not even think about what we are saying or the impact they might have both negative and positive. I was riveted by this book and read it in one morning. The characters and plot were interesting and unique. It had a suspense and mystery aspect to it also as we race to discover who is posting every one's private conservations on the Internet and stop them. The main characters are the Underwood family. Damien the father is a reporter, Kay the mother sells real estate, and the two teenage children are Hunter and Jenna. A typical small town American family. Also an important character is Frank Meritt, a long time cop best friend to the family. I do not want to give away all the plot details but this book was definitely thought provoking and well written. I feel convicted for sure and will be watching my words better. The last part of the book is "Speak Kindly. Love Powerfully. Listen Fully." Highly Recommended. :)


Review copy provided by Tyndale House Publishing.

Listen takes place in the small town of Marlo in contemporary times. One of its residents is Damien Underwood,an editorial writer who wants to be an investigative reporter. Damien's son, Hunter, is a computer expert and his daughter, Jenna, is rebelling, especially against her mother, Kay. His best friend is Frank Meret,a maverick police officer, who is still in love with his ex-wife.

Everyday life in Marlo is severely disrupted when someone starts posting private conversations on the Internet. As a result of reading these conversations, conficts arise and fights break out. A pastor's cat is hung from a tree and he acuses the deacon whose critical words against the pastor were recorded on the website. That deacon becomes angry at his wife because he thinks she passed on the information. He throws a remote control in rage, hits his wife in the head and almost kills her. And that is just the beginning. It becomes vitally important to Damien and Frank to catch and stop the person posting these private provocative conversations.

This is an interesting story, but it is very far-fetched. Some of the plotlines are not resolved. The pace is slow. It needs much more suspense. Also, I did not identify with the characters. For these reasons I am giving the book only two stars.

I gave it a good try and hung in there for nearly a third of the way, thinking it was going to break out and become interesting, but it simply ground further and further down into its own tedium. I used to teach creative writing in 9th grade, and this work took me back to the writings of my students in the beginning. There's little in the way of descriptive narration, and the gossipy little lives of people just aren't that interesting without involving the senses. Very sorry to be so negative, but that's what reviews are for, for us to tell our own experiences with a product. Thank you, Amazon.com, for allowing me to sample this novel. Evidently many others liked it very much, and if we never try other authors, how else will we discover our faorites?

Someone in small-town, perfect-to-raise-your-kids Marlo, is recording private conversations and putting them up on the Web for all to read.
The effects are devastating : people fight, a cat is killed, someone gets murdered etc.

There are so many things wrong with this book. First : small-town perfection. Who still does not know that small towns have their share of drugs, alcoholics and domestic disturbances ? Second : the recorded conversations seemed really innocuous. Nothing juicy or even remotely disturbing. I could not believe for one second that they would lead to such unrest. Third : Kay the mother who worries about her sixteen-year old daughter showing her belly button. She should worry more about teenage pregnancy or piercings. Fourth : Damien the dad, a journalist, who dislikes computers, blogs, the Web and cell phones. Really ? Those are the tools of his trade.

This felt like it was written by a eighty year old still living in the 50s. None of the characters make any sense in today's world. I also think that the book's message is unrealistic : it is not that people should not gossip. They do. All the time. If not about their co-workers and neighbors, then about celebrities and politicians. We also tend to say and do stupid things. That's human. There is less power in the word than in taking what's being said with a grain of salt. So what if your friends think your hair is bad or your sweaters don't fit you ? Is that reason to commit suicide ? One character actually does in this novel. Why not shop and go to a hairdresser or own your style ? Come on, suicide is a serious problem. Depression kills, not gossip.

On the plus side, for the genre, the christian content was not in-your-face offensive or preachy.

...but the plot suffers from over-the-top scenarios, and weak and clichéd development of some of the characters. The "evil cheerleaders"?? There was very little said about them, yet they were the cause of so much grief to some of the other characters in the story.

Also, some of the novel's sections didn't segue well and seemed to jump sporadically from one scenario to the other. There were more than a few times I found myself pushing the "previous page" button because I thought I must have accidentally turned too many 'pages' forward, but I didn't--the story just left off from something that seemed to be important at the time to a whole different scenario--that just seemed clumsy, in my opinion.

Edit: Even with my criticism above, I did find the story interesting enough to follow the book through to the end.

This would have been an interesting and effective idea for a short story, not an entire book. The plot evolves much too slowly. The exposure of the inner lives of the characters is depressing more than anything else. I've had some really good luck with free books in the past. This is really not one of them.

Words CAN NOT express my true feelings on this book! I am utterly speechless with this one. WOW!

I related so well with all the characters at some point. But this book really made me realize that just one little slip of tongue can really cause problems, even if you "think" no one is around. It took me a LONG time to read this story, as I had to keep setting it aside for other book tours and kept coming back to it. But once I finished this story, I was, as I said above, speechless.

Rene grips the reader from the start, takes their heart directly into the story and doesn't let it back out again until the end of the story. I have decided through reading Rene's book, Listen, and through her emotionally depth creating characters, that no matter what I am talking about it, it will ALWAYS be a positive thought, never negative.

I HIGHLY recommend this story to everyone. It has the perfect blend of suspense, inspiration and thought provoking story line to keep the reader interested in this 5 star book through the entire book. Well done, Rene!


*This book was provided for review by Tyndale House Publishers*

This story is about a small town where nothing every happens. The biggest crime was a bank robbery twenty years ago. Suddenly, there's a new website that records the private conversations occuring around town. Everything spirals out of control as friendships are betrayed, marriages are broken and reputations are smeared. The ugly side of everyone has now been revealed.

Reading this book has made me carefully evaluate how I speak when I am speaking in private. The story twists and turns throughout and it was very gripping. It took me a little while to get into the book but once the story started moving I couldn't put it down. The ending was a little bit of a let-down to me. The best I can say without revealing any spoilers is that it was disapointing and didn't seem to fit with the flow of the book.

I will be thinking about this story for a long time and it will definitely make me think twice about saying anything negative no matter where I am.

...but so slow. This is definitely NOT a page turner. It's ok, but I feel as though I'm just plodding along. I can get stopped in the middle of a chapter and barely care. Like I said, it's a interesting subject, but I wish it was a more interesting book.