This examination of a changing Hollywood entertainment industry in the late 1960s is, of course, a self-described novelization of the highly acclaimed Quentin Tarantino film ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Actor Jennifer Jason Leigh offers a predominantly tired, flat, and unenthusiastic narration of this profanity-laced audiobook. Rife with nonlinear storylines and extreme violence, this effort allows you to cast and imagine the film for yourself. It’s not really a novel, but rather a listless reading of an expanded screenplay, despite some added character backstories. There are frequent, somewhat unsettling references to actual people and locations in storylines that are not actual or real for those people. Those who enthusiastically enjoyed the film would likely enjoy this audio effort as an allied enhancement. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Quentin Tarantino’s first novel is, to borrow a phrase from his oeuvre, a tasty beverage…He’s here to tell a story, in take-it-or-leave-it Elmore Leonard fashion, and to make room along the way to talk about some of the things he cares about — old movies, male camaraderie, revenge and redemption, music and style…In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino makes telling a page-turning story look easy, which is the hardest trick of all.”  — Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“Classic, sparks-flying Tarantino…Tarantino’s explosive dialogue, with its blend of streetwise and formal cadences, is almost as effective written down as read aloud…Far from being the throwaway artifact it sometimes pretends to be, Tarantino’s first novel may even, as he’s hinted, herald the start of a new direction for this relentlessly inventive director.”  — The Washington Post

“Tarantino, celebrated for his screenplays, truly is a literary force, stepping forward as a novelist adept at using an omniscient point of view to powerful effect in a novel driven by its characters’ inner lives and smart, witty, and salty dialogue of propulsion and nuance, hilarity and heartbreak….It will also offer a stereoscopic experience for most readers as they envision the characters as played by the movie’s cast…a doubling that will inspire fanatic comparisons between film and page. But this is a work of literary art in its own right, a novel that, if the movie didn’t exist, would captivate readers with its own knowing vision and zestful power.”  — Donna Seaman, Booklist 

Tarantino, celebrated for his screenplays, truly is a literary force, stepping forward as a novelist adept at using an omniscient point of view to powerful effect in a novel driven by its characters’ inner lives and smart, witty, and salty dialogue of propulsion and nuance, hilarity and heartbreak….It will also offer a stereoscopic experience for most readers as they envision the characters as played by the movie’s cast…a doubling that will inspire fanatic comparisons between film and page. But this is a work of literary art in its own right, a novel that, if the movie didn’t exist, would captivate readers with its own knowing vision and zestful power.” 

Classic, sparks-flying Tarantino…Tarantino’s explosive dialogue, with its blend of streetwise and formal cadences, is almost as effective written down as read aloud…Far from being the throwaway artifact it sometimes pretends to be, Tarantino’s first novel may even, as he’s hinted, herald the start of a new direction for this relentlessly inventive director.” 

Quentin Tarantino’s first novel is, to borrow a phrase from his oeuvre, a tasty beverage…He’s here to tell a story, in take-it-or-leave-it Elmore Leonard fashion, and to make room along the way to talk about some of the things he cares about — old movies, male camaraderie, revenge and redemption, music and style…In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino makes telling a page-turning story look easy, which is the hardest trick of all.” 

This examination of a changing Hollywood entertainment industry in the late 1960s is, of course, a self-described novelization of the highly acclaimed Quentin Tarantino film ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Actor Jennifer Jason Leigh offers a predominantly tired, flat, and unenthusiastic narration of this profanity-laced audiobook. Rife with nonlinear storylines and extreme violence, this effort allows you to cast and imagine the film for yourself. It’s not really a novel, but rather a listless reading of an expanded screenplay, despite some added character backstories. There are frequent, somewhat unsettling references to actual people and locations in storylines that are not actual or real for those people. Those who enthusiastically enjoyed the film would likely enjoy this audio effort as an allied enhancement. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine