When you listen to an audio book, what could irk you about the narrator’s voice?
When you listen to an audio book, what could irk you about the narrator’s voice?
78 Answers
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Loading Please wait
When you listen to an audio book, what could irk you about the narrator’s voice?
I get annoyed by most male narrators doing children’s voices. I have no idea why but I get mad ?
or a really bad imitation of a female voice. I have never listened to the Harry Potter audios because I could not take Jim Dale’s imitation of Hermione’s voice.
@Kerrie Yuuuuuuuuuuup!
Yep! Bad narrators of women’s voices. Hermione being one. Also the narrator of the Dragon Tattoo series has Salander in a working class Sheffield accent. ?♀️
@Kerrie Yes!!! It drives me crazy!
I was literally about to say Ginny and Hermoine are insufferable ?
@Marnie I never got as far as Ginny. Was she as bad as Hermione?
Monotone. Ughhh
Lack of inflection.
Nasal
A nasal quality to their voice; phony Southern accent
@Jackie, I can speak Southern! BAMA born.
fake southern accents are THE WORST ?
@Steve I’m Southern to the bone. Bama born, too. ??
@Kathy They’re an abomination. ?
Too dramatic. Be real.
When it sounds like they’ve never read it before. Struggling to pronounce words or getting the inflection wrong for the situation.
A voice that sounds like it should retire. I thought, “Do I want listen to that voice for the next 12-15 hours?”. No. Hell no.
No inflection, mispronunciation of regional words – if a story takes place in Chicago, find out how things are pronounced by the “natives”. This is especially irritating if the author is from the area the story takes place in. I can almost see them cringing.
I hate when you can obviously hear when parts have been rerecorded because for a short time the voice sounds slightly different.
When the voices are incredibly off for the characters. Arya Stark should not sound like a 50-something Scottish pirate!
Very thick accents. I wanted to listen to Khaled Hussein reading his Kite Runner, but I couldn’t understand him.
Reading too fast.
Do you have audible? You can slow down or speed up with that app
No…I was thinking of when I would listen to books on tape or cd in my car. I ran across a couple of readers that read faster than I liked to listen…
@Barbara aha! I have only really just discovered audio books via a freebie on audible.
@Gina check your library. Audio books are always free there.
If it was Fran Dresser reading it.
Tongue smacking. Or any kind of slober/mouth noises. ?
Elisabeth, yes! And that happens SO much ? It really grosses me out. Yuck!
when a girl does a deep voice for male characters
I can’t stand that either! Or man trying to do a woman’s voice by just making his voice squeaky!
When they are just reading the book like a college professor with no emotion or acting. I prefer a book where I think is multiple characters and I find out it’s the same actor for everybody. I want the book to sound like a movie that’s playing in my head not like, the guy from the Dry Eyes commercials reading a book.
Monotone nasal voice.
Dry mouth with the weird smacky sound.
Mispronunciations
If it was Morgan Freeman.
When they change actors in a series.
I hate when women narrators make their characters sound so whiny and ditzy. It makes it a struggle to finish a book.
When they add a pause in a sentence where there shouldn’t be one. Punctuation is there for a reason, folks! My current audiobook’s narrator does this all the time. UGH! How hard is it to keep reading steadily until you get to a comma or period!! Jeeze!
When you the reader knows the characters name but the narrator spends the whole time mispronouncing it drives me mad
When the narrator tries to make every sentence sound like they’re on the verge of tears. Or weird pauses in the middle of sentences that aren’t there (makes me check to see if my Kindle’s battery died).
@Laura OMG, I just started listening to an audiobook where the narration sounds constantly (and enthusiastically, regardless of the intended emotion) on the verge of tears. It was driving me insane, so I just decided to read it instead. lol
@Shawna What book? I’m listening to one called Ghost Gifts, with a female narrator.
Some accents feel silly or racist
One narrator for the audiobook “Room” xounded exactly like the annoying voice on my GPS that says “recalculating”!
nasally or whistley
For me it’s the opposite there are some voices on an audiobook that I really like and help me enjoy the book more. Examples include a beautiful soft Irish voice in Marion Keyes the Break
Not an audio book, but a hypnosis tape. The guy whistled his s’s so badly I felt more neurotic than when I started listening
The narrators voice may or may not work for you. I’ve had to give up in many audible books because the narrator didn’t match my need, but, that said there are more good than non-matched. A guaranteed good time is anything narrated by Simon Vance.
When they whistle while they talk
When you cant tell the difference in characters…monotone.
My biggest issue is when a male narrator can’t perform female voice without it sounding like nails on a chalkboard.
Bad accents. I just can’t deal with it.
I tried to listen to A Prayer for Owen Meany on audible. If you know about that book you know that Owen’s voice is described as being very unique and potentially irritating to most people. Well, the narrator took that way too literally and it was nearly impossible to listen to. I gave up and just read the book. The book was great – the audible version was terrible.
@Jenn I returned that book as well couldn’t listen!
@Jenn loved that book!
Obvious changes in voice,like baby talk. The best narrators just change their voice slightly but you know the character immediately. It’s a very difficult and under rated job.
Monotone droning
Too shrill which doesn’t happen often.
Slurring or lisping s’s. And vocal fry…I just hate it.
Agreed to the vocal fry – so annoying.
Inconsistent accents and voices ? I mean, why not hire a cast of voice actors?
I hated it when a narrator of The Red Badge of Courage used a drawl that sounded like Virginians for characters who were all from New York, presumably because their speech was old-timey.
Reading in a monotone. Reading too slowly.
I couldn’t stand the narrator for The Little Paris Bookshop. I had to stop listening and read the book instead.
Every once in a while I run into a book that’s narrated so smoothly and without much inflection that it tends to lull me to sleep. I give up on those. My most frequent complaint is overdone character voices that jar you out of the story.
Does anyone listen to librivox? It’s an audiobook app that allows for volunteers to read books. Well I listened to The Picture of Dorian Gray and there was this really old guy reading young Dorian and and a really young guy reading for his older friend. All the voices we’re totally off and it was maddening. But that’s what you get with librivox.
Whistling on their S’
@Kathryn, indeed! Annoying!
When male narrators talk in falsetto to read female characters’ dialogue and it just makes the female character sound stupid. errggh.
@Brenda yes!
@Brenda Also, on the opposite end, when female narrators try to use really low voices. Makes every male character sound like a meathead.
Yes, exactly. There are a few narrators who can do it well. It’s a fine art.
When the narrator has a very distinct voice of his or her own – it’s distracting. I couldn’t listen to Big Little Lies for that reason – the narrator has a creaky voice – and it didn’t sound like any of the characters the way I imagined it.
Reading way too fast with a voice that has an accent.
This maybe unfair but some narrator’s voices are annoying. I listen to a sample just to make sure I want to hear it for the length of the book.
Ugh… mine is the women narrator interpreting the female lead in the book sound whiney and weak. Drives me crazy!