I’d love to finish this but, My god, this woman’s voice is driving me crazy

I’ve powered through a lot of podcast that aren’t “amazing” but this ones narration too dramatized and dragging out the story for no reason.

I listen to podcasts all day long . What started out as a good story seems to be just dragging on and on . I can’t narrow down what makes this one so hard to listen to . I’m on episode 8 so I’ll ride out the storm . Wish it was a 5 but there are too many issues.

I have Mike 1987 the sheriff of Roanoke and some letters in a book of names from Roanoke in Lynchburg in Salem and on down that way, if you’re interested, I think a lot of these names you’d be interested in you can give me a call or heavenly Hope‘s farm on Google you can find me thereI love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I’m from the other side of the mountain over in Giles County thank you Lady appreciate it.

Sacrificed logical flow for dramatic effect

I liked the story. It was a great view of sex workers and their lives. If possible next season I’d love to see some more first hand interviews from the girls themselves. The narration cracked me up. Very out of pocket but honestly I dig it. Us southerners, we like a little drama with our story telling.

Was really looking forward to binging this series. Sadly Lindsey’s method of reading this was super annoying. Had to drop out partway through episode 2. If you’re ok with her cheap, tawdry narrating I guess you’re at the right spot otherwise this misses big if you’re looking for a good true crime pod.

Narrator sounds drunk and ruins the pod cast with the way she talks and her weird cadence and pauses that shouldn’t be there. Idk. Shocked iheartradio didn’t find a new narrator.

Well, dang, I got through the second episode thinking the narrator would step back, you know, settle in and set the story free - a good story at that. Sadly, her OTT voice; the overkill narration; the distracting banjo, guitar… I got turned off. I can appreciate the challenges of an audio-only audience. All the more reason to hone the “less is more” skill set. Sorry!

All in all, it’s a good story. A very compelling take on sex work from the their point of view, but the incredibly long winded attempts to be poetic, dragged the story out way longer than they needed to be. There seem to be so much overdramatizing that I lost track of who the characters were. It seemed like they were too Wayne characters, but kept keeping them confused.

Great story, would have preferred to read it myself as opposed to listen to the production. Exaggeratedly slow, weirdly long pauses that had me wondering if my audio was buffering. The writing is great, it’s just the production and presentation that didn’t work for me unfortunately.

This podcast is terrible. The hosts exaggerated voice is absolutely insufferable. The voice acting is really bad, and totally corny. It seems more like a fiction series than true crime. Just complete garbage.

Narrator has a mercurial voice, smoky, gritty— very expressive and unique. One of those rare female voices that people either seem to love or hate, and personally I love her voice. I feel like women get hate for having voices that are not traditionally feminine, and I think that’s what’s going on in the reviews that are critical of her voice. While a lot of content creators seem to be striving for the same vocal aesthetic, Lux ATL has a one-of-a-kind tenor and cadence which makes her an absolute treat to listen to. And she can tell a story. The writing was fire, I could see everything as she was describing it. She breathes life into these characters. I listen to a lot of true crime and have never heard anything quite like this. I binged season one and now I’m looking for more of her content.

I binged this podcast, and I love the storytelling. I am not usually a fan of anything except “Just the facts, ma’am” kind of stories when it comes to true crime, but I suspended my preconceptions and went outside of my comfort zone. I am so glad I did! I love the dialogue and characterizations. Great work! Very creative. Dr. Lindsay Byron has fashioned a whole world that I can picture because she’s given the cues from her narrative. I hope she’s working on Season 2.

Until the podcaster tried some weird Julia Sugarbaker attempt when reading. I love the story and love that she’s working to tell it, I just think her natural voice (which I do love) and conversational story telling in it, would have made this podcast so much better and interesting. I’m still going to listen to the whole thing because the tea is HOT! 😏

ETA: I just now read the other reviews and find it both telling and absolutely hilarious that so many other folks said slam poetry too. To the host: Jeeze Louise, girl. Write all you like, but maybe hire a voice actor. Budget or not, you could have done so much better with this story. Try listening to something like Park Predators and take notes. Original: I’ve listened to just about every true crime podcast that exists and just found this one. I was really excited. Sounded like a cool story. Sadly, the host uses a lot of pretty irritating voices to tell the story. It waffles between a pseudo-southern accent and what seems like she is trying to recite slam poetry at an open mic. At some points it sounds like she is about to throw up some jazz hands and start snapping. The music is fine, but it’s really repetitive. You can only use a guitar twang clip so many times, ma’am. It was just too much.

When I saw this pop up I instantly had high hopes. Then I started to listen and the host crushed all hope within the first couple minutes. This is unlistenable!

Tried this on a long flight. It may be an interesting story, but the telling of it was poor. Got thru like 6 episodes and had to bail. It just…isn’t good.

After reading some of the reviews from others, I’m not sure what they expected. I enjoyed this series. Sure, they might could’ve used more vocal talent for the roles but there are budgets, friends. It was more like an audiobook than a podcast to me, and I thought the hostess did her best effort.

This story sounded really interesting, but I didn’t even make it through one episode. I couldn’t get over the narrator/podcaster’s delivery.

Like other reviewers, could not get past the narrator’s bizarre delivery. I tried and tried, but couldn’t get past the first episode.

I wanted to find out the story in this podcast, but I couldn’t get past a couple of things. The biggest problem was the overly dramatic reading and constantly changing accents/voices of host & author, Lindsay Byron. Byron also dramatizes some facts in episode 1 when she says this story takes place in “my small southern home town...Danville, VA.” Danville is not a small town. Neighboring South Boston is a small town. Danville is a small city, which means there is no “local bar” there although she says there is. Even South Boston has too many bars to make such a comment. If this podcast was read in a normal tone & at a normal pace, I could probably overlook the dramatization of the facts, but as it is, I just can’t listen to it any more.

…however, this host’s exaggerated manner of speaking is more than I can bear!! I can’t think of when I’ve heard a more irritating telling of a story! It’s over the top and entirely unnecessary! If you want to be a theater actress, by all means, go do it. A podcast doesn’t require this much dramatization! Tell the story! That’s all! This southern soap opera style just kills the story! All I can think is, Does she not hear herself’?

This has the potential to be amazing. But the host is unbearable, so I’ll never know. Her delivery is absolutely horrible. I couldn’t make it through one episode. What a waste of a good story.

Host narrates like she’s in some beatnik poetry slam. It’s unlistenable. She ruins the whole thing. It makes no sense half the time. Avoid this podcast.

Really wanted to like this podcast as most of what iheart media produces is great. I love finding new and interesting stories but the host of this one absolutely killed it for me. The reading of the script was disjointed so the reading was as well. I thought a sentence was finished after a long pause little did I realize one more word was on its way.

I love how she really brings this story to life , its not just information being given. She says it her self shes not just telling a story. She gives it life ! I enjoyed this podcast very much !

The story is really interesting, but the podcast is tough to listen to. Everything is dramatized excessively and over done. I would really like to hear the actual story this is based on.

I agree with many of the others who gave this pod a poor review. The subject of the show is interesting, the story itself is not totally insufferable, however the narrative and pacing is absolutely atrocious. She doesn’t speak horribly but her reading of this story is not good. I made through the first season mostly because I didn’t have much else to listen to and I thought that it had to get better. It didn’t and I will not back for more. Good luck!

Aweful, I only made it 9 minutes in.

I’m fascinated by the subject, but the narration is so painful I couldn’t even make half way through the 1st 35 minute episode. I think the reporter reading. Please, do literally everyone on the planet a favor and get a professional to narrate.

The overly dramatic reading insults all who hear it. Good premise, poor execution.

Can’t even finish the first episode. IHeart overproduces the show that have a weak story. Probably a 1 or 2 episode story but they need to add horrible music and wasteful details to drag this out

Just tell the story it’s so over narrated I gave up after 3rd episode

I wanted to like this and thought the concept would be interesting but couldn’t make it through the first episode. The narration, the cheesy re-enactments, and obnoxious twangy music just made it unbearable.

Love the realness lol, the into and outro got my attention! I’m here for the long ride! The language used is for adults and I’m here for it as well😂!!

It takes a long time for nothing to happen, I gave up after the second episode. The narrator seems to be in love with her own voice and speaks unnaturally slow with a short pause between each word

The narrator is chewing the scenery so hard that I’d be amazed if she had any teeth after the first 5 minutes. Absolutely unlistenable. I have no idea whether the story itself is interesting because the narrator is so dreadful. One star is generous.

To echo what others have said, a potentially compelling story is ruined by amateur writing and even more amateur narration. Couldn’t get through it.

Narrating a podcast should be delivered differently than performing for a poetry slam. The beat poetry cadence of the narrator quickly goes from laughable to just obnoxious. She’s clearly feeling herself, but I found it so distracting that it became unlistenable. Didn’t get past the first episode. Not a fan.

I want to hear this story, but I can’t stand to listen it.

I couldn’t make it through 10 minutes. The tone, inflection and voice was just too horrible to continue.

I think the story is a 5/5 and the writing isn’t awful, but the narration made it impossible for me to listen to the full first episode. I love these southern stories and I had high hopes, but I just couldn’t do it. Maybe I will skip to one of the newer episodes? And just see if narration has progressed?

I think this is an interesting story. However the narration is super overblown. I don’t want to criticize it because clearly they worked very hard but…..give it 20 minutes and you’ll see what we’re all saying.

This sounds like such a fascinating story. I tried so hard to make it thru the first episode & I just couldn’t. The narration is atrocious. It’s just SO over the top. It reminded me of sitting in a school library & having someone read a story to you & “doing all the voices” of the characters. Please - if you can re-release this podcast as a toned down version, I would LOVE to listen to it! I’m a podcast junkie & I’ve listened to literally 100s. I have made it thru plenty of podcasts with “bleh” production value but this is only the 2nd one I couldn’t make it thru the 1st episode. I also rarely leave reviews but I just had to leave this one. As someone else mentioned, I appreciate the hard work put into this but I’m going to pass.

I don’t know how to feel about this, maybe some would like it- the story is good but the narrator is definitely a lot. It’s a bit much. The writing is also a lot. Did the narrator write it? Sometimes ppl just like facts. I am stopping listening for now because I can’t handle the pacing. I might return if I have a road trip.

The narrator is clearly a community theater wannabe. Horrible overacting and bizarre sound effects. I don’t know how you can wreck a story about truck stop hookers, but here we are…

This story is jaw-dropping! Once I got started, I binged the whole thing in a week, which is unheard of for me. I appreciate the way the story is real and down to earth, showing so many parts of the human experience, and done so with as much respect and care as possible with such a story. It’s tender work, and I think the author navigates it well. The way Lux tells the story paints a vivid picture, and I can’t wait for season 2! (I was so pumped to find out there was a second season.)

Seemed like an interesting story but the writing is made worse by a he narration.

The narration makes this a pass.