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A review by justalillost
Silence by Michelle Sagara West, Michelle Sagara
2.0
This, and other reviews can be found on Just a Lil Lost
Rating: ★ ★ ☆ (2.5/5 stars)
Emma has been drawn to the cemetery ever since her boyfriend died. It was her quiet place to be with him & reflect on the day until one evening’s chance encounter with Eric, a new boy at the school and an obviously not-of-this-world old woman. From that moment on, Emma realizes she can hear, speak to and touch the dead. When the title of Necromancer starts being passed around, Emma makes it clear she has no interest in such a role. She wants to use her new-found powers for good, to help the dead move on but those that hunt Necromancers have a different plan.
A friend pitched this book to me and it sounded like something I would enjoy. A ghost story book set in Toronto? Sold. Unfortunately though, I just couldn’t get into the book. It was a bizarrely-told story, where a lot of the time I had no idea what was going on. I’ve been told that Sagara usually writes adult fiction, so her style may not lay everything out as clearly as other YA novels might, but I don’t believe that’s it for me. I don’t need things spelled out for me to understand the plot.
I didn’t get a feel that it was set in Toronto though, and really wouldn’t have even known it was supposed to be T.O. if not for one mention (about 76 pages in). Not that it really detracts from the story itself, but personally, it being set in Toronto was a big seller. This could have been set in any city in North America. However, I did appreciate the more human moments with Emma and her family. The dynamic and interactions between her & her mother, or her & her father were touching. The scenes with the burning house were also interesting, with the different experiences that Emma was having from the others.
Otherwise, I thought there were some aspects to the book that were really intriguing as to how Sagara chose to develop certain things. However, I feel at many times it just got so convoluted and complicated that the reader isn’t quite sure what was going on for the majority of the book. Perhaps this was just a book that was so far from what I was expecting it to originally be.
Rating: ★ ★ ☆ (2.5/5 stars)
Emma has been drawn to the cemetery ever since her boyfriend died. It was her quiet place to be with him & reflect on the day until one evening’s chance encounter with Eric, a new boy at the school and an obviously not-of-this-world old woman. From that moment on, Emma realizes she can hear, speak to and touch the dead. When the title of Necromancer starts being passed around, Emma makes it clear she has no interest in such a role. She wants to use her new-found powers for good, to help the dead move on but those that hunt Necromancers have a different plan.
A friend pitched this book to me and it sounded like something I would enjoy. A ghost story book set in Toronto? Sold. Unfortunately though, I just couldn’t get into the book. It was a bizarrely-told story, where a lot of the time I had no idea what was going on. I’ve been told that Sagara usually writes adult fiction, so her style may not lay everything out as clearly as other YA novels might, but I don’t believe that’s it for me. I don’t need things spelled out for me to understand the plot.
I didn’t get a feel that it was set in Toronto though, and really wouldn’t have even known it was supposed to be T.O. if not for one mention (about 76 pages in). Not that it really detracts from the story itself, but personally, it being set in Toronto was a big seller. This could have been set in any city in North America. However, I did appreciate the more human moments with Emma and her family. The dynamic and interactions between her & her mother, or her & her father were touching. The scenes with the burning house were also interesting, with the different experiences that Emma was having from the others.
Otherwise, I thought there were some aspects to the book that were really intriguing as to how Sagara chose to develop certain things. However, I feel at many times it just got so convoluted and complicated that the reader isn’t quite sure what was going on for the majority of the book. Perhaps this was just a book that was so far from what I was expecting it to originally be.