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A review by beth_dawkins
Silence by Michelle Sagara
3.0
3.5
Emma’s father died, and last summer her boyfriend, Nathan, died. One night when visiting Nathan’s grave she meets Eric, a new school mate, who is much more than he seems. Beside him is a ghost, and it won’t be the last time Emma sees a ghost. Emma discovers why she can see the dead, and what that makes her. She also seems to start a new trend by helping the dead.
When I first cracked the book open I expected what we get a lot in YA novels. Main character has a secret power she doesn’t know, boy is looking for her for some reason, and they fall in love, blah, blah, blah. I was half right. She does have a super power she didn’t know about. She has powers over the dead. Anyway, Eric’s reason for finding her is bad, very bad, but a good kind of bad. I can’t say what they are. I feel like it might give away too much.
This isn’t really an original story amongst YA novels. There is a girl who discovers a secret about herself, and saves people—sort of. She is helped by friends, and a lead guy who is also a hero himself. There is no love triangle here, there isn’t any romance at all here, but I actually thought that made it better. There isn’t even much of any kind of subplot going on. I thought the story was very simple, which helps make it a very quick read. Where it stands out from most novels is in the prose. There are a good many turn of phrases that sound close to poetry.
The characters are what shine through in this novel. Emma is genuine. She cares about other people, and other people care about her. She is a little down in the dumps, but who could blame her, so many people in her life are gone, and then ghosts get thrown into the mix. Each of the side characters, mainly her friends, carries distinct personalities. They don’t feel like place holders, in fact they are very interesting individuals.
If I liked all this other stuff why didn’t it get a better score? It doesn’t move very fast. When the story does move it gets very confusing. The start of the novel moves along at a brisk pace, but towards the end of the novel I felt like there was a lot of uninteresting pages of description when it came to the magic, and what was going on. I had to re-read tons of pages at the end because I didn’t understand what was trying to be described, or had lost interest. This is also true when the characters are in conversation. I was left in many pages wondering which character had said what, and even wondering what they were talking about. I did way too much re-reading!
The magic system was neat, but at the same time seemed like it took all day to read about. No, seriously, I get that necromancers use the dead for power, and I get that you are new at this whole thing, but I don’t need five pages of figuring it out. Especially when the other characters have told you ten plus times you only have like two minutes. I wanted to feel so much more danger in the end than I did, and this kind of made the story a wash. That was, until the last page. The last page I was like ‘What? Wait? Why did… I am going to have to read the next on now!’
I think this story has flaws. It is a quick read to the end, but loses a lot of its tension and drive. This is YA, and I feel like many teens would get bored with it in the same parts I was forced to re-read pages. I never felt like any of the characters were really in danger. That being said the start of the novel is good, and the characters are also very well done. It doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but leaves the reader with just the right about of questions to want to continue with the series.
Emma’s father died, and last summer her boyfriend, Nathan, died. One night when visiting Nathan’s grave she meets Eric, a new school mate, who is much more than he seems. Beside him is a ghost, and it won’t be the last time Emma sees a ghost. Emma discovers why she can see the dead, and what that makes her. She also seems to start a new trend by helping the dead.
When I first cracked the book open I expected what we get a lot in YA novels. Main character has a secret power she doesn’t know, boy is looking for her for some reason, and they fall in love, blah, blah, blah. I was half right. She does have a super power she didn’t know about. She has powers over the dead. Anyway, Eric’s reason for finding her is bad, very bad, but a good kind of bad. I can’t say what they are. I feel like it might give away too much.
This isn’t really an original story amongst YA novels. There is a girl who discovers a secret about herself, and saves people—sort of. She is helped by friends, and a lead guy who is also a hero himself. There is no love triangle here, there isn’t any romance at all here, but I actually thought that made it better. There isn’t even much of any kind of subplot going on. I thought the story was very simple, which helps make it a very quick read. Where it stands out from most novels is in the prose. There are a good many turn of phrases that sound close to poetry.
The characters are what shine through in this novel. Emma is genuine. She cares about other people, and other people care about her. She is a little down in the dumps, but who could blame her, so many people in her life are gone, and then ghosts get thrown into the mix. Each of the side characters, mainly her friends, carries distinct personalities. They don’t feel like place holders, in fact they are very interesting individuals.
If I liked all this other stuff why didn’t it get a better score? It doesn’t move very fast. When the story does move it gets very confusing. The start of the novel moves along at a brisk pace, but towards the end of the novel I felt like there was a lot of uninteresting pages of description when it came to the magic, and what was going on. I had to re-read tons of pages at the end because I didn’t understand what was trying to be described, or had lost interest. This is also true when the characters are in conversation. I was left in many pages wondering which character had said what, and even wondering what they were talking about. I did way too much re-reading!
The magic system was neat, but at the same time seemed like it took all day to read about. No, seriously, I get that necromancers use the dead for power, and I get that you are new at this whole thing, but I don’t need five pages of figuring it out. Especially when the other characters have told you ten plus times you only have like two minutes. I wanted to feel so much more danger in the end than I did, and this kind of made the story a wash. That was, until the last page. The last page I was like ‘What? Wait? Why did… I am going to have to read the next on now!’
I think this story has flaws. It is a quick read to the end, but loses a lot of its tension and drive. This is YA, and I feel like many teens would get bored with it in the same parts I was forced to re-read pages. I never felt like any of the characters were really in danger. That being said the start of the novel is good, and the characters are also very well done. It doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but leaves the reader with just the right about of questions to want to continue with the series.