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A review by arockinsamsara
Silent Key by Laurel Hightower
4.0
This atmospheric, emotional tale leaves you holding your breath the whole time. The story starts in media res, and you get to meet the characters as they’ve already experienced supernatural tragedy and are trying to save themselves from further trauma, and things don’t quite go to plan. The characters in this book are really wonderful, and while the young child read a few years older than the age she was given other than that I really felt the weight and authenticity of the characters. There is one character, especially, a Russian ex-mobster, who could have come off as a parody, and yet he was balanced and convincing, given the world. The story is a compelling and unique take on a haunting, and it was a lot of fun, without letting you have a complete sense of what “safe” might look like. The writing wasn’t overly colorful, but it still had an emotional edge and had genuine dialogue that all felt quite real. There wasn’t much world-building, per se, but one thing I enjoyed was that while there were clearly supernatural things happening, the story starts with our characters not understanding them, in terms of the hows or whys, but the book isn’t interested in any lengthy exposition dumps trying to justify the supernatural elements, they are just accepted as an unknown and unnerving reality, and that was refreshing.
The book was well-written and moved at a really fast pace, and this left me a little divided. The chapters were all quite short, and they flowed well into each other, really propelling the book forward in constant motion, never staying in one place for too long. On one hand I appreciate that about a suspense story, where the structure and the narrative elicit parallel experiences of urgency. On the other hand, I would have really loved to spend more time with these characters, and get to know them more. Never mind there are glimpses at secret backstories of characters and families that are only teased, but even with the characters we spend most of our time with, I just would have liked to feel a deeper connection with them. They never felt rushed or not fully fleshed out in terms of characters, which is to say it never felt like lazy writing, but rather I just always felt like we were too rushed to really spend time with them, being with them on occasions when there weren’t fires to be put out. I recently read a novella by this same author which I really enjoyed, and these short chapters and kind of constant narrative energy felt like they would have been perfect in a story that was 150 pages shorter, but here it didn’t feel quite as effective. Letting us slow down with the characters a little more could have ramped up the tension and strengthened our identification with their struggles. So that, combined with a little bit of a hand-wavey explanation at the end, is what holds this back from a higher score. As it is, though, I really enjoyed the characters and the story itself, and thought this was a great read. When the biggest complaint is that you want to spend more time with the characters that is generally a good complaint to have!
(Rounded up from 3.5)
I want to thank the author, the publisher Flame Tree Press, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The book was well-written and moved at a really fast pace, and this left me a little divided. The chapters were all quite short, and they flowed well into each other, really propelling the book forward in constant motion, never staying in one place for too long. On one hand I appreciate that about a suspense story, where the structure and the narrative elicit parallel experiences of urgency. On the other hand, I would have really loved to spend more time with these characters, and get to know them more. Never mind there are glimpses at secret backstories of characters and families that are only teased, but even with the characters we spend most of our time with, I just would have liked to feel a deeper connection with them. They never felt rushed or not fully fleshed out in terms of characters, which is to say it never felt like lazy writing, but rather I just always felt like we were too rushed to really spend time with them, being with them on occasions when there weren’t fires to be put out. I recently read a novella by this same author which I really enjoyed, and these short chapters and kind of constant narrative energy felt like they would have been perfect in a story that was 150 pages shorter, but here it didn’t feel quite as effective. Letting us slow down with the characters a little more could have ramped up the tension and strengthened our identification with their struggles. So that, combined with a little bit of a hand-wavey explanation at the end, is what holds this back from a higher score. As it is, though, I really enjoyed the characters and the story itself, and thought this was a great read. When the biggest complaint is that you want to spend more time with the characters that is generally a good complaint to have!
(Rounded up from 3.5)
I want to thank the author, the publisher Flame Tree Press, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.