[issybird]

OK. That's hyperbole. I don't hate all women narrators and some are among my favorites. But a common issue with women narrators that I don't run across with men is an arch, overly inflected tone during the narrative sections that drives me up a wall. They've taken the concept of reading with expression and then dialed it up several notches. While I'm not advocating deadpan, expression during the dialogue interspersed with a more discursive tone for the rest is the aim of a quality narration, at least for me.

The most common flaw that I can think of with men is the use of falsetto for women's voices and while it's irritating, I mostly can shrug it off if it's not too large a percentage of the book. Unlike an inflected narrative, which offends continuously.

I think a large part of the issue is the explosion in the popularity of audiobooks has resulted in too many narrators are just aren't all that good. However, I admit that many narrators I find dreadful get great reviews.