A review by angelofthetardis
Scarred by Emily McIntire

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I reviewed this book last year, but have listened to the audiobook as it's about to drop off of the Audible Plus catalogue. My thoughts on the story haven't changed; while I don't think it's the best written of the series, overall I think Tristan and Sara are my favourite pair from the Never After world.

However, the narrators were all wrong for the characters in my opinion. The biggest issue for me is that Tristan's narrator has a voice that sounds far too old for the character! When paired with the youthful, saccharine sweet voice of Sara's narrator, this alone detracts greatly from his character. It made it really hard to imagine him as a devastatingly handsome 26 year old dark Prince and kept giving me big age gap, overbearing letch vibes. Sara's voice is probably a bit closer to my expectations, but it felt like it was missing the core of steel that the character has - she almost has the opposite problem of sounding too young. There was also a lot of gasping for breath between sentences, which got on my nerves after a while.

As a whole, it does do a good job at bringing the story to life, and in some respects I think it probably does a better job than the paperback at conveying the build up. But it does also highlight some of the flaws in the writing (I didn't realise the amount of times a character 'tsks' until I listened to this!) which you probably don't notice as prominently when reading a physical copy.
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