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Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Dead Silence



Dead Silence is an eerie read. Claire is a team lead on a repair and maintenance crew in the outer parts of the solar system, and it is quite an isolating experience. A team of five about to finish their sweep and on to other things- although Claire, with a past full of trauma, has nothing going. She's not too anxious to move on, and when an opportunity presents itself- a chance to salvage a long missing luxury spaceliner that's been off radar for twenty years, she goes for it. Her crew are with her, it's the shot of a lifetime after all, but of course things go wrong.   

And yowzer do they EVER go wrong. See, Claire is a mess anyway. She sees dead people, literally- or is it just a coping mechanism, PTSD? Hard to say. The problem is when they access the liner they all start seeing things, and also reliving the last moments of all the dead passengers. This is a horror in space, and the eeriness and atmosphere are well done. The story is told from Claire's perspective, but she might be the queen of all unreliable narrators. We don't ever really know what's real and what... isn't. Claire doesn't even know. 

The story is told in two parts. First is the beginning of the story with Claire's crew boarding the ship and attempting to get it home. We then pick up some time later when Claire is back on Earth recounting her story. But her story is not yet done... 

I liked this a lot but I didn't love it as much as I expected to. I think part of that is expectations. I saw a lot of rave reviews for this and may just have been expecting too much. It's fabulous though in so many ways, so don't think I didn't care for it at all. I just wasn't sure about the reveal towards the end. I thought the story was going a different direction and would have maybe preferred a different resolution. 

21 comments:

  1. It's always hard for me to tell if the book wasn't as good as I thought it would be because of high expectations, or if it just wasn't as good as I though it would be! Nice review, Greg.

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  2. I really like this atmosphere ...

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  3. Well I commented and it's not here. Ugh...

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  4. Very "Event Horizon" vibes.
    I've seen enough other reviews though to know I'd be better off skipping this. I keep being tempted though....

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  5. Oh, it does look like a page turner. I will definitely let my friend from PA know of this one. She can hardly wait to see the new horror film NOPE.


    Caitlin&Megan
    Ivy&Ellie
    Carefully Listening
    Ellie
    The Book Group
    Holly&Stevie
    Cherry Blossoms
    Better Off Unsaid

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  6. Great review! Sorry you didn't like this quite as much as you'd hoped.

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  7. I thought this was a very fun read. But then I hadn't really seen any reviews of it before I read it, so I had no expectations going in. And that ghost ship was pretty creepy.

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  8. I have this one on my TBR, so I'm glad to see your review! I'll try not to read too many other reviews before starting this one...

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  9. it can be a mixed feeling when you want an ending to go a certain way and it goes in the opposite direction.

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  10. I want to read this one. I'm sorry you didn't like it as much as you thought you would.

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  11. I really liked this one. I thought that it was just creepy enough to keep me glued to the pages. Sorry that things didn't work out the way that you hoped.

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  12. I've seen a lot of hype for this one so I can see where you're coming from on having your expectations too high. It does sound pretty good though.

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  13. Parece mi tipo de novela. Me la llevo anotada a pesar de todo.Que pena que no gusto tanto como esperabas. Te mando un beso.

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  14. "This is a horror in space, and the eeriness and atmosphere are well done."
    I agree with that, and as you pointed out, this is a horror in space...as opposed to a sci-fi novel, which was what I expected, at least to an extent. I liked the reveal, but...

    ...SMALL SPOILER (in case someone who hasn't read the book stumbles upon this comment)
    ...
    ...
    ...
    I had trouble suspending my disbelief about the encounter they make when returning to the ship. That person was so gone that I don't think removing the cause for their psychotic break could have made them fully functional again at a moment's notice.

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  15. The ghost ship premise is pretty intriguing. Glad you enjoyed it even if it didn't quite meet expectations. Sometimes the hype or our own expectations work against us. :(

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  16. There's some weird stuff going on here at your blog (for me anyway). You had a Sunday post (460 I think?) and I left a comment. But when I click on it in my blogger reader now, it tells me that post doesn't exist. Did you take it down?

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  17. Looks abit scary but S.A. Barnes is a successful writer. I would like to read it. Thanks for the review.

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  18. This sounds like quite the storyline and I’m sorry it didn’t meet up to your expectations. Hopefully the next one you read is better!

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  19. I think I might do SciFi Horror for my October reading theme in 2023. I'm going to add this to the list. Thanks for sharing your review. 📘

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  20. Space is the perfect setting for horror because it's already horrifying, in my opinion lol. Expectations can definitely affect our feelings about a book though, and it can be hard to separate that out.

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  21. Good review - Unlike most of the commenters, this title is new to me and the premise sounds great. Since I have no hype expectations, I'm thinking I should give it a try. :)
    Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys

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