The Silent Land

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I could not put it down. And when I did put it down, I was thinking about it. It had me fooled. I had no inkling of what was going to happen. Just the constant quiet undercurrent of what was occurring and what it all meant raised the hair on the back of my neck more than once. It gets 5 stars from me!

I am not sure why this book has affected me so much but it has. A married couple, on a ski holiday, leave their hotel early to catch the first run of the day. The serene but exhilarating run is cut short when the couple is caught in an avalanche. The woman, Zoe, is buried, upside down, in the snow with only a small amount of air. After being dug out by her husband, Jake, they make their way down the mountain to find help. After getting back to their hotel the come to the realization that the mountain, the hotel and, indeed, the entire village is deserted. They believe, at first, that everyone has been quickly evacuated due to the threat of a larger avalanche. Soon those beliefs are shaken and they wonder if they had survived at all. I read this immediately upon the completion of another novel written by Graham Joyce and narrated by John Lee. I fall asleep at night to audiobooks so I am almost always switching between reading and listening to whatever I am reading. I fell in love with this narrator during the last book and the affair continues. He is amazing. These are the first books that I've read by Graham Joyce and this book is now among my all time FAVORITE books. Although not a traditional horror I was terrified. I have been, sadly, impossible to scare in years. The description of Zoe buried in her "snow tomb" had me on the verge of a panic attack of my own. While falling asleep to the book I had deliciously, terrifying nightmares. Throughout the tension the best part of the book is the love, the relationship, the partnership between the couple. I didn't know how much I would like this as it didn't seem to have all amazing, glowing reviews but I LOVED every minute of this book. The last book that I enjoyed this much was Bird Box. This was perfection for me.

A very engaging tale right from the beginning which kept me simultaneously intrigued and a bit troubled at the same time. Troubled because some aspects are just disturbing on their face, and the plot line purposefully keeps you completely in the dark. There are tons of imagery details to sort through, and the reader is likely to find their attention divided between the ongoing dialog and subconsciously entertaining questions of 'why' at the same time. The tale is cleverly constructed and once it has unfolded the details and imagery sprinkled throughout drift back in to explain themselves. This was a very entertaining read and I'm tempted to just go right back and read it again to be sure I didn't miss anything. I'll bet I did. My only reservation about an across the board recommendation is what I consider gratuitous sexual language. I'm no prude and had no issue with sex coming into play but it seemed unnecessarily raw in places, and unless the choice of words was intended specifically to illustrate the sort of self-absorbed relationship the two main characters had had, I found it a puzzling distraction. It was in some ways like a movie pointedly trying to avoid that dreaded 'G' rating. With the skills of the author so obvious throughout, I'm at a loss to rationalize completely the scattered crudity. Perhaps I overlooked an important detail somewhere that would have explained that but I enjoyed the book in spite of it.

After reading this book several months ago and thinking about it several times in the meantime, I'm still not 100% sure of how I feel about this book. It was good, but it wasn't great. Sometimes the writing felt a bit clunky, but the imagery was always very real and very present. The story is told from perspective of a young woman who along with her husband become trapped in an avalanche while on a skiing trip. Once they escape the snow, they travel down to their chalet to find that the entire hotel, town, and countryside is completely abandoned - it's as if everyone disappeared out of thin air. It's spooky stuff, but Mr. Joyce chooses to focus on the relationship between his protagonists more than on the creepy things happening around them. This is both good and bad. I'm glad this wasn't just another ghost story, but I also never felt that passionate about either character or worried for their safety. The 'twist' ending also left me somewhat unsatisfied. I figured where it was going long before it happened so I don't really know if it was supposed to be a shocker, but it was written in a way that suggested it was. So I'm of two minds. I enjoyed it and I would probably recommend it with some minor reservations, but I definitely wouldn't go back to visit it again. Nor would I jump on the chance to read more Joyce.

About halfway through this short, easy read, while I was engaged enough to keep going, I was not sure why it received such a fuss from some critics. Joyce's writing is fine, but I don't particularly like his dialogue, and the plot seemed very much a spin on a Twilight Zone episode, with a pretty obvious ending on the way. But the second half began to involve me more, I came to care about the couple and what they were experiencing, and the thematics of the novel took hold. It is basically a meditation on life and death, what they mean, how we react to each and had more depth than I was expecting. The second half began to move me more than I anticipated. Then, suddenly, the final pages completely surprised me and I found myself openly crying on a lounge chair next to a pool. I can't say that the pay offs and revelations of the final plot points were that surprising, even, but they were beautifully done and the way the novel 'all came together' touched me deeply. Well worth a read. I will now probably read it again.

The Silent Land gets a straight up three for the premise and the premise alone.Having thought about it, this would have been much better served as a short story. As it was there was simply too much padding throughout and pages and pages of the main characters performing the most mundane of tasks, which were in no shape or form even necessary to the plot.Joyce also seemed to have problems with dialogue, it was way too choppy; alternating between formal and informal with no real consistency.There also wasn't a lot to the central characters themselves - they read like ciphers with no real personality coming through at all. In fact the only two memorable characters in the whole book were featured in flashbacks. Jake's dad story was especially moving.However, what I really disliked about the book was the sex scenes. I'm far from a prude, but they were very awkwardly written, out of place, and felt more like an adolescent teenage boy fantasy than anything else.Thinking about it more, The Silent Land had the same issues that I had with The Tooth Fairy; there are some wonderfully crafted scenes, complete with an sublimely eerie atmosphere - but they aren't linked together very well, or just fizzle out with no real outcome.It also didn't help that I worked out what was actually happening very early on.I did like it. It just could have been so very much more.

I literally, just today, started/finished this book! My God! Soooooooooo triumphant! As a HUGE fan of Graham Joyce as it is, I picked up this book with great optimism (having already read 'The Storm Watcher' and 'The Tooth Fairy') and was transfixed to it. I love how we can set the scene without droning on just to fill pages like so many other authors do. I won't mention who these people are, but if you're an avid reader like myself, you know who I'm talking about (and more importantly, we know where they live...). And all the way through I felt so connected to the characters and even though there were very few, that only made me love them more. Whenever the scene turned for the worst I actually felt myself scared for the characters and then found myself relieved with my heart racing when they would turn out to be okay after a two or three pages of what I thought would be instant peril, and this was just in the opening chapters.When reading a Graham Joyce novel, he makes you feel for the characters so much that you actually feel like you're one of them. You literally fall in love and pray for everything to be okay.The pace of this story too is fantastic! It keeps you guessing all the way to then end and even after you've finished reading! A part of me wants to pick it up again so upon a second glance I can pick up on little hints and such, but seriously, I don't think I could put myself through all that again, not for a while at least.Seriously, I wish I could give this mother for than 5 stars! Just literary perfection! Graham, I tip my hat to you!

Disappointed, I've read all of Graham Joyce even his YA novels but this offering was badly written and didn't seem to have his signature, and made me think someone else had written this. Also what's with the 'she blinked','he blinked' ridiculousness, who blinks in reply to a question? Also I couldn't engage with the characters, they were vaccuous nits. Sad to say I do not recommend this. Read anything else by him though, you'll enjoy them.

The Silent Land has an accessible and easy flow to its prose that does keep the pages turning. There are some beautifully evocative turns of phrase throughout and an interesting use of increasingly potent dream symbols that foreshadow what is to come.However, with that said, I still had problems with this novel.Jake and Zoe were rather schizophrenic characters I felt. Every moving scene they shared would be jarred by 'hip' dialogue where they seemed to be trying to act twenty years younger than they were. I found the slang to be completely out of character for individuals from their respective backgrounds and thought this served to undercut the poignancy of certain key scenes to the detriment of the novel as a whole.Jake also had the most significant character arc to follow and it seemed like much of his growth was kept hidden until very near to the end which again jarred as he seemed to suddenly change rather than to naturally do so according to his circumstances.With regard to the setting and story itself, I had a distinct feeling of having been here before which meant that I worked out the conclusion to the novel about halfway through and this did detract from the emotional impact of the ending as a result. Though I did think there was one moment where sentiment was laid on a little too thickly during the climax, which was a shame given the restraint shown up until that point.Just to reiterate, The Silent Land is well-written and flows well and my main problems with it were the fluctuating characterisation and the familiarity of their predicament.

Brilliant book, story stays with you