Two of the Best Audiobooks of the Year!

After listening to her perform Nightcrawling, Joniece Abbott-Pratt has won my never-ending love and support. She perfectly captured Kiara’s narrative voice and voiced the dialogue with such great attention to detail.

The novel begins when Kiara has already dropped out of school and is just trying to pay the rent. Her mother is gone and her dad died years ago, so it’s just she and her brother living in their tiny apartment in Oakland, California. But Kiara’s brother, Marcus, believes his time is better spent pursuing his music career instead of working a minimum wage job just trying to make ends meet. After struggling for months, Kiara feels like she has no other choice than to turn to sex work.

Abbott-Pratt has this incredible ability to create a sense of emotional intimacy between her and the listener, which is a vital part of any audiobook performance. But with her skill with dialogue and understanding of the novel’s main character, Abbott-Pratt creates an incredible listening experience.

Haven is set in 7th-century Ireland, when a priest chooses two monks to travel with him to an abandoned island to create a religious haven of sorts. With as few supplies as possible, the group makes their home with only seabirds and puffins for company. In my mind, this book could be described as Lauren Groff’s Matrix meets Gary Pausen’s Hatchet. Now you may not enjoy survival and religious figure stories like I do, but for me, this novel was an immediate must-listen.

What’s more, I loved Aiden Kelly’s narration. Kelly performs Haven with such skill and sense of atmosphere. I will definitely be looking up what else Kelly has narrated.