Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Billy’s Bones 
AUTHOR: Jamie Fessenden
NARRATOR: Gary Roelofs
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
RELEASE DATE: December 27, 2013
LENGTH: 7 hours, 33 minutes
BLURB:
Kevin Derocher was thirty-two when he walked into Tom’s office, newly married, a baby on the way, and the collar of his red flannel shirt pulled up to hide the bruises around his throat from when he hanged himself in his garage. After his initial consult, therapist Tom Langois believes he’ll never see Kevin again—but Kevin turns up three years later to make repairs on Tom’s new house.
Kevin and Tom become fast friends, and Tom begins to suspect Kevin may be interested in more than friendship. However, Kevin remains haunted by something from his childhood—something so terrible he blocked it from his mind. These suppressed memories make it impossible for Kevin to get close to anyone without panicking and lashing out, sometimes violently. But as his past begins to surface, it becomes apparent that Kevin may hold the key to a twenty-five-year-old mystery: what happened to Billy?
REVIEW:
I’ve been digging through some oldies lately and they have been hit or misses. I’ve found some real gems, but also a few not so shiny examples. Billy’s Bones ends up in the not so shiny pile.
I’m not a fan of insta-love. I love slow burn romances where the relationship has a chance to grow. The getting to know you part. While there weren’t insta-love in this book the friendship between Tom and Kevin came out of nowhere. I mean they meet when Tom needed a handyman to fix his house. Suddenly they are best friends, spending every second with each other – and a lot of it naked…. It came out of nowhere, and it might just be me but I was kind of reeling, wondering “how and when did that happen?”
With audiobooks I find it hard to talk about the writing. I mean it could be the writing in itself, but it could also be the delivery of the narrator, it’s not as straight forward as when you are reading the words in front of you. A great narrator can elevate a flawed book, make it stronger, the same way a narrator also has the ability to sink a great book with a poor delivery. Even the chemistry between the narration and the listener plays a role. That being said I wished the writing had been stronger. The events taking place didn’t always have a natural flow. At times it felt choppy and disjointed.
As an example, Tom and Kevin are discussing Kevin’s mental state, the PTSD and the possible causes for it, the next breath Tom is telling him that he’s falling for Kevin. In the breath after that they are talking about Kevin’s masturbations habits. No surprise that my head was spinning… The story kind of felt out of control.
Then there was the abuse scenes; on page and descriptive. I will admit that I have a bleeding heart and do not like to read (or listen) to explicit abuse scenes. However I do recognise that in some stories they are necessary. What I am against is when author uses rape, abuse or other kind of trauma or disability only to create drama or shock value to the story. So when the author adds a note to the beginning of the book explaining that the horrific scenes were added for the dramatic effect I was far from happy. But I decided that I still needed to give the book a chance.
Gary Roelofs’ narration was not what I’m looking for. Monotone and unengaging are the two words that first come to mind. It felt like Roelofs read the words before his eyes, never connecting to them. This in turn made me feel distanced from the book and story. There was no change in tone no matter what was going on in the story, it was always the same flat infliction. With this kind of monotone narration I have a tendency to space out and go somewhere else, away from the story. I found myself asking what was going on, and when did that happen quite a lot throughout.
Unfortunately there wasn’t much that worked for me with this story. The potential for a terrific story was there but it got lost in the writing and narration.
RATING: 
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