Enjoyable, and definably Grimdark

I didn’t know what I was getting Into. It’s a Post apocalyptic world that has gone downhill. I enjoyed it, but with all grimdark, be prepared for lots of gruesome death.

It’s a good story, and well worth taking a listen.

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A gruelling, brutal, but rewarding audiobook

I’m writing this review immediately after finishing listening to the audio version, narrated expertly by Karin Allers. Dancing In The Dust by Gwendolyn Pendraig is a gruelling depiction of a post-apocalyptic world, a world in which humans are either predator or prey. Gwendolyn doesn’t just dance with violence and depravity, she takes them by the dainties and swings them in all directions. Dancing In The Dust is a portrait of extreme brutality by characters utterly lacking in morality.

With the author as the driver, and the narrator as the tour guide, I sat in the back seat as they took me on a break-neck safari through a wasteland coloured by the blood, bones and flesh of the slain. As my proverbial vehicle rattled through the dust, I was forced to witness the most sadistic rape, murder and cannibalism wrought by the vilest men – and, sometimes, women – as we followed the main character, Ayla, in her trek through this bleak world. In the midst of a desperate, deadly encounter, Ayla makes her first friend after a decade-long streak of survival, a four-legged friend with a secret. But she also makes a nemesis, one who wants to do much more than merely kill her.

If you’ve got the guts for it, this book is a must-read (or, in my case, a must-listen). The elements I mentioned in this review are a mere sanitised taster of what you will find in Dancing In The Dust. I would caution that this novel comes with an extreme content warning, and, for some, a trigger warning. This is not a book for fragile sensibilities, it is not a story for those seeking a temporary escape into another world. Kudos to Gwendolyn for writing it,a nd kudos to Karin for putting her voice to it.

One final note: As grim as Dancing In The Dust is – and it is one of the most unforgiving narratives I’ve ever experienced – I should mention that in this post-fall world where humanity has gone to dogs, it is also not entirely without Hope.

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1 person found this helpful

The road meets The book of eli

The road meets The book of eli with a sprinkle of mad max bloody, emotional, mean rollacoaster of a listen

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Has potential but too disturbing for my personal taste.

Post apolacyptic fantasy book set in America in a time where men are dominant and women are nothing more than objects to rape or even in the case of this story, eat.
The story follows a lonely woman who has suffered many hardships in life and a man who is obsessed with her.
Not for the faint hearted.

My main fault with the audio book itself is that the narrator's voice makes it sound that the character is taking enjoyment during all the bad stuff that is happening to her and at times I couldn't tell when the characters had switched.

There were too many disturbing scenes for me to enjoy the book much (the masterbation, C bomb, constant use of the word whore). However there was enough there to keep me listening to see how it all unfolds.

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