Editorial Reviews

Purgatory is the first book in the trilogy with the same name by author, actor, narrator, producer and publisher J. Costa.

The production is excellent, with Mr. Costa giving his best to grab you by the neck and pull you right into the story.

We follow Dave, a serial killer that hunts and dispatches the worst kind of offenders, hidden priests that at one time or another in their life molested little children. The action moves at breakneck speeds, switching between different times in Dave‘s life, keeping the listener involved from the first minute to the last in this dramatic,but very entertaining story.

Dave‘s war is just, but he does bad things to bad men for a good reason. The entire novel is filled with questions, questions that we all must ask of ourselves from time to time. I won’t say anything else about the story because it should not be spoiled by me.

The author’s talent for natural conversations and his courage to attack such a delicate subject makes this book even more relevant.

As I mentioned above, J. Costa is both narrator and producer for Purgatory and it’s clear that he has dedicated a lot of his time to this project. His narration is excellent, he switches with ease between voices and accents, thus he manages to keep all characters clearly differentiated in the listener’s mind. Also, the production is complete with sound effects and music. Two other actors helped J. Costa with a very small number of characters and they also did great.

The audiobook version of Purgatory delivers complete immersion and although I am not a big fan of audio dramatization, I enjoyed this recording very much.

Most of the sound effects are of very good quality and add to the immersion, creating a living and breathing world.You’ll hear them on the background, thunder-storms, rivers, cars passing eachother on the highway, birds in the forest, and you’ll understand why the author has decided to go this way. It would have been much easier for Mr. Costa to just record the audiobook, but this way you get the distinct feeling that you are watching a good movie on Netflix with the audio description turned on and with your imagination as the screen.

This is a very short but very sweet listen, just a little over 3 hours and a half in duration, but it left me intrigued and wanting for more. I finished it in one sitting and almost forgot to get off the elliptical while listening :)).

As I understand it, books 2 and 3 are almost ready and we can continue Dave‘s adventure very soon.

Please vote Helpful below if you like this review and find more of them here on Audible and on the AudiobookBlog dot com.

I also post honest reviews at the request of the author / narrator / publisher.

Thank you,
Victor

The AudiobookBlog.com

Audible

To say that as a reviewer, I have read a great number of audiobooks. Or, have had them read to me, depending upon one's perspective, would be quite the unremarkable understatement. What one would be surprised to learn however, would be the surprisingly small number of these readings that would in my opinion, qualify as my having "experienced" the book in question. Until now.

Author J. Costa and his cast, take readers on a vengeance fueled hell ride through the thoughts and actions of Dave. A man driven by loss, pain, grief, guilt, and trauma, to do the unthinkable.
A man who some would vilify as a demon. A man who others would canonize as a saint. But a man, nonetheless.

Yes, Dave kills and kidnaps priests.
Yes, Dave has a relationship with his lost love, Mya, in his head.
Yes, Dave would be the first to admit that his actions could never be considered "right".
He would also be the first to say that he does "have his reasons".

Reasons that the dying priests, the hostage that he refers to as Judas, the reader, and even Dave come to understand, as the story progresses. Reasons that bring the characters and the reader face to face with the terrifying knowledge that civilization really isn't all that civil. That we are all just people. One maybe two tragedies away from our own version of Dave.

The biggest reason that we as readers are able to make the leap into Dave's world has to be the all encompassing style of audio employed by Mr. Costa. Who wisely chose to dramatize his work in the style of 1920's radio works. Complete with sound effects, dialogue, and narration. Achieving a near perfect balance between emotionally compelling character interaction, a dark, complex, and highly involved plot, and an overall story that is unafraid to address issues which are both socially relevant and disturbing on both conscious and unconscious levels. This is a story that must be read, seen, discussed, pondered, talked about and experienced.

Frishawn Quinn

WTF Are You Reading?

http://www.wtfareyoureading.com

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