Audio Review: The Making of Us by Lisa Jewell

In a hospice in Bury St Edmunds, a man called Daniel is slowly fading away. His friend Maggie sits with him every day; she holds his hand and she listens to the story of his life, to his regrets and to his secrets. And then he tells her about the children he has never met and never will. He talks of them wistfully. His legacy, he calls them. 

Lydia, Dean and Robyn don't know each other. Yet. And they are all facing difficult changes. Lydia is still wearing the scars from her traumatic childhood and although she is wealthy and successful, her life is lonely and disjointed. Dean is a young man, burdened with unexpected responsibility, whose life is going nowhere. And Robyn wants to be a doctor, just like her father - a man she's never met. But is her whole life built on an illusion?

Three people leading three very different lives. All lost. All looking for something. But when they slowly find their way into each other's lives, everything starts to change ...

Published June 5th 2018 by Dreamscape Media LLC

Unabridged, Audiobook

Narrated by: Helen Duff

Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins

2.5/5 stars

In my quest to read Lisa Jewell's back list I purchased this audio from Chirp - to give them a try and it was too good a deal to pass up.  While I found the Chirp app and service great my thoughts in the audio sadly did not yield the same results.

I'll start with the fact I am a big Lisa Jewell fan, her latest books have been favourites of mine - dark and twisty, mysterious and kept me guessing.  Her earlier books are more chicklit/women's fiction, which are always nice to read.  However, in this case it just didn't work for me like it did for others.  Maybe if I had read the book verses listening it might be different but sadly I doubt it.

The Making of Us has multiple POVs with the narrator changing her voice for each. Each character is unique, their own story to share and while I understood the connection I wasn't drawn to any of them. Part I think was the narrators voices which helped to define a character trait that I'm not sure was the authors intent. 

I get having flawed and unlikable characters but when the story line doesn't interest me, well there is a problem.  Parts of the story were okay but it was drawn out too long for my liking and the voices just took away from the story, to be honest I'm surprised I finished this one.

Will I continue to read Lisa Jewell?  ABSOLUTELY!  She has a new book coming on later on in the year, The Night She Disappeared (that's Aug 5th for the UK and Sept for us in North America)