The Pessimists

By: Bethany Ball

Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan

Welcome to small-town Connecticut, a place whose inhabitants seem to have it all - the status, the homes, the money, and the ennui. There's Tripp and Virginia, beloved hosts whom the community idolizes, whose basement hides among other things a secret stash of guns and a drastic plan to survive the end times. There's Gunter and Rachel, recent transplants who left New York City to raise their children, only to feel both imprisoned by the banality of suburbia. And Richard and Margot, community veterans whose extramarital affairs and battles with mental health are disguised by their enviably polished veneers and perfect children. At the center of it all is the Petra School, the most coveted of all the private schools in the state, a supposed utopia of mindfulness and creativity, with a history as murky and suspect as our characters' inner worlds.

With deep wit and delicious incisiveness, in The Pessimists, Bethany Ball peels back the veneer of upper-class white suburbia to expose the destructive consequences of unchecked privilege and moral apathy in a world that is rapidly evolving without them. This is a superbly drawn portrait of a community, and its couples, torn apart by unmet desires, duplicity, hypocrisy, and dangerous levels of discontent.

©2021 Bethany Ball (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Not much to it

There’s nothing particularly outstanding about this book. The plot really does not live up to the intriguing promise of the title description. The characters are moderately interesting and the author did a good job of presenting the women in a way that inspired my empathy.

The narrator has a sort of sing-song voice that became tiresome after a while, and her voicing of the male and child characters was just weird. As an ebook or traditional book, this is a title I would have skimmed through in about 30 minutes. Disappointing.

Character assassinations galore

anti climactic


did not like the voices the narrator chose for the men and children

Narrator is bizarre

I was looking forward to this book, but I should have grabbed it on my Kindle instead of Audible. The narrator’s voice and cadence is incredibly annoying. Perhaps she is trying not to have an accent of any kind, but she sounds like a robot at times, to the point that I began to wonder if it was purposeful. Anyway, I can’t finish it on Audible due to the narrator. Perhaps it won’t bother others as much as it bothers me.

And the point is…

This book was a selection for my very long standing book group . It received incredibly glowing reviews. The consensus among our members is that it is the most vapid and empty novel we have read in twenty plus years.
Unfortunately the narrator only accentuated the novel’s shortcomings. She bounces between valley girl and that affect favored by gen x’ers of lifting ones voice at the end of sentences.

Smart and enjoyable

A somewhat humorous, somewhat cutting exploration of suburbanites and their foibles. An easy and quick listen, would recommend even though the plot is not the focus here. It's more about immersing us in this world. Enjoyed the narration, well suited to the story and the characters.