My 3 Favourite Audiobooks of 2025 – Part One

So far I have only listened to three audiobooks this year and they are all by Jess Kidd. I have just finished her latest so expect to see that in Part Two.

The Hoarder by Jess Kidd

So this was my second audiobook book by Jess Kidd, with the same Irish narrator. This time I listened on Borrowbox. There is something about the strangeness of her work that draws me in. Her books and her writing are totally unique. There is once again more than a hint of the supernatural, but this time Maud sees the ghosts of dead saints. They are not quite what you would expect saints to be though – advising, warning and spewing sarcasm.

Irish comedian Dave Allen was my father’s favourite, but because of his irreverent pope jokes and sketches, he received death threats from offended Catholics in Ireland. I’m wondering if Jess has ever been criticised for being disrespectful towards the Church.

For my full review click here

Himself by Jess Kidd

Back to Audible and I’m reading Jess Kidd’s first novel, Himself. The story takes place in 1976 when Mahony returns to the place of his birth, Mulderrig on Ireland’s West Coast, to try and find out what happened to his promiscuous, teenage mother Orla Sweeney. Everyone says she left town, dumping her ‘illegitimate brat’ at the orphanage. Mahony – that very same ‘illegitimate brat’ – is not convinced.

He enlists (actually I think she enlisted him) the help of aging actress Mrs Cauley, who believes Orla was murdered, but then she loves a drama. There are those in the town who want to run him out, those with something to hide. They hated Orla for shamelessly flaunting her bastard for the whole town to see. The vile Father Quinn in particular, and nurse Annie Farrelly amongst others.

For my full review click here

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

I’ve now listened to all four of Jess Kidd’s original novels (this time on Borrowbox), and while Things In Jars will probably always be my favourite, The Night Ship comes a close second. It’s written in two timelines – a young Dutch girl called Mayken in 1629 aboard the Batavia with her nursemaid, and Gil, 360 years later in 1989. Both have lost their mothers, one from the ‘flux’, the other from a drug overdose, but while Mayken is going to live with the father she doesn’t know, Gil has been sent to live with his grandfather on the same remote island off the coast of Western Australia where Mayken was shipwrecked.

It’s not typical of Kidd’s novels – there are no spirits of saints that only certain people can see, or nuns, or dead boxers, and it lacks the ‘Irishness’ of the other three books (though Dutch in 1989 is actually Irish – don’t ask). However, it has its own brand of magic, particularly Mayken’s story, which was my favourite of the two timelines, but only by a whisker. I know nothing of this period of history, especially as the characters are Dutch, so I know even less. There are plenty of superstitions and myths though to get your teeth into, if they don’t get their teeth into you first.

For my full review click here