Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid

Narrated by Jennifer Grace

I’ve had Neanderthal Seeks Human on my giant TBR for a long time. When I had the opportunity to try it in audio, I jumped at the chance – my TBL is much smaller. It turns out; this was both a good and a bad decision. Good because I enjoyed it very much. Bad because there were some aspects which frustrated me and which the ability to skim would likely have remedied.

Janie Morris is a socially inept architect/ mathematician who is often oblivious to what’s going on around her. The story begins when she has a Very Bad Day. She finds out her boyfriend has cheated on her, one of her heels breaks, she spills coffee on her favourite shirt, she gets “downsized” (aka fired) from her job and when she goes to the bathroom to try and pull herself together there’s NO TOILET PAPER. Newly single, stained, shoeless, jobless and homeless (she and Jon lived together; he cheated, she’s moving out), Janie’s only consolation is that she’s escorted from the building by “Sir Handsome McHotpants” – a security guard who started work in the building a few weeks earlier.

McHotpants turns out to be Quinn Sullivan and he’s more than a security guard.

The schtick of the story is that the listener knows what’s going on well before Janie does. Janie also loves to go off on tangents – when she’s nervous (which happens a lot when she’s in social situations) she often blurts out random trivia. It’s funny but also sometimes frustrating because it can take a while to get back to the point. The author did manage to save Janie from being the butt of everyone’s jokes. Given Janie’s foibles this was quite a feat.

Even though I was at times frustrated by random asides and Janie’s cluelessness, I kind of adored her by the end and I very much approved of Quinn as her love interest. He never saw her as a joke and he loved her just the way she was. It’s a very sweet romance and really funny too.

Around Chapter 11/12 there was a glitch in the Matrix and the sound cut in and out for a few sentences. At first I thought it was my iPod but it was definitely the audiobook. It sounded a bit like a phone call with faulty reception. I could understand the thrust of the conversation enough not to feel I missed anything but it was kind of annoying. It happened three times during the listen but fortunately, each episode was brief.

In terms of the narration, I really enjoyed it. Jennifer Grace has the comedic timing necessary to successfully deliver a story like Neanderthal Seeks Human. There was one scene in particular, when Janie is putting on some bizarre clothes, which had me laughing out loud. I’m sure I enjoyed it more on audio that I would have in print; it was just so well delivered.

Added to that, she has a pleasant voice which can depict a number of different tones and accents. I’d compare her to Amanda Ronconi (who narrates Molly Harper’s books) – they don’t sound alike at all really, but they have the same great timing and a similar vocal range.

Quinn’s voice wasn’t very deep but it was a bit husky and had a male “vibe” to it – again, I’d compare it to the way Ronconi portrays her heroes.

The narration was a complete pleasure and I will definitely be looking for more audiobooks narrated by Jennifer Grace as well as checking out more books by Penny Reid.

Kaetrin

Narration: B+

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: You can play it out loud

Violence: Fighting

Genre: Contemporary Romance/Romantic Comedy

Publisher: Penny Reid, Author

Neanderthal Seeks Human was provided to AudioGals by the author for review.