BLACK RIVER ORCHARD

This entire ensemble of performers is particularly effective at creating an absorbing, progressively horrifying listen. Wendig's audiobook revolves around a layered world of human relationships involving the desire for power and its consequences. Calla (Brittany Pressley) provides her father (Sean Patrick Hopkins) with a name for the new apple he's harvested, the Ruby Slipper. The apple is an immediate hit with the community, but soon sinister forces emerge, revealing a long history of sin and betrayal. The forces affect Marco (Victor Colomé), Calla's devoted high school boyfriend, who experiences the rapid healing of a sports injury, but then they evolve into something more sinister and heartbreaking. Throughout, Xe Sands transitions listeners between events. Her ethereal performance embodies the audiobook's ever-deepening mysteries. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2024]