Review: Freedom Dues by Indra Zuno, narrated by Sarah-Jane Drummey
Freedom Dues is a captivating historical fiction novel written with talent, love, and passion by award-winning author Indra Zuno.
The action opens up in 1729 when we make the acquaintance of the two main characters featured in this gripping tale of drama, hardships, slavery, poverty, and of course, the power of love. 15-year-old Blair Eakins and 10-year-old orphan Mallie Ambrose struggle living in different and distant places, one in Ireland and the other in Britain, where little price is put upon the lives of the poor or the unlucky.
Forced into servitude, barely surviving the arduous journey across the seas, Blair and Mallie find themselves in the United States and here their paths are destined to cross and once they meet, their lives will change forever!
As I said above, this novel is written with care, love, passion, and respect for people who had to survive through such difficult times as those portrayed here. Clearly, the author did a lot of research in order to document the folks, the times and places in Freedom Dues. The characters feel alive, the places and the events are vividly and explicitly described, while the story is both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.
The audiobook version of Freedom Dues is expertly brought to life by AudioFile Earphones award-winning narrator Sarah-Jane Drummey.
Sarah delivers a balanced performance, switching with ease between Irish, British, Native American, and other accents. She reads in a very pleasant voice and manages to infuse the story with just the right amount of emotion and urgency when needed. I can say that Sarah was the perfect choice to perform this audiobook and thanks to her talent for storytelling and skills with voices and accents, this audio production is elevated to the highest levels of immersion for the listener.
Freedom Dues won the 2021 Gold Benjamin Franklin IBPA Award in the Historical Fiction category and I think that if you are interested in this genre, you will be delighted with what this audiobook has to offer.
Sarah-Jane Drummey is a super voiceover artist and I think that Indra Zuno will delight and entertain readers and listeners for many years to come!
Even though I have finished Freedom Dues more than a week ago, I’m sure that Blair and Mallie will stay with me for a long time. That’s how real and alive they felt to me throughout their adventure.
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Victor Dima
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