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You Feel It Just Below the Ribs  By  cover art

You Feel It Just Below the Ribs

By: Jeffrey Cranor, Janina Matthewson
Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Adepero Oduye
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Publisher's summary

A haunting, provocative novel, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is a fictional autobiography in an alternate 20th century that chronicles one woman’s unusual life, including the price she pays to survive and the cost her choices hold for the society she is trying to save.

Born at the end of the old world, Miriam grows up during The Great Reckoning, a sprawling, decades-long war that nearly decimates humanity and strips her of friends and family. Devastated by grief and loneliness, she emotionally exiles herself, avoiding relationships or allegiances, and throws herself into her work - disengagement that serves her when the war finally ends, and The New Society arises.

To ensure a lasting peace, The New Society forbids anything that may cause tribal loyalties, including traditional families. Suddenly, everyone must live as Miriam has chosen to - disconnected and unattached. A researcher at heart, Miriam becomes involved in implementing this detachment process. She does not know it is the beginning of a darkly sinister program that will transform this new world and the lives of everyone in it. Eventually, the harmful effects of her research become too much for Miriam, and she devises a secret plan to destroy the system from within, endangering her own life.

But is her “confession” honest - or is it a fabrication riddled with lies meant to conceal the truth?

A jarring and uncanny tale of loss, trauma, and the power of human connection and deception, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is a portrait of a disturbing alternate world eerily within reach, and an examination of the difficult choices we must make to survive in it.

©2021 Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

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What listeners say about You Feel It Just Below the Ribs

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Love it!

I've been a fan of the Within the Wires podcast since it first released. To get a bigger bite of this intriguing world through this book is such a delight. I was captivated from start to finish, with more questions and answers as the story progressed. Very compelling and thought provoking. Love it!!

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Made a great impression!

I loved this book! I'm a fan of Welcome to Night Vale, so I may be a bit biased. but I found the story to be very compelling. The narrators draw you in, and by the end you can see how their styles compliment each other as they play their characters.
The story itself makes you think about how history is written from different points of view.
Definitely would recommend!

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Who is the reliable narrator? Great listen!

Great audio book! Compelling story with an excellent delivery. I was left constantly doubting the reliability of both the main narrator and the secondary narrator.

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Awesome Book

I drank this in one sitting. Planned to break it into chapters but honestly, I cant think of a better way to have spent a day. Powerful narration and a beautifully written work of fiction.

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Fantastic

If you like the podcast, you will LOVE the book!!! Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Mathewson do an outstanding fluhing out the lore of this universe.

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Great Story!

First rate story, developing the world of Within The Wires very well, with top notch narration. Love the found manuscript/audio storytelling format, and this did not disappoint.

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Great view into the Within the Wires universe

The narrator of this novel was a perfect fit for the story. highly recommend to any lover of the strange. This novel ties together the Within the Wires universe and answers many questions and leaves the listener with a few more.

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Interesting- Engaging

This book made me feel so engaged. Time passed faster. I listened to it, and I couldn’t wait for another moment where I could turn it on and find out what happens next. The narration and edits to the narration made the book more interesting, and every step of the story seemed unexpected to me. I haven’t read anything like this before!

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A great addition to this world

This is one of my favorites from the within the wires universe. Highly recommend it

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Excellent book

I love the podcast "Within the Wires" and while this is a standalone book within the same universe, and can be enjoyed without listening to the podcast, the book definitely enhances the podcast and gives background to the age 10 laws and how they came about. Its a thrilling, heartwrenching alternative history with a questionable narrator and irritating (yet fitting) commentator that ties it together. I love how it doesn't have a true, perfect, happy ending, as life rarely does. I would recommend this book to all within the wires listeners, aswell as anyone who enjoys alternate history fiction with dark elements. The narrators were also incredible and engaging with the way they presented the book. I tend to avoid audio books and prefer podcasts as podcasts are made to listen to and therefore more engaging in that format than audiobooks, but with the format of the book combined with the great narration, its an engaging preformance.

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