Book Review
Written by: Aisha Urooj
Narrated by: Jason Melnychuk
Genres: Dark Humor | Short Stories | Comedy
Published: 2nd of October, 2020
Length: 1 Hours 26 Minutes
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Description
A story about an Demonic Angel in Heaven and an Angelic Demon in Hell.
Damon always felt out of place in his surroundings and at his work. Most would consider it an ordinary problem but Damon was an angel working in Heaven.
When Damon is redeployed to work on a mission on Earth, things start to become interesting. He is however dismayed to find out that he has been assigned as a shoulder Angel to the most boring man on Earth, Joe Smith.
Joe Smith is decidedly neutral, neither good nor bad, and both Heaven and Hell send their representatives to try and tip the balance one way or the other.
Damon's counterpart sent to Earth is a hopeless demon named Saynt. Saynt is not like the other demons at all. He feels helpless on Earth without written instructions on what to do from his Manager.
Together both Damon and Saynt are on a mission to turn Joe Smith and try to change his rigidly affixed neutral moral compass so that he becomes qualified to get into either Heaven or Hell. Instead of just changing Joe Smith, however, they will discover that the mission will have transformed all three of them.
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| Reviewed: 2020-10-03 | |
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A Fun Twist on a Classic Concept
Short but fun, the classic concept of a demon on one shoulder and an angel on the other was given a twist by author Aisha Urooj, with the demon having spent his life in Heaven, while the angel grew up in Hell.Told through the eyes of Damon, the angel who doesn't quite fit in Heaven. After a brief rundown on what Heaven is like, and how annoyingly perfect it is for him, Damon is assigned as the angel on the should of the most neutral person on earth - Joe Smith.
Teamed up with Saynt, their mission (or project may be more apt as Heaven and Hell are run more like a business, with managers and the like deathly afraid of the guy in charge) is to sway Joe Smith one way or the other so his soul can be claimed by the winning side.
Through Damon's story, we follow him as he struggles to understand humans. His thoughtful, poignant extrospection of simple human concepts that are almost alien to angels. A few other words I noted down while listening were "charming" and "endearing", which when paired with "thoughtful" and "poignant" I think just about sums up this tale.
Mr Whiskers, I must say, was spot on. The cat living his best life while being totally superior to all other life forms was adorable yet strangely horrifying to think that is probably what goes through their minds!
Narration by Jason Melnychuk was okay, not the best I've ever listened to but far from the worst. I think the main issue I had was the lack of any distinctness between voices. For the most part, I could follow the thread of who was talking, but occasionally I was unsure if it were Damon or Saynt.
Quality too was okay. I did hear some very, very minor background noises... (faint scrolling and click of a mouse I believe) though nothing that detracted from the overall story. Good enunciation and sense of timing delivered the hits where they needed to be.
No re-take style errors that I detected, and I'm usually really good at picking up on those (where the narrator has re-recorded the same line but forgot to edit out the mistake) so that's a plus. I note Melnychuk has no other narration credits to his name, so the dedication to quality in this way is appreciated.
Overall, a fun, easy listen that'll get you thinking about who might be sitting on your shoulders.
I was given this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. I have not let this gift affect nor influence my opinions of this audiobook and have left an honest review.