Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth Narrator: Helen Laser, Tim Campbell, James Fouhey, Nina Yndis
Series: Curse Bearer #2
Published by MacMillan Audio on September 9, 2025
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Length: 5 hours, 46 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
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A funeral. A heist. A mission born of desperation.
When someone in Dymitr’s family dies, he’s called back home for the Empty Night, a funeral rite intended to keep evil at bay.
The secret Dymitr is keeping from them makes returning home downright dangerous, but if he wants to get his hands on a book of curses that might appease Baba Jaga’s blood lust, he has no choice. And when that same funeral brings ferocious creature-of-legend Niko to town for his own bloody purposes, Dymitr’s charade becomes impossible to maintain.
Imagine growing up in a family that killed monsters. Everything in the family hierarchy that established your worth was in the training to kill monsters. Imagine you were good at, so good you couldn’t even remember how many of the monsters you had killed. Then something happened, you realized that all the monsters had families and friends and most didn’t even hurt normal people and you killed them anyway. What would you do to atone, how would you even start that Journey?
To Clutch a Razor is the second book in the Curse Bearer series starting soon after the events of When Among Crows. Dymitr has changed; he picked to be a part of a family of literal monsters instead of the ones who raised him. He owes Baba Jaga a big debt and the price she has asked is too high. But, there is hope. His family has a book of curses they were going to entrust to him as the next generations great hunter. But to get it, he will need to return to the family he left behind and hope he can fool them long enough to grab it.
I enjoyed this follow up to the first story. The brother/sister dynamic between Ana and Dymitr is great and we get to see how it has grown since the first book. They are family now and the tables have turned. Dymitr is slowly going mad as Baba Jaga has his bone sword while Ana is learning what it is like to be free of her curse. Because of the bond they now share she will help him with this new task, and travel into the belly of the beast.
Niko has his own troubles since the last book and his new assignment is sure to get him killed. He is also headed to do something brash and will need Ana and Dymitr’s help to pull it off. I enjoyed the tentative relationship building between Niko and Dymitr. They are both feeling out the boundaries of it and it is really fragile right now but you could see how it could become something.
The Slavic feel of the story and how Baba Jaga was incorporated and portrayed was interesting, kept me tuned into the story. There are moral quandaries and moments that you hope maybe, just maybe there is a chance that possibly some of his family may understand his new life. My hope is his sister Elza will find a way to love and forgive him. Still meeting other members in his family, you wonder how he ever broke free. The plot was interesting and there were some surprises along the way as well as a little set up for another book in the series.
To Clutch a Razor is a solid follow up to the first book of the series and I’m hoping there may be a few more because I’d love to see what happens when the monsters start to hunt the monster killers.
“But now, he’ll have to say goodbye to them knowing they would hate him if they knew what he really was. Knowing that he’ll only ever be able to lie to them. Knowing that he still loves them, no matter what they’ve done, and no matter what lies they’ve believed. And how can he blame them? He believed those lies too.”
Narration:
Performance: ★★★★★
Character Separation: ★★★★★
Diction: ★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★★★
Sound Effects: none
I always appreciate when I book has multiple PoVs that there are multiple narrators to capture the feel of the story. Helen Laser, James Fouhey and Tim Campbell cover the three different PoVs we listen to in the story. Tim Campbell is an accomplished narrator and I can pick out his voice in a story anytime he narrates. He has a wonderful tone and I always enjoy his performance. James Fouhey also falls into a category where I have listened to him before but couldn’t specifically remember where. Still with over 400 titles to his name, he is a strong narrator and did a great job in his PoV conveying the emotion and magic of the story. Helen Laser is a new to me narrator but she held her own against Tim and James doing Ana’s PoV proud. Nina Yndis was a good addition to the cast for Elza’s PoV. She was also able to handle the Polish accents and made this story a joy to listen too. I was able to listen to the story at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Tim Campbell
Tim Campbell is an award winning actor and singer who lives in Los Angeles, CA. He works primarily in audiobook narration and voice over and has narrated hundreds of titles spanning almost every genre. He has won or been nominated for almost every major award in the audiobook industry, including most recently a 2018 Audie, a 2019 Audie (nom), a 2019 Voice Arts Award, and several Independent Audiobook and Audiofile Magazine Earphones awards.
He lived and trained in the UK and Germany, narrates as both an American and a Brit, and has studied performance diction in German, Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese, and Latin. He specializes in accents, dialects, and character work and holds three degrees in theater and music as well as graduating from the esteemed two year Great Books Colloquium of Pepperdine University.
In his other, musical life, Tim sings regularly with the LA Master Chorale, Los Angeles Opera, and in studio sessions for TV and Film. Highlights include principal ensemble in Candide at LA Opera, Courfeyrac in Les Miserables at Fresno Grand Opera, Jud in Oklahoma with Cabrillo Music Theater, and Anthony in Sweeney Todd with Pacific Opera Project and singing on the soundtrack for Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker and films such as Creed 2, Venom, and many others.
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I hope you get more in the series!
I really like the Polish/Russian vibes to it.
I loved the Divergent series but have yet to read anything else by Roth. I need to do that. Great review!
Loved the first two books in that but not the third. I think Roth’s writing has grown since then and this has some great character morality things to play with.