2021 was a fabulous year for audiobook quality. I've been "grading" narrators for a few years now and naming my favorite narration of the year in my annual Favorite Books post. Prompted by my favorite narration choice for 2021, one of my friends recently listened to The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates narrated by Joe Morton. She wrote me a thank you note and said it was her "favorite narration ever". That prompted me to give her a list of all narrators who achieved my A+ rating in 2021. After all, it had been really difficult for me to choose my favorite this year because there had been so many of them! So I'm going to share the list with all of you.
To get an A+ from me, narrators have to be excellent voice actors, have a large repertoire of voices, and have no big sound production issues. I praised these features in all of the original reviews about these narrations. Below, I've only included any extra comments outside of those types of recognitions. I've also linked my full reviews to the titles below.
Here are my Favorite 2021 Audiobook Narrations listed in the order in which I liked the novels:
Marin Ireland in Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Her delivery of the humor was spot on.
Brittany Pressley in Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
She did a marvelous job acting all the different people, different accents, and different Oonas.
Gabra Zackman in This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
She has a massive voice repertoire--male, female, young, old, and accented. She was even able to present different children's voices! Amazing!
Rob Shapiro in The Second Blind Son by Amy Harmon
He imbued so much personality into the characters and so much compassion into their situations, he made the novel even better than I could have read it to myself!
Steven Crossley in A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab
I thought he was perfect for this novel.
Daniel Henning in The House in the Cerulean Sea by
T. J. Klune
What a treasure trove of different voices!
Tom Parker in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
He was very entertaining.
Natalie Naudus in Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
She has many different accents up her sleeve and can also do male-sounding voices. I was extremely impressed.
Joe Morton in The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Saskia Maarleveld in The Huntress by Kate Quinn
She always does a terrific job narrating and this novel was no exception. Her range of accents is fantastic.
Natalie Naudus in One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Excellent narration! (Yes, this is her second appearance on this list!)
Kathleen Gati in The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
She was so incredible that I was willing to keep listening to the story and not abandon it entirely.
Bahni Turpin in The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
I would have rated this novel lower except for her terrific job on the audiobook.
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