Audiobook Review: Ordinary Bear by C.B. Bernard

 

Ordinary Bear by C.B. Bernard

Publication Date: April 2rd 2024 by Blackstone Publishing

Pages: 268

Audio Book Length: 8hrs 54min

Narrator: Phil Thron

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

As the story opens, we’re introduced to Farley, a big bear of a man, living in a remote part of Alaska as an oil company investigator. The town has a lively mix of characters, and the story is full of humor. However, things turn tragic quickly when his young daughter comes up for a visit.

After months of recovery, Farley ventures back to Portland, Oregon to seek out his ex for closure. Without meaning to he ends up making a few friends as he works through his grief and injuries. When the daughter of his neighbor goes missing, Farley makes it his mission to get her back.

An Ordinary Bear was a unique and captivating story! One that was hard to stop listening to! Sad, humorous and full of heart! A tale of redemption with interesting characters, bits of suspense and action as Farley tracks the down the little girl. You’d think with the subject matter it’d be a depressing story, but there was plenty of humor and sweetness to the story that made for an uplifting read.

I listened to an audio copy narrated by Phil Thron and I thoroughly enjoyed his performance of both male and female voices! Definitely enhanced and already wonderful story!  I listened at my usual 1.5x normal speed.

4.5 Stars

Book Description:

Dark and humorous, literary but with the heart of a detective novel, Ordinary Bear weighs the burden of grief while exploring our boundless capacity for humanity, kindness, and hope.

Farley stands out among his Iñupiat neighbors in the Alaska village he calls home, both white and enormous, like the hungry polar bears that wander its streets. Jovial and a little hapless, he works as an investigator for a North Slope oil company, passing the long Arctic winters drinking whiskey with the village’s preacher and playing in the weekly poker game hosted by its matriarch and mayor.

When his young daughter visits from thousands of miles away in Portland—where she lives with her mother, who despises him—a shocking moment of violence leaves her dead and Farley injured. Crippled by his wounds and hamstrung with guilt over his inability to save her, he goes home to Oregon to try to make amends.

There he strikes up an unlikely friendship with a single mother and her daughter. With their help, he begins the slow process of healing—until the girl goes missing. Faced with the opportunity to do what he couldn’t do for his own daughter, Farley sets out on a brutal odyssey through Portland’s quirky and dangerous underworld, using his wits and his fists to try to save her life along with the shattered remains of his own.