Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - Dead Silence

I had been seeing this book all over the place and I just absolutely loved the cover. I was on a book buying ban though (still am) so I waited months of being “good” before finally caving for me.

I have to be candid with this one. Reading this hit me at the perfect time in many ways. My fiancé Priscilla was traveling for work at a new job. I went to bed at midnight and she woke me up at 4:30AM to bring her to the airport. I thought I’d get to go back to sleep but then the puppy was whining so I didn’t. I then preceded to do 7 hours of house and yard work, so exhaustion doesn’t really begin to explain it. I did the majority of my reading after that and the following day. I think because of the prior lack of sleep I worked myself up into a migraine for the next day. Didn’t stop me though, I just continued reading with it.

The first 160ish pages nothing happens. I kept thinking like why is this so boring? Is it just written poorly? Why can’t I seem to sit still and get through it? Then I realized that I had been kind of sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for something to happen since page one. So it wasn’t poor writing, it was purposeful. It was building suspense. That cabin-fever feeling, that paranoia. What I noticed around this point was that I was actually feeling genuine paranoia while reading. I’ve only ever felt this way while reading a single time before. It was while reading Dracula, a Signet classic version with font so small I legitimately wished for a magnifying glass. Same thing though, I was sick with a migraine while reading it, and I felt heightened paranoia while reading it the entire time. Now, much older, I was feeling the same again with Dead Silence. Just a very continuous, creeping suspicion that someone was watching. I felt like I kept seeing things out of the corner of my eye or if I’d turn around too quickly I’d catch a glimpse of something. I mean, the kind of have-to-force-yourself-to-go-to-the-basement-laundry-room creepy.

This may not work for everyone, this might not hit at all for some. For me though, this was just a perfect storm of things. Priscilla and I haven’t really been apart at all in the last two+ years due to Covid. The over-tiredness, the migraine, the being alone. It all just worked really well for me. I think this’ll be my new creepy suggestion from now on for people.

With all that being said, there are still some things I didn’t particularly like. The story is first person and the main character says a great amount of things over and over and over. This certainly adds to the cabin fever-y, “is anything real” side of the story, but I do firmly believe that some of it was a little too repetitive. The story also has a ‘now’ and ‘then’ where the character is being interviewed about what happened (kind of Annihilation style) and they just straight up talk about deaths before they happen. That’s kind of overdone for me and it didn’t work as well here as it was intended. I also didn’t particularly like any of the characters. That doesn’t make the story less spooky or horrifying, it just would have hit home more if I cared about them each personally.

The second half of the book breaks away from the ultimate horror side and becomes more of an action-y climax. This includes an explanation of what’s causing the events on the ship. For me, a nice and neat ending, with explanation included, kind of kills the overall feel of the novel. I don’t mind when horror is ambiguous, I kind of prefer it. With that being said, the second half of the novel is certainly still quite enjoyable!

Content Warnings

artene's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

wlreed312's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There are things in this book that aren't going to work for everyone, but it was perfect for me and I adored it.

Claire Kovalik and her small crew are just a few days away from the end of their rotation and about to be picked up to head back to Earth, when they come across a distress call. Upon investigation, it's a luxury cruise ship that was lost years ago with no one ever able to find any remains of it at all. The crew decides to claim salvage rights, and heads aboard to take apart the ship and finance their way to a better future. But when they board the Aurora, nothing is as it seems, as they find bodies that appear to have died in horrible ways, messages scrawled in blood, and evidence of a group of people that collectively went insane. Flashing between the present, where Claire is held in a medical facility trying to make sense of what happened, and six months ago when the crew found the ship, the mystery of what happened on the luxury space liner is slowly revealed.

I loved everything about this. It's my favorite kind of horror, the kind that deals more with a mind-fuck than jump scares or gore. I thought the tension was very well done, and it has great visuals. A member of the group I was reading it with said it would make a great movie or miniseries, and I think they're right (one scene in particular would be amazing with good lighting and camera work). But even more than that, it felt real to me in a way that science fiction sometimes doesn't. I don't know what Barnes background is, but the way she writes about being a part of a small (basically military) crew and the running of a ship makes me appreciate the research she did. There is a part where Claire is laying out a routine for getting sleep and I wanted to actually cheer because she left people monitoring the bridge. One of the things about running a ship is things have to be monitored constantly (this was a pet peeve about Firefly. Who was watching the gauges in the engine room when Kaylee slept?) The crew also felt like a realistic group. Koller is an unlikable dick, but I knew so many men like that in the navy. It was just incredibly well done in a way that is extremely specific to me that probably no one else is going to care about but I loved all the details that made it feel like Barnes actually talked to someone who worked in an engine room or on a ship.

I also loved a lot of the corporate competition and anti-capitalism angle, it feels both realistic and timely in a way that's slightly uncomfortable. The heads of Verux feel very much like they could have stepped out of today's news, and also have the same feel that high ranking career military people do, in my experience. (So both slimy and unwilling to listen to the people who actually do the work. Not a great combination).

In other words this was great, I loved it, it's probably not going to work for everyone but it is extremely my cup of tea.

Content Warnings

albon's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

raychelbennet's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Holy. Shit. I'm at a loss for words over this. This book has been sitting in my NetGalley TBR for a hot minute and I’ve been anxiously awaiting it the entire time. It did not disappoint but I do wish I had read it sooner.

Dead Silence follows Claire and her team on a sniffer (some sort of small rocket for exploration) in the far reaches of space. When they are done with their assignment and about to return, they pick up on a faint distress signal. Claire, who will be essentially deemed insignificant to the space exploration company she works for at the end of this mission, says that it is their responsibility to investigate. They go off track and find the Aurora—society’s only attempt at a luxury space-liner that disappeared during its maiden voyage 20 years prior. Everyone on board was presumed dead as the ship was never found. Will Claire and her team be able to give everyone answers to this mystery? Or were the causes of death on board more nefarious than they once assumed?

I could not put this book down. I was in love with all of the characters and desperately anxious to see how the plot was going to be resolved. I will admit—it did not end up going anywhere near I thought it would. That being said, I still enjoyed it tremendously despite my preconceived notions. I cannot wait to see if S. A. Barnes writes anything else like this. I also think this would make a fabulous movie. 5/5 shining stars.
**Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

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