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562 reviews
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.75
Sci-Fi isn’t really my thing but sci-fi horror is a whole other animal that I can’t get enough of even though it takes a lot for me to really enjoy (I have weirdly high standards). Before I get on with the review let me make this clear, this book depicted two things that deeply terrify me: rudimentary space travel and not knowing what is real or not (aka losing touch with reality). That being said, it’s possible this book won’t be scary at all for you especially since I have an overactive imagination so it takes whatever’s written and amplifies it. Now you know this, take this review with a grain of salt.
The spoiler free version:
Shit was scary. I hate space. I hate losing touch with reality. These things are scary. The whole time I NEEDED to know what was happening and often had to watch something nice so I could sleep. This author write this book for me specifically cause it really hit all the points of my fears.
Spoilers ahead
The book takes place in 2149 and space travel within our solar system is less than a century old. While it seems we’ve created artificial gravity, travel far beyond our planetary system, and establish colonies on Mars, we’re still doing space walks and building things in space by hand (no robots taking our jobs yet). At the far reaches of an established communication system, is a small maintenance crew performing its final duties before returning to Earth. On this ship is our main character, Claire who loves space but is being forced to retire once she returns to Earth. The rest of her crew are antsy to return home when they receive a distress call on an old emergency broadcast system. After much arguing, they decide to leave their rendezvous point to answer the call. They eventually discover the lost luxury space cruise ship, the Aurora. Essentially space Titanic. The ship set off from Earth twenty years prior for a year long luxury cruise (first and only of its kind). However, halfway through its journey is cut off all communication and went missing. Claire and her crew make the decision to claim their ship as their own based on maritime law that was adopted by space travel. They hoped to salvage enough for the ship that their financial woes would be settled for life.
They board the Aurora and discover there’s no evidence of an explosion, a system malfunction, or anything that would indicate an accident happened. What they do find are a lot of bodies frozen and floating above them (due to the gravity and environmental systems being shut off) with evidence of extreme violence. As they wonder the ship and decide to turn the engines on to get the Aurora to their rendezvous point, things begin happening on the ship that defies logic. The crew begin seeing movement out of the corners of their eyes and visions of their loved ones. It seems that madness is infected the crew and potentially is the cause of the Aurora disaster. But is it a biological cause or something supernatural or something else entirely?
So this book had me in a chokehold. I truly couldn’t not breathe during the entire thing. The author did well building up the suspense and throwing in jump scares (in a book which is crazy) to keep me on my toes. I genuinely struggled to put this book down because I NEEDED answers or I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. Truly the author wrote this book for me because being in space with something causing paranoia and visual and auditory hallucinations is truly my hell. I don’t mind the romantic tension between Claire and Kane, it felt nice having someone really see her and have her back. My criticism of this book is the pacing. The build up of suspense was very slow and intense and in a lot of ways I loved it but in some ways I just needed the action to start happening. The tragedy of Claire’s crew was very rushed through given all the time to the build up. I just wanna say that as SOON as it was said that Verux had asked the Aurora to drop off supplies to a Mars colony on their way back, I KNEW they put something on that ship to cause the madness (whether biological or something else). Then they mentioned how heavy it felt on the ship which had my gears turning, then they said the noise dampeners were maxed out I went “omg it’s a vibration or frequency thing”. So I’m clearly a professional detective and need to be solving unsolved mysteries. But unlike murder mysteries where I guess the culprit early on I was actually really excited I figured it out because even while I was brain storming I didn’t lose that feeling of fear. The horror did devolve into an action thriller at the end where you’re on the edge of your seat trying to see if they’d survive and be victorious over the corporate bastards. I like a happy ending in horror movies. I’m not a fan of open ended or devastating endings.
I love that capitalism is the villain here and Claire defeated them and had a happy ending.
The spoiler free version:
Shit was scary. I hate space. I hate losing touch with reality. These things are scary. The whole time I NEEDED to know what was happening and often had to watch something nice so I could sleep. This author write this book for me specifically cause it really hit all the points of my fears.
Spoilers ahead
The book takes place in 2149 and space travel within our solar system is less than a century old. While it seems we’ve created artificial gravity, travel far beyond our planetary system, and establish colonies on Mars, we’re still doing space walks and building things in space by hand (no robots taking our jobs yet). At the far reaches of an established communication system, is a small maintenance crew performing its final duties before returning to Earth. On this ship is our main character, Claire who loves space but is being forced to retire once she returns to Earth. The rest of her crew are antsy to return home when they receive a distress call on an old emergency broadcast system. After much arguing, they decide to leave their rendezvous point to answer the call. They eventually discover the lost luxury space cruise ship, the Aurora. Essentially space Titanic. The ship set off from Earth twenty years prior for a year long luxury cruise (first and only of its kind). However, halfway through its journey is cut off all communication and went missing. Claire and her crew make the decision to claim their ship as their own based on maritime law that was adopted by space travel. They hoped to salvage enough for the ship that their financial woes would be settled for life.
They board the Aurora and discover there’s no evidence of an explosion, a system malfunction, or anything that would indicate an accident happened. What they do find are a lot of bodies frozen and floating above them (due to the gravity and environmental systems being shut off) with evidence of extreme violence. As they wonder the ship and decide to turn the engines on to get the Aurora to their rendezvous point, things begin happening on the ship that defies logic. The crew begin seeing movement out of the corners of their eyes and visions of their loved ones. It seems that madness is infected the crew and potentially is the cause of the Aurora disaster. But is it a biological cause or something supernatural or something else entirely?
So this book had me in a chokehold. I truly couldn’t not breathe during the entire thing. The author did well building up the suspense and throwing in jump scares (in a book which is crazy) to keep me on my toes. I genuinely struggled to put this book down because I NEEDED answers or I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. Truly the author wrote this book for me because being in space with something causing paranoia and visual and auditory hallucinations is truly my hell. I don’t mind the romantic tension between Claire and Kane, it felt nice having someone really see her and have her back. My criticism of this book is the pacing. The build up of suspense was very slow and intense and in a lot of ways I loved it but in some ways I just needed the action to start happening. The tragedy of Claire’s crew was very rushed through given all the time to the build up. I just wanna say that as SOON as it was said that Verux had asked the Aurora to drop off supplies to a Mars colony on their way back, I KNEW they put something on that ship to cause the madness (whether biological or something else). Then they mentioned how heavy it felt on the ship which had my gears turning, then they said the noise dampeners were maxed out I went “omg it’s a vibration or frequency thing”. So I’m clearly a professional detective and need to be solving unsolved mysteries. But unlike murder mysteries where I guess the culprit early on I was actually really excited I figured it out because even while I was brain storming I didn’t lose that feeling of fear. The horror did devolve into an action thriller at the end where you’re on the edge of your seat trying to see if they’d survive and be victorious over the corporate bastards. I like a happy ending in horror movies. I’m not a fan of open ended or devastating endings.
I love that capitalism is the villain here and Claire defeated them and had a happy ending.
No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
A murder mystery about three sisters whose parents were murdered when they were teens. The middle daughter was blamed but never arrested for the crime. Now, 14 years later, the estranged sisters are brought back to their childhood home and the mystery of their parents' murders slowly begins to unravel.
I have to say, it takes a lot for me to be taken by surprise when it comes to murder mystery novels. I often guess the culprit well before the halfway mark and while that feeling of "I KNEW IT" feels good, I love to be shocked by the reveal. That being said, this book did a pretty good job of keeping me on my toes for about 85% of the book. I loved not knowing, for sure, the identity of the murderer. I had about three suspects for most of the book and ended up being wrong about one of them and partly wrong about the second. It was still nice to have to puzzle it out and the author does a great job of depicting unreliable narratives and how biased and fallible memories are. However, the ending felt all over the place. There were too many twists crammed into the last few chapters it felt very lazy and cheap. The author presented the events as if we were getting the truth but then it would turn out that it was not. Several times this happened, and I'm not sure if it just didn't translate well on page or through the audiobook and it would've been better on film or what, but it was just jarring (and not in a good way). It kind of lost its power in this way. If the "facts" had been presented by the sisters as they theorized the truth that had the reader agree these two stories of two separate murders makes the most sense and then the reveal of what actually happened all at once (instead of having two different parts separated by chapters of one reveal about the first murder and then another reveal about the second murder), that would've been better I think. Also, part of the parents' murders just didn't really make sense and could be a question about a person's motive that goes unanswered, but it feels more annoying then "I guess we'll never know". It just became tired and dragged out by the end, which is a shame because most of the book had me theorizing different scenarios.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
To be more clear for those that read the book, Daphne should've just had one long monologue depicting the murders of her parents and brother-in-law. Instead of the author saying her parents' and brother-in-law's murders went this way and then chapters later Daphne confesses the truth about the first murders. Then chapters after that Daphne confesses the truth about Nathan's murder. It just didn't translate well on paper. I will say that I initially pinned Daphne as her parents' murderer but the author did a good job of making me doubt and giving two of her father's best friends as potential murderers (I still think Chris would've been an interesting twist). Even with Nathan's murder, I thought it HAD to be Daphne, but again, the author made me think it could also be the cop. I just don't understand their mother's motive for killing herself after Daphne killed her father. She never once seemed like the type to sacrifice herself for her children, but I'm assuming the author was insinuating she intended to make it look like she killed her husband then killed herself to protect Daphne and JJ just had the misfortune of picking up the gun and Emma making assumptions. However, shooting yourself in the heart is a wild way to off yourself if you want it to be obvious you did so. Why not take a second to write a note or call 911 and say you killed your husband then shoot yourself to be absolutely sure the blame wouldn't land on your daughter? Unless she was terrified of her daughter and felt she messed up all her children and just put herself out of her misery. I guess we'll never know.
I have to say, it takes a lot for me to be taken by surprise when it comes to murder mystery novels. I often guess the culprit well before the halfway mark and while that feeling of "I KNEW IT" feels good, I love to be shocked by the reveal. That being said, this book did a pretty good job of keeping me on my toes for about 85% of the book. I loved not knowing, for sure, the identity of the murderer. I had about three suspects for most of the book and ended up being wrong about one of them and partly wrong about the second. It was still nice to have to puzzle it out and the author does a great job of depicting unreliable narratives and how biased and fallible memories are. However, the ending felt all over the place. There were too many twists crammed into the last few chapters it felt very lazy and cheap. The author presented the events as if we were getting the truth but then it would turn out that it was not. Several times this happened, and I'm not sure if it just didn't translate well on page or through the audiobook and it would've been better on film or what, but it was just jarring (and not in a good way). It kind of lost its power in this way. If the "facts" had been presented by the sisters as they theorized the truth that had the reader agree these two stories of two separate murders makes the most sense and then the reveal of what actually happened all at once (instead of having two different parts separated by chapters of one reveal about the first murder and then another reveal about the second murder), that would've been better I think. Also, part of the parents' murders just didn't really make sense and could be a question about a person's motive that goes unanswered, but it feels more annoying then "I guess we'll never know". It just became tired and dragged out by the end, which is a shame because most of the book had me theorizing different scenarios.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
To be more clear for those that read the book, Daphne should've just had one long monologue depicting the murders of her parents and brother-in-law. Instead of the author saying her parents' and brother-in-law's murders went this way and then chapters later Daphne confesses the truth about the first murders. Then chapters after that Daphne confesses the truth about Nathan's murder. It just didn't translate well on paper. I will say that I initially pinned Daphne as her parents' murderer but the author did a good job of making me doubt and giving two of her father's best friends as potential murderers (I still think Chris would've been an interesting twist). Even with Nathan's murder, I thought it HAD to be Daphne, but again, the author made me think it could also be the cop. I just don't understand their mother's motive for killing herself after Daphne killed her father. She never once seemed like the type to sacrifice herself for her children, but I'm assuming the author was insinuating she intended to make it look like she killed her husband then killed herself to protect Daphne and JJ just had the misfortune of picking up the gun and Emma making assumptions. However, shooting yourself in the heart is a wild way to off yourself if you want it to be obvious you did so. Why not take a second to write a note or call 911 and say you killed your husband then shoot yourself to be absolutely sure the blame wouldn't land on your daughter? Unless she was terrified of her daughter and felt she messed up all her children and just put herself out of her misery. I guess we'll never know.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Car accident
Minor: Drug use, Eating disorder, and Vomit