Title: Antisocial
Author: Heidi Cullinan
Narrator: Iggy Toma
Publisher: Self-Published
Run Time: 13 hours and 52 minutes
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: This book is another in a long and wonderful line of collaborations between author and narrator. If you have never had the pleasure of hearing a narrator work so well with an author, this is a good place to start.
Reviewed By: Mike
Blurb: Xander Fairchild can’t stand people in general and frat boys in particular, so when he’s forced to spend his summer working on his senior project with Skylar Stone, a silver-tongued Delta Sig with a trust fund who wants to make Xander over into a shiny new image, Xander is determined to resist. He came to idyllic, Japanese culture-soaked Benten college to hide and make manga, not to be transformed into a corporate clone in the eleventh hour.
Skylar’s life has been laid out for him since before he was born, but all it takes is one look at Xander’s artwork, and the veneer around him begins to crack. Xander himself does plenty of damage too. There’s something about the antisocial artist’s refusal to yield that forces Skylar to acknowledge how much his own orchestrated future is killing him slowly …as is the truth about his gray-spectrum sexuality, which he hasn’t dared to speak aloud, even to himself.
Through a summer of art and friendship, Xander and Skylar learn more about each other, themselves, and their feelings for one another. But as their senior year begins, they must decide if they will part ways and return to the dull futures they had planned, or if they will take a risk and leap into a brightly colored future – together.
Review: Xander doesn’t like people. He likes frat boys even less. So when charming, fast talking Skylar winds up in his face, and on a shared project, sparks, grumpiness, and sarcasm fly. Xander loves his art and exploring what the future may hold. Skylar has his life mapped out for him and isn’t sure if that’s really how he wants it to go.
There are few combinations of author and narrator that fit together as well as Cullinan and Toma. Iggy Toma has narrated this author’s books for quite some time now, over several series and in different worlds, and every single time he is spot-on with her words. While the action between the two main characters can be too slow for some, with Toma reading the words, they take on a quality that makes you want to find out if the ‘will they/won’t they’ will play out. Can someone really change their future by simply opening up to being something other than what they had planned? Toma and Cullinan together make you think that they can. That anyone could if, despite their fears, they simply take the chance.
This book is another in a long and wonderful line of collaborations between author and narrator. If you have never had the pleasure of hearing a narrator work so well with an author, this is a good place to start. Give this story a chance to grow on you. Feel how connected the characters are to the words. You will enjoy the book. Also, because there is a lot of manga and Japanese culture talked about, you just may learn something new as well.
You can buy Antisocial here:
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