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A review by wandering_not_lost
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Solid 4 stars, for all that I called the main baddie early on.
The book structure is odd, as the interesting part (them exploring the ship, figuring out what's going on, etc.) is mostly the first half of the book and even that is broken up by "now" sections where Clair is telling the story to someone else. That slows things down, and then things slow down even further around 60% through whenClaire is sent back to the ship alongside a corporate security team. Getting back there and getting back to figuring out what's going on just seems to drag, and that hiccup in pacing is why 4 starts rather than 5, really.
Other than that, though, the book was absorbing and creepy, to the point where I had to stop reading it before bed, and it also had a surprising amount of heart to it - it's a tragedy, but the affection of the crew for each other holds strong. There's even a somewhat happy ending - it's messy and bloody and gross in parts, but it's not entirely hopeless, and in the endI even liked how Claire's ghost-seeing and the tragedy she'd been through with it helped her on the Aurora, how the ghosts sometimes helped her, and how in the end she continues to live with it all.
The book structure is odd, as the interesting part (them exploring the ship, figuring out what's going on, etc.) is mostly the first half of the book and even that is broken up by "now" sections where Clair is telling the story to someone else. That slows things down, and then things slow down even further around 60% through when
Other than that, though, the book was absorbing and creepy, to the point where I had to stop reading it before bed, and it also had a surprising amount of heart to it - it's a tragedy, but the affection of the crew for each other holds strong. There's even a somewhat happy ending - it's messy and bloody and gross in parts, but it's not entirely hopeless, and in the end
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit