A review by connorjdaley
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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! 
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