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4 out of 5 stars
By
Thomas
on
11-18-07
Classic Fun
Very fun and exciting read. It really does "grab hold of you" from the beginning and doesnt let go. Jack Finney is an amazing writer, and it almost seems like such a "campy" horror story is beneath his skills, but it just works so well. It's fast paced and thrilling, but it also has that 50's "black and white detective story" flare to it.
This is a fun and easy listen... the production was good and the narration was especially well done. The reader does a great job capturing the mood of the characters....something that might be lost in a straight read.
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30 of 36 people found this review helpful
4 out of 5 stars
By
Jefferson
on
10-09-11
A Compact, Scary, Philosophical SF Horror Tale
When I was a boy driving somewhere with my father I sometimes tormented myself by wondering, ???What if he???s not my Dad? What if he???s a stranger who only looks like him???? Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney hair-raisingly exploits such moments of doubt. Finney steadily raises the Creepiness Quotient of his tale the farther we get into it, playing with our inability to ever really know another person. At the same time, his novel features an appealing romance, interesting questions of perception, and disturbing implications of the instinct for survival???as well as a clever use of a set of his and her skeletons. Compared to the movie versions, the ending of the novel is a little unconvincing but finally satisfying.
The reader, Kristopher Tabori, does a fine job. I haven???t heard a voice quite like his before in the many audiobooks to which I???ve listened: deep, gravelly, a little nasal, and full of wit and character and flavor. And he changes his voice just enough to draw out the different personalities of the different characters to enhance rather than distract from the story.
As an added bonus, the novel is followed by a short interesting interview with Tabori, the son of Don Siegel, who directed the original movie version. Tabori reveals that his father said that he was not thinking of McCarthy-ism or Communism when making the movie adaptation of the novel and was just trying to make a scary movie. One of the virtues of the novel is that it is open to different interpretations, all the while being a scary story featuring appealing normal people caught in an abnormal nightmare, doing their best to survive it with their humanity intact.
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21 of 25 people found this review helpful
Customer Reviews
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5 out of 5 stars
By
DarkSkies
on
05-04-15
Classic story told well.
The production values are all that let this book down which is a shame as the performance is great. The dates are altered to move the story into the seventies but when you hear it you can't help but be in 1950s America. The ending of the book is different from the filmic endings I have seen and perhaps not as strong but all the sense of dread and abnormalities hidden amongst the everyday is here. Well worth a listen.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful