Audiobook Review: Purgatory by J. Costa
Purgatory is the first book in the trilogy with the same name by author, actor, narrator, producer and publisher J. Costa.
The production is excellent, with Mr. Costa giving his best to grab you by the neck and pull you right into the story.
We follow Dave, a serial killer that hunts and dispatches the worst kind of offenders, hidden priests that at one time or another in their life molested little children. The action moves at breakneck speeds, switching between different times in Dave‘s life, keeping the listener involved from the first minute to the last in this dramatic, but very entertaining story.
Dave‘s war is just, but he does bad things to bad men for a good reason. The entire novel is filled with questions, questions that we all must ask of ourselves from time to time. I won’t say anything else about the story because it should not be spoiled by me.
The author’s talent for natural conversations and his courage to attack such a delicate subject makes this book even more relevant.
As I mentioned above, J. Costa is both narrator and producer for Purgatory and it’s clear that he has dedicated a lot of his time to this project. His narration is excellent, he switches with ease between voices and accents, thus he manages to keep all characters clearly differentiated in the listener’s mind. Also, the production is complete with sound effects and music. Two other actors helped J. Costa with a very small number of characters and they also did great.
The audiobook version of Purgatory delivers complete immersion and although I am not a big fan of audio dramatization, I enjoyed this recording very much.
Most of the sound effects are of very good quality and add to the immersion, creating a living and breathing world.You’ll hear them on the background, thunder-storms, rivers, cars passing eachother on the highway, birds in the forest, and you’ll understand why the author has decided to go this way. It would have been much easier for Mr. Costa to just record the audiobook, but this way you get the distinct feeling that you are watching a good movie on Netflix with the audio description turned on and with your immagination as the screen.
This is a very short but very sweet listen, just a little over 3 hours and a half in duration, but it left me intrigued and wanting for more. I finished it in one sitting and almost forgot to get off the elliptical while listening :)).
As I understandd it, books 2 and 3 are almost ready and we can continue Dave‘s adventure very soon.
Victor Dima
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