All This and More

Narrator Helen Laser offers an exuberant performance of Shepherd’s (The Cartographers) latest, a choose-your-own-adventure romp through the world of reality TV. In a near-future world, new technology lets contestants on the reality show All This and More try out different versions of their lives, changing their careers, partners, and more to find the perfect combo. This season’s star is 45-year-old Marsh, a recently divorced paralegal who wants to find true love, a successful career, and a better relationship with her teen daughter, Harper. She gains agency as she ping-pongs through different lives, even as technological glitches point to unsettling secrets about All This and More and the people invested in its success. Laser’s narration is varied and lively, with pitch-perfect character portraits of the show’s fiercely enthusiastic host Talia, a range of commentators on social media, and Marsh herself, who is voiced with increasing confidence and strength. While the narrative structure is intriguing, its execution in audio is occasionally flummoxing. Listeners without the means to identify specific tracks won’t be able to successfully navigate the structure and experience the novel as it was intended.