4 stars
A well-written and perfectly crafted story that is pure Gaiman. I loved it. It was lovely and haunting and sad and suspenseful and just all around a great story. As usual, Gaiman also did a fantastic job reading it. I always feel like I’m curled up listening to a creepy bedtime story whenever I listen to any of his audiobooks. A fantastic reading experience.
My only complaint, and what forced me to give it 4 stars instead of 5, was the music. Overall, I enjoyed the music and at times it really added to what was happening in the narration. However, I don’t usually listen to music when I read. At times, it was horribly distracting for me. There was a few times I got lost in the intense music and realized I hadn’t been listening to the spoken words. I had to go back and listen again. Also, sometimes the music was way more intense than what was actually going on. It added a strange suspense to events that weren’t very suspenseful, which was a bit odd.
Don’t get me wrong; the music itself was great. It’s just that sometimes it was a little too good and distracted me from the actual story.
The story itself is for sure 5 stars, but the audiobook listening experience was a little too intense at times with the music, which is why I bumped it back to 4 stars. Still a great read.