Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett audiobook

Mostly Dead Things

By Kristen Arnett
Read by Jesse Vilinsky

Blackstone Publishing 9781947793309
10.48 Hours • Unabridged
Format : Digital Download (In Stock)
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One morning, Jessa-Lynn Morton walks into the family taxidermy shop to find that her father has committed suicide, right there on one of the metal tables. Shocked and grieving, Jessa steps up to manage the failing business, while the rest of the Morton family crumbles. Her mother starts sneaking into the shop to make aggressively lewd art with the taxidermied animals. Her brother Milo withdraws, struggling to function. And Brynn, Milo’s wife―and the only person Jessa’s ever been in love with―walks out without a word. As Jessa seeks out less-than-legal ways of generating income, her mother’s art escalates―picture a figure of her dead husband and a stuffed buffalo in an uncomfortably sexual pose―and the Mortons reach a tipping point. For the first time, Jessa has no choice but to learn who these people truly are, and ultimately how she fits alongside them. Kristen Arnett’s debut novel is a darkly funny, heart-wrenching, and eccentric look at loss and love.

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Summary

Summary

New York Times bestseller

A Slate Magazine Best Book of the Year in Audiobooks

A Vanity Fair Magazine Pick of Best Books of 2019

An Atlantic Best Book of 2019

A Literary Hub Pick of Best Books of the Year

Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award

An Electric Literature Pick of 15 Best Novels of the Year

A Chicago Review of Books Pick of Best Books of 2019 So Far

A USA Today Pick for Celebrating Pride Month

A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice of the Week

A Bustle Pick of 2019's Books to Add to Your Reading LIst

A BuzzFeed Books Pick of Summer Audiobooks for Road-Tripping

An Esquire Magazine Pick of Most Anticipated Books of 2019

A Boston Globe Pick of Books We Can't Wait to Read

A Huffington Post Pick of 2019 Books We're Looking Forward To

Paste Magazine Pick of Best of the Month

One morning, Jessa-Lynn Morton walks into the family taxidermy shop to find that her father has committed suicide, right there on one of the metal tables. Shocked and grieving, Jessa steps up to manage the failing business, while the rest of the Morton family crumbles. Her mother starts sneaking into the shop to make aggressively lewd art with the taxidermied animals. Her brother Milo withdraws, struggling to function. And Brynn, Milo’s wife―and the only person Jessa’s ever been in love with―walks out without a word.

As Jessa seeks out less-than-legal ways of generating income, her mother’s art escalates―picture a figure of her dead husband and a stuffed buffalo in an uncomfortably sexual pose―and the Mortons reach a tipping point. For the first time, Jessa has no choice but to learn who these people truly are, and ultimately how she fits alongside them.

Kristen Arnett’s debut novel is a darkly funny, heart-wrenching, and eccentric look at loss and love.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews

“Mostly Dead Things is one of the strangest and funniest and most surprising first novels I’ve ever read.” —Karen Russell, New York Times bestselling author
“It’s funny, dark, complex, and queer.” —USA Today
“A celebration of the strangeness of life and love and loss, all of it as murky as a Florida swamp but beautiful in its wildness.” —Nylon
“Arnett’s vision of Florida as a creative swamp of well-meaning misfits and the sweet hopefulness of finding your way back to yourself through family.” —Literary Hub
“Arnett brings all of Florida’s strangeness to life through the lens of a family snowed under with grief.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Set in a richly rendered Florida and filled with delightfully wry prose and bracing honesty, Arnett’s novel introduces a keenly skillful author with imagination and insight to spare.” —Publishers Weekly
“A clever debut with a Florida setting that brings to mind writers such as Karen Russell and Lauren Groff.” —Library Journal
“Kristen Arnett is the queen of the Florida no one has ever told you about, and on every page she brings it to a steely and vivid life.” —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
“The action flips from the past to the present, swimming through first love and first grief on a slick of red Kool-Aid and vodka, suntan oil and fruity lip gloss, easy and unforced. This book is my song of the summer.” —New York Times
“[Arnett] gets many things right in this first novel: the feeling of being trapped and vulnerable within one’s own family.” —Washington Post
“Narrator Jesse Vilinksky gives a wistful performance of Arnett’s debut novel…Vilinsky’s melancholy narration highlights the fact that Jessa is deeply depressed, a reality Jessa herself can’t acknowledge. Other characters, mostly members of the Morton family, are easily distinguishable, thanks to Vilinksy’s fully developed voices…She fully captures the emotional core of this story about family and the strange contours of grief.” —AudioFile
“Jesse Vilinsky is able to narrate Jessa’s first-person account in a manner that lets readers know that Jessa has spent her life hiding her feelings. She fittingly adds bursts of emotion and a quivering quality to her voice but is able to keep her overall manner reserved. All of the characters have their own distinct voices.” —Booklist (audio review)
“A family drama that’s as weirdly wonderful as it is captivating.” —Paste
“A strange, loving, and often startlingly funny portrait of loss and the act of piecing together the scraps of what’s left in grief’s wake.” —BuzzFeed
“A bold, dark and profoundly comic novel about the nature of love, loss, and invention.” —BookPage
“Arnett writes with keen perception and clarity throughout, not just of grief and old wounds but of the working-class Florida landscape in which the Mortons live. This is an exquisitely painful and tender story, compassionate and understanding of its characters and their myriad flaws.” —Shelf Awareness

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Author

Author Bio: Kristen Arnett

Author Bio: Kristen Arnett

Kristen Arnett is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Mostly Dead Things and the story collection Felt in the Jaw. A queer writer based in Florida, she has written for the New York Times, Guernica, BuzzFeed, McSweeney’s, The Guardian, Salon, and elsewhere. She has been a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and a winner of the Ninth Letter Literary Award in Fiction and the Coil Book Award.

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Details

Details

Available Formats : Digital Download, CD, MP3 CD
Category: Fiction
Runtime: 10.48
Audience: Adult
Language: English

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