I love this series and it's even more amazing in audiobook. A great middle grade fantasy that can appeal to middle grade age range and up.

A cursed girl escapes death and finds herself in a magical world…

Nevermoor released in 2017 and has been sitting on my shelves for a few years now. Why I waited I do not know haha. I love throwing a middle grade book in every once in awhile to revisit my earlier reading memories and get lost in its enchanted magic.

@gemmawhelan narrates and OH. MY. GOD. 100/10. Highly recommend. This is a fantasy book and the voices and accents she uses immediately transport you INTO the story. I adored it! What an absolutely perfect narrator for this type of story.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for the audiobook in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Although the Nevermoor series was released past my main middle grade novel days, I have always been intrigued by the trope of a preteen being whisked away to a magical land, so have had it on my tbr for a while. I was so excited to see the audiobook on NetGalley, and am so happy to have received a copy from Hachette Audio!

The story of Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow is so fun and whimsical and slightly dark. This is exactly the type of story I sought out growing up!

I also thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook. I love Gemma Whelan’s voice (though some character voices were a little too Mad Hatter for me) and loved the little musical interludes between chapters. It really added to the story’s whimsicality.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (for the audiobook narration)

I recently listened to Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, and while my feelings about the story itself were mixed, I feel it's important to highlight just how exceptional the audiobook narration was.

First, let’s talk about the story briefly: personally, I didn’t find the plot particularly engaging. Despite its whimsical setting and imaginative world-building — which I can see would appeal to many readers, especially younger ones — I struggled to stay interested. The pacing felt slow in places, and there were stretches where I found myself losing focus. Morrigan Crow’s journey, while filled with magic and adventure, just didn’t connect with me the way I hoped it would. I kept waiting for that moment when I would feel fully drawn in, but it never quite arrived. That said, I understand why the series has a strong following; it simply wasn't my cup of tea.

However, what absolutely stood out to me — and deserves all the praise — was the narrator’s performance. The audiobook narrator Gemma Whelan, did a phenomenal job throughout the entire production. She brought each character to life with distinct, carefully crafted voices that felt natural and fitting for the characters’ personalities. Her ability to shift between different accents, ages, and tones made it easy to tell who was speaking without ever feeling forced or exaggerated.

One thing that really impressed me was how well she handled voicing male characters. Often when female narrators attempt male voices, it can come across as either overly theatrical or unintentionally cringy — but that was absolutely not the case here. Her male voices felt authentic, balanced, and never pulled me out of the story. She captured nuances in emotion and dialogue so smoothly that I sometimes forgot it was the same person performing every character.

Additionally, the narrator's sense of timing, humor, and dramatic delivery enhanced scenes that otherwise might have felt flat if I had simply been reading the text. There’s a musicality to her voice work that added a lot of dimension to the world Townsend created. Even when I found myself less than engaged with the story itself, the narration kept me going. Without her skillful performance, I probably would have set the book aside much earlier.

In the end, although Nevermoor as a story wasn’t a personal favorite, the audiobook version is truly worth noting for its outstanding voice work. If you’re someone who appreciates a great performance — or if you have a child or friend who enjoys magical stories and audiobooks — I would definitely recommend experiencing Nevermoor in audio form. It might just make all the difference!

This is such a fun series - and the audio version is an absolutely lovely way to access the story. I read the book when it first came out and was entranced by the world building and Morrigan herself. When I saw the audio available, I knew I had to give it a listen, especially since book 4 is coming out soon!

This is a really fabulous and clever series that touches on family, found family, being an outsider, and finding your place in the world(s). There is magic and mystery and a lot of hijinks-type action. It is engaging and entertaining from the opening salvo and watching Morrigan grow into confidence and acceptance of herself is one of the most magical aspects of the story for me.

The narration was excellent, capturing the characters and tone of the story perfectly!

This is my second read of this book, but the first time with audio. WOWOW I was transported back to this world and was completely immersed. I love these books so much and now want to listen to the rest again on audio to prepare for the long awaited new book!!! I also hype this book up to my students almost everyday!!!

Nevermoor is such an endearing story. A love letter to goodness, resistance, found families, hope, love, and remaining true to yourself. This was such a joy to re-read and I can't wait to continue the series.

This time I did it via audio, and I loved Gemma Whelan's narration. She really brought the story alive. I can't wait to do the rest of the series via audio as well.

Thank you to Hachette Audio for a gift copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not a middle-grade reader, but I really loved this. It definitely lived up to the hype for me.

Audiobook notes: There are musical transitions at the end of every chapter. The narrator is British and does several different accents for the characters. She often speeds up her pace when delivering dialogue which can make it harder to understand if you're listening at a high speed. (Though occasionally she will slow down significantly for a dry character.)

So I’m. It sure why this book came up to listen to on NetGalley being several years old but maybe the proposed musical movie is about to be announced!!
I’m not sure but ai am glad it was because I had not experienced this gem of a middle grade book.

I consumed the audio book and while it’s listen as a regular one and not a dramatic audio, you got the best of both worlds!
The narrator Gemma Whelan did a fantastic job! So good that i gave the book 5⭐️ because of it. She brought such life to all the voices and gave a dramatic performance. I actually usually don’t enjoy when voice actors go too far and color my minds world creation but this fully enriched the prose.

The book itself was so much fun and magical. It’s the perfect book for middle grade reader to get exposed to fantasy and stay engaged.
This book as well as several sequels are readily available where books are sold so if you haven’t experienced it yet, this is your sign to do so!

I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary audio ALC from Hachette Audio through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I was HIGHLY entertained, I usually jump into reads blind, but I was so surprised by how much I liked this. It might also be because Gemma Whelan is such an AMAZING narrator too!! All the characters were so uniquely voiced, I was so captivated. This gave very much Harry Potter, but also Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children vibessss.
Overall, this was just so much fun. Esp for a Children’s Fiction - Middle Grade book?! Loved it.
The story, The characters, The WORLD!! 🤍 I literally need to read the whole series now highkey lol.

This was such a fun start to what will hopefully become a new favorite middle-grade series of mine.

This book hit all the right spots - it was fun, quirky, magical and had a super cool cast of characters. I'm also a sucker for the Found Family trope so this book was an instant hit for me. Mog is an interesting main character to follow, as she is brave and curious (though, just as confused as the rest of us at times) and I absolutely adore Jupiter's quirky nature. The city of Nevermoor was also a facinating and whimsical setting that I adored!

Overall, I enjoyed my time with this book - I only wish that we could have learned more about Wunder and what it actually entails (something I'm sure will be explored more in the next book).

I honestly can't wait to jump into Wundersmith!

𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙩𝙚𝙧, 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙖𝙣 𝘾𝙧𝙤𝙬, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙄 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪.

Morrigan Crow is cursed: born on Eventide, the unluckiest day, and blamed for all local misfortunes. Worst of all, the curse means she is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday.

But on her 11th birthday, she is whisked away to a secret, magical city called Nevermoor to compete in trials to earn a place in the city's most prestigious organisation: the Wundrous Society.

Whimsical, magical, imaginative - this middle-grade book is guaranteed to give you warm and fuzzy feelings.
Found family, manic pixie boy energy from the mentor figure, friendships, enemies, dangerous competitions, magic….

This is often compared to Harry Potter!