The quick verdict
Joe Arden has ruined other narrators for me. That is the headline.
Speak is book one of the Rayne-Moore University duet, and it is properly dark academia. Secret society, revenge plot, three men and a heroine who does not speak. I gave it four stars and four chillies, and a clean five for the narration.
Before anything else: this sits at Near Black on my Blackout Scale, one step off the deep end. Read the content note at the bottom of this post before you decide. I am not being cute about that one.
The rundown
Raven Monroe is a mute music student at Rayne-Moore University.
There are three men: Jonas, Damon and Maverick. A psychiatrist, a footballer and an ex-FBI professor. There is a secret society operating underneath the university, and there is a revenge plot running through all of it.
It is a why-choose, so the three of them are not competing for her. No rivalry, all tension. This is book one of a duet, and the story is not finished when this one ends. Book two is Stutter.
Real talk: duet narration, not dual
This is the thing I most want to say about this book, so I am putting it in its own heading.
Heather Firth and Joe Arden perform this as a duet, meaning both narrators are in the scene together, each voicing their own character. That is different to dual narration, where two people take turns reading whole chapters solo. I could not get into Pucking Around on audio for exactly that reason and ended up reading it instead.
Here it clicked immediately. Joe Arden is my new favourite narrator, no qualifiers. Five stars for the audio and I would have given it six.
There is also something quietly clever about this particular book on audio. When your heroine does not speak, every ounce of weight lands on the performances around her, and the format ends up doing work the page could not. Her silence never feels like a gimmick.
If you take one thing from this review: listen to this one, do not read it. And use headphones.
Tropes & vibes
- Dark academia
- Why choose (MMMF)
- Secret society
- Revenge plot
- Age gap
- Campus setting
- Mute heroine
- Morally grey men, all three of them
- Duet narration, book one of two
The tiny details that did the damage
- Joe Arden. Repeatedly. Unfairly.
- Duet narration turning a why-choose into something that actually sounds like a room with four people in it
- Three men with genuinely different jobs, and therefore genuinely different ways of being a problem
- A heroine whose silence is never treated as a gimmick
- No rivalry between the three of them, just tension
- Ending book one and immediately needing book two
Read this if…
Pick this up if you want properly dark academia with a secret society and a revenge plot underneath it, you listen on audio, and you have read the content warnings and know exactly what you are walking into.
Do not start here if you are new to dark romance. This is not the front door. Near Black is one step from the deepest level on my scale, and there are much gentler places to begin.
EmberSas ratings
- Story: 4 / 5
- Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ / 5
- Blackout Scale: 🖤🖤🖤🖤 Near Black (upper end). Darkness and spice are separate axes. Do not judge this one by the chilli count.
- Narration: 5 / 5. Heather Firth and Joe Arden, duet narration.
- Emotional damage: 💀💀💀💀 (4 skulls). Heavy going, and it stays with you.
- Format: Audiobook. Strongly recommended over reading it.
- Series: Rayne-Moore University, book 1 of 2. Book two is Stutter.
- Public-listening safety: Headphones. Not a speaker book, not a school pick-up book.
- Final vibe: A silent heroine, three dangerous men and the best narration I have had all year.
Group chat verdict
Right. Speak. Joe Arden. That is the review.
No, okay, properly: it is dark. Near Black on my scale, so please actually read the warnings before you touch it, I am not softening that. But the duet narration is the best audio I have had all year, and Raven not speaking somehow makes the whole thing hit harder rather than softer.
Four stars, four chillies, five for the narration. Book two is already queued.
Comfort-level note
This is a dark why-choose romance and it carries significant content warnings, including around consent. I am not going to make that cute or list it out here, because a skim-read list is not how anyone should make this decision. Ruby M Darling publishes full content warnings for this book. Go and read them properly before you start, and sit them alongside the Near Black rating above.
Dark romance is not a surprise party.
What to pair it with
Built for exactly this book: the Say Nothing Hot Toddy and the Wax Seal Baked Brie. Warm drink, long audiobook, nobody has to talk.
If you want more dark academia after this, Nocticadia is the gentler one of the two.
Final vibe
A secret society, a revenge plot and a heroine who says nothing while two narrators do all the damage.
