Audiobook Sample
Listen to the sample to experience the story.
Please wait while we verify your browser...
- Title: Hypnotist’s Love Story
- Author: Liane Moriarty
- Narrator: Tamara Lovatt Smith
- Length: 13:05:00
- Version: Abridged
- Release Date: 14/06/2012
- Publisher: Penguin Audio
- Genre: Fiction & Literature, Mystery, Thriller & Horror, Psychological, Contemporary Women, Family Life
- ISBN13: 9.78E+12
There’s something profoundly intimate about listening to a story about relationships while watching the sun set over unfamiliar landscapes. I remember driving along Australia’s Great Ocean Road, the rhythmic crash of waves providing a natural soundtrack to Tamara Lovatt Smith’s narration of “The Hypnotist’s Love Story”. The experience reminded me of those evenings in Oaxaca where stories weren’t just told, but performed – with all the nuance, pauses, and emotional cadence that make oral storytelling so powerful.
Liane Moriarty’s psychological exploration of love, obsession, and the stories we tell ourselves finds perfect expression in the audiobook format. As a hypnotherapist who inherits her grandparents’ beachfront home, Ellen O’Farrell is the kind of protagonist I’d want to share a bottle of wine with while swapping travel stories. Her professional insight into human behavior gives Moriarty the perfect vehicle to examine why we cling to certain narratives about ourselves and our relationships.
Tamara Lovatt Smith’s narration is nothing short of masterful. She captures Ellen’s wry self-awareness with a warmth that reminded me of my favorite hostel matrons – those women who’ve seen it all but still find humor in human foibles. The way Smith shifts between Ellen’s perspective and Saskia’s (the stalker ex-girlfriend) is particularly impressive, giving each woman distinct vocal textures that reveal their psychological states. During Saskia’s monologues, Smith’s voice takes on an edge that made me grip the steering wheel tighter on those coastal roads.
What struck me most was how Moriarty – through Smith’s performance – makes the stalker sympathetic. I’ve encountered enough eccentric characters in my travels to recognize that the most fascinating people often live in moral gray areas. The audiobook’s structure, alternating between Ellen and Saskia’s perspectives, creates a delicious tension that had me shouting reactions to my rental car’s empty passenger seat.
The beach house setting becomes a character itself in Smith’s narration. I could practically smell the salt air and hear the creak of floorboards in the way she describes Ellen’s inherited home. It transported me to similar places I’ve stayed – houses with personality, where every object seems to whisper stories of previous occupants.
As someone who’s spent years observing how people craft their personal narratives (often over shared meals in foreign countries), I appreciated Moriarty’s insight into how we all hypnotize ourselves with our own stories. The novel asks brilliant questions: What stories do we cling to about love? How do these narratives serve or limit us? Smith’s narration amplifies these themes through subtle vocal shifts that reveal when characters are deceiving themselves.
If I have one critique, it’s that some of the secondary characters could benefit from more distinct vocal treatments. While Ellen and Saskia are brilliantly realized, a few supporting players blend together in the audio format. That said, this is a minor quibble in an otherwise stellar performance.
For listeners who enjoy complex female protagonists and psychological depth wrapped in deceptively light prose, this audiobook delivers. It’s particularly perfect for road trips or long train journeys where the rhythm of travel complements the story’s unfolding. Fans of Moriarty’s “Big Little Lies” will appreciate this earlier work’s similar blend of sharp observation and page-turning suspense.
The production quality is excellent throughout, with crisp audio that captures every emotional nuance. At just under 13 hours, it’s the perfect length for a multi-day listening experience – I found myself extending drives just to hear another chapter.
What makes this audiobook special is how it transforms what could be a conventional romantic plot into a meditation on narrative itself. As a storyteller who collects oral histories, I was fascinated by how Moriarty (through Smith’s performance) explores the stories we tell about love – both the healthy narratives and the destructive ones we can’t seem to quit.
With wanderlust for stories that reveal the human heart, Marcus
Marcus Rivera
