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A review by dansco112
The Silent Land by Graham Joyce
5.0
This book is a magical tragedy. There is no other way I can describe this hard-hitting, heartwarming, emotional wrenching story of two people stuck between life and death.
The book follows couple Jake and Zoe after they seemingly surviving from an avalanche during one of their many skiing holidays. When they get themselves out of the snow, they find their hotel, the village, everything is silent and abandoned. This could of been a typical horror book of some unknown monsters prowling around the village and our heroes have to find a way to survive them.
But Joyce does not do that.
Instead, the supernatural is treated as normality. The twist is revealed in the 5th chapter when Jake states that they're dead. So...that's the reality of the situation. They're dead. This is clearly heaven or hell. So what happens?
Well, they live in it.
Zoe and Jake attempt to live in the world they are trapped into, and they begin to stop trying to escape it. They eat at the restaurant with food that seemingly never decays, they shop in stores wearing clothes that they don't even need to buy, it almost seems as if they can live here forever.
Than the tragedy starts brewing.
As the book goes on, everything starts decaying, more strange things happen, but it's not excessively "horrible" nor is it terrifying. It's more foreboding.
Joyce makes the tragedy in the decay of our loved ones. Zoe survives at the end, along with her baby, but Jake dies. Zoe never died. She only cheated death, giving them more time together and finalizing their relationship and love. The Silent Land, in a way, is a romance. We spend a lot of time figuring the relationship of these two, and while some may complain that the two characters aren't developed, I personally believe it's meant to be. Because it doesn't matter. They are spending their time together, and we are watching the final moments of a couple finalizing their feelings towards each other.
Joyce overlaps various genres into this book: Mostly fantasy, a little bit of horror, sometimes romance, and mystery. And just form personal experience, seeing every occurrence come together such as the phone calls, the tree that Zoe would always set up for her dad Archie, it almost brought a tear into my eye.
On the writing side, Joyce creates a magical, ominous world with simple yet visual descriptions that anyone can pick up and read. It's easy, and its captivating. If I really HAD to state one flaw with this novel, it would be sometimes the dialogue, in this case more of the phrasing and words, can seem a bit over the top or random at times, but I can ignore that and just see the beauty of this book. This book is just...I can't recommend it enough. It's beautiful. The imagery, the story, the twists, the characters. I love it. And that is why I will be coming back to Graham Joyce, ready for more.
“
The book follows couple Jake and Zoe after they seemingly surviving from an avalanche during one of their many skiing holidays. When they get themselves out of the snow, they find their hotel, the village, everything is silent and abandoned. This could of been a typical horror book of some unknown monsters prowling around the village and our heroes have to find a way to survive them.
But Joyce does not do that.
Instead, the supernatural is treated as normality. The twist is revealed in the 5th chapter when Jake states that they're dead. So...that's the reality of the situation. They're dead. This is clearly heaven or hell. So what happens?
Well, they live in it.
Zoe and Jake attempt to live in the world they are trapped into, and they begin to stop trying to escape it. They eat at the restaurant with food that seemingly never decays, they shop in stores wearing clothes that they don't even need to buy, it almost seems as if they can live here forever.
Than the tragedy starts brewing.
As the book goes on, everything starts decaying, more strange things happen, but it's not excessively "horrible" nor is it terrifying. It's more foreboding.
Joyce makes the tragedy in the decay of our loved ones. Zoe survives at the end, along with her baby, but Jake dies. Zoe never died. She only cheated death, giving them more time together and finalizing their relationship and love. The Silent Land, in a way, is a romance. We spend a lot of time figuring the relationship of these two, and while some may complain that the two characters aren't developed, I personally believe it's meant to be. Because it doesn't matter. They are spending their time together, and we are watching the final moments of a couple finalizing their feelings towards each other.
Joyce overlaps various genres into this book: Mostly fantasy, a little bit of horror, sometimes romance, and mystery. And just form personal experience, seeing every occurrence come together such as the phone calls, the tree that Zoe would always set up for her dad Archie, it almost brought a tear into my eye.
On the writing side, Joyce creates a magical, ominous world with simple yet visual descriptions that anyone can pick up and read. It's easy, and its captivating. If I really HAD to state one flaw with this novel, it would be sometimes the dialogue, in this case more of the phrasing and words, can seem a bit over the top or random at times, but I can ignore that and just see the beauty of this book. This book is just...I can't recommend it enough. It's beautiful. The imagery, the story, the twists, the characters. I love it. And that is why I will be coming back to Graham Joyce, ready for more.
“