Nathan: The Distance Between Us - Full Cast Audiobook (Book One)
Project Overview
NATHAN: THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US is a psychological thriller, published on Amazon in paperback and Kindle, and I'm recording it as a full-cast audiobook. It runs about 7 hours 40 minutes across 30 chapters.
THE STORY: Two sixteen-year-olds in Northeast Philadelphia, alternating chapters. Nathan Cole walks twenty-six minutes out of his way every morning so Maya Bennett never waits for the bus alone. When her grandmother lands in the ICU, he is there every day. When the most popular girl at school decides to ruin Maya's life, he tells her not to worry, he's got it. Over one winter, the people who come between them stop being there, and every time, Maya runs straight into his arms. She never suspects him. You know from page one. For readers of You, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, and One of Us Is Lying.
TONE: quiet, controlled, domestic. This is NOT a horror audiobook and nothing should be performed as scary. The tension comes from how ordinary and loving Nathan sounds while doing what he does. Warm kitchens, a bakery, a hospital room, a park trail at midnight.
ACCENTS: Northeast Philadelphia, light. The cast are mostly teenagers who sound like normal American kids with a slight Philly edge. Adults can carry more. Aunt Carol is the exception, flat Midwest. A neutral American read is completely fine. A heavy stage-Philly accent is not.
CONTENT NOTE: the book contains murder, stalking, grief, and a death staged as a suicide. No sexual content. Violence is written elliptically and never graphically. Please know that before auditioning.
RECORDING: WAV, 44.1kHz, mono, noise floor at or below -60dB, room tone at the head of each file, no processing beyond light noise reduction. I master everything. Leave your mistakes in and re-read the line, don't edit in the moment. Flexible schedule, no hard weekly quota.
WHAT YOU GET: an equal share of the audiobook's net earnings split across the cast, clean finished audio for your reel, full credit, and first refusal on your character in Book Two and Book Three, which are already written. No NDA, no exclusivity.
EACH ROLE below has its own description, direction, and audition lines. If you want a character's full line list before recording, message me and I'll send the whole document for that part.
I'm a seventeen-year-old author and this is my first book. I'll answer every audition, including the ones I don't cast.
Voice Actor
LEAD. Narrates 15 of the 30 chapters, so this is about half of a 7.5 hour audiobook: roughly 260 lines of dialogue plus all of his narration. Nathan is sixteen, quiet, polite, and in love with his best friend Maya. He is also the reason the people around her keep dying. SOUND: low, even, unhurried. Warm when he talks about Maya, flat everywhere else. He speaks directly to the listener, calmly, like someone explaining himself to a jury he is sure he will win over. DIRECTION: never play him as a villain. No rasp, no whisper-creep, no theatrical menace. It only works if he sounds reasonable and kind. ACCENT: light Northeast Philadelphia, or neutral American.
- male adult
- male teen
- Calm
The first thing you should know about me is that I would never hurt Maya Bennett. I want that on the record before anything else, because people are going to tell you a lot of things about me, and most of them will be true in the way a photograph is true. Accurate. Framed by somebody else.
I know. I know. You called. You did everything right.
I think she does believe it. That's what makes it so sad.
Voice Actor
LEAD. Narrates the other 15 chapters: about 360 lines of dialogue plus all of her narration, roughly half of a 7.5 hour audiobook. Maya is warm, funny and quick, the kind of person who notices everything about everyone except what is standing right next to her. Her grandmother is dying, a girl at school is trying to ruin her, and her best friend is the only one who loves her without wanting anything. SOUND: bright, fast, real breath, run-on sentences when she is excited or upset. DIRECTION: she has to be genuinely likable within one page. Her grief chapters should be ugly-honest, not pretty crying. ACCENT: light Northeast Philadelphia, or neutral American.
Who writes these? Like, who sits down and goes, I'm going to ruin a sixteen-year-old's Tuesday?
Yesterday was a normal day. Yesterday I was bored.
She thinks someone's really doing it. She actually thinks it. She's not faking. She believes it.
Voice Actor
SUPPORTING, and the biggest non-lead part: about 100 lines across 16 chapters. Harlow is Maya's best friend since fourth grade, the yearbook photographer, always carrying her camera. She is the only person in the book who is quietly uneasy about Nathan, and she is never listened to. SOUND: deadpan, dry, blunt. She says less than she is thinking and leaves long pauses where other people would fill space. A photographer's voice: she talks about framing and light like they are facts. DIRECTION: never play worry on purpose. She sounds bored while saying something alarming. IMPORTANT: Harlow becomes a lead in Book Two and Book Three, which are already written, so I am casting this role with the whole series in mind. ACCENT: light Northeast Philadelphia, or neutral American.
Obviously. Your punctuation's wrong. You never use a period at the end of a text. You think periods are aggressive.
She seems actually scared, though. Like, scared-scared. Not dance-team scared.
I'm not saying anything. I'm saying I noticed. There's a difference.
Voice Actor
SUPPORTING, about 70 lines across 13 chapters. Nathan's fourteen-year-old sister, a theatre kid who worships him, teases him about Maya, and calls him Nate. She is the only person who can make him laugh for real, and she has zero suspicion of him, ever. SOUND: fast, bouncy, a little too loud in her own house, always mid-story. DIRECTION: play everything as affection and teasing, never bratty, never whiny. Her scenes are the only warmth in Nathan's chapters, so they have to actually land as sweet. ACCENT: light Northeast Philadelphia, or neutral American.
Thank you, Aunt Carol. That's what I've been saying.
Oh, that's genuinely offensive, because I am literally named Emily.
Nate. Nate. You're doing the robot thing again. Blink twice if you're in there.
Voice Actor
SUPPORTING, about 50 lines across 9 chapters. Maya's grandmother, who basically raised her: Phillies on the radio, Tastykakes, blunt truths. She is dying through the middle of the book, and her hospital scenes are the emotional center of the story. SOUND: blunt, funny, warm and completely unsentimental. Unhurried, because she has earned the right to take her time. Later she is weaker and confused, but never pitiful. DIRECTION: keep the humor in her even when she is dying. No shaky old-lady voice, no generic sweet grandma. ACCENT: older Northeast Philadelphia, stronger than the teenagers.
You just want someone new to tell your stories to.
And you cried for a year. You don't cry for a year. You hear me, Maya Dorothy?
He is that. A boy that careful is always thinking about something.
Voice Actor
SUPPORTING and the hardest part in the book: about 35 lines across 11 chapters, with the biggest arc of anyone. Peyton starts as the popular dance-team girl running a cruel campaign against Maya. Then someone starts doing things to her that nobody believes, and she ends the book terrified, isolated and disbelieved. SOUND: sharp, fast and performative early. Raw, unsteady and exhausted late, with real breath breaks. DIRECTION: do not play her as a joke in Act One or as a pure victim in Act Three. The audience has to dislike her and then be devastated for her. Looking for someone who can do both. ACCENT: light Northeast Philadelphia, or neutral American.
I could probably just, like, post something. In the class chat. Everybody reads that.
Home. Of course he's home. He's always, like, somewhere else. Have you ever noticed that? He's always somewhere else, looking at you.
You're doing this to me! You and her! You're all doing this! You're always watching me! You took a picture of my window!
Voice Actor
SUPPORTING, spread across the book. Nathan's mother, a bank branch manager, raising two kids alone. She half-knows something about her son and has never once said it out loud. SOUND: careful and kind on the surface with something tight underneath. Measured. She chooses her words. DIRECTION: every ordinary line, even asking whether he ate, should carry a second thing she never says. Not a cold mother, not obviously suspicious, just a woman watching her child and hoping she is wrong. ACCENT: light Northeast Philadelphia, or neutral American.
Okay. Drive safe. Tell Maya we're thinking of her family.
Emily, you let me read your diary in fourth grade. You left it on the kitchen table open to a page that said, Mom, read this.
You've been out a lot. That's all I'm saying. I'm not asking where.
Voice Actor
SMALL, around 35 lines. Maya's mother, a dental hygienist, and Nana Dot's daughter. Her own mother is dying through the middle of the book and she keeps functioning anyway. SOUND: practical, tired, loving in a no-nonsense way. Brisk. DIRECTION: play the control, not the grief. She only cracks once, and it lands because she held it together everywhere else. ACCENT: light Northeast Philadelphia, or neutral American.
You did. He's very... put together. For sixteen.
Honey, that can be a reflex. It's very common.
She was lying there. My mother was lying there, dying, and nobody came? Because an alarm didn't go off?
Voice Actor
SMALL, spread across the book. Maya's dad, a SEPTA bus mechanic and a big laugher who fills a kitchen. He likes Nathan. That matters, because the Bennett house is the safe warm place Nathan wants to belong to. SOUND: loud, easy, affectionate, relaxed. DIRECTION: not a gruff dad. He is the sound of a happy family, which is what makes the book hurt later. ACCENT: Northeast Philadelphia, stronger than the teenagers.
You call us. Anything. Middle of the night. You call.
There he is. Right on time. Does this kid ever sleep?
Voice Actor
SMALL but pivotal: one scene, Chapter Nine, and it changes the whole book. A retired mail carrier and widower who walks his beagle along the creek trail around midnight. He has seen Nathan out there three times, and he says so, to his face, without a trace of fear. SOUND: tired, satisfied, completely steady. Slow and certain. DIRECTION: no frailty, no quavering old-man voice. He is not scared of this kid, and that calm is exactly why the scene works. ACCENT: older Northeast Philadelphia.
I seen her come down this path, too. Couple of times. With that fella. And every time I seen her, I seen you, after. Coming up the trail. From the same way.
Okay. Okay, son. Well, here's what I think. I think I'm gonna call somebody. Just to be on the safe side.
Let's just get a picture of you first. So I don't forget.
Voice Actor
SMALL in Book One: one phone call near the end, interviewing a teenage girl. SOUND: tired and gentle, professional, kind to a kid who is frightened. Even, patient pacing. DIRECTION: no clipped TV-cop delivery. She is a real person at the end of a long shift. IMPORTANT: she becomes a major character in Book Three, which is already outlined, so I am casting this with the series in mind. ACCENT: Philadelphia, or neutral American.
Nobody thinks you did, Maya. I promise you that. We're just trying to understand her state of mind.
Her family says she'd been experiencing a lot of paranoia this year. A lot of fear. Does that match what you saw?
Voice Actor
SMALL, around 25 lines across 8 chapters. One of Maya's school friends: warm, chatty, a completely normal teenager. She is the baseline of ordinary life that the book measures Nathan against, and she is usually the one who brings Maya the gossip that turns out to matter. SOUND: quick, friendly, natural. DIRECTION: nothing stylized. Just a real kid talking fast in a hallway. ACCENT: light Northeast Philadelphia, or neutral American.
She told Tyler someone's been reading her messages. Like, for weeks. She said there were messages she never sent that got sent.
It's nothing. Seriously. I just didn't know you thought that about Jess's mom.
Voice Actor
SMALL, one scene, Chapter Thirteen. Nathan's aunt, visiting for Thanksgiving, a couple of drinks in, cheerful and chatty. She says one thing about the family's past in Ohio that she absolutely should not have said, and the whole table goes quiet. SOUND: loose, warm, meandering, then a hard stop. DIRECTION: the slip has to sound accidental, not ominous. Do not play it like a reveal. ACCENT: flat Midwest / Ohio. This is the one role that should NOT sound like Philadelphia.
Look at you. Look how tall. Diane, he's a man. When did he become a man?
I just meant, I just meant he's come out of his shell. That's all I meant. He's so happy now.
Emily, honey, that was beautiful. You're going to be a star.
Voice Actor
ONE booking covers several small parts, usually a handful of lines each. You can audition with any of the sides below and tell me which ones you'd want. The parts: KENZIE, 16, Peyton's best friend, cool and self-protective, who drops Peyton when things get strange. TYLER BRANDT, 16, lacrosse player, friendly and harmless. DEVIN MARSH, 19, Peyton's older secret boyfriend, bored and careless, not a predator. JANELLE, 30s, night nurse, competent and stretched thin, blamed for something she did not do. MR. HOLLIS, 40s, history teacher and wrestling coach, hearty and backslapping, calls boys son. OFFICER REYES, 30s, school resource officer, steady and observant. I am happy to cast several of these to one person, or spread them around. ACCENT: light to medium Northeast Philadelphia, or neutral American.
KENZIE: She's acting scared. That's, like, her whole thing. She's a dance girl. It's performance.
DEVIN: It's a dog, Pey. There's like a million dogs back here. C'mon. It's freezing anyway.
JANELLE: Did you notice anything on the monitors while you were in there? Any alarms? Anything unusual?
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