Narrator Spotlight: Audiobooks by Julia Whelan

Funny Story is a relatable, hilarious and cathartic rom-com built around the struggle of making friends as an adult and the familial relationships that shape who we are. Whelan, as always, delivers unique and brilliant character voices, matching each protagonist’s energy at every turn. Continue to fall in love with the Whelan/Henry match with other books like Happy Place, Book Lovers, and People We Meet on Vacation. 

The Women is both singular and expansive in focus. Frances “Frankie” McGrath naively joins the Army to follow her brother into Vietnam, knowing little of the world outside Southern California. Whelan expertly navigates Frankie’s character growth from a sheltered woman wearing rose-tinted glasses to a brave and capable Army nurse. 

This genre-bending novel invites you to question what it means to measure your own life and find out if you’d have the courage to go and make it count. With rotating points of view from various ages, Whelan deftly varies her tone to help the listener keep each character straight. Deservedly, this performance garnered Whelan one of her many Earphones Awards. 

In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, prepare to be mesmerized by Addie — our unflappable heroine, cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets after agreeing to a Faustian bargain, and left to answer the question: “What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?” This may be Julia Whelan at her best. Addie starts her immortal life with a strong French accent but as the centuries go by, that accent slowly recedes into the background, leaving Addie with a whisper of her former life. 

At times harrowing but always hopeful, this memoir recounts how the author survived an off-the-grid, survivalist childhood as part of a family isolated from mainstream society to achieve success and stability beyond her own wildest dreams. Though you may hope for the author to narrate her own memoir, Whelan was the correct choice for bringing Westover’s nearly unbelievable upbringing to life. This narration alone was awarded an Earphones Award, the Best Audiobook of 2018 from AudioFile Magazine, and the 2019 Audie for Autobiography/Memoir. 

With Whelan’s impressive catalog of audiobooks under her belt, it makes her the perfect author and narrator for Thank You For Listening, a novel about a former actress turned successful audiobook narrator (which is also true of Whelan herself). Yes, it’s all very meta, but it works in showcasing Whelan’s strengths and gives the listener a unique and magical experience. 

This story is based on the real-life Packhorse Librarians of the 1930s and is filled with the brightly colored cast only small-town Kentucky can offer. Whelan delivers a slew of accents from the backwoods drawl of Kentucky to the posh lilt of England, making this a delightful listen. 

A New York Times Best Book of the Year, The Passenger is an expansive, beautiful, and haunting glimpse at humanity, grief, and consciousness. Julia Whelan’s mastery, paired with MacLeod Andrews, makes this eclectic cast of characters materialize in such a way that it’s easy to forget there are only two voices bringing this story to life. 

Intimate with a biting edge, My Year of Rest and Relaxation offers a darkly entertaining commentary on existentialism. Moshfegh’s witty writing is accentuated by Whelan’s dry tone, which perfectly matches the characters growing sense of ennui. 

An enthralling mystery, an interrogation of the past, an entrancing campus novel, I Have Some Questions for You is a propulsive page-turner. Bodie Kane has always been plagued by questions about a murder that rocked her boarding school in 1995, and Whelan, along with JD Jackson, follow a rollercoaster of emotions as we oscillate between past and present. 

The Original is a science fiction tale brimming with imaginative technology that feels familiar, yet also wholly intriguing. This is a fast-moving murder mystery, wrapping up in under four hours, but Whelan skillfully keeps us on track as Holly Winseed’s whole life is turned upside down and the consequences that brings. 

It’s another adorable adventure with everyone’s favorite rambunctious dignitary, the Princess in Black. This is a deft departure from Whelan’s typical timbre — listeners are regaled with the chipper dialogue of children at play. She doesn’t miss a beat as the Princess in Black squeals in excitement over her bountiful adventures with friends.