Bob

By: Wendy Mass, Rebecca Stead / Narrated By: Rob Dircks, Nora Hunter

Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins

For Maman’s b-day? I wanted to LOVE this, truly I did!

It’s like this, see:

Here at Audiobook Accomplice, in the past we’ve reached out to fellow Accomplices to offer to listen to/review some of their Fave books, their Fave genres. Now, that’s all Huzzah Huzzah-ish and all -BUT- what to do when I, uhm, Listen to an audiobook from a genre and discover I, well, don’t like something?

Why, then I stutter-step and dance around, and DESperately scroll through m’ Library to find another, a different story, one that’ll be getting a better review. Cuz who wants to be surprised by finding that I, uhm, dislike one o’ their Faves?

Now, for birthdays? For Big Sis, for Maman, I’d offer to listen to a whole list of their requests, some they just wanted to know more about, so if I didn’t actually like one of them, well then, there was CERtain to be another audiobook on the list that’d capture m’ fancy and earn a rave or two.

The problem this year? Okay, it’s been fraught with Change, like Major Life Changes that have made it danged impossible to offer to do a whole List o’ options. Sooooo, I scrolled and scrolled until I found Bob by mid-grade phenom authors Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, thinking: Ahhhhh, Maman’s Birthday is coming up, is here, and SUREly she’d be charmed by a story featuring a 10-year old girl and a greenish creature in a chicken suit who so very much just wants to get Home, wherever that might be. The structure of the story is of course going to be well-considered; the writing is sure to be clever (I mean, a CHICKEN suit! and Ha!); the character development is sure to yield lovable results. Just, HEY! and Yessss!!! ya know?

Uhm, well, kinda sorta yes, and kinda sorta no.

Livy is on a very rare visit to see her Gran who lives in Australia. Once there, she’s beyond shocked to discover a bit of a Zombie in the closet, one who’s been waiting for her for five very loooong years. Livy had PROMISED to be back, to help him get Home. And here she is, shocked, with zippo memory of him. At first he’s so peeved he won’t even tell her his name, but eventually he offers: Bob.

And the story is s’posed to be about Livy getting memories back, the pair of them reuniting in a developing friendship, the unraveling of clues as to who Bob is, what Bob is, where Bob needs to be.

And it’s sweet, really it is. Just a sweet story with the charm of friendship and such-all.

That said, however, Mass and Stead throw in a whole lot of Side Stuff such as Livy being afraid to spend the night anywhere without her Mom, there’s a horrible drought in Australia and livelihoods are jeopardized (Will the bank never cease to call, to harass and threaten?!), -AND- there’s ooooodles of instances of Livy forgetting everything from the past when she was last in Australia, when she was five-years old. A plot device is tossed in for Mass and Stead to use as a memory prompter, and isn’t it all convenient?

This lack of action, this lack of meaningful plot, is further hindered by the narrators. Rob Dircks as Bob is a standout… unfortunately… he cannot do an Aussie accent to save his life. Mom and Gran and the residents of the hometown are beyond butchered, sometimes coming out Irish, sometimes Cockney, and yikes! does Dircks seem greatly uncomfortable, or what? Nora Hunter does a muuuuch better job with her Aussie characters, but her delivery of all else is rather unenthusiastic. When you pair a story that doesn’t have a whole heckuva lotta action in it with slightly bored delivery? Oh good golly gosh: I didn’t fall asleep (Nope, I stayed away from sugar and carbs whilst Listening), but yeh, I did indeed yawn.

Another reviewer posited that younguns might be traumatized by a scene in the story whereby a green arm/hand is slithering out, reaching, extended beyond the edge of a well, and won’t THAT cause nightmares, or what? I dunno, I will give Mass and Stead credit for turning that particular scene into one of Love and Belonging. It’s just that, all together, younguns might find all the Side Stuff boring, and older kids might find the lack of action non-stimulating… a trifle boring, to be honest.

And older kids? Say, coming up on 57-years older kids? Wellll, Bob didn’t have clever dialogue to engage, a jumpin’ plot. Plus, it was packed with Livy just being all Out-to-Sea and perpetually saying: I don’t remember. Gee, I don’t remember that either. -AND- Gosh, can’t remember that too. Packed in tightly throughout the entirety of this story, it gets old.

So, soooo sorry, Maman! I chose a fairly charming little story, but not a Knockout One.

I guess what it needed? More CHICKEN Suit!!!