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  • Insomnia

  • By: Stephen King
  • Narrated by: Eli Wallach
  • Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (202 ratings)

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Insomnia

By: Stephen King
Narrated by: Eli Wallach
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Publisher's Summary

You'll lose a lot of sleep.... Ralph does. At first he starts waking up earlier. And earlier. Then the hallucinations start - the colours, shapes and strange auras. Not to mention the bald doctors who always turn up at the scene of a death.

That's when Ralph begins to lose a lot more than sleep. When he begins to understand why his hitherto mild-mannered friend, Ed, is getting out of control - dangerously so. And why his hometown is about to become the new Armageddon....

©1994 Stephen King (P)1994 Penguin Highbridge

What listeners say about Insomnia

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    39
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Performance
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Story
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  • 4 Stars
    39
  • 3 Stars
    25
  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

NARRATOR GREAT, "MUSIC" CRINGE-WORTHY

If you suffer from migraines, don't read this book. the "music" will induce them.
Whoever decided to put that awful noise into this audio book should be fired. It was louder than the narrator and really hurts the head. it totally ruined the whole story for me.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant narrator. Badly mixed music effects.

I love revisiting Derry, Maine with Stephen King. My all time favourite King novel, "IT" took place there after all. Eli Wallach gives a masterful performance of what is definitely another brilliant story from the mind of Stephen King. Now I don't mind a bit of background dramatic music from time to time in an audio book but in this case the music was not only unecessary but also completely drowned out the narrator's voice in places because of its sound level compared to the sound level of the voice. Anyone who has ever actually read a Stephen King novel ought to know that he needs no background music to scare the pants off his readers. Add to that the fact that the music itself sometimes sounded like the noise a sick cat would make while being strangled and the end result was extremely annoying. However I managed to curb my annoyance and get through to the end but hey, all you audiobook producers out there listen up! You don't need dramatic background music to sell me a Stephen King audiobook. Lose it guys.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Dee
  • 03-09-2016

Couldn't finish! Ruined by 'music'/spooky noise

Plays over audio at a volume high enough to drown out the narrator at times. Particularly jarring if you listen while going to sleep. Unlistenable.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

This is my favourite Stephen King novel, one of the few books I have read more than once. I was so excited when I found the audio book. Imagine the disappointment and disbelief when the awful, loud, LSD inspired music and sound effects started cropping up. It actually drowned out the narrator at times. I would like a word with the rank amateur who ruined this experience for me. I persevered through the whole story because I love it so much, but whenever that noise came on I was close to tears. The sound engineers or whatever they're called ought to be ashamed of themselves for screwing this up in such a basic way.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

audio work was horrible

didn't like the story as much as others of King's but I'm a huge fan so love his books no matter what but... the musical inserts between chapters was absolutely terrible. The narrators soft elderly voice was drowned out by extremely loud screeching instrumental pieces that really ruined this story for me.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Stop injecting music into e-books.

One of the most jarring books i have read to this point. The story was excellent, the orator was supurb, but whoever injected that awful atmospheric music into this production should be fired. It was unnecessary, overwhelming and truly made listening to this story difficult. At parts it was so loud and obnoxious, I had to replay a sentence five times to hear the words clearly. Please consider this when planning your next production. No. More. Music.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story

I Love this book, I've read it a number of times and listening to it was amazing. Having an older man read it for it quite well, it's a shame about the musical scores in it though. Horrible jangling scores that hurt the ears and rarely fit into the story.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable, but bizarre.

To start, I'm a huge King fan. I love most everything he writes. In saying that, Insomnia was one weird novel. I spent the first half relatively bored, and slogged through on the notion that once I'd finished I'd never have to read it again. From about the halfway mark it turned into one of the strangest things he's written. I was captivated, and it was enjoyable, but I'm still not sure what I think of it overall now I'm done. I'd recommend it to fans of the author.

A note on Audible's production values: I quite enjoyed the use of music to support the narrator, but at times the electric guitar was too blaring, and even made it hard to hear the narrator due to audio level imbalance between the music and the voice. It did not happen often, but was uncomfortable to my ears when it did.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Sue
  • 18-11-2020

Turn that damn “music” off

The BIG and only drawback about this audiobook is the offensive annoying discordant blasts of “music” interspersed throughout. This does not add to the story or performance in any way, apart from in a detrimental one.
Went close to ruining the experience

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Music

Enjoyed this book but found the background music really grating would have been much better without it

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1 person found this helpful

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