First piece of advice, listen to the audiobook. I had both the audiobook and Kindle version but over and over I turned to the audiobook because Whelan really brought these characters to life. While she openly states that this book is not autobiographical, there are plenty of themes that mirror her real life. Mostly, I love that this is an audiobook about audiobook narrators, written by an audiobook narrator and read by her! It's the very definition of "meta." Every time there was a new character or accent, I couldn't help but think of how much fun she had writing these characters, with an eye, no doubt, to using all her favorite accents and voices. It was a true delight! She gets an A+ for her narration.
As for the story, Sewanee is a former child actress and current audiobook narrator, who lost her career after a devastating accident. The details of her accident are parsed out periodically until the entire story is finally told. Meanwhile, her best friend, famous actress Adaku, is moving on in her career. While Sewanee is happy for Adaku, she is also feeling left behind. Enter Brock McKnight, an equally talented and beloved audiobook narrator. Sewanee and Brock are asked to record the final novel of a popular romance author for more money than they can imagine - in fact, if they say no, the book won't be recorded at all. Witty banter ensues as they discuss the details of the book over time without every meeting.
You know what's coming - none of this book is a surprise - but it is a joy to listen to it unfold. By Whelan's definition in the book, Thank You for Listening is women's fiction rather than romance (read: not a lot of sex on the page), but it was still great fun. The characters are charming and I wanted to see them get their happily ever after.
A great book for the days when you need some brain candy rather than anything that's going to make you think too hard.
Thank You For Listening is written by a very talented real-life audiobook narrator, Julia Whelan, about a very talented audiobook narrator. Sewanee had to change careers from acting to narrating when she suffered a disfiguring accident seven years earlier. She adores her grandmother who is suffering from some sort of memory loss condition and is still closest to her best friend from college—the one whose acting career took off just as Sewanee’s was ending. Sewanee’s life isn’t the easiest but she’s been getting through it the best she can. At an industry event, she meets a mystery man who doesn’t appear put off by her eye patch. Soon thereafter, she gets awarded a significant and high-paying audiobook job. Things are starting to look up when she realizes that her mystery man is not so mysterious after all.
I really enjoyed this novel. I’d categorize it as romance but it also covers deeper issues like disabilities, parent care, AI taking over the art industries, and casting limitations. It even had me in tears at one point. It’s about second chances and acceptance.
While Whelan swears that this novel is not autobiographical she does mention in the author’s note that most authors write about the things they know about. Thank You for Listening is, admittedly, a bit self-serving for Whelan because she included a large repertoire of voices in which she could show off her talents and wrote a storyline that explains all the work that goes on behind the scenes of audiobooks which, any listener of her audiobooks will know, she does very well. (As an audiobook connoisseur, I really liked learning that some narrators touch base on their own time to work towards making the whole audiobook production more cohesive. I have certainly heard plenty of examples where this should have happened but did not, which tarnished those audiobooks overall.) But I really enjoyed this one—the story kept me locked in—and I give her credit for writing a book that allowed her to display her skillz. As she, obviously, read her own audiobook (and I almost always enjoy an audiobook read by its author), she gets an A+.
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