I hope to both read more MG books and listen to more audiobooks this year, so I couldn't resist the two-for-one deal with The Tower. I was intrigued by the premise with the mysterious tower and the children having no memories nor a way out... What I didn't expect was for this story to be quite this dark and gruesome, or for it to end up being more supernatural horror than thriller. I'm definitely wondering if it wouldn't be a bit too gruesome for the age group... Either way, once the ball started rolling, I can't deny that I was hooked.

I'm keeping this review short to avoid spoilers, because the twists will have a much bigger impact if you don't know what's coming. What I can say is that this story is without doubt quite dark, and it didn't go in the direction I thought it would go. I particularly enjoyed the games and learning more about the tower itself, and it was interesting to see how the kids navigated the whole situation. Like I said before, The Tower is definitely more supernatural horror than thriller, and especially the second half is considerably graphic for a MG book. A bit too much, if you ask me... The ending was a bit underwhelming as well after everything that happened, and it didn't quite answer all the questions.

As for the audiobook itself... I ended up having mixed thoughts. My main issue probably has to do with the fact that the narration was just so incredibly slow; I had to rack up the speed to 1.5x to be able to keep my attention to the story, which is a speed I normally never use. Even then, most of the dialogue felt rather slow, which really surprised me to be honest. There was also something about the tone of the narrator that made it harder to stay focused; I'm not sure if it's the right voice for a MG book and a target group that usually has a shorter attention span in the first place.

That said, the story itself was without doubt engaging. The first couple chapters were annoyingly short (some of the final chapters had the same issue), but once you learn more about the tower and get to know the characters in play it becomes easier to keep listening. Especially the second half is a lot more intense, and I liked the growing connections between the characters. In short: great premise, although a bit too gruesome for the target group and I don't think I would recommend the audio as it failed to do the story justice.

Audiobook Narration : 2/5
Story : 4/5
3 ⭐ Total

I am definitely not the target audience for this one but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The writing was great. Everything was very descriptive (a bit gruesome at times) and because of that it was very easy to picture everything that happened in my head. Of course there was a dash of mystery and it was all very entertaining to watch unfold. HOWEVER, as the story went on I kinda started to lose interest in the mystery of the tower. I think if I had read this in middle school(the target age of this book) it would have become my obsession.
My biggest critique was the audiobook narrator. At first I thought I disliked the narrator because the voice was too slow and a bit Siri sounding. So I switched the speed to 1.25x. However after doing that, it was hard to distinguish which character was talking at times because there didn’t seem to be a distinct change in narration voices. The flow of the speaker also made the book drag a little to the point where I wanted to skip ahead a bit.
If it weren’t for the narrator and I had read this book in print it easily would have been 4 or even five stars. I would definitely give this author another shot in the future!

An interesting premise, but began so slowly that I had trouble staying interested in knowing what the big secret of the tower was. Kids who enjoy gruesome horror stories would enjoy this, but it wasn't for me.