The Book of Azrael (Graphic Audio, Part 1) by Amber V. Nicole: A Book Review

The Book of Azrael has a 4.12 rating on Goodreads across more than 200,000 ratings, and a Graphic Audio adaptation that many readers swear by. I went in hopeful. I came out having DNF’d before the halfway point of Part 1. Here’s why.

Synopsis

The Book of Azrael is the first book in Amber V. Nicole’s Gods and Monsters series, a dark fantasy Romantasy set across a world of gods, monsters, and ancient wars. Dianna, bound in servitude to a powerful entity named Kaden, is sent to steal an ancient relic from an army led by Samkiel, a god king known as the World Ender, believed long dead. Inevitably, their paths collide. The Graphic Audio adaptation splits the full novel into two parts; this review covers Part 1.

My review

I came to this with genuine goodwill. The standard novel has a significant following and a premise with enough scope to be interesting. I’ve never read a dark fantasy before, but its popularity had me intrigued, and I love a multitude of genres. I’d also never attempted a graphic audio before. I listened to all of A Court of Silver Flames only to discover too late that there was a full-cast dramatised version. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again. So when I spotted the Graphic Audio adaptation for this book on Libby, I joined the waitlist.

The queue was long enough to feel like validation; many holds on a title usually mean something. Then, seemingly overnight, my library added 90 new copies, and I jumped to position one. That’s not a small number of copies. It gave me pause, in a good way. I thought: this is going to be something.

It wasn’t.

The production quality was the first problem and, honestly, almost a dealbreaker on its own. The ambient sounds and background music were far too loud throughout, loud enough that the narration and dialogue sat behind them, muffled rather than complemented. At one point, one of the character’s microphones sounded genuinely muffled, and this was with both Bose earphones in and ambient sound off. It wasn’t my end. The recording itself had issues. And don’t get me started on the male character who was chewing and swallowing but somehow sounded more like he was tripping up. 

Even setting that aside, the storytelling didn’t make it easy to invest. The world drops you in without much grounding: no gradual orientation, no sense of entry point. I checked the app more than once to make sure I hadn’t accidentally started mid-way through. I hadn’t. A Goodreads review I came across put it well: it felt like being thrown into season three of a show you’d never seen. That’s exactly it. By the time the MMC appeared, the ambient noise had already made it difficult to connect with anything, and I had no foundation to care.

Mind-wandering while listening is a reasonable enough indicator for me. When I can follow a book through housework, gardening, and walking without losing the thread, it’s working. This one lost me while I was raking leaves and doing nothing else.

What I liked / what I didn’t

What I liked

The premise has genuine potential. A morally grey, centuries-old FMC bound in servitude to a villain, set against a god king with his own buried history. On paper, that’s a strong setup for a slow-burning enemies-to-lovers arc. I can see why the standard novel connects with readers.

What I didn’t

• The production volume balance was a significant problem. Music and ambient sound overpowered the narration consistently, making it hard to follow dialogue.
• The opening offered very little world-building scaffolding. Listeners are placed mid-story with minimal orientation, which is especially punishing in audio format, where you can’t flip back easily.
• With poor audio production and a confusing entry point, there was nothing to hold attention when it wandered, and it wandered.

Final verdict

If you’ve read the book and loved it, the Graphic Audio adaptation may still work for you; you’ll already know the world and the characters, and the full-cast dramatisation might add something for fans of the story. But as a first introduction to The Book of Azrael? I can’t recommend this version. The audio production alone was enough to make it a difficult listen, and combined with a cold open that offers little grounding for new readers, I DNF’d before the halfway point of Part 1.

The standard novel clearly works for a lot of people. If you’re curious about this series, I’d suggest starting with the eBook or a single-narrator audiobook before committing to the Graphic Audio version. This format needed to earn its place, and it didn’t.