The Silence by Tim Lebbon - analysis and review

 

Disclaimer: Monsta Reader is affiliated with bookshop.org and Waterstones. If you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog, I might earn a small commission from the sale, but this does not affect the price of the items, and it does not influence the content of this blog.

The Silence is a horror novel that draws half its horror from the ways people can fall apart during times of crisis. Each chapter opens with fictional social media or internet quotations, spaces we all know can be a place of panic and fear at the best of times. This is a great device used by the author to explore this theme of how people hold up, or not, in adverse times.

Deep in an unexplored cave system, blind creatures unknown to humanity hunt in darkness. They hunt without sight, exploiting sound to catch prey. But, when the caves are opened and people come, these creatures are unleashed onto a world that might just be forever changed by their emergence.

With Ally, deaf for many years and used to a world of silence, and her family, we follow this story of survival in a world made unrecognisable.

The central theme of the book that particularly caught my interest was that of human reactions to tragic events. By embracing the theme of social media and the internet, as tools for communication and disseminating information, Lebbon did a good job of exploring the ways in which people can respond to fearful times. Indeed, a great deal of the horror in this novel is not in the behaviour of monstrous creatures, but in the monstrous and desperate things that people can do to each other. The book is at its best in those parts, casting an eye on how people will justify to themselves committing horrible acts.

I don't know what inspired Lebbon in his creation of these creatures, blind cave dwellers that hunt by sound, but they are solidly scary. We are an awfully noisy animal, us humans, with our music, our cars, our need to perform on some virtual platform, and, sometimes, our desire to just stand up and shout. In The Silence, in this world where people are forced into quiet, it is a stripped back world. A world where much is given up, but also a world where connections are brought back to those with whom we are closest.

This is a decent horror novel, with themes worthy of exploration.

You can purchase a copy of The Silence by Tim Lebbon here.

Thank you for reading. If you can, please consider supporting this blog with a coffee from ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps me turning the pages!

Thank you to every reader and supporter!

All of my most recent reads!

 Disclaimer: MonstaReader is affiliated with bookshop.org, and Waterstones. If you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog, I might earn a small commission from the seller. However, this does not impact the cost to the consumer, and it does not influence the content of this blog.

A day in the life of your friendly little MonstaReader is spent pretty much like anyone else's. I wake up in the morning and sigh because my body didn't metamorphose into something less flabby and more muscular while I slept; I check my diary for the day, considering where and when I can fit in some reading time; I make myself a coffee, watching the birdfeeders whilst it brews . . .

Pretty standard stuff, you know.

But, if you're here, it's probably the books that you're interested in. So, in today's post, I thought I would do a little round-up of all my most recent reads. Three books that I was reading simultaneously, and books that I will dive into much more deeply in future posts.

Native Son by Richard Wright

We start with Native Son by Richard Wright (my copy pictured above), a novel written as protest, in which we follow Bigger Thomas, a young black man trapped in poverty and Chicago slums. Published in 1940, this was a novel that shocked readers at the time, and which still has power in its pages today. 

The reader is immersed into a world of anger and fear, a world where something has to break, because a world into which you are born Black is a world in which you are not free. There is not even the illusion of freedom.

Much has changed since this novel was written but, one fears, much has stayed almost exactly the same. This is a novel written as a protest, and though some criticisms have been levelled at the novel - James Baldwin did so in his writings on protest novels - the author, Wright, explained in an introduction to the novel that the world he created in the book was a reflection of the world in which he lived.

This is a book well worth reading, a landmark novel, that went on to make Richard Wright the first bestselling Black writer in America.

You can purchase Native Son by Richard Wright here.

The Silence by Tim Lebbon

Next, we move on to something quite different . . .

In an underground cave system, sightless creatures use sound to hunt their prey. When humans move in and disturb these inhabitants, the predatory creatures are loosed from the caves, and they swarm from the darkness. 

Ally, deaf in the years since a terrible accident, knows how to live in silence. Ally and her family leave their home, and make their way towards a remote haven, where they hope to escape these creatures, which are drawn to sound. But is the world forever changed?

Horror novels have been looked upon with a lack of respect in the past, and it's true that a bad horror novel can be pretty torturous - horrific in all the wrong ways - but a good horror novel can explore important themes, just as much as any other genre. Indeed, is well placed to explore themes other genres would find difficult to include.

The Silence explores how people react to extraordinary events. Each chapter opens with an extract from a fictional news report, a briefing , or social media commentary. With the fantastic events of the novel juxtaposed with the familiar human commentary that we are all used to by now on these platforms, the world in this horror feels that much more real. Indeed, half the horror and suspense in the book comes from how the human beings can treat each other when they are scared, and can't make sense of the world any more.

You can purchase The Silence by Tim Lebbon here.

Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellman

This one is a Pulizer Prize winning biography I have read before, and now I am reading it again.

We follow Wilde's ascent and, sadly and inevitably, his downfall in Victorian society, in this, Richard Ellman's definitive Wilde biography.

Wilde was a kind, brilliant and, at times, self-destructive man. And he almost made the work of the biographers easy for them, having lived a life so ideal for biography. 

This is a book that you can tell has been written with care, a desire to do justice to the subject, the subject being a brilliant man torn down, and that care and attention elevates this biography.

Unfortunately, I cannot find a link to this book with my affiliates, but it is out there. It was published by Penguin and, if you can seek it out or you stumble across it, I urge you to make the purchase! Or, perhaps your local library has a copy!

Thank you for reading. Before you go, can I ask that you consider supporting this blog with a coffee from ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps my eyes open as I turn pages or tap away at my keyboard.

Writing these posts is driven by my passion for books, which I hope shines through, and, though I am affiliated with two booksellers, I have resisted placing ad space in my posts. The affiliate links are there, but I am much more interested in writing about the books than I am in trying to sell them to you as a product. I discuss the books, and then the choice is yours.

But my passion for the written word has extended beyond bibliophilia, and I find myself engaged in endeavours to write. And unfortunately, one needs money to pursue their ambitions and passions.

Every reader and supporter is much appreciated - ko-fi.com - and I thank you for reading! Thank you!