Audiobook Review – It Burns by Marc Fennell (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Non-fiction
Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins (60 pages)
Publisher: Audible Original
Release Date: April 15th, 2019
ASIN: B07PRYC5XG
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Written and hosted by Marc Fennell, It Burns is the story of a 10-year scandal-plagued international competition that will take listeners from the Australian Coast to South Carolina (via an Indian Research Facility).
It’s a war filled with larger than life characters. There will be sledging, accusations of cheating, theft and performance enhancing drugs. And allegations that Australia was cheated out of a Guinness World Record. In the process of charting the scandal-plagued race to breed the world’s hottest chilli, the audio documentary lifts the lid on the subculture of ‘Chilli-heads’, hardcore chilli fans spread across the globe who compete in chilli eating and breeding competitions.
The internet is filled with videos of grown men being reduced to tears by a square millimetre of chilli. The docu-series asks: what motivates someone to breed and eat a demonic nugget that is so hot it no longer has flavour? At what point does this stop being cuisine and start being an endurance sport?
This humorous series shows that all this has never really been about chilli. It’s been about how people use pain to shape themselves, define themselves and make themselves feel alive.
This series contains mature themes and graphic imagery, and listener discretion is advised.”
I got this for free as an audiobook from Audible Originals. It was okay and I learned some interesting things about peppers and the crazy people who like to cause themselves pain with them.
I didn’t think the book was especially humorous, it also took a weird turn a few times as it explored how hot food and religion are linked.
Another weird digression was taken when Fennell decides to visit a dominatrix to explore people’s addiction to pain (this short little bit is what makes this an adult book and was somewhat divergent in my opinion). I kind of felt like this was only here for the shock factor or something.
In the end Marc tries to tie all of this craziness back to his own issues with food. Which was kind of like, uh…okay whatever.
Overall, some of the history around chile peppers is interesting. I thought the whole controversy around the hottest pepper issue (which is what the story is focused on) was silly. The interviews were well done and the audiobook was well put together. All in all this was a mixed bag. It was kind of interesting and a bit silly; I got it for free so I can’t really complain.
