Audiobook Review – The Glittering World by Robert Levy

Posted April 14, 2016 by Carole in Audiobook, Book Reviews / 13 Comments

The Glittering Wold by Robert Levy
Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini
Pretty Good Year Audio
Publication Date: March 15, 2016
Date Read: April 11, 2016
Length: 10 hours 11 minutes
Source: Author

When Michael “Blue” Whitley – a former party boy turned up-and-coming Brooklyn chef – returns with three friends to the remote Canadian commune of his birth, he discovers that his entire life has been a carefully orchestrated lie. He is in fact someone else altogether, a replacement for a local child who disappeared 25 years earlier. He is something not quite human.

Only now it’s Blue’s turn to vanish, leaving his friends to unravel the mystery of his abduction. Soon, psychology and skepticism collide with old-world folklore and superstition, revealing the secret history of the commune, as well as that of an ancient race of beings that inhabits the hidden corners of the land.

Set among the artisans, burnouts, and New Age mystics of rural Cape Breton, The Glittering World is a dark and modern fairy tale, a novel of self-identity and supernatural suspense.

My Review

I liked parts of this book quite a bit but as a whole this book didn’t work for me.  It wasn’t a book that I really looked forward to listening to and I found it really easy to set aside.  In most cases, I would be able to listen to an audiobook of this length in about a week.  This one took me about three times as long.  I skipped days of listening while working on this audiobook and actually started it over several times because the story just never grabbed me.

When I first read the blurb, I was really excited to read this book.  Ancient beings, modern day fairy tale…what’s not to love?  I did like the overall concept of the story but the way that everything came together just fell a bit flat to me.  The story is told from four different perspectives.  Each voices tells a section of the book and once their part is over the story moves on to another perspective.  I would really start to feel comfortable with a character narrating the story and then we would move on to someone else.  I think that I would have liked it better if the points of view alternated or if the story was told from just one of two points of view.

The biggest problem that I had with this book is that I found it to be less exciting than I thought it should be.  I was really pretty bored for most of the story which should have never happened.  I think that a lot of thought was put into every sentence in this book and I could admire how the words came together but I found myself losing the story in the words at times.  I had to really force myself to focus or I would find my mind drifting away from the story.

I liked the narration of the audiobook.  This was this first time that I have listened to an audiobook narrated by Edoardo Ballerini and I would definitely listen to his work again.  I thought that he did a great job in demonstrating a wide range of emotions during the story.  The way he delivered some of the more supernatural portions of the book really added to the overall story.

In the end this was a book with some high points that was less than satisfying for me.  I do think that a lot of readers will really enjoy this story especially if they like supernatural stories featuring changelings and the fae. I wanted to fall in love with this book but it just didn’t happen.

I received a copy of this book from the author for the purpose of providing an honest review.

About the Author

Robert Levy is an author of stories, screenplays and plays whose work has been seen Off-Broadway. A Harvard graduate subsequently trained as a forensic psychologist, his first novel, the contemporary dark fairy tale The Glittering World, was published worldwide in February by Gallery/Simon & Schuster. Shorter work has appeared in Shadows & Tall Trees, Icarus, The Brooklyn Quarterly, Huffington Post, and the Harper Perennial anthology The Moment, among others. He is currently at work on his first television pilot, as well as a new novel. He can also be found at TheRobertLevy.com.


Author Links: Website | Goodreads | Facebook

13 responses to “Audiobook Review – The Glittering World by Robert Levy

  1. That is different to have four different narrators and not come back to them after they are done with their part. It does sound like it would be suspenseful and exciting so that's too bad that it was a little bit of a let-down.

  2. I do enjoy these type of stories, so I'm wondering if I'll actually like this. By the cover, it looks like a contemporary. Hmm, I'll have to think about this one. Sorry this didn't work for you.

    • There are a lot of reviews that are really favorable. I would say to give it a shot if you get a chance. Do you know how many books I have decided to read just because I knew that the things that someone else hated are the things that I like. Go for it!

  3. Sorry you didn't like this one. I hadn't heard of it before, but I won't be adding it to my TBR since it sounds so disappointing. Hope you enjoy your next read! Thanks for visiting my blog!