Review: There's a good reason this narrator has been nominated for her audio book storytelling

On May 31, the Audio Publishers Association will announce the 23rd annual Audie Awards, given to the best audio books in 27 categories.

Bahni Turpin has been nominated for the best female narrator for “The Hate U Give” (HarperAudio), which is also a finalist for best Young Adult novel.

Currently I’ve been bingeing on audiobooks with Turpin's narration, listening to her on two of 2018’s most-talked about Young Adult novels: Justina Ireland’s “Dread Nation” (HarperAudio) and Tomi Adeyemi’s “Children of Blood and Bone” (Macmillan). I wouldn’t be surprised if Turpin and these books are nominated next year for Audies.

Back-to-back listening has me even more convinced of Turpin’s excellence as she brings to life several strong female characters.

Turpin presents the barely-restrained sarcasm of Jane McKeene, bold heroine “Dread Nation,” the first of two books in this alt-history series. Jane was born to and educated by the white mistress of a Kentucky plantation. That’s until the dead rose from Civil War battlefields and these “shamblers” became a threat. Jane, like all blacks and Indians, must train in weaponry to protect her “white betters.”

Turpin’s rendition of Jane’s first-person voice illuminates her pluck, resilience and wit. These are as crucial to Jane’s discovery of sinister secrets in a survivalist camp as they are to the success of her commentary on oppression and racism. Turpin moves easily between emotions and accents of the many characters. She highlights tensions in the plot and expresses those of prejudices strongly, either with humor, or hard-hitting emotions.

In “Children of Blood and Bone,” Turpin uses accents to give a strong sense of place in the first in the Orisha Legacy series from Nigerian-American Adeyemi.

The female main character, Zélie, is a maji, a white-haired young woman with powerful magic. Turpin conveys 17-year-old Zélie’s knowledge of the price and responsibility of having magic and her complex blend of pride and fear. Zélie remembers both her mother’s ability as powerfully as her cruel murder during the genocide of autocratic King Saran. Despite the continued threat, Zélie secretly learns to fight.

A second heroine emerges early in the audio, and Turpin expresses another unusual combination of fear and power. The second viewpoint character is Amari, daughter of King Saran. She has fled her father’s savagery with a relic that can bring magic back. A natural animosity between the two young women grows to mutual respect, trust and combined power.

Turpin does equally well denoting the moods and personalities of the two male characters. Like “Dread Nation,” this audio accents themes of politics, prejudice and injustice, this time enlivened by Turpin with a sense of the majesty of magic and myth.

This story was originally published May 6, 2018 at 10:56 PM with the headline "Review: There's a good reason this narrator has been nominated for her audio book storytelling."