Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Alex Richey about three audiobooks whose outstanding narrators bring emotional depth to stories of ghosts, murder, and terrifying change. They begin with The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean, in which Natalie Naudus’ emotionally precise narration guides listeners through a haunting tale set in wartime Hong Kong, balancing gothic fantasy and historical fiction. Next is Craig DiLouie’s The Summer Fun Massacre; here narrator Garrett Michael Brown anchors a grisly summer camp mystery with understated authority, while Elizabeth Cappuccino’s brief appearances as survivors add an intimate counterpoint. Jo and Alex conclude with Luke Dumas's Nothing Tastes as Good, where Graham Halstead’s deeply empathetic performance and an ensemble cast narrating news reports and social media posts transform a horror novel into a thoughtful examination of fatphobia, shame, and public judgment. Whether confronting ghosts, revisiting old crimes, or exploring the consequences of impossible choices, these audiobooks demonstrate how exceptional narration adds emotional depth to even the darkest stories.

Audiobooks Discussed:

The Girl With a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean, read by Natalie Naudus (Macmillan Audio)

The Summer Fun Massacre by Craig DiLouie, read by Garrett Michael

Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas, read by Graham Halstead with

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Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Laura Rossi about three

Audiobooks Discussed:

The Land and Its People, written and read by David Sedaris (Hachette Audio)

Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer, read by Edoardo Ballerini (Random HouseAudio)

Like This, But Funnier by Hallie Cantor, read by Helen Laser (Simon &

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Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Michele Cobb about three

Audiobooks Discussed:

The Original: A Novel written by Priya Parmar, read by Cassandra

Ghalen: A Romance in Black written by Walter Mosley, read by Dion Graham (HarperAudio)

The Divorce written by Frieda McFadden, read by January LaVoy, Marin Ireland and Edoardo Ballerini (Dreamscape)

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Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Stephen Cummings about

Audiobooks discussed:

Arsenio

Famesick, written and read by Lena Dunham (Random House Audio)

True Crime, written and read by Patricia Cornwell (Hachette Audio)

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Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Kendra Winchester about three inventive story collections that reveal just how expansive audiobook

Audio Books Discussed:

Fat Swim by Emma Copley Eisenberg, read by Kristen DiMercurio, MW

My Dear You by Rachel Khong, read by Jialing Pan, Rachel Khong, Jen Zhao, and Annie Q. Riegel (Random House Audio)

Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar, read by Rachel Elizabeth Smith (Macmillan Audio)

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Host Jo Reed talks with Kirkus young readers’ editor Laura Simeon about three middle-grade audiobooks that explore difficult subjects with

Audiobooks Discussed:

Phoenix by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, read by Emma Ladji (Listening Library)

The Lovely Dark by Matthew Fox, read by Karise Yansen (Hachette Audio)

When Tomorrow Burns by Tae Keller, read by Eddy Lee, Annie Q. Riegel,

Support for Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus, and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite

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Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Leslie Fine about three audiobooks that range from memoir to thriller to literary biography. They begin

Audiobooks Discussed:

Unread: A Memoir of Learning (and Loving) To Read on TikTok by Oliver James, read by James Shippy (Hachette Audio)

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum, read by Julia Whelan and

Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer, read by Molly Ringwald and Mark Oppenheimer (Penguin Random House Audio)

Support for Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus, and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Reba McEntire, Bob Goff, Savannah Guthrie, Max Lucado, Lysa TerKeurst, and more.

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On this special sponsored episode of Behind the Mic, Kirkus’ Michele Cobb is joined by acclaimed narrator January LaVoy. Together, they go behind the scenes of recording Freida McFadden’s latest bestseller, The Divorce—without spoilers. The novel explores the unraveling of a marriage, and the audiobook is performed by a trio of narrators portraying the three characters at its center: January LaVoy, Edoardo Ballerini, and Marin Ireland. Michele and January discuss the importance of honoring the author’s words, collaborating with her fellow narrators, and how January created the voice for and built the character of Veronica, the other, younger woman.

Audiobook Discussed:

The Divorce by Freida McFadden, read by

This episode of Behind the Mic is brought to you by Dreamscape Media

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From haunted New Jersey suburbs to melancholy Irish landscapes to the contested wilds of the American West, Alan Minskoff joins host Jo Reed to discuss three sharply different works of fiction in audio. Tom Perrotta’s Ghost Town, narrated by Robert Petkoff, blends grief, adolescence, and the supernatural through Petkoff’s nuanced character work, while Derbhle Crotty and Darragh Shannon bring quiet emotional precision to The News From Dublin, evoking the atmosphere of longing and displacement in Colm Tóibín’s story collection. The conversation closes with Taylor Brown’s Wolvers, read by Ramiz Monsef, whose vivid performance captures the tensions between ranchers, militias, environmentalists, and wolves in the modern West. These audiobooks may share little besides the genre of fiction, but each narrator creates a fully realized world listeners can step into and stay with long after the final chapter.

Audiobooks Discussed:

Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta, read by Robert Petkoff

The News From Dublin: Stories by Colm Tóibín, read by Derbhle Crotty and

Wolvers by Taylor Brown, read by Ramiz Monsef (Recorded Books Inc.)

Support for Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors,

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Three women tell deeply personal stories in audiobooks that gain even more force through performance. Michele Cobb joins host Jo Reed to discuss A Hymn to Life by Gisèle Pelicot, who discovered that her husband had drugged her and arranged to have dozens of men assault her over the course of many years. The book recounts her life, the trial, and the reckoning that followed, all narrated by Emma Thompson with remarkable restraint and empathy. Next comes a discussion of The End of My Life Is Killing Me by Annabelle Gurwitch, read by the author with warmth, comic timing, and mischievous candor as she navigates stage 4 lung cancer and divorce. Finally, they discuss You With the Sad Eyes, written and read by actor Christina Applegate, who reflects on childhood trauma, fame, cancer, and living with multiple sclerosis; her unguarded narration—complete with journal entries, cracked laughter, and tearful moments—gives the book unusual emotional immediacy.  These memoirs don’t offer neat resolutions, but they do reveal the special intimacy that happens when difficult stories are spoken aloud.

Audiobooks Discussed:

A Hymn to Life: Shame Has To Change Sides by Gisèle Pelicot with Judith Perrignon; translated by Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver; read by Emma Thompson (Penguin Random House Audio)

The End of My Life is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker by Annabelle Gurwitch, read by the author and Andie MacDowell (Zibby Books)

You With the Sad Eyes: A Memoir written and read by Christina Applegate (Hachette Audio)

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