Bricking It

By: Nick Spalding / Narrated By: Napoleon Ryan, Heather Wilds

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

HiLARious!!!

Okay, I’ve just gotta get the narration outta the way here before I start in on what a joy Bricking It was.

Heather Wilds: Haaaaaate her cuz she has this weird cadence to her speech that is smug, that is imperious, that is melodramatic. She does dialogue well, but jeez! does that cadence and those tones become a bit much or what? THAT said? Here, as Hayley Daley, one part of the sibling duo of Dan and Hayley Daley, that cadence, those tones work to sheer perFECtion! Hayley takes things waaaay too seriously, is desperately trying to be the Grownup in the sibling duo cuz Dan has a tendency of whiling away his life, being purposeless and totally fine with an aimless, friendless existence. Hayley does some imperious nudging (So Wilds’s voice works awesomely), and as author Nick Spalding ups the ante and things get fraught and dramatic, the whole “melodrama” comes around full-swing, and delightfully so. I have soooo much Heather Wilds in m’ Library, but I’ve found her not only tolerable, but jolly wonderful in the whacked out and wacky worlds that Spalding crafts.

Ditto Napoleon Ryan. I’ve listened to another of his performances where he was over the top in a tearjerker. That was way too much then, but here? Where Dan is doing his best to help out in the rebuilding but his bowels suddenly seize up, and he doesn’t wanna leave the job and walk 10-mins. to the nearest bathroom in the nearby village? And he spots a box and newspapers, and starts to consider. And those cramps are getting really bad, and Hey! Nobody’s up here, what can it hurt? Ryan is drop dead hilarious. Please note that, as mentioned in a previous review of a Spalding creation (Checking Out), bowel and defecation humor is used… to a truly Outta This World Braying Laughter effect.

The story opens with Dan and Hayley bemusedly checking out their inheritance, a dilapidated but authentic Victorian house. Mum and Dad received 75,000 Pounds and are off on a world cruise. Dan and Hayley? YIKES! they wonder, and whatthehell are we s’posed to do with THIS ramshackle mess?! When Hayley, who’s done her homework, natch, says they can renovate it and get soooo much money for it? Money-Fever strikes, and it’s off to the races, introducing a beYONd Out-There architect—and his HOT assistant Mischa whose stunning looks and thick Slovenian accent strike Danny dumb—voiced to perfection by Wilds…, and the best. work crew. ever! Headed by a foreman with the thickest accent ever (Bravo to Ryan on that one!)

Throw in the TV crew and host for the show “Great Locations” and Spalding gives us everything that could possibly go wrong on Live TV, with a bawdy and just thiiiiis-shy-of-vulgar event which had me laughing m’ head off. And who could be better than Bovine Extraordinaire Pat the Cow. And again: Her expressive “Mooooo”s are well done by Ryan in particular. Which makes sense given that Danny is her one true love… and she might be Danny’s as well. Dunno, but that relationship blossoms!

Do NOT expect High Brow Humor, uhm, like NEVER! with this book, or with ANY Nick Spalding. He plays to the cheap seats, and I count myself to be happily ensconced there, eagerly awaiting any and all of his efforts. Grandma who left the siblings the house? BIG secret there, to die for. The work crew? BIG secrets there as well. The truly eccentric architect? NO secrets, but dang! he misses the boat on choices for faucet handles (HA!).

And to wrap things up, typical Spalding yet again: EVERYthing hits the fan (After rePEATedly hitting it, fairly literally at times, throughout the renovation and relationship interactions…) with the mightiest of >Sploooshes< just in time to make things tense, to tug at our heartstrings.

Checking Out had moments of “touching”, moments of “Wow” that Bricking It does not include. -BUT- it’s truly quirky, loved the chaos, LOVED to hear myself laughing out loud!

Life for me, last week, was a trifle tense, emotional, challenging. This week? Humor week?

Oh how WONderful to start it off with this audiobook; how WONderful to hear my husband query: You okay in there? It sounds like you’re choking…

When laughs get this big? Yup, ya kinda sorta get startled into howls of delight!

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