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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not as scary as I hoped, but still enjoyable. I was invested the whole book.
dark
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
I read this one in one setting. From the very beginning it really captured my attention. Like .. we enter the Aurora and I‘m locked in. I want to KNOW what is going on!
Claire is such an interesting narrator - so unreliable, you can never be quite sure what is real and what is imagination. And I have to be honest - some parts were so scary … I‘ll probably have nightmares from this.
And once again - I really need to read more SciFi! Because honestly .. it always delivers.
Claire is such an interesting narrator - so unreliable, you can never be quite sure what is real and what is imagination. And I have to be honest - some parts were so scary … I‘ll probably have nightmares from this.
And once again - I really need to read more SciFi! Because honestly .. it always delivers.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Para no tenerle ni un poquito de fe, esta fue una grata sorpresa. No es exactamente lo que suelo leer, pero la verdad es que fue bastante entretenido.
Más que horroraunque sí que pasan cosas horrorosas para mí fue full misterio. Lo que me tenía enganchada y con ganas de seguir leyendo, era descubrir qué había pasado en el Aurora. Siento que ese suspenso, junto con las cosas que pasaban en simultáneo en la historia, fue muy bien llevado por la autora.
El final me pareció un tanto apresurado, específicamente la explicación del misterio, quizás se pudiera haber ahondado un poco más en los detalles... al fin y al cabo es todo lo que el lector está queriendo descubrir desde el inicio del libro. Pero aún así me gustó la explicación, no fue algo que me esperaba pero tampoco algo que decepcionara.
Lo que sí me pareció un poco fuera de lugar fue elintento de romance que la autora entremezcla con la historia, se siente forzado y no bien logrado. Muchas veces incluso distraía de lo importante.
Gracias PopSugar por hacerme salir un poquito de mi zona de confort y encontrar estas cositas.
Más que horror
El final me pareció un tanto apresurado, específicamente la explicación del misterio, quizás se pudiera haber ahondado un poco más en los detalles... al fin y al cabo es todo lo que el lector está queriendo descubrir desde el inicio del libro. Pero aún así me gustó la explicación, no fue algo que me esperaba pero tampoco algo que decepcionara.
Lo que sí me pareció un poco fuera de lugar fue el
Gracias PopSugar por hacerme salir un poquito de mi zona de confort y encontrar estas cositas.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I found this to be a pretty tense read and overall enjoyable even though I hate the narrative trope of jumping between two time frames. That was probably the biggest detractor for me - the jumps between "Then" and "Now" but when time finally caught up to "Now" I was fully invested and wanted to see where the story would take me. I wanted answers and I wanted to see some carnage. There was less carnage at the end than I was expecting, but I got the answers at least. This is a good book for those looking for a main character with a mental illness. I felt like the book really conveyed the idea of hallucinations and not knowing what is real successfully. It made me feel paranoid and like I was suffering from delusions and hallucinations. There is a bit of romance, so if that's not your thing in horror, you might be turned off by that part of the book. But overall I enjoyed it and would recommend it for fans of sci-fi thrillers.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I find S.A. Barnes' writing style to be unique among horror, as her books seem to follow a similar sort of formulaic patterning to that of the romance genre - in that I know what to expect in terms of who dies first, who survives, and that the government/a horrifyingly powerful corporation is going to be a force of antagonism that acts as catalyst for the events of the book.
Both Dead Silence and Ghost Station feature a female lead who can't trust her own mind (Claire and Ophelia); a strong and quiet man on the team who becomes the female lead's love interest (Kane and Sevren), a misogynist who dies first and is quasi redeemed in his loss (Voller and Suresh); a squishy young female character who does a vital job and dies second and whose death is most upsetting (Lourdes and Liana); and at least one other character who is vital to plot development and with knowledge of the female main character's past or excess knowledge in general who dies in an unnecessarily horrible way (Nysus and Birch/Kate).
I really enjoyed how Claire was characterized in this book. She cannot and does not trust her own mind, but her having to live with that makes her more prepared than anyone else to survive the inhospitable environment of the Aurora. I kind of liked that the questions the book posits for us are never answered. Though, after talking it through with Kane, Claire and readers are ready to accept and understand that Claire would only have left Kane and Nysus behind if she was leaving to get help and wasn't sure that the escape pod would keep her alive, the inconsistencies of memory mean that she can never know for sure. Similarly, we never know if Claire is insane, or if she really can see ghosts. I know my opinion leans more towards ghosts, but I think it's neat that that part of the plot is not laid out as irrefutable truth for Claire or the reader.
Claire being employed by the same company that raised her after she was orphaned in an incident caused by their negligence and catalyzed by her ability to see ghosts/inability to differentiate between who is and isn't dead, worked as a fantastic foundation for an added layer of horror. The banality of it all, in which the company's bottom line is worth more than human lives and the revelation of corporate greed and envy being at the root of mass death rooted the more fantastical elements of the novel into the present for me as a reader in 2025.
I really enjoyed how Claire was characterized in this book. She cannot and does not trust her own mind, but her having to live with that makes her more prepared than anyone else to survive the inhospitable environment of the Aurora. I kind of liked that the questions the book posits for us are never answered. Though, after talking it through with Kane, Claire and readers are ready to accept and understand that Claire would only have left Kane and Nysus behind if she was leaving to get help and wasn't sure that the escape pod would keep her alive, the inconsistencies of memory mean that she can never know for sure. Similarly, we never know if Claire is insane, or if she really can see ghosts. I know my opinion leans more towards ghosts, but I think it's neat that that part of the plot is not laid out as irrefutable truth for Claire or the reader.
Claire being employed by the same company that raised her after she was orphaned in an incident caused by their negligence and catalyzed by her ability to see ghosts/inability to differentiate between who is and isn't dead, worked as a fantastic foundation for an added layer of horror. The banality of it all, in which the company's bottom line is worth more than human lives and the revelation of corporate greed and envy being at the root of mass death rooted the more fantastical elements of the novel into the present for me as a reader in 2025.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol
This has to be the best book I've read in a long time. The descriptions of the insanity had me chilled. Do not read this in the dark on your Kindle like I did. It was so creepy I had goosebumps.