Her Here

By: Amanda Dennis

Narrated by: Amanda Dennis, Julia Atwood

“Dennis is in possession of hypnotic narrative gifts and a ferocious intellect. With Her Here, she has claimed her place in the literary world.” ―Rebecca Makkai, author of Music for Wartime and The Great Believers

“In Her Here, Dennis has written a metaphysical investigation that is also a wonderfully personal account of a daughter coming to terms with the loss of her mother, and a mother coming to terms with the loss of her daughter. As Elena conjures Ella’s last days, the richly imagined narrative moves back and forth between Paris and Thailand, carrying both characters and readers to a vivid and suspenseful conclusion.” ―Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy and The Boy in the Field

Elena, struggling with memory loss due to a trauma that has unmoored her sense of self, deserts graduate school and a long-term relationship to accept a bizarre proposition from an estranged family friend in Paris: she will search for a young woman, Ella, who went missing six years earlier in Thailand, by rewriting her journals. As she delves deeper into Ella’s story, Elena begins to lose sight of her own identity and drift dangerously toward self-annihilation.

Her Here is an existential detective story with a shocking denouement that plumbs the creative and destructive powers of narrative itself.

I wanted to enjoy but....

the narrator reads well however her lack of inflection, the one toneness, makes it difficult to connect with the story

I would’ve preferred to read this book instead of listening

The descriptive quality of this book is good. You are transported to the locations described and can really imagine yourself there.

Other than that, I found the narrative a little all over the place along with several plot holes.

I’ve also listened to multiple books on audible before where a few different voices are used but the effect is lost on this one. It only makes an already confusing and blurry narrative even more so. So if you do want to experience this book, I would recommend you read it, not audiobook it.