Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

22 reviews

dreadspawn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, and Alcohol

kaneebli's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

boba_nbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Spice Rating: 🫑 / 5 🌶️

Dead Silence takes sci-fi horror to a new level as it merges the story of the Titanic with the terror of Stephen King's The Shining. 

Claire prefers being out in space to being confined to Earth. To Claire's dismay, this is her last mission before her employer terminates her. The rest of her crew is ready to go home after long months in space, but when they receive a distress signal from the famous Aurora, a ship that was wrecked 20 years ago and never found, Claire and her crew decide they just have to check it out to see what they can find. This salvage could set them up for life, and they would be famous for just discovering the Aurora. But when the crew boards the Aurora, they find things, and people, they didn't expect to. Soon they are unsure how to determine what is reality and how they're going to get off this ship alive. 

This book is addictive, to say the least. S.A. Barnes takes readers on a wild ride as the crew discovers horrors they never thought possible on the Titanic-esque spacecraft. Claire makes an excellent main character as readers struggle to decipher which parts of her story are true. 

From the great twists to the many jump scares, Dead Silence is sure to satisfy all fans of sci-fi, horror, mysteries, and thrillers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, and Alcohol

han_pear's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I absolutely LOVED this book, I was hooked from the first chapter and I was telling everyone I knew about it, I even told a customer at work about (I work at a doggie daycare lol). The story is interesting and I think the direction the author went in was interesting regarding Claire. I LOVED the twist. In all honesty I put this book down for a bit because of life and work, but the twist sucked me right back in and held on tight until I was done. I was a bit disappointed the book ended where it did, and honestly I would devour an entire book about the Aurora’s voyage, the ship is so fascinating. HUGE RECOMMEND!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol

sonygaystation's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, and Alcohol

cait's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

dattmay's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Overall this was a fun enough sci-fi story that was a quick read. If you're looking for horror, though, this is not the place. While there are a few moments that can be considered 'creepy' and some gruesome imagery used, the story is much more toned down than I expected coming in. 

Bad future super corporations doing bad things and screwing over the little people is the name of the game here, and even the haunted ship of the dead idea doesn't really overcome what we've seen in the past. The framing used in the book, that of the main character relating what happened in the past to her interviewers, robs the story of a lot of its surprise as she frequently reveals outcomes of events before we even know they happen. 

To dip a bit into spoiler territory,

the eventual reveal of what's causing the spookiness on the ship fell entirely flat for me. From that point on, it was really just a wrote sci-fi adventure with quite a few loose ends (why was Claire seeing what she did? What/where were the actual device? Why did Lourdes gouge out her eyes when everyone else seemed to go for their hearing?).

So while I had a decent time with the book, I don't think it'll stick with me in the long run. I mainly just wish it was a bit more horror focused than it ended up being. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Alcohol

gracefulraven's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Suicide attempt and Alcohol

emilyspex's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Things I liked:

• The horror elements were excellent
• The mystery was compelling up until the reveal

Things I didn't love:

• The reveal was a monologue, which I loathe
• The main character is very pessimistic and constantly blames herself for things that are obviously not her fault. This actually makes sense with her backstory, but it's just not something that I love to read in first person.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Gun violence, Death of parent, and Alcohol

devynvictoria's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This was one of those books that I got so wrapped up in and couldn’t put down. I think I finished it in 2 maybe 3 nights. I was really interested in finding out the mysteries of the ship and seeing what would happen next. The downsides were that I really didn’t like the main character, I wish there was more time dedicated to actually exploring the ship— those were the most interesting parts, and I wish the characters had been more fleshed out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Self harm, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Cursing and Alcohol