○ The characters were absolutely genuinely heartwarming and lovely to read about, very realistically drawn and compelling the reader to cheer them on. The author includes a helpful Kiwi glossary in the paper/ebook version of the book, of New Zealand local lingo and unique cultural references to help the reader connect to the story and the characters more deeply. All the imagery of such a beautiful country, and the mannerisms and local cultural references of the locals were fascinating. The rest of my review: ○ The descriptions of the geography and the New Zealand, in general are meticulous and compelling. If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be? The performance was excellent! Very well done. Very different from the other characters. Ella's voice - being a teenager, along with her occasional snarkiness and eye-rolling come through loud and clear in audio, as much as if she were standing in front of me.

Her portrayals of the various dialects and personalities were just wonderful! She has a great range of emotions and expressions of personality. I just loved the secondary characters as well.

Wilder did a fantastic job navigating back and forth between different personalities and emotions, verbal pace and quirks, both male and female. Emma is very talented and able to distinguish all of the different characters very well and with all the different accents and ages too! I thought Ms. Have you listened to any of Emma Wilder’s other performances before? How does this one compare? Ella's maturity amazed me in all the challenges she faced as a pregnant teenager, and then when things got tough(er) she rose to the occasion and really made the story come alive for me. I loved Ella and her would-be love interest, Marko's teammate. I felt like I almost knew them, and could picture myself having conversations with them.

I'd say it's in my top 10 - it is awesome!Īside from the main characters, my favorite character is Ella, and also maybe Marko's mother, Olivia - who is so wise, and calm, such a contrast from Ella's own mother Jakinda. Where does Just Say (Hell) No rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Just Say (Hell) No by Rosalind James