Ebook or Audiobook? Which Version of Loverboy, Still to Get

Yo, good question. This one comes up a lot, so let me break it down for you.

First off: there's no wrong answer here. Both formats carry the same story—Gregory Mitchell's story—the same heat, the same ache, the same Brooklyn summer humidity. But the experience of each one? That's where it gets personal.

If You Want to Sit With the Language

The ebook (or print, if that's your thing) is where you go when you want to move at your own speed. When you want to slow down on a sentence that stops you cold, or dog-ear a page because a line landed too close to home.

Joseph's prose works in layers. There are moments where a single paragraph does the work of three pages—economical, but dense. Think about how Bryan Washington packs entire lives into a single paragraph in Memorial, or how Ocean Vuong makes you pause mid-sentence because the syntax itself becomes the feeling. The ebook lets you do that. You control the tempo. You can sit in the silences.

If you're the type who reads with a pen in hand, or if you like to screenshot lines to text your friends later—yeah, the ebook is your move.

If You Want to Feel It in Real Time

The audiobook is a different animal entirely.

It's performed in Gregory Mitchell's voice—the protagonist's voice, the character Joseph built to carry this story. And that choice matters. You're not hearing the author read his own work in a neutral authorial tone. You're hearing Gregory live his life in real time, narrate his own unraveling, his own longing, his own dumb-smart decisions at 2 a.m.

The audiobook moves. It breathes. It doesn't wait for you to catch up. There's a rhythm to it—Brooklyn-bred, unhurried but never slow, the kind of cadence you'd hear on a stoop at twilight when somebody's finally ready to tell you what actually happened. It's the same propulsive energy you get from Brandon Taylor's narration in Real Life, or the intimacy of Kiese Laymon bringing you inside his internal monologue.

If you're the type who listens on the train, or while you're walking, or cooking, or trying to fall asleep and failing because the story won't let you go—this is the one. It gets under your skin differently. You can't skip ahead. You can't skim. You just have to let Gregory take you where he's going.

So Which One Should You Get?

Honestly? Both, if you can swing it.

But if you're choosing one right now, ask yourself: do you want to read this story, or do you want to hear it?

Do you want to control the pace, or do you want the pace to control you?

Do you want to study the sentences, or do you want to be inside Gregory's head while he's living them?

There's no bad pick. The story works either way. It's just a matter of what you need right now.

What's Next

If you want to test-drive the audiobook first, there's a free preview you can stream right now. No sign-up, no hassle. Just hit play and see if Gregory's voice is the one you want in your ears for the next few hours.

If you're ready to grab your copy—ebook, audiobook, or print—head to the purchase page and pick your format. All the major retailers are there.

Either way, I hope you get what you need from this book. It's a good one.

—Scout