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A review by k8griffin
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
2.0
I listened to this via Scribd. There were several versions to choose from and I chose the one narrated by Toby Scott McLellah.
I can definitely understand why in 1897 this book would have been a big deal, and at its core, the concept is a good one. Unfortunately, it was a very dry listen, although I'm glad I listened instead of read it, as I'm pretty sure even though it's less than 200 pages, I would have quit. Because of the time it was written, there's a lot of fluff in the narration and dialogue. A lot of "forthwiths" and "notwithstanding" - it takes a while for H.G. Wells to get to his point in some spots and I kept drifting off, thinking about other things, then having to rewind and re-listen. I also think my experience was a bit hindered due in part to the narrator I chose to listen to. He was also very dry, and chose odd speech patterns and accents for different characters (of which, I think, there are way too many for this simple of a story). One character he voiced as if they were Igor from Dracula and it was super distracting. Also, while the actual quality of the audio was fine, it felt very sloppy. There are several parts where he trips up while reading, and just corrects himself and keeps going- no hiccups edited out, and that became something I was listening for as opposed to paying attention to the story.
I found it really difficult to sympathize with The Invisible Man. You do get a little back story, and I found myself understanding why he would want to become invisible, and Wells even did a pretty good job of explaining how he becomes invisible (lots of science/physics in that section - a little over my head but I got the gist of it) but the majority of the book is The Invisible Man beating people up. It became very repetitive and difficult to get behind him as a character.
This book has been on my list for a long time (even before I started listing want-to-reads on Goodreads) and the upcoming movie starring Elizabeth Moss is what put a fire under me to finally take a listen. I'm curious to see what they pull from the original, and while I don't imagine the 2020 film will become a classic, I do think, for me, it'll be the rare case of the moving being better than the book that inspired it.
I can definitely understand why in 1897 this book would have been a big deal, and at its core, the concept is a good one. Unfortunately, it was a very dry listen, although I'm glad I listened instead of read it, as I'm pretty sure even though it's less than 200 pages, I would have quit. Because of the time it was written, there's a lot of fluff in the narration and dialogue. A lot of "forthwiths" and "notwithstanding" - it takes a while for H.G. Wells to get to his point in some spots and I kept drifting off, thinking about other things, then having to rewind and re-listen. I also think my experience was a bit hindered due in part to the narrator I chose to listen to. He was also very dry, and chose odd speech patterns and accents for different characters (of which, I think, there are way too many for this simple of a story). One character he voiced as if they were Igor from Dracula and it was super distracting. Also, while the actual quality of the audio was fine, it felt very sloppy. There are several parts where he trips up while reading, and just corrects himself and keeps going- no hiccups edited out, and that became something I was listening for as opposed to paying attention to the story.
I found it really difficult to sympathize with The Invisible Man. You do get a little back story, and I found myself understanding why he would want to become invisible, and Wells even did a pretty good job of explaining how he becomes invisible (lots of science/physics in that section - a little over my head but I got the gist of it) but the majority of the book is The Invisible Man beating people up. It became very repetitive and difficult to get behind him as a character.
This book has been on my list for a long time (even before I started listing want-to-reads on Goodreads) and the upcoming movie starring Elizabeth Moss is what put a fire under me to finally take a listen. I'm curious to see what they pull from the original, and while I don't imagine the 2020 film will become a classic, I do think, for me, it'll be the rare case of the moving being better than the book that inspired it.