Eric Arvin's Greatest Hits by Eric Arvin

I found Chip's sudden sexuality change to be unrealistic.

In terms of the GFY, which I usually love, it didn't work for me. It isn't that Charlie David doesn't have an expressive and pleasant voice, it just isn't what I'm looking for in a narrator. After listening to Chase in Shadow, where Sean Crisden manages at least 7 different voices, this just felt flat to me. I want a narrator that makes me feel the story, and a lot of that has to do with vocal differentiation for me. If I wanted to hear a book read entirely in one voice, I would just read it out loud to myself. I have a STRONG preference for narrators that change their voice for each character. He read each character and part exactly the same (perhaps because there was too much head hopping for him to keep track?) and that just added to the muddled listening experience. In addition, the narrator, Charlie David, had absolutely no change in tone or intonation from person to person. To make matters worse, there are four MCs, so I was honestly confused a lot of the time. There is no sense of who is talking because the POV is continuously shifting. I'm talking POV changes sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. The book had one of my GREATEST pet peeves: Constant head hopping. My main problem with this book has to do both with the narrator and the writing style. However, after over 4 hours of not liking what I was hearing I decided to call it quits. Audiobooks are NOT cheap and I am very choosy when it comes to my Audible listens. Now, when I DNF an audiobook it is not done lightly. And when I saw that this was a GFY? No brainer! However, this was very hard for me to get through and I ended up DNFing at 75%. He is just such a unique thinker, such an interesting guy, that I was sure that I would love his contemporary stuff too. *1.5 stars* This review is killing me to write because I love when Eric Arvin writes fantasy. All in all, Eric Arvin’s writing style and Charlie David’s narrative make this a must read or listen.

Additionally, the secondary characters of Brad and Jason (I think that’s their names) and their budding relationship and persistent tomfoolery made me laugh out loud. Charlie’s narrative abilities injects realism to the characters and carries the reader or listener to a far away campus where an adventure begins. I am not meaning to dissuade anyone from this book, for the writing is engaging and Charlie David’s (a big fan of his anyways) narration brings the story to life. Of course, this is from my perspective for I have never met a 40 plus year old man, a self-proclaimed ladies man who at the sight of the new man on campus becomes infatuated, lustful, and lovelorn in a short period. The premise behind the story of Chip and Foster is a bit contrived to say the least but the writing style of Eric Arvin envelopes you in such a manner that you forget the implausibility of the premise.

Eric Arvin's Greatest Hits by Eric Arvin