renmarshallbrown's review
3.0
So, overall this was fine. What it does well in its brief moments of horror is not enough to make up for the choppy pacing and lame characters. The MC is not interesting or compelling enough to carry us through the entire novel, especially in 1st person. I think this book suffers from its marketing, and might not be such a disappointment if I wasn't promised something more thrilling. I dunno, was really excited for some ghost spaceship horror and got a whiny internal monologue and boring romance instead.
nika_nix's review
4.0
I really liked this scifi horror book but the main character was so fucking annoying and kind of ruined the experience a little. Also, I wish we didn't have the romance thrown into the mix because it just felt forced and unneccessary. But the horror was cool and the ending is satisfying.
amid's review
1.0
After a promising start with the thrilling concept of a haunted spaceship, Dead Silence quickly spirals into a galaxy of disappointments. The excitement of the opening chapters is the high point of a book that fails to deliver on its intriguing premise.
Character development is where the novel hits an asteroid belt of issues. The protagonist, Claire, is painted with a brush of anxiety and weakness that is neither compelling nor relatable. The male characters are predominantly cast as villains or disagreeable types, a trope that feels tired and overplayed. Even Kane, Claire's love interest, is devoid of any real depth, existing merely as a one-dimensional 'simp' without substance.
The pacing is erratic; characters are dispatched with such speed and frequency that their deaths are devoid of any emotional impact. It's hard to mourn characters you hardly know or care about. This brisk elimination of the cast leaves the narrative feeling hollow and the suspense, instead of building, fizzles out.
The dialogue and character interactions come across as unrealistic, stilted, and disconnected from how people actually communicate. This disconnect extends to the conclusion of the book, which is not only unsatisfying but also deviates significantly from the expectations set at the beginning.
It's quite astonishing that Dead Silence was a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Science Fiction in 2022; I've noticed that books receiving this nomination can sometimes feel overhyped and perhaps are more a reflection of marketing prowess than literary quality.
Character development is where the novel hits an asteroid belt of issues. The protagonist, Claire, is painted with a brush of anxiety and weakness that is neither compelling nor relatable. The male characters are predominantly cast as villains or disagreeable types, a trope that feels tired and overplayed. Even Kane, Claire's love interest, is devoid of any real depth, existing merely as a one-dimensional 'simp' without substance.
The pacing is erratic; characters are dispatched with such speed and frequency that their deaths are devoid of any emotional impact. It's hard to mourn characters you hardly know or care about. This brisk elimination of the cast leaves the narrative feeling hollow and the suspense, instead of building, fizzles out.
The dialogue and character interactions come across as unrealistic, stilted, and disconnected from how people actually communicate. This disconnect extends to the conclusion of the book, which is not only unsatisfying but also deviates significantly from the expectations set at the beginning.
It's quite astonishing that Dead Silence was a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Science Fiction in 2022; I've noticed that books receiving this nomination can sometimes feel overhyped and perhaps are more a reflection of marketing prowess than literary quality.
csifbi23's review
dark
mysterious
tense
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
thephantomtoll's review against another edition
The premise was good but the main character was absolutely awful. I’m not sure who promoted her to a team leader, she was simply not capable of working under pressure (of any kind). The narrator tried but her voices just did not land for me. I made it almost 6 hours in before realizing that I still had 7 hours to go and I just couldn’t do it anymore