Review of Silence by Michelle Sagara

Title: Silence Author: Michelle Sagara Pages: 289 Publication Date: May 1st, 2012  Source: Received from publisher for review

Back Cover

“It began in the graveyard. Ever since her boyfriend Nathan died in a tragic accident Emma had been coming to the graveyard at night. During the day she went through the motions at her prep school, in class, with her friends, but that’s all it was. But tonight was different. Tonight Emma and her dog were not alone in the cemetery. There were two others there—Eric, who had just started at her school, and an ancient woman who looked as though she were made of rags. And when they saw Emma there, the old woman reached out to her with a grip as chilling as death….”

First Line

"Everything happens at night."

In a Sentence

Though the writing style left me feeling a little disoriented at times, overall, I was impressed by Silence, and I definitely plan on checking out more by Michelle Sagara in the future!

My Thoughts

I usually consider myself to be pretty up-to-date on upcoming young adult releases, but Silence was one of those books that managed to completely slip by me. When I found a copy in my mailbox, I honestly had no idea what the book was about at all, and I hadn't heard of the author before either. Obviously, the first thing I did was open up the book and read the synopsis on the inside of the dust jacket, which gave me a little bit of a better idea of what I was getting into, but in all honesty...Silence is one of those books where the synopsis doesn't do it justice. The description makes it sound like your run-of-the-mill paranormal YA novel, but it definitely isn't. In fact, it was what Silence did differently than many other books in its genre that made me end up liking it so much. 

First of all, Silence, unlike many paranormal young adult books, is not a romance. There are brief references to a past romantic relationship, and maybe, if you squint, foreshadowing for a possible future one, but a blossoming romance is definitely not a defining plot element of this book. I realize that this might be a turn-off for some people, but for me, it was absolutely refreshing. In a genre that's completely saturated with love triangles and (in my opinion) the ever-dreaded insta-love problem, a story that wasn't heavy on the romance was almost (dare I say it?) RELIEVING. 

Michelle Sagara also has a way with words. Her writing style is almost poetic and often very beautiful. However, talking about the writing style brings me to the one issue I did have with Silence. One of my book blogging buddies, Candace at Candace's Book Blog, described my feelings almost exactly in her review of Silence:

“When I started reading my first thought was that the writing was beautiful. It wasn't fluffy or full or big words or anything, but just the way she said things was beautiful. But at the same time I found myself feeling lost when there were more active scenes with lots going on. At times I felt so lost I kind of wanted to skim.”

The difference between Candace's opinion and my own is that while I didn't get the urge to skim, I felt as if I had been skimming at times...like I had missed something. Not anything hugely important, but enough to leave me feeling a little disoriented. For me, it didn't end up being a huge issue, but it was a minor annoyance.

Getting back to the good stuff, I felt like Sagara had a solid handle on her characters, especially her protagonist, Emma. Having recently lost someone she loved dearly, a lot of this book addresses how Emma learns to cope with her loss. What I liked best about Silence was that it combined two of my favorite things: a creative, magical fantasy world with characters who were experiencing real-life issues. Silence is largely a book about relationships: developing them, maintaining them through a variety of hardships, and learning how to move on when those relationships are severed. 

Overall, Silence ended up being a very pleasant surprise for me. It's the first book in a planned trilogy, and from what I've seen, I'm excited to see what the next installment will bring. Definitely something to try for those of you who are fans of a good ghost story, or if you'd like to pick up something that's a little more romance-light.

Links

Add Silence to your to-read list on Goodreads.
Find author Michelle Sagara online.

Not sure about this review? Compare our tastes in books. (Goodreads)

___________________________________________

Rating

Really liked it