Popular Reviews of Revel

I had a good chuckle while listening to this audiobook but it runs out of steam toward the end. Gabourey Sidibe is very fun as Jenna Clayton, a very woke, very suspicious black female writer who thinks a coven of witches is using their magic powers to amplify their social media influencer empires and is sabotaging her attempts to write an expose book about them (How dare they sell makeup and by transitive property, make everyone feel bad about their own lives!). And yet, I think it is Sarah Natochenny, playing self absorbed woke ally Elise Edgerton to ditzy perfection, who runs away with the show. There is nothing that Elise cannot first make about herself and then self flagellate for making about herself. The show is much less comfortable with puncturing the self importance of Jenna, the designated hero of the show, who sees enemies everywhere before the coven even starts bothering with her. The show rushes through dull exposition to bring about her victory and has her say some weak sauce woo-woo that boils down to everyone has a bit of magic in them. Weak ending aside, Sidibe and Natochenny's performances are impeccable and it was a missed opportunity for them not to converse with each other in dialogue form, because I would have loved to hear them bounce off of each other.

I just finished this podcast and had to add it to all my recommendation lists. I enjoy the plot, including cultural nuance with magical realism and tact. Gabourey Sidibe does an amazing job voice acting (unsurprising she is very talented) as the main character Jenna. To briefly summarize without giving away the plot, I would say this:The story is about Jenna discovering her power as a Black witch while facing attacks both magical and micro-aggressive.Amazing plot and use of magical realism!*i wrote a longer review here for other pod nerds: https://medium.com/@Awkward_Rambler/spooky-not-scary-podcasts-for-your-local-crybaby-39c1e5198a07

I think the strength of this podcast is its tone and how quick it is to just outright rip certain things apart. The writing has fangs, and the actors go with it. Yes, I'm sure some of the magic stuff is going to be off-putting. Love it or hate it, nothing I say in this review is going to change your mind.

I was really into it at the beginning. However the focus on astrological signs and mystic energy took me out of the story. That stuff isn't really my thing.

Started following with gusto but then gave up because I got lost in too many characters with similar voices and I didn't know any more who was whom and why.