You Feel It Just Below the Ribs

A Novel

By: Jeffrey Cranor, Janina Matthewson

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Adepero Oduye

Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

A haunting, provocative novel, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is a fictional autobiography in an alternate 20th century that chronicles one woman’s unusual life, including the price she pays to survive and the cost her choices hold for the society she is trying to save.

Born at the end of the old world, Miriam grows up during The Great Reckoning, a sprawling, decades-long war that nearly decimates humanity and strips her of friends and family. Devastated by grief and loneliness, she emotionally exiles herself, avoiding relationships or allegiances, and throws herself into her work - disengagement that serves her when the war finally ends, and The New Society arises.

To ensure a lasting peace, The New Society forbids anything that may cause tribal loyalties, including traditional families. Suddenly, everyone must live as Miriam has chosen to - disconnected and unattached. A researcher at heart, Miriam becomes involved in implementing this detachment process. She does not know it is the beginning of a darkly sinister program that will transform this new world and the lives of everyone in it. Eventually, the harmful effects of her research become too much for Miriam, and she devises a secret plan to destroy the system from within, endangering her own life.

But is her “confession” honest - or is it a fabrication riddled with lies meant to conceal the truth?

A jarring and uncanny tale of loss, trauma, and the power of human connection and deception, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is a portrait of a disturbing alternate world eerily within reach, and an examination of the difficult choices we must make to survive in it.

©2021 Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Love it!

I've been a fan of the Within the Wires podcast since it first released. To get a bigger bite of this intriguing world through this book is such a delight. I was captivated from start to finish, with more questions and answers as the story progressed. Very compelling and thought provoking. Love it!!

Made a great impression!

I loved this book! I'm a fan of Welcome to Night Vale, so I may be a bit biased. but I found the story to be very compelling. The narrators draw you in, and by the end you can see how their styles compliment each other as they play their characters.
The story itself makes you think about how history is written from different points of view.
Definitely would recommend!

Who is the reliable narrator? Great listen!

Great audio book! Compelling story with an excellent delivery. I was left constantly doubting the reliability of both the main narrator and the secondary narrator.

Awesome Book

I drank this in one sitting. Planned to break it into chapters but honestly, I cant think of a better way to have spent a day. Powerful narration and a beautifully written work of fiction.

Fantastic

If you like the podcast, you will LOVE the book!!! Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Mathewson do an outstanding fluhing out the lore of this universe.

Great Story!

First rate story, developing the world of Within The Wires very well, with top notch narration. Love the found manuscript/audio storytelling format, and this did not disappoint.

Just what I hope it would be

Has that lovely, creepy feel Within the Wires has...I can't get enough of it!!

Undeniable With These Unreliable Narrators

Firstly, although this book takes place with the podcast series universe, “Within The Wires,” one does not need to have consumed any of the podcast itself to enjoy this book. That being said however, listeners of the podcast may feel a bit more conflicted as you reach the end of this novel.

I mean this in the most positive way I can.

This story has two narrators. One who had written this manuscript as a memoir of their life during the greatest social upheaval events in the current known history, while the second narrator spends the length of the story adding side notes clarifying certain statements the other narrator makes using in universe historic facts and public records.

No spoilers, but, if you haven’t listened to the podcast—the first season anyway—you might become biased by the end of this thinking one narrator was sticking with you the entire time keeping you on the straight and narrow. You might want to listen to this again should you decide to give the show a listen, again season 1 should be just enough before jump back in again to You Feel It Just Below The Ribs. However, should you decide to binge the current entirety of the podcast you might just find a nice treat or two in this book.

For me though, as someone who’s currently caught up on the show, this book left me with so many more questions than answers. It has also brought me to a pretty crazy fan theory about the author of the manuscript, and I’m all for it.

Overall, this book serves as a nice little toe dip into the Within The Wires Universe. If you’re not feeling like going any deeper into the series, this book is a mysterious tale set in an alternate history universe where the importance of memory—or rather the forgetting of said memory—is being used to shape a hopeful future without violence. It is a Woman’s confession of her part leading up to this future, and all the while in between the lines we are being told that she’s probably lying about most of it.

Spellbinding

I cannot express how wonderful this book was. I don’t normally write reviews, but this one was so well done- in both story and performance that I had no choice but to write one. I wish I could give more than 5 stars

Brilliant! Unnerving! Listen to S1 of Within the Wires First!

I LOVED this book. It’s essentially a prequel to season 1 of the fiction podcast Within The Wires, which I adore. This book gives the whole unsettling history of the dystopian society of Within The Wires, as well as in-depth context for season 1. I STRONGLY suggest listening to that first. (Seasons 2-8 are fine, but season 1 is a MASTERPIECE.) it’s slow, but trust me it will suck you in. There are 10 episodes, each around 25 minutes, and it’s free on Apple Podcasts. If you aren’t familiar with the premise of the podcast at all, you might be a tiny bit confused, or complain that the book doesn’t give enough explanation of things. If you’re already a fan of the podcast, BUCKLE UP.