I've listened to more audiobooks than I can count, and somewhere along the way I've become a bit of a backseat expert about what makes a good one. Because a brilliant book doesn't automatically make a brilliant audiobook. Whether narrated by the author, a voice actor or a full cast, the best audiobooks aren't just books read aloud. They're interpretations that can reshape a story into something else entirely. For me, it's the performance that transforms the storytelling. Where an accent makes a setting feel real, or the delivery of a sentence changes its meaning.

I've loved far too many audiobooks to make anything resembling a definitive list, but should I ever find myself marooned on a desert island (one with electricity and a phone charger, preferably), these are some of the ones I'd want with me. An eclectic bunch, from unsettling horror to tender love stories, each reminding me why I love having stories told to me in the first place.

How High We Go in the Dark 
Sequoia Nagamatsu
Narrated by a full cast

Each chapter is given to a different voice, and that choice is what elevates this audiobook. The book moves across time and lives, and hearing those shifts in actual human voices makes each story feel distinct and lived in. It didn’t feel like I was reading a collection of stories, it felt like I was listening to a chorus of people trying to make sense of the same changing world. That’s what really stuck with me.

How High We Go in the Dark (Audible)

Penance
Eliza Clark
Narrated by a full cast

A novel concerned with who gets to tell a story, and how easily it can be distorted. In audio, hearing the girls’ voices, their accents and rhythms, sharpens that tension. The distance between the narrator and the lives he’s describing becomes much more pronounced. You can actually hear what’s being flattened or misunderstood. It’s an incredible listen. 

Penance (Audible)

The Haar
David Sodergren
Narrated by Mhairi Morrison

This one works because of the contrast. Morrison’s voice is soft and lilting, almost comforting, and it pulls you right into the Scottish seaside village. You settle into her voice and that place. So, when things turn, it’s really rough. I don’t think the atmosphere would have got under my skin in the same way without her.

The Haar


Open Water
Caleb Azumah Nelson
Narrated by the author

There’s something about hearing this in Nelson’s own voice that just changes it. The rhythm, the pauses, the weight behind certain lines, all carry through in a way that makes you feel close and fond. It turns something already personal into something that feels directly shared with you, the listener. Nelson takes your hand as he tells this story. 

Open Water


Machines Like Me
Ian McEwan
Narrated by Billy Howle

This one is strange. The narration has a controlled, almost artificial quality that creates a sense of distance. Rather than detracting from the story, it adds an extra layer, making the experience feel more observational and, more unsettling. I finished it thinking ‘that was really weird’, and loved it for exactly that reason.

Machines Like Me

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