The Last Days of August
Written & Narrated by Jon Ronson
First, let me state that I am not a fan of skin flicks. I do not watch them and pretty much get angry whenever there's a sex scene in a movie I'm watching- especially when it's horror! But The Last Days of August was a free audiobook, from Audible.com, and I honestly picked it because I was hoping for an apocalypse. Well, in a way, of sorts, that's exactly what this book is.
It's is the true telling of August Ames, a 23-year old porn star who's death turned out to be a mystery... *Above image does not belong to me, but found from Google.com search. #element-e0e118f4-98b5-4b8e-b44b-e01c6865943a .waddons-blog-image.hideImage { display: none;}
This is unlike any audiobook I’ve ever read. It’s non-fiction and tells of the tragic death of a young porn star. August Ames, twenty-three, was believed to have taken her own life after being the victim of a Twitter pile-on. A pile-on is when you're pretty much mob-attacked on social media. Threats, bashes and more are all a part of the activity and can end either by finally being forgotten after time, pushed until it hits the news, or the person leaves social media completely. In this case, the latter was the result, but the details of her death turned out to be rather suspicious.
This is one of those books that’s narrated like a news, television program. If it were playing in your living room, you’d think your tv was running. Recordings are played, people are interviewed and clips from a few awards shows are heard. At first, I was interested, not because of the girl's job, but because it seemed to be another tale of someone young, losing their life- thanks to social media. I’m not a huge social media fanatic and the idea of a pile-on is immature to me. BUT we all know it happens! When it’s assumed she killed herself after a tweet she made concerning a movie partner, I told myself I had to listen. It's sort of a sad story, but I lost interest. Sadly, what turned me off of the book, isn't the story itself.
There’s an audio clip that plays, about halfway through, where she laughs and jokes during an interview, about being molested while under-aged. It was either a family friend, or family member, who propositioned her to get naked for a line of coke. In the interview, she's just laughing and chuckling on how crazy it is, but she did it! She was under-aged, yes, but old enough to say no and not do drugs. But they laughed- that crap pissed me off! How is that funny? Now maybe that's just her way of dealing with the pain, I don’t know. Many people laugh to deflect the pain; all I know is, I was offended and no longer cared what happened after that.
The meat of the story circles her husband, Kevin. That's where it sorta held me, so I won’t say anything, in case you wish to read the story yourself. Just know that the woman had issues. She'd been mentally abused and taken advantage of, she was young, and made even a bit stupid. She knew what she wanted to do, but her decisions weren't so bright. And that’s not speaking ill of the dead; simply stated from the facts given.
Oh, I totally loved Ronson's accent. It's the Anglophile in me.
The Last Days of August is available for free, right now, but I don’t know for how long. Check it out while I run towards the next read. Cheers!
The Last Days of August
Written & Narrated by Jon Ronson
Runtime 3 h 43 mins
Published by Audible Studios
Released January 2019
First, let me state that I am not a fan of skin flicks. I do not watch them and pretty much get angry whenever there's a sex scene in a movie I'm watching- especially when it's horror! But The Last Days of August was a free audiobook, from Audible.com, and I honestly picked it because I was hoping for an apocalypse. Well, in a way, of sorts, that's exactly what this book is.It's is the true telling of August Ames, a 23-year old porn star who's death turned out to be a mystery... *Above image does not belong to me, but found from Google.com search. #element-e0e118f4-98b5-4b8e-b44b-e01c6865943a .waddons-blog-image.hideImage { display: none;}
This is unlike any audiobook I’ve ever read. It’s non-fiction and tells of the tragic death of a young porn star. August Ames, twenty-three, was believed to have taken her own life after being the victim of a Twitter pile-on. A pile-on is when you're pretty much mob-attacked on social media. Threats, bashes and more are all a part of the activity and can end either by finally being forgotten after time, pushed until it hits the news, or the person leaves social media completely. In this case, the latter was the result, but the details of her death turned out to be rather suspicious. This is one of those books that’s narrated like a news, television program. If it were playing in your living room, you’d think your tv was running. Recordings are played, people are interviewed and clips from a few awards shows are heard. At first, I was interested, not because of the girl's job, but because it seemed to be another tale of someone young, losing their life- thanks to social media. I’m not a huge social media fanatic and the idea of a pile-on is immature to me. BUT we all know it happens! When it’s assumed she killed herself after a tweet she made concerning a movie partner, I told myself I had to listen. It's sort of a sad story, but I lost interest. Sadly, what turned me off of the book, isn't the story itself.
There’s an audio clip that plays, about halfway through, where she laughs and jokes during an interview, about being molested while under-aged. It was either a family friend, or family member, who propositioned her to get naked for a line of coke. In the interview, she's just laughing and chuckling on how crazy it is, but she did it! She was under-aged, yes, but old enough to say no and not do drugs. But they laughed- that crap pissed me off! How is that funny? Now maybe that's just her way of dealing with the pain, I don’t know. Many people laugh to deflect the pain; all I know is, I was offended and no longer cared what happened after that.
The meat of the story circles her husband, Kevin. That's where it sorta held me, so I won’t say anything, in case you wish to read the story yourself. Just know that the woman had issues. She'd been mentally abused and taken advantage of, she was young, and made even a bit stupid. She knew what she wanted to do, but her decisions weren't so bright. And that’s not speaking ill of the dead; simply stated from the facts given.
Oh, I totally loved Ronson's accent. It's the Anglophile in me.
The Last Days of August is available for free, right now, but I don’t know for how long. Check it out while I run towards the next read. Cheers!
The Last Days of August
Written & Narrated by Jon Ronson
Runtime 3 h 43 mins
Published by Audible Studios
Released January 2019
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