The Silence

I had this book on kindle and read it while in the hospital. I was reading every moment I was awake and finished in two fast days. I love the detailed characters, the settings, and our multi-layered heroine. Ms. Pearce is a good student of the Stephen King style and offers us a compelling story fleshed out with unusually busy people - busy doing what? The urgency of your suspicion creeps up on you as Marco and his love get deep into a relationship based on nostalgia, drugs, and a sense that the story is getting creepier and weirder with each incident of forgetfulness. This is one novel I will want to reread. It was great to read a kindle edition that seemed to have zero errors. Kudos to the editors! I hope Ms. Pearce writes a lot more books and continues the tradition of slowly creeping us out.

February First Reads Pick. I am torn between three and four stars. On one hand, It is well written, organized, and thought provoking. On the other hand, It is very - and I mean VERY - predictable. It is pretty obvious what is going on from very early on, but I could not put it down because there were enough unanswered questions to keep me moving forward. It is also very disjointed feel, but it feels authentic because it is entirely from Stella's POV. I can't say more without risking spoilers. Overall it is a great debut novel and a quick weekend read. I highly recommend it for fans of psychological thrillers.

It’s unfortunate this book was not well edited. It could have been great if someone was honest with the author and told her that much of the time you couldn’t even follow the movement from one scene, or even paragraph, to the next. Very distracting to have to keep rereading because I thought I had missed something. No attention to needed detail. But still worth a read!

I only see a few reviews and since I enjoyed the book quite a bit I decided to add my review. It definitely has quite a bit of mystery, with some "thriller" aspects added. I felt as if I was holding my breath while reading it and I had to finish it to emotionally exhale. I know there are moments in the book that I had to slow my reading down to make sure I knew exactly what was going on, but overall the book was engaging and a great read on a day off. The descriptions were not overly done, but just right so I could imagine the scene and people as the story unfolded. Definitely pleased with my First choice read this month. I started by reading the prolouge and was hooked, so I ordered it and was engaged the whole time.

I'm glad I chose this as my Amazon First Reads book despite the negative reviews it already had. You can get the premise from the description of the book and other reviews, so I'll just say that I found it enjoyable and very hard to put down. Sure, you know what's happening and the main character, Stella, seems to take too long to notice. But it's not like it's supposed to be a secret that Marco is gaslighting Stella, he's none too subtle and her friends, particularly her best friend, Carmel, can see right away how manipulative he is. But it's the anticipation of when or if she finally snaps that keeps the story moving. It became more interesting to me when he secrets her away to his cottage and it takes complete strangers to open her eyes to what's really happening. The people she meets here are some very interesting characters and I think that had the story been shortened, and if her time here began earlier, it would have flowed better and been more engrossing. Anyone who struggles with anxiety, paranoia, and addiction can relate to Stella's mindset and her constant doubts about what's happening. But even someone so thoroughly mixed up emotionally can see that a partner is supposed to support them, not make them constantly feel worse about themselves. Waiting for Marco to get what he deserves will drive you to the very end. I really liked this book and am so happy I've found another new author to enjoy!

This story kept my attention in a way I haven’t experienced in a long time! I was pleasantly surprised to attach to and care about the characters so much. I appreciate the haunting elements, suspense, friendships, and romance (which I hardly ever admit to). Very well written and am looking forward to her next book with excitement. I never do book reviews and I read a lot! That’s how much I enjoyed this.

Love this type of story - you never know the truth during because you're in the protagonist's point of view. So, you are left to imagine, suspect, detect. Delicious! Psychological thriller, yet also has the enigma of mental health and possible addiction on top of an already unsavory blanked out past that rises to the surface. Very nice read.

The book read incredibly quick as it had me drawn in from the beginning. Pulling my own memories of abuse, I felt for the main character. I also was infuriated at her impish, easily persuaded attitude. This, alas, is what happens though in stories like this. Man obsessed with woman, woman falls in love and becomes blinded, man abuses woman; sometimes the woman doesn't escape. The author's way with words also made this an interesting and "fun" read. I greatly enjoyed this book and will pursue other titles by her.

As I read “The Silence”, I developed a “love-hate” relationship with each chapter. It was a book I couldn’t put down; suspense and fear enveloped me as the characters and story were revealed. I’m so glad that I persevered at the beginning as now i am able to highly recommend this as a great read.

I read this book over two night. I really couldn't put it down. Brilliant read and I recommend to anyone who loves a good thriller.

This is a book that I found I fell into a rhythm with very quickly. From the very beginning you get a sense of Stella, of the kind of woman she is and the kind of friendships she has to support her. Following on from childhood success in a popular TV show, Stella has grown into a woman who has achieved little and done little with her life. In fact, it seems to be going nowhere other than through a series of disappointments. Until she meets Marco. That is the night that everything changes. From the very ominous prologue, right through to the high stakes, high tension conclusion, this book takes readers on a real journey. To the outside eye, it is easy to work out what is happening here, to see the clue that suggest the true nature of the relationship between Stella, Marco and Stella's best friend and flatmate, Carmel, and yet the author still manages to sow those little seeds of doubt, the one that make both the reader, and Stella, wonder just who it is that she needs to be wary of. But then that's what makes the story feel authentic. That whole essence of coercive control that threads through the story, but just who is it pulling the strings and why? Alongside the more obvious elements of threat within the book, there is a more ominous feeling that stems from something that happened to Stella in her childhood, while she was still a child star. This part of the story is creepy and the way the author has portrayed that element of being stalked adds to the tense atmosphere of the story. With the added isolation of the cottage that Stella moves to in Cornwall, the constant feeling of being watched and the threatening letters she starts to receive at home, you really do get that skin crawling and unsettling sensation as you read. Now Stella is not an entirely sympathetic character - it would be too easy to make her a 'perfect' victim and Daisy Pearce has steered clear of this, making Stella a far more rounded and therefore authentic character, but also, ironically, the perfect person to become a victim. Her past has made her guarded and easier to isolate and separate from her small network of friends and this has played out perfectly in the story. Now this is not a fast paced novel and it takes a good portion of the book for the whole scene to be set up. You can see the warning signs start to appear in the early chapters, but it is really from the point where Stella is moved to Cornwall for her own good, that the real darkness starts to descend and you can feel the tone of the novel change. It is not all doom and gloom, and there are some moments of light within the ever more oppressive atmosphere, as Stella gets to know her handyman, Frankie. He is a great character, but also guarded so it is easy to see why Stella is not completely at ease with him. But then everything about the cottage, Chy an Mor, creams oppression, from the damp on the walls, the mist falling across the coastline and the deadly drops that are never more than a few steps away. And there are the things that go bump in the night. Is Stella really seeing ghosts or is it a fragile and damaged mind playing tricks on her, her emotions heightened by the very isolation that is meant to cure her ..? Well you'll have to read to find out, won't you? A great debut thriller and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author in the not too distant future.

I found this a bit hard going to start with but the pace increased when Stella was moved by Marco into the country. It was an interesting story.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It kept me enthralled throughout on a little talked about subject. Tense, scary in places, shocking and not knowing what's coming next - all the ingredients needed for an excellent triller! Well recommend and an author to watch out for. Looking forward to the next book!