Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

66 reviews

purcellapple's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

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

ekcd_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

The one line reviews make it seem like it’s going to be this gritty juicy horror book, but aside from very detailed gore and body horror / injury descriptions the plot wasn’t actually scary. I think the author tried to make it a psychological thriller but made the MC so uniquely and extravagantly insane that you could see right through to the end. The world building was meh, the prose wasn’t distracting. It’s like a less vibrant version of a fan fiction mash up of 2001, Firefly and Levithan Wakes. It did them all a disservice. That’s said, not my worst read this year 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

tinyy's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

I was planning to give this a 4.5, but I'm rounding up to 5 because I can't stop thinking about it. 

This will not be everyone's cup of tea. I've seen some complaints about the big twist being underwhelming, the romance irrelevant, and the characters being one-dimensional. I didn't personally have a problem with anything, except that the climax of the book is more action-y than horror. Whatever. 

The characters are classic characters you'd find in a sci-fi horror, but they're still lovable. The dual timeline eventually evens out and becomes interesting to read, even though I didn't like it at first. 

The big pros: 
- I LOVE romance subplots that happen as the characters go through extremely traumatic events. The horror of the situation, their attraction to each other, attempts at comfort, feeling safer when the other is around; I eat it up. 
- It was so fucking creepy. I originally meant to read it as my nighttime book, what I read to get my mind off the day, but as soon as they boarded the Aurora, I was out. I could only read during the daytime. The horror does get less scary as the book goes on, but the tension and eeriness don't, IMO. 

I will be reading Ghost Station, Barnes' other sci-fi horror, STAT.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

The main character is mentally unwell—she has visual hallucinations as well as audio, though at a lesser frequency. She often cannot tell what is real and what is fake, and has gaps in her memory. The other characters experience these symptoms as well due to the situation of the novel, but Claire has always had this and it can be distressing to read.

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

louisallama's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked the first half of the book before the mystery was revealed better than the last portion. It had so much tension and mystery, not knowing what's real with Claire as the unintentionally unreliable narrator, and with the mystery of what happened to the ship and passengers and why. I still liked the back portion of the book (

fuck Verox and all companies, am I right?)

but the stakes seemed lower once we knew the answer to the mystery and

Claire kept having hallucinations even when the infrasound wasn't affecting her. Though I will say telling this story from the perspective of someone who already struggled to distinguish between reality made for an interesting read.

Overall quite enjoyable, although struggled to keep me as hooked after the mystery was solved. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

elkvlt's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

The concept was interesting, the execution, mid. I don't think I was it's intended audience. I didn't find the horror horrifying enough, the mystery mysterious enough or the thrills thrilling enough. It was all weighed down by an annoying protagonist and an unnecessary, romance B-plot. I  think this story could have benefited from omitting a lot of exposition, including the entire epilogue. 

Dispite wanting to put it down several times, I did want to know what happened. I'm disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

lindzboots's review against another edition

Too many triggers. Hallucinations, memory loss, psychosis, institutionalization. Seemed well-written though; if these weren't dealbreakers for me I'd have liked to have kept reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death

Hallucinations, memory loss

ladylothlorien'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

5.0

This book was AMAZING. It was described as "Titanic meets Event Horizon" and I think that is a better description than "Titanic meets The Shining" although there are definitely elements of The Shining present. I appreciated that the narrative device of the split timelines didn't last for the entire book (it's a good device, but it does sort of "spoil" the fate of the character(s) who are telling the story if it lasts for the whole book). I also appreciated that there are some unanswered questions, but all the crucial questions are answered. And some of the unanswered questions are related to character development. The way that the tension was ramped up slowly but surely throughout was so good. It became harder to put down the book the closer I was to the end, in part because I wanted to know what happened but in large part because the tension and terror were so constant that it was like being rapids leading to a waterfall. As for the "why is this happening" solution:

part of me was a little disappointed at first that it wasn't a supernatural/paranormal/alien reason that everyone was driven crazy. But the more that I thought about it, the more I was okay with it. Even if it was a literal device, it's more realistic and something that could (and probably has) happen in real life. Which is so terrifying to think: the human brain being thrown into chaos but trying to make sense of it with hallucinations, paranoia, and aggression.

I will definitely read this one again and the author is now an insta-buy for me (which is great timing since she recently released a new book).

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, and Pandemic/Epidemic

I don't think it's a spoiler to say that everyone on board the ship lost their minds and hurt themselves and/or others. And the main character writes in first person about her experiences, both on the ship and as a child during an outbreak of an illness. I didn't find the descriptions of dead bodies and injuries to be excessively graphic, but it's disturbing to think about/picture in your mind so I've called it graphic.

rochelleisreading's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail