Audiobooks narrated by Vera Chok

Joan Chang-Hunt has no idea she's part monster until she's thrust into a battle between the boy she has a crush on and one of the most ruthless monster families of London. A brilliantly compelling YA fantasy from a dazzling new Australian talent. Don't forget the rule. No one can know what you are. What we are. You must never tell anyone about monsters. Only a monster would kill a hero. Right? Every family has its secrets, but the summer Joan Chang-Hunt goes to stay with her Gran in London, she learns hers is bigger than most. The Hunts are one of twelve families in London with terrifying, hidden powers. Joan is half-monster. And what's more, her summer crush Nick isn't just a cute boy - he's hiding a secret as well; a secret that places Joan in terrible danger. When the monsters of London are attacked, Joan is forced on the run with the ruthless Aaron Oliver, heir to a monster family who are sworn enemies of her own. Joan is drawn deeper into a world that simmers with hostilities, alliances and secrets. And her rare and dangerous power means she's being hunted. She'll have to embrace her own monstrousness if she is to save herself, and her family. Because in this story . . . . . . she is not the hero. 'Only a Monster is captivating and unique and - dare I say it - utterly monstrous (in the best possible way).' LYNETTE NONI 'Utterly fresh and unique…breathtaking twists and a rich, dangerous setting.' CS PACAT

Vanessa Len (Author), Vera Chok (Narrator)

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We Post Spotify Songs on Instagram Stories Because We Don't Know How to Talk About Our Feelings

In May 2018, Spotify for Artists made it easier for Spotify users to share the albums, tracks, playlists, and artists they were listening to with their followers on Instagram Stories. The function was designed to help people discover new music and expand their aural tastes, but the collaboration ended up creating this generation's equivalent of the MSN nickname—an equally evasive way to express how one felt without actually talking about one's feelings; it allows us to talk about our feelings without being fully sure of them yet, even though doing so often deceives us into thinking we have addressed them. © 2020 by Rice Media. Published online in Singapore by Rice Media, recorded by Storyside 2020.

Rice Media (Author), Vera Chok (Narrator)

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Growing Up With Vitiligo, I Was Bullied—Until I Became A Bully

Growing up with Vitiligo, Monica was bullied by kids in her school. The foundation and glasses were her defence against the bullies, and slowly, she sunk so deep into this new identity that she lost herself. Fast forward a decade, and not even her boyfriends would see her without makeup, nor would she have sex without it on—unless the lights were off. This is the story of how she found peace with herself. © 2020 by Rice Media. Published online in Singapore by Rice Media, recorded by Storyside 2020.

Rice Media (Author), Vera Chok (Narrator)

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This Religion Doesn't Care What Your Faith Is, As Long As You're Happy

All tales of religion start with a good miracle story—'a narrative involving a report of supposed special divine action,' as defined by theologians Wendy Cotter and Graham H. Twelftree. For the Looi family, their embracing of Tibetan Buddhism came about when their father, the late Alvin Looi, once wheelchair-bound, started walking again miraculously. © 2020 by Rice Media. Published online in Singapore by Rice Media, recorded by Storyside 2020.

Rice Media (Author), Vera Chok (Narrator)

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Meet The Singaporean Woman Who Went From Corporate HR To Selling Sex Toys

After depression, alopecia, and endometriosis, Janice decided she would save up for a year to quit her job and move somewhere new. She discovered self care and self love during this journey and subsequently stumbled into the sexual wellness industry upon her return to Singapore. First, the brand made it to Watsons. Last year, it made it to Don Don Donki. Now, Janice is working on getting it on Amazon. Getting the toys out of sex shops and into regular spaces will encourage people to think of sexuality as a part of our everyday life -- and Janice wants to continue being a part of this conversation, despite the unstable monetary incomes and societal objections. Listen to her story here. © 2020 by Rice Media. Published online in Singapore by Rice Media, recorded by Storyside 2020.

Rice Media (Author), Vera Chok (Narrator)

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Not So Stories

Once upon a time, Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories-fantastical yarns of wondrous creatures in faraway places-bewitched children across the world. But times change. Today, Kipling's writing tells us a different tale; of a love of Empire, and the troubling legacy of British colonialism. In Not So Stories, writers of colour from around the world reclaim these stories and remake them into something new. Something different. Something that belongs to us all. Including stories by Adiwijaya Iskandar, Joseph Elliott-Coleman, Raymond Gates, Stewart Hotston, Zina Hutton, Georgina Kamsika, Cassandra Khaw, Paul Krueger, Tauriq Moosa, Jeannette Ng, Ali Nouraei, Wayne Santos, Zedeck Siew and Achala Upendran, with illustrations by Woodrow Phoenix and a foreword by Nikesh Shukla. (P) Penguin Audio and Rebellion Publishing 2020

David Moore (Author), Adjoa Andoh, Akbar Kurtha, Aysha Kala, Crystal Clarke, Jennifer Lim, Rae Lim, Vera Chok (Narrator)

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Braised Pork

Brought to you by Penguin. CONTEMPORARY BEIJING FROM A YOUNG LITERARY STAR 'So elegant and poised, so tuned to the great mysteries of love and loss. Braised Pork is a major debut' -- John Freeman One morning in autumn, just after breakfast, Jia Jia finds her husband dead in the bathtub of their Beijing apartment. Next to him is a piece of folded paper, a sketch of a strange creature from his dream. He has left her no other sign. Young, alone, and with many unanswered questions, Jia Jia sets out on a journey. Starting at her neighbourhood bar, fuelled by anger, bewilderment, curiosity and love, she travels from nocturnal Beijing to the high plains of Tibet, deep into her past in order to arrive at her future. Cinematic, often dreamlike, Braised Pork is an exploration of myth-making, loss, and a world beyond words, which ultimately sees a young woman find a new and deeper sense of herself. © An Yu 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

An Yu (Author), Vera Chok (Narrator)

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Ponti

An award-winning fiction debut about the value of friendships in present-day Singapore—a surprising and powerful portrait of Asia that shows the unique blend of modern and traditional cultures coming together—for fans of Elena Ferrante and Emma Cline. "I am Miss Frankenstein, I am the bottom of the bell curve." So declares Szu, a teenager living in a dark, dank house on a Singapore cul-de-sac, at the beginning of this richly atmospheric and endlessly surprising tale of non-belonging and isolation. Friendless and fatherless, Szu lives in the shadow of her mother Amisa, once a beautiful actress—who gained fame for her portrayal of a ghost—and now a hack medium performing séances with her sister in a rusty house. When Szu meets the privileged, acid-tongued Circe, an unlikely encounter develops into a fraught friendship that will haunt them both for decades to come. With remarkable emotional acuity, dark comedy, and in vivid prose, Sharlene Teo's Ponti traces the suffocating tangle the lives of four misfits, women who need each other as much as they need to find their own way. It is an astounding portrayal of the gaping loneliness of adolescence, the surrealness of the modern city, and the strangeness of living with and loving other people.

Sharlene Teo (Author), Vera Chok (Narrator)

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Ponti

'Remarkable . . . her characters glow with life and humour' Ian McEwan 2003. Singapore. Friendless and fatherless, sixteen-year-old Szu lives in the shadow of her mother Amisa, once a beautiful actress and now a hack medium performing séances with her sister in a rusty house. When Szu meets the privileged, acid-tongued Circe, they develop an intense friendship which offers Szu an escape from her mother's alarming solitariness, and Circe a step closer to the fascinating, unknowable Amisa. Seventeen years later, Circe is struggling through a divorce in fraught and ever-changing Singapore when a project comes up at work: a remake of the cult seventies horror film series 'Ponti', the very project that defined Amisa's short-lived film career. Suddenly Circe is knocked off balance: by memories of the two women she once knew, by guilt, and by a past that threatens her conscience . . . Told from the perspectives of all three women, Ponti by Sharlene Teo is an exquisite story of friendship and memory spanning decades. Infused with mythology and modernity, with the rich sticky heat of Singapore, it is at once an astounding portrayal of the gaping loneliness of teenagehood, and a vivid exploration of how tragedy can make monsters of us. Shortlisted for Hearsts' Big Book Award 2018.

Sharlene Teo (Author), Vera Chok (Narrator)

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The Good Immigrant

Random House presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Good Immigrant, read by the authors. How does it feel to be constantly regarded as a potential threat, strip-searched at every airport? Or be told that, as an actress, the part you're most fitted to play is 'wife of a terrorist'? How does it feel to have words from your native language misused, misappropriated and used aggressively towards you? How does it feel to hear a child of colour say in a classroom that stories can only be about white people? How does it feel to go 'home' to India when your home is really London? What is it like to feel you always have to be an ambassador for your race? How does it feel to always tick 'Other'? Bringing together 21 exciting black, Asian and minority ethnic voices emerging in Britain today, The Good Immigrant explores why immigrants come to the UK, why they stay and what it means to be 'other' in a country that doesn't seem to want you, doesn't truly accept you - however many generations you've been here - but still needs you for its diversity monitoring forms. Inspired by discussion around why society appears to deem people of colour as bad immigrants - job stealers, benefit scroungers, undeserving refugees - until, by winning Olympic races or baking good cakes, or being conscientious doctors, they cross over and become good immigrants, editor Nikesh Shukla has compiled a collection of essays that are poignant, challenging, angry, humorous, heartbreaking, polemic, weary and - most importantly - real.

Nikesh Shukla (Author), Bim Adewunmi, Chimene Suleyman, Coco Khan, Daniel York Loh, Darren Chetty, Himesh Patel, Inua Ellams, Kieran Yates, Miss L, Musa Okwonga, Nikesh Shukla, Nish Kumar, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Riz Ahmed, Sabrina Mahfouz, Salena Godden, Sarah Sahim, Varaidzo, Vera Chok, Vinay Patel, Wei Ming Kam (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Vera Chok