Fireball

Tavia Gilbert doesn’t just narrate *Fireball*—she channels Carole Lombard in a performance that’s as unpredictable as the woman herself. Gilbert’s voice oscillates between breathy laughter and steely resolve, mirroring Lombard’s legendary comedic timing and her quiet, almost eerie prescience as she clamored for a seat on that fateful plane. The pacing is flawless, moving from Lombard’s childhood in a working-class Indiana family to her rapid ascent in Hollywood with the urgency of a screwball comedy, all while Gilbert keeps the tone grounded enough to avoid myth-making. That said, the audiobook stumbles slightly in its middle act, where Matzen’s deep dives into aviation history—though fascinating—slow the story to a crawl, making Lombard’s vibrant life feel momentarily like a docudrama. Still, Gilbert recovers with a knockout performance in the final act, her voice trembling with the weight of the tragedy as she recounts the crash and its aftermath. The production quality is crisp, letting Gilbert’s energy shine without distraction, and the choice to drop listeners into the audio equivalent of a smash-cut scream during the crash scene is both bold and effective. If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to meet Lombard in person—before fate turned her into a legend—Gilbert’s narration is the closest you’ll get to time travel.