Thank You For Listening by Julia Whelan

 

Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan is the story of an award-winning audiobook narrator who, after a one-night stand with a hot guy in Las Vegas, gets home to find her life very much askew. Her grandmother's mental acuity is decline, her father doesn't want to pay to keep her at the swanky nursing home where she's being cared for, her best friend is overworked and breaking at the seams, her industry seems to be in some jeopardy because of AI, and she's working on a romance project because she needs money, even though she's been out of the romance game for years. But, on the bright side, the guy she's working with on the romance project is very funny and they start to develop a thing.  

So many people told me this was a good book. I heard on Pop Culture Happy Hour, then Sarah recommended it, and finally Kim's sheer enthusiasm for it as an audiobook made me very excited for it. I was able to get it immediately from Hoopla and let me tell you, if you are a person who likes romance novels and audiobooks, you need to read this. 

This is what Spoiler Alert wanted to be, with a story within in a story, but this story isn't cringe. Whelan is an audiobook narrator herself and she did the narration and it was amazing and wonderful and I'm not sure why anyone would read this over listening to it if they had a choice. I mean, I guess if you're one of those heathens who listens to books at 2x speed, a lot of the performance of this will be lost on you, so don't be one of those heathens. 

I have a few beefs with the book's plot, but they're minor (not exchanging contact info in 2022 is silly, there were some preachy moments, etc.). I think Whelan does a fantastic job of playing with the tropes (there's even a scene where the two leads talk about the tropes they've been through - closed door, epistolary, etc.). I think she does a fabulous job of making it clear that our heroine has more going on in her life than a crush on a guy and I loved the entire cast of secondary characters. The only real thing missing from this book was a dog. 

Lend my voice to the chorus of people who think this is wonderful.  Well done, Julia Whelan. You're the best. 

4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Sewanee hadn't known then how quickly a dream could become a thing that mocked you. (22:52)

Ah, yes. This has happened to me too many times to talk about.

A charged kind of silence fell, like the expectant moment right after the power goes out, waiting for it to come back on. (05:51:09)

I just loved this analogy so much. There is ALWAYS a moment of utter silence when the power blinks out - all conversations stop, the small noises of the fridge/HVAC/fan all stop, and you wait, knowing that most of the time it will only be a second or two before it comes back on.

Hat mentions:

In the middle, a lone cellist sat on a stool, hat at her feet, brimming with coins, playing a sonata. (09:59:00)