I’m listening to The Prisoner of Azkaban now, and there’s a part of the Full-Cast Editions from Audible that I’m finding particularly strange: The foley work.

Foley work is what we call the sounds produced for movies, tv, radio, podcasts, etc. It can be footsteps, gunshots, squeaky door hinges, coughs, grunts, barks. Cars passing by on a busy highway. Raindrops hitting a window. In visual media like movies and tv, we are so incredibly used to foley that we barely notice — it would probably be strange if the foley wasn’t there (or wasn’t done properly).

In audio books, though, foley work isn’t usually a part of the process. For years and years, audio books have featured nothing more than a single person speaking. There isn’t usually even any atmosphere or ambience done. It’s expensive, time-consuming, and (I think) would involve feedback from the author.

Audible’s Full-Cast Editions of the Harry Potter series, though, are chock full of foley work.

For the most part I enjoy it — it adds to the story when you can hear spells being cast or footsteps running down a hallway or a crowd of people talking excitedly.

It isn’t always…smooth, though. I noticed it first when I was listening to Chamber of Secrets and I was suddenly pulled out of the story in the scene where the Weasleys rescue Harry by breaking him out of his room with their dad’s flying car. While the narrator describes Harry packing up all his stuff, I noticed that the actor who plays Harry was going a little heavy on the grunting.

The kid’s supposed to be packing up clothes and whatnot, but is grunting like he’s trying to juggle dumbbells. It’s in the background, so it isn’t particularly intense, but it does pull me out of the story (which is the opposite of what foley work ought to do).

Since then, I can’t stop hearing it. Sometimes, characters in scenes will just go “Uh,” or “Oh,” or “Ha!” quietly in the background and I think, “Christ, they’re really enjoying their breakfast, aren’t they?”