Welcome back to Worth the Listen! Starting this month, we’re expanding our coverage to include more of our favorite audio formats. We’re excited to introduce new contributing writers who will be helping you find your next binge-listen, from podcasts to music and audiobooks, too! And to kick things off, I figured I’d tackle the one audio format I’ve never quite been able to get behind: audiobooks.

I pretty much always have something playing when I’m at home. Need to fold the laundry? I’m putting on a podcast. Cooking dinner? I’ve got a go-to playlist. But despite my love of listening to just about everything, audiobooks have always been a tough sell.

I struggle with monotonous narrators and cringe hard at romance spoken-word. It takes a profoundly talented performer and a production team willing to treat the audiobook as more than a publishing checkbox to create something special. It’s why I mainly stick to memoirs narrated by the celebrities themselves (these are my favorites, and yes, I’ve already got Sofia Franklyn’s new memoir queued up for this week).

But every once in a while, a fiction audiobook reminds me just how incredible the format can be. I’m talking full casts that bring characters to life, original scores and sound design that elevate the story, or books whose very structure makes them even better to listen to than read. These are the rare exceptions that won over this certified audiobook hater.

Have a favorite audiobook you think fits my criteria? Reply and let me know; I’d love to hear yours!

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Featuring a full cast of 20+ performers, including Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer, and audiobook legend Julia Whelan.

If you know me, you knew this was coming. I've been squeezing Daisy Jones into Pix newsletters every chance I get because I genuinely think it's the perfect audiobook. The entire novel is structured as an oral history, so every character gets their own voice. Instead of reading interview transcripts, it feels like you're listening to the world's greatest music documentary. The cast completely disappears into their roles, and by the end you'll probably forget the band never actually existed.

I've recommended this audiobook to more than 20 people in my life, and every single one has come back to tell me I was right—even my dad, who exclusively listens to British crime novels.

Starring: Marisa Abela as Elizabeth Bennet, Harris Dickinson as Mr. Darcy, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Bill Nighy as Mrs. and Mr. Bennet, and Glenn Close as Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

The 2005 Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen adaptation is one of my all-time favorite movies (and I'm cautiously clamoring for the new Netflix adaptation coming December 3). It's one of my favorite stories, and I thought we'd reached peak audiobook with Rosamund Pike's narration (who played Jane in the 2005 movie).

But last fall, Audible one-upped itself with a star-studded, full-cast production and an original score by Grammy-nominated composer Morgan Kibby. It's a whole new experience that made me fall in love with the story all over again. The perfect cozy listen for fall and winter!

Full disclosure: I am very intimidated by sci-fi. My reading history with the genre pretty much consists of YA dystopian (hi, I love you, Hunger Games). But I'd never had more people tell me, "No, seriously, you have to listen to Red Rising, specifically the GraphicAudio version.” So, I caved. And... they were right. 

This isn't someone just reading you a book; it's an action movie happening inside your headphones. Every character has their own voice actor, there's cinematic music, and the sound design elevates every explosion, sword fight, and battle. If epic sci-fi usually intimidates you (me), this is your entry point.

Remember my affinity for celebrity-narrated memoirs? This is the fiction equivalent. The cast includes 166 narrators (!), including Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Bill Hader, and more. 

It’s weirdly beautiful—a descriptor that encompasses my favorite kind of read. The novel jumps rapidly between more than 100 ghosts, which could easily become confusing on the page but is remarkably easy to follow when every voice has its own performer. I wasn’t surprised at all when it won the 2018 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year.

Normally, I'd tell you a full cast is the way to go. Then there's Jeff Hays. I genuinely don't understand how one human being can convincingly sound like this many completely different characters without boring me to tears. He's so good that he was cast to voice Princess Donut—a beloved fan favorite—in the upcoming TV adaptation. 

Along with Project Hail Mary, this is one of the very few single-narrator audiobooks I'd put in the same league as the best full-cast productions.

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Meredith is the Managing Editor at Pix Media and has been covering TV, movies, podcasts, and books for 8 years. Raised on VH1's I Love the... series, E! True Hollywood Stories, and The Real Housewives, Meredith has been fluent in pop culture since infancy. She religiously watches every Bravo show, lives for HBO Sunday nights, goes deep on reality-scandal discourse, and has a TBR that is physically taking over her apartment.