Ocean State

“When I was in eighth grade, my sister helped kill another girl.” The opening line of O’Nan’s (Last Night at the Lobster) latest tells listeners right away that no punches will be pulled. This brief, high-tension audio follows the lives of four women as they ebb and flow around a catastrophic act of violence. Teenagers Birdy and Angel both love Myles, who’s been with Angel for years. Birdy is thrilled when she and Myles begin a secret relationship; Angel is enraged to discover Myles’s infidelity and puts most of the blame on Birdy. Angel’s mother tries to keep her family afloat as husbands and boyfriends come and go, and Angel’s quiet sister sees it all happening but understands very little. Narrator Sara Young does a fantastic job of riding the novel’s twists and turns. Her voices are distinct, adding layers of texture when they are in use. However, without vocal changes, listeners may struggle to keep track of the speaker when it comes to interior dialogue, as the writing doesn’t always have explicit identifiers.