• The Becoming

  • Anna Strong, Vampire, Book 1
  • By: Jeanne C. Stein
  • Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
  • Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (1,059 ratings)

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The Becoming  By  cover art

The Becoming

By: Jeanne C. Stein
Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
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Publisher's summary

Anna Strong is trained for anything - until she's attacked one night, only to awaken in a dark world that exists between the living and the dead. Here, Anna struggles with her love for the two men who inhabit the realms of each: Max, a human DEA agent, and Avery, a Night Watcher who joins Anna in pursuit of the vampire who changed her life. Now, as her two worlds collide, fate plunges Anna into the ultimate battle between good and evil - where survival is not just for the living.

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©2006 Jeanne C. Stein (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Pearlman uses subtly different voices for Avery, Anna, and Anna’s partner, David, whose kidnapping propels Anna into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. While Anna’s wry humor could be more strongly expressed, Pearlman’s delivery of the book’s suspense keeps listeners engaged. Pearlman’s even handling of dialogue, description, and Anna’s internal musings make for a fast-paced paranormal adventure." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about The Becoming

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    379
  • 4 Stars
    326
  • 3 Stars
    237
  • 2 Stars
    70
  • 1 Stars
    47
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    333
  • 4 Stars
    229
  • 3 Stars
    120
  • 2 Stars
    36
  • 1 Stars
    20
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    274
  • 4 Stars
    225
  • 3 Stars
    155
  • 2 Stars
    50
  • 1 Stars
    32

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

Another new take on vampires and the paranormal.

After reading the two reviews, I decided to go by the number of stars the Anna Strong audio books had received instead. I'm glad I did. I did not find the narrator annoying at all. Yes, there are others I have liked better, but I really enjoyed this start to the series. In fact I have gone on to purchase the others.

I didn't use to read/listen to any of the vampire/paranormal type books until I stumbled on Kim Harrison's "Rachel Morgan" series. Since then I have dipped into other authors that have been outstanding as well (Jim Butcher, Carrie Vaughn, Charlaine Harris, Jeaniene Frost, Kelley Armstrong, Richelle Mead, Deborah Harkness, and others). I would include Jeanne C. Stein's writing along with my other favorite paranormal authors listed above. I found the books very entertaining and well written, and well narrated. If you don't want to stretch your imagination or you don't enjoy this type of book, don't get it. If you like the unusual and a bit of escapism, this series should not be overlooked.

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31 people found this helpful

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

Slow.....

The Becoming: Anna Strong
I got this book during the 4.95 sale. I had just finished off the entire Mercy Thompson Series followed by the Alpha and Omega Series (in less than a week, I highly recommend them) and I needed something new to listen to. I went prowling for something new and came across this title.

The idea for this book sounded interesting, so did the characters but compared to the books I had just finished this come across as slow and boring most of the time. It wasn’t until the last 45 minutes of the recording that I was actually interested in what was happening.

This book is written in a present tense first person and I’m not overly fond of that style. The narrator seemed too even to really add any life to the text either. She wasn’t bad, just not up to the bar set by say Lorelei King, Tavia Gilbert or Holter Graham (the last few narrators I’ve really enjoyed).

I am not sure if I’ll get book two or not right now – I might because I’m interested in finding out a few things that we find out in the last say hour of the book, but I’m not overly tempted either to rush out and get it.

Rating: NOT G-Rated. Some others have stated this book is G rated, it is not – the sex is not in your face but there is enough there to give this at least a PG or PG13 rating in my book. Nothing is graphically spelled out, but there is enough there to know what has happened/is happening, including but not limited to rape.

All and all it was ‘okay’ nothing I would recommend very highly – Maybe it gets better in book 2 – not sure I’m willing to find out right now though. Try Jeaniene Frost – Night Huntress (much more entertaining imho)

Possible Spoilers below:
The Story itself sounded so cool – strong female bounty hunter gets turned into vampire during a brutal attack/rape (not overly graphically, enough so you know what’s happening/happened but not a blow by blow so to speak).

She wakes up in the hospital and it’s not until she gets home later that day that she finds out what she is becoming. Now at this point, I don’t know about anyone else, but I would certainly have a ton of questions of the guy that tells me what I’m becoming. Abilities, limits, etc and if he isn’t going to tell me, well I’m going to do some exploring on my own. How does my new “family” work – she isn’t supposed to be stupid, she was a bounty hunter and good at her job. You don’t get good at that type of job by making stupid mistakes. And certainly you trust your partner more than this lady does.
I did see the ‘bad’ guy from a mile away, I was really hoping that it would be a case of all the signs are point here, but it’s really.. but it was who you think it is from the get go. No surprise there at all.

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12 people found this helpful

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

Great narrator, poorly considered story

Was this rape porn, and plot just filler? Or was this a serious attempt by the author to consider real consequences and reactions to the traumatic transformation from human to Vampire?

The protagonist is raped, beaten and nearly killed. And she's struggling to balance her human boyfriend with the new sexy, vampiric doctor who want to mentor her (and bed her). Wait, what? Wouldn't you think she'd hate to be touched, at all, after such a traumatic experience? Apparently, according to Stein, being raped, beaten and nearly killed doesn't create trauma (or at least, not just trauma)-- it creates arousal.

Considering the protagonist's reaction to being brutually transformed into a Vampire, it should be easy to understand why I walk away thinking the story is a rape fetish wet dream. Had the story been authored by a man (and to be honest, I wonder if it was... and the author just used a woman's pen name) the feminists would be up in arms about the author making rape sexy.

The narrator does an excellent job of narrating, has believably different voices for the various characters, and imparts drama to this otherwise flaccid story. Pearlman is definitely on my "would listen to again" list. Stein is not.

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10 people found this helpful

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

There are Good Things and Bad Things

I rated this book with 4 stars, but I would have preferred 3 1/2.
I'm going to get the next book. This one wasn't great enough to keep me listening all weekend, but I'm hoping it will improve. I liked this book enough to finish (and lately, that's saying something). I didn't even speed it in to double time to hurry it along.
Pros:
I like the supporting characters and I want to know more about David, Max, & Casper.
The book was fairly entertaining.
The sex was G-rated (I'm really tired of the graphic sex so that's a good thing).
Cons:
The narrator wasn't the best I've heard, but since I just finished "The Help", I don't suppose anyone could stand up to those standards.
I thought Anna was kinda dumb. Granted, she is a new vampire, but *spoiler alert!!!* coming next.......
She's a vamp in handcuffs and it doesn't occur to her to try to break them? Duh.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

A little too G Rated

Good story however too many questions unanswered and a little too G Rated for my taste...

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Horrible Narrator

You know a narrator could really make or break a book, even if the storyline is fairly good.
Although this story leaves a lot of questions unanswered, the narrator is totally boring and monotoned. I literally fell asleep listening to her dull voice with no animation at all. She is not good at characters either. This was truly a disappointment and yes too G-rated for my taste.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Good Story, Great Narrator.

If you like the Parnormal Fantasy Genre (which I do), then you will like this book.

This is the first book in a series. And I am planning on buying the next book as soon as I am done with this review.

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7 people found this helpful

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

Horrible handeling of rape

My big problem with this book is the handeling of Anna's rape. It is in no way realistic. The author seems to think rape is something her character can just shrug of and forget. And don't even get me started on the part where she writes about the rape as sexually arousing.

I lost trust with this writers ability to create a credible heroine in the first 30 minutes.

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5 people found this helpful

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

Had trouble getting interested in this one

I just about gave up on this book, but glad I made it through to the end. The beginning of the story seemed very boring to me, with her becoming a vampire and Avery trying to guide her way. Was too instructional and just slow going. I was ready to call it quits on the whole book, but thought, since it's not a very long book, I'd keep listening. Things tended to pick up with some serious mystery starting to happen. I found myself wondering who the bad guy really was, and who the heck was the helpful voice in her head. Her boyfriend is another mystery, just what does he know? Some questions are answered and some remain open for the next book or two. At any rate, the main problem is resolved, and I might go on with the next in the series. Verdict is still "out" on that.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Loved Anna Strong!

Terrific first book of this series and I totally look forward to the next books. I loved it---the main character is more complex than most of the heroines in some other vampire series and she takes care of business when necessary which I found quite refreshing!

I was really surprised at some of the plot twists and I won't reveal my ultimate dismay at who the villian turned out to be.

Very good writing except for the G-rated, "cut to the waves crashing on the beach" type of sex. I only hope the rest of the series is a teensy bit more explicit! This is the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

Oh, and I really want to know who casper is!

And despite some other reviewers, I really liked the narrator, Dina Pearlman. Her voice has a perfect throaty tone for both male and female, and she handles the emotional content very well.



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4 people found this helpful