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Tabula Rasa  By  cover art

Tabula Rasa

By: Kristen Lippert-Martin
Narrated by: Kate Rudd
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Publisher's summary

The Bourne Identity meets Divergent in this action-packed debut thriller with a Katniss-esque heroine fighting to regain her memories and stay alive, set against a dystopian hospital background.

Sarah starts a crazy battle for her life within the walls of her hospital-turned-prison when a procedure to eliminate her memory goes awry and she starts to remember snatches of her past. Was she an urban terrorist or vigilante? Has the procedure been her salvation or her destruction?

The answers lie trapped within her mind. To access them, she'll need the help of the teen computer hacker who's trying to bring the hospital down for his own reasons, and a pill that's blocked by an army of mercenary soldiers poised to eliminate her for good. If only she knew why...

©2014 Kristen Lippert-Martin (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"This is a snap-the-whip story, dark and fast. The sparks of humor in the voice won me over. Bottom line: I think the cocktail of suspense and believable smart-assery adds up to an addictive dose of reader appeal." (Blythe Woolston, author of the William C. Morris Award winner The Freak Observer)

What listeners say about Tabula Rasa

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Definitely YA

Tabula Rasa starts with an interesting concept - controlling behavior by tampering with the memory of violent offenders or other people who might just be in the way. Unfortunately, the story slides quickly into standard YA tropes - evil doctors and corporate types; unbelievably intrepid, super smart teenagers fighting the system; a lot of teenage angst/anguish and a dopey love story; and contrived conflict during a long and rather tedious takeover of a hospital/lab.

Tabula Rasa isn't a hard science sci-fi, but touches on biological sciences and computer science. The biological science isn't bad; we already have a lot of research going on in the study of memory and drugs and techniques that can impact that. However, the computer science here is pretty lame. At one point, one of our intrepid teens hacks into a state of the art encrypted mainframe with a wireless tablet - uh, yeah, right. One other small issue for me; the author makes a big deal about a young male character being much less attractive when he put his glasses on and he had to put his glasses on because his contacts were knocked out. A. No excuse for ugly glasses these days - have you noticed the amazing designer frames out there, Ms. Lippert-Martin?, and B. His contacts were knocked out? Catch up - almost impossible to knock out soft contacts and EVERYONE wears soft contacts. The days of having your contacts knocked out ended about 30 years ago as I can attest having worn contacts for 40 years. Not a big deal, just a personal irritant with this part of the book.

Kate Rudd did a good job with narration and if you loved Hunger Games or Divergent, you might enjoy Tabula Rasa more than I did. Wasn't bad for the sale price, but I wouldn't recommend using a credit on this one.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Meh

This was just ok. So predictable! A no brainier story. It was just good enough to complete the book. Meh!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Average all around

This is an entertaining story if you're able to listen to it all at once, or in big chunks. I listened to it for about 30 mins at a time and I never felt myself being pulled back to listen to more. I did find the story interesting, just not addictive.

I liked the plot and did finish the story through to the end because I wanted to know what had happened to the main character. However, I did not like the pace of the story, as there were sections where the plot dragged for me.

I would recommend this book to people who need an audiobook for a road trip and who like action and a little bit of suspense.

I gave it 3 stars all around because the performance was pretty good, and I liked several of the voices but it would've been better with two narrators. The story as I've said was good but not great. On a whole, average.

I got this as a deal of the day and am glad that I didn't spend more than $3 on it... Just didn't keep me coming back for more like other stories have.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Meh

I was bored by it after the first hour. Did not like the narrator at all - particularly her men's voices

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

New story line

First time with this. Author and narrator
Literally could not put it down
Started and finished in 2 sittings
Stayed up to 4:am to finish
My only negative is that it seed too short
Could have enjoyed 4 mote hours of the story
Hope there is a sequel

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good book but narration took a bit to get used to

Good, fast paced, great idea for a story. Villain was easy to not like, main characters were worth cheering for

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!!

Loved the characters and the exciting story. Kate Rudd is always amazing. Loved her narration in the "Timebound" series. Great stand alone novel.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good but slow

The concept was a great one, and I did enjoy the ending and there was a bit of a shock, but I had to give it three stars because it was so slow. I don't understand most of the middle of the book, they could have written this in half the time.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story

I have listened to this book 3 times now and it is great every time I listen.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Unrealistic

Why is it, in adventure stories written by women, that at times when the hero/heroine has only moments before the bad guys arrive, the hero/heroine always engages in a ten-minute conversation with another character?

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