Dead Silence

Product Information

And even if the antagonist’s ultimate unmasking came as no shock, the fight for survival was enough to keep eyes glued to the page for the duration. The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter. In other words, this is great, immersive, atmospheric space horror that shows Barnes is a talented storyteller and proves that, despite rumors to the contrary, horror belongs in space. Successful science fiction horror is not easy to pull off and this novel achieves it in some style and has the potential to pick up a wider readership beyond the horror genre.

You know, some people think you murdered your crew for a larger share of the find before taking that escape pod. A Best Book of 2022 by the New York Public Library • One of the Best SFF Books of 2022 (Gizmodo) • One of the Best SF Mysteries of 2022 (CrimeReads) • A GoodReads Choice Award finalist for Best Science Fiction! The frame story explicitly established that the lead would survive the initial encounter and heavily hinted that her employers were seeking to establish contact with the lost luxury ship, despite her objections.Barnes plays nicely on human fears of both madness and of ghosts, carefully blurring the line between science fiction and horror… Those with a taste for blending genres will enjoy this combo.

Being that I do enjoy a good science fiction book, a hybrid space horror novel is a creation that feels "made for me". With increasing unease, Claire and her crewmates also discover that most of the cruise liner’s passengers appear to have died under mysterious circumstances. My biggest issue though was the narrator SHOUTING every time the story had emotional or scary dialog! It reminds me of the movie Ghost Ship from 2002 that gave me nightmares for weeks except, you know, in space. Don’t get me wrong, the action and thrills towards the end were fun, but they were definitely feeling a lot less impactful at this point.My choice out here among the stars, the distant glimmering planets, and the absolute silence of space. At the time of writing this I haven't actually finished the book yet and fully intend to, but I can't see my opinion changing. After more than two decades of drifting in space, the Aurora’s life support systems are all offline, and its interior is littered with hundreds of bodies. I liked the aspect of a person who see’s ghost everyday talking and teaching others about how to deal with seeing ghost.

If you are after a blood and thunder Scott Sigler style of science-fiction horror novel, this might not be the book for you, as it is rather slow, patiently setting the scene and relying upon atmosphere rather than jump scares or bloodletting. Normally this wouldn’t be too unusual, except the Aurora went missing twenty years ago, lost to the mysteries of space…until now. I feel that all these characters weren’t really developed to make a reader care for what ultimately happens to them as the story progresses. So with that in mind, going in I always feel like there are two rather predictable routes the book can take.

Eventually, I’d have to decide between freezing to death or suffocating as my suit ran out of juice, but it would be my choice. A brilliant mix of horror, science-fiction, and psychological thriller, Dead Silence will keep you reading late into the night, while making you look over your shoulder at every sound and leave the lights on. The highlight of this book is the madness and the horror that comes with it, it made me look around my dark room once or twice and felt my chest pounding. He is a Scotsman in exile who has lived in London for over two decades and credits discovering SE Hinton and Robert Cormier as a 13-year-old for his huge appetite for books. Release Date: October 4th, 2022 Genre(s): Adult Fiction, Sci-fi, Mystery Publisher: Ace Pages: 336 Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you to Ace and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced finished copy in exchange for an honest review.