Middle school level writing

Get ready for lots of “he exclaimed” and “said Jill”. It’s folksy, humdrum, and boring and it’s written on a YA Fiction level.

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Captivating

While this was nonfiction, the writing and in character reading kept me engrossed. Hours of driving flew by. It is also an important, intimate view of how militias form and progress in parts of the country unfamiliar to me in Connecticut.

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An excellent and compelling listen

I could barely put this book down. The characters were beautifully portrayed - I felt like Dan Day was someone I'd known for years. The author moved the story at a good pace - providing the kinds of details that made the book more interesting, without getting needlessly and boringly bogged down in minutiae. And Patrick Stein - haven't we all known someone like him? (If you haven't, trust me; those guys are out there.)

What detracted from the book, for me at least, was the narration. On the whole, it wasn't bad. But most of the place names in Western Kansas were mispronounced, and to a local, it was really irritating. Many of those who buy this book will be from Kansas, because we're horrified that something so reprehensible was coming together right under our noses and we had no idea. How much trouble is it to call a librarian, a Congressman's satellite office, a high school civics teacher, or even a local Chief of Police, and get information on how the names of cities and towns in the area are pronounced? The author, himself, obviously spent quite a bit of time in the area, and would have been an appropriate source for that information. This particular narrator isn't the only one, certainly, who has botched the names of places and companies in Audible recordings, and I really think Audible listeners deserve that little bit of effort that it takes to get it right. Some names - Salina, for instance - were not even consistent in how they were mispronounced. A few other words were consistently mispronounced, also.

If you're not from Kansas, the mistakes in pronunciation probably won't bother you, and you'll find the narration acceptable. But wherever the setting is, whether it's Kansas, Maine, Alaska, or outside the U.S., the narrator should at least go to the trouble of finding out how to correctly pronounce names. In this instance, it made me wish I was reading a hard copy of the book instead of listening to the Audible version.

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A sad commentary

This was a good account of what happened in Garden City, Kansas. I live 10 miles from the location that was going to be bombed by these people. I will say, the narrator did not do his homework on how to pronounce names involved in the story, which bothers me.

Unbelievable story

This book from start to finish is remarkable. I learned so much about what is going on in America as it relates to domestic terrorism. The FBI work here saved countless lives and they were true heroes. Definitely worth listening to. It read like a novel and unfortunately, it’s true.

Riveting

This was a well told story about how folks constantly bombarded with propaganda can turn into animals.