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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
3 1/2 stars - thoroughly enjoyed the book but I felt it could have finished 50 pages earlier and the fact Ruby was British but used ASL just confused me.
I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway, and I enjoyed it. I would rate it a 3.5 if that were available. I'm in the middle of a South Louisiana December - we've barely dipped below eighty degrees, so I enjoyed the arctic atmosphere. It's a fast-paced, exciting read if you don't get too caught up in nitpicking the plausibility of the plot. I liked how the narration shifted from Yasmin's voice to Ruby's throughout the book, and it was touching to see how Yasmin came to understand her daughter as they faced danger together. Overall, it's a good thriller with characters I cared about.
Holy Hell..... What a book!
For starters, The Quality of Silence is the first book that I have read, where one of the main characters have a disability, (being deaf). It was a completely new experience to me, but one I enjoyed greatly from the get go. TGOS was filled with action and suspense from the very first page and kept me intrigued, reading the book in less than two days I felt drawn in to the world that Ruby and Yasmin was in. From the moment they started their journey to the moment the book ended. Although saying that, when I finished the book, I couldn't help but go WHAT! How could it end that way? I honestly wanted there to be more, I hoped that there would be more. But other than that, I really enjoyed the book.
(Spoilers below, if you don't want to know more, stop reading now)
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From the moment Yasmin and her Daughter Ruby get's off the plane from England in Alaska, they have trouble, believed to be dead in a fire that wiped a whole village out, Ruby's mother sets out to find her husband and Ruby's father, believing that he is alive and not gone like the police say he is.
Setting out to get to the destroyed village, Yasmin and Ruby search for a rigger who would be willing to drive them to another city. When they are turned down, Yasmin starts to loose hope until another driver tells her about a driver who owned his own rig.
Willing and happy to take them, Yasmin and Ruby starts their journey across the wildness of Alaska. After a short while of being on the road, the driver of the rig notices headlights in his mirror, thinks it could be another driver on the road.
#As they drive, Ruby believes that her father is alive and well since her mother hasn't told her about the fire which has burnt the village down. As they drive, Ruby soon makes friends with the driver and find themselves talking about music and other things until they arrive at a rest stop, the last before open country for hundreds of miles.
While Yasmin is inside buying more food and drink, Ruby comes rushing in, explaining to her mother that their friend and driver had taken ill, soon he is returned to Fairbanks and Yasmin has to take matters in to her own hands.
Driving herself and Ruby in to the unknown, they soon encounter a fierce storm, making er worry even more after emails from a strange email address start to come through on Ruby's laptop, plus, those headlights are still following her and the truck.
Being forced to continue driving, Yasmin soon comes to the ice road that she spoke about to the driver and starts to test the ice until finally her and Ruby have to leave before they go down with the rig when it starts sinking.
Sending a flare up in hopes that the police will find them, mother and daughter starts walking and running to get of the ice, in sheer hoplesness, Yasmin starts shouting for her husband before she notices a torch running towards them. Stopping in fear, she holds Ruby close before the man appears and it's like her whole life is fixed when it turns out to be her husband, alive and as well as he can be after being out in the snow and storm.
It's not long before the officer who spoke with Yasmin at the start of their journey appears, telling them that he has the guy who was following her and Ruby. Matt tells them all everything which had happened and how he had found the villagers dead before he is shocked to know that a fire had been set to hide the truth behind their deaths. While the officer turns out to be one of the bad guys, Ruby sets off in the dark to get to a high point on a mountain so she can connect to the internet long enough to send out her blog and tweets for help.
The bad man ends up shooting the officer after he turns and helps Yasmin and Matt when they go after Ruby. Once he arrives and sees that she has sent the tweets out, the bad man, Jack, shoots the laptop before disappearing in to the night, leaving the family alone on top of the mountain.
For starters, The Quality of Silence is the first book that I have read, where one of the main characters have a disability, (being deaf). It was a completely new experience to me, but one I enjoyed greatly from the get go. TGOS was filled with action and suspense from the very first page and kept me intrigued, reading the book in less than two days I felt drawn in to the world that Ruby and Yasmin was in. From the moment they started their journey to the moment the book ended. Although saying that, when I finished the book, I couldn't help but go WHAT! How could it end that way? I honestly wanted there to be more, I hoped that there would be more. But other than that, I really enjoyed the book.
(Spoilers below, if you don't want to know more, stop reading now)
***********
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
From the moment Yasmin and her Daughter Ruby get's off the plane from England in Alaska, they have trouble, believed to be dead in a fire that wiped a whole village out, Ruby's mother sets out to find her husband and Ruby's father, believing that he is alive and not gone like the police say he is.
Setting out to get to the destroyed village, Yasmin and Ruby search for a rigger who would be willing to drive them to another city. When they are turned down, Yasmin starts to loose hope until another driver tells her about a driver who owned his own rig.
Willing and happy to take them, Yasmin and Ruby starts their journey across the wildness of Alaska. After a short while of being on the road, the driver of the rig notices headlights in his mirror, thinks it could be another driver on the road.
#As they drive, Ruby believes that her father is alive and well since her mother hasn't told her about the fire which has burnt the village down. As they drive, Ruby soon makes friends with the driver and find themselves talking about music and other things until they arrive at a rest stop, the last before open country for hundreds of miles.
While Yasmin is inside buying more food and drink, Ruby comes rushing in, explaining to her mother that their friend and driver had taken ill, soon he is returned to Fairbanks and Yasmin has to take matters in to her own hands.
Driving herself and Ruby in to the unknown, they soon encounter a fierce storm, making er worry even more after emails from a strange email address start to come through on Ruby's laptop, plus, those headlights are still following her and the truck.
Being forced to continue driving, Yasmin soon comes to the ice road that she spoke about to the driver and starts to test the ice until finally her and Ruby have to leave before they go down with the rig when it starts sinking.
Sending a flare up in hopes that the police will find them, mother and daughter starts walking and running to get of the ice, in sheer hoplesness, Yasmin starts shouting for her husband before she notices a torch running towards them. Stopping in fear, she holds Ruby close before the man appears and it's like her whole life is fixed when it turns out to be her husband, alive and as well as he can be after being out in the snow and storm.
It's not long before the officer who spoke with Yasmin at the start of their journey appears, telling them that he has the guy who was following her and Ruby. Matt tells them all everything which had happened and how he had found the villagers dead before he is shocked to know that a fire had been set to hide the truth behind their deaths. While the officer turns out to be one of the bad guys, Ruby sets off in the dark to get to a high point on a mountain so she can connect to the internet long enough to send out her blog and tweets for help.
The bad man ends up shooting the officer after he turns and helps Yasmin and Matt when they go after Ruby. Once he arrives and sees that she has sent the tweets out, the bad man, Jack, shoots the laptop before disappearing in to the night, leaving the family alone on top of the mountain.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Nice, love the setting in Alaska's 'outback'. Ending is okay, not the best part of the book.
I struggled with believability on most of this book (that's not to say I don't like fantasy, but this book wasn't in that genre).
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton is a 2016 Crown publication.
Harrowing, white knuckle suspense!
Alaska. Its beauty contrasts with the dark, brutal, bitter cold, making it the perfect backdrop for this gripping environmental thriller which is coupled with a story of undying love and devotion.
Yasmin has traveled to Alaska in search of her husband, Matt. She has brought her deaf daughter, Ruby along, believing deep in her heart that despite evidence to the contrary, her husband was not a victim of the deadly fire that wiped out an entire village.
Knowing no one is looking for Matt, Yasmin and Ruby take off across Northern Alaska, in one of the worst winters on record, determined to find her husband.
Not only will Yasmin have to contend with weather conditions few humans could endure, she feels a prickly sense of danger, as though someone is following her, trying to prevent her from making it to her destination.
Did Matt know something about the fire someone wants to keep quiet?
This story has a several interesting layers to it. On one hand, we have Yasmin, who is unwavering in her belief that Matt is alive, and rises to the occasion, showing a type of grit only sheer determination and a refusal to give up could pull off. Yet, all the time she is battling the elements, she is also battling an internal struggle involving the state of her marriage, which has hit a rough patch.
But, the story also features the fearless and brave ten year old, Ruby, whose deafness accentuates an added vulnerability, but in reality, it could be what makes Ruby so strong, so pragmatic and observant. Ruby’s narrative plays a key role the way the reader views the various aspects of this incredible landscape.
She has absorbed every single thing her father has shared with her, using that information to help guide her mother and to restore Yasmin’s faith in Matt and their marriage.
In this way, the novel is a beautiful story of familial love, a bond between parent and child and husband and wife, as each member gains a new perspective on their relationship as they face incredible adversity.
The plot is centered around ‘Fracking’, the danger to the environment that it poses, and the motives behind the argument for tapping down that far underground for oil.
All these elements combine to create a taut story of suspense, adventure, greed, and danger, as well as a tightly woven family drama.
The author does an incredible job creating the Alaskan climate, bringing both its beauty and its harshness into focus. As awesome as the images of it appear in pictures and on television, I don’t think I’d survive living in Alaska!
The only downside here, is that some parts of the story are just too unrealistic, but the atmosphere is so tense, I willed those negative thoughts away and focused on the what was working.
Ruby’s characterization, the various tools she uses to communicate, is also part of what makes the story poignant and her mettle so impressive.
But, thrumming in the background, is that pesky feeling that something is terribly wrong, that the elements are not the only thing Yasmin and Ruby should be afraid of and that knowledge haunts their journey from start to finish, until the all the pieces of the puzzle finally snap into place.
I was so impressed with this book, I wanted to see what else this author has written. I was surprised that I had already read one her books. I didn’t make the connection until just now, because I think I had it mixed up with another book with a similar title. But, sadly that means I only have one more book to read by this fabulous author. I hope to hear from her again soon!!
4 stars
Harrowing, white knuckle suspense!
Alaska. Its beauty contrasts with the dark, brutal, bitter cold, making it the perfect backdrop for this gripping environmental thriller which is coupled with a story of undying love and devotion.
Yasmin has traveled to Alaska in search of her husband, Matt. She has brought her deaf daughter, Ruby along, believing deep in her heart that despite evidence to the contrary, her husband was not a victim of the deadly fire that wiped out an entire village.
Knowing no one is looking for Matt, Yasmin and Ruby take off across Northern Alaska, in one of the worst winters on record, determined to find her husband.
Not only will Yasmin have to contend with weather conditions few humans could endure, she feels a prickly sense of danger, as though someone is following her, trying to prevent her from making it to her destination.
Did Matt know something about the fire someone wants to keep quiet?
This story has a several interesting layers to it. On one hand, we have Yasmin, who is unwavering in her belief that Matt is alive, and rises to the occasion, showing a type of grit only sheer determination and a refusal to give up could pull off. Yet, all the time she is battling the elements, she is also battling an internal struggle involving the state of her marriage, which has hit a rough patch.
But, the story also features the fearless and brave ten year old, Ruby, whose deafness accentuates an added vulnerability, but in reality, it could be what makes Ruby so strong, so pragmatic and observant. Ruby’s narrative plays a key role the way the reader views the various aspects of this incredible landscape.
She has absorbed every single thing her father has shared with her, using that information to help guide her mother and to restore Yasmin’s faith in Matt and their marriage.
In this way, the novel is a beautiful story of familial love, a bond between parent and child and husband and wife, as each member gains a new perspective on their relationship as they face incredible adversity.
The plot is centered around ‘Fracking’, the danger to the environment that it poses, and the motives behind the argument for tapping down that far underground for oil.
All these elements combine to create a taut story of suspense, adventure, greed, and danger, as well as a tightly woven family drama.
The author does an incredible job creating the Alaskan climate, bringing both its beauty and its harshness into focus. As awesome as the images of it appear in pictures and on television, I don’t think I’d survive living in Alaska!
The only downside here, is that some parts of the story are just too unrealistic, but the atmosphere is so tense, I willed those negative thoughts away and focused on the what was working.
Ruby’s characterization, the various tools she uses to communicate, is also part of what makes the story poignant and her mettle so impressive.
But, thrumming in the background, is that pesky feeling that something is terribly wrong, that the elements are not the only thing Yasmin and Ruby should be afraid of and that knowledge haunts their journey from start to finish, until the all the pieces of the puzzle finally snap into place.
I was so impressed with this book, I wanted to see what else this author has written. I was surprised that I had already read one her books. I didn’t make the connection until just now, because I think I had it mixed up with another book with a similar title. But, sadly that means I only have one more book to read by this fabulous author. I hope to hear from her again soon!!
4 stars
Original Review Here
I saw this book in WHSmith’s window, thought I would give it a go and ordered it from the library. I didn’t know what I was expecting or what sort of plot I was letting myself in for. All in all, I enjoyed this story and realise on reflection how much I did enjoy it; looking back you can see the character development and how tense parts were, something that I missed when reading initially.
This book felt to me as if the author had points she wanted to get across and focused her story around that, especially around issues of oil fracking. There was also the healing relationship between mother and daughter – there was certainly nothing subtle about Yasmin realising she needed to stop pushing Ruby to talk. It was almost cliché. The final confrontation read like a rant against fracking and the dangers of it, presenting the author’s views a little too clearly to read as the characters’. It felt a view was forced when the story would have done that for itself.
The book is an easy read, despite the growing tension in the second half. I shot through it, and most of the time kept expecting for something more to happen than ever did. I thought it got stronger as it went along. Ruby’s parts undermined the growing tension by the occasional insert of childish language that didn’t fit – it could have been a lot stronger without those words in it.
Ruby’s character didn’t quite work for me. I thought she was good, but at an age closer to thirteen than ten. For the most part, her characterisation was spot on, but there were times where I felt as if she was just too young to either be doing that sort of thing or thinking that way. Of course, I might be totally wrong (what do I know about ten-year-old’s?) but it still worked to detract me from the story.
Overall, this is an enjoyable book. If you’re after a light read that has just enough tension and danger to keep it going, then this is the one for you. If you want a real page-turner that will make you fall off your seat, I would look somewhere else though.
I saw this book in WHSmith’s window, thought I would give it a go and ordered it from the library. I didn’t know what I was expecting or what sort of plot I was letting myself in for. All in all, I enjoyed this story and realise on reflection how much I did enjoy it; looking back you can see the character development and how tense parts were, something that I missed when reading initially.
This book felt to me as if the author had points she wanted to get across and focused her story around that, especially around issues of oil fracking. There was also the healing relationship between mother and daughter – there was certainly nothing subtle about Yasmin realising she needed to stop pushing Ruby to talk. It was almost cliché. The final confrontation read like a rant against fracking and the dangers of it, presenting the author’s views a little too clearly to read as the characters’. It felt a view was forced when the story would have done that for itself.
The book is an easy read, despite the growing tension in the second half. I shot through it, and most of the time kept expecting for something more to happen than ever did. I thought it got stronger as it went along. Ruby’s parts undermined the growing tension by the occasional insert of childish language that didn’t fit – it could have been a lot stronger without those words in it.
Ruby’s character didn’t quite work for me. I thought she was good, but at an age closer to thirteen than ten. For the most part, her characterisation was spot on, but there were times where I felt as if she was just too young to either be doing that sort of thing or thinking that way. Of course, I might be totally wrong (what do I know about ten-year-old’s?) but it still worked to detract me from the story.
Overall, this is an enjoyable book. If you’re after a light read that has just enough tension and danger to keep it going, then this is the one for you. If you want a real page-turner that will make you fall off your seat, I would look somewhere else though.
It had promise, but overall I found myself very disappointed by this novel. It started off slow and only mildly interesting; it took a solid 100 pages to really grab me. It held my attention until the last few chapters, when it ruined the promise that preceded it with a terrible ending that felt far more like anti-fracking propaganda than any kind of meaningful closure .
I really enjoyed the character of Ruby, and there were moments throughout the book that I liked. If It weren't for that terrible ending, it would be a decent 3 stars. It had promise and fairly good writing, but I came away from it feeling like I had wasted my time.
I really enjoyed the character of Ruby, and there were moments throughout the book that I liked. If It weren't for that terrible ending, it would be a decent 3 stars. It had promise and fairly good writing, but I came away from it feeling like I had wasted my time.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Rosamund Lupton heeft nog geen enkel boek geschreven wat me niet heeft bekoord, ontroerd, wakkergehouden tot de ontknoping bekend was en beziggehouden tot lang nadat ik het boek had uitgelezen. Zo ook Dochter. Een adembenemend mooi geschreven (en vertaald!) verhaal met wisselende perspectieven. Slow build met een razendspannende ontknoping. Op het allerlaatst verloor het wel iets aan geloofwaardigheid, maar de rest van het verhaal is duidelijk met kennis en research geschreven. Een adembenemend verhaal van een echte vakvrouw.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death of parent
Minor: Gun violence, Gaslighting