S.A. Barnes

Ghost Station

Katheryn

TLA summary. Top level assholes summary. In other words, break it down into small sentences, use short paragraphs, and include pictures, if possible, for the people making the decisions, who have no idea what they're talking about.

Some of us are broken enough that we don't get to be fixed.

Barnes is quickly becoming a favorite author, and it kills me that there aren't more books. Ghost Station is an incredible story, with just the right balance of spooky and memorable.

I got this one from NetGalley and was so excited as I was a big fan of Dead Silence. I unfortunately started reading it at a rough time for me, so it took me so long to get through that I actually switched to the audio. Zura Johnson did a good job, and there were several accents, which always impresses me.

This novel mixes a lot of what you’ve already seen out of other sci-fi horrors. Not that I’m in any way the expert, having only seen/watched some of them (Event Horizon, Alien, Life+). Not necessarily that something needs to be original for me to enjoy it, however, if I’m being honest, there was unfortunately nothing exciting about this. This one followed along the same path as Dead Silence, where there is an incredible amount of set up, but it did not work on me twice. Where the first hit me at the right time, and the long opening added to the cabin-fever feel of the narration, this one didn’t work.

The main character has a haunted, hidden past. And although it is continuously mentioned as a major secret, when it is eventually revealed, it does virtually nothing to the plot or climax. While it was supposed to show the lead overcoming expectations, it just read as flat to me. The stakes feel too low with them being on another planet—one which does not have a breathable atmosphere.

There is one point where I felt the novel was shifting toward a big change. They wanted to leave but were stuck in the station during a snow storm. It was still quite late for a climax to start, but I thought it might have been shifting towards a more classic, claustrophobic-isolation horror (just in space). Instead it just kind of continued off the rails. Really wanted to love this one, but it fumbled most of the landing for me. 2.5/5*

C. J. Daley 

I got this one from NetGalley and was so excited as I was a big fan of Dead Silence. I unfortunately started reading it at a rough time for me, so it took me so long to get through that I actually switched to the audio. Zura Johnson did a good job, and there were several accents, which always impresses me.

This novel mixes a lot of what you’ve already seen out of other sci-fi horrors. Not that I’m in any way the expert, having only seen/watched some of them (Event Horizon, Alien, Life+). Not necessarily that something needs to be original for me to enjoy it, however, if I’m being honest, there was unfortunately nothing exciting about this. This one followed along the same path as Dead Silence, where there is an incredible amount of set up, but it did not work on me twice. Where the first hit me at the right time, and the long opening added to the cabin-fever feel of the narration, this one didn’t work.

The main character has a haunted, hidden past. And although it is continuously mentioned as a major secret, when it is eventually revealed, it does virtually nothing to the plot or climax. While it was supposed to show the lead overcoming expectations, it just read as flat to me. The stakes feel too low with them being on another planet—one which does not have a breathable atmosphere.

There is one point where I felt the novel was shifting toward a big change. They wanted to leave but were stuck in the station during a snow storm. It was still quite late for a climax to start, but I thought it might have been shifting towards a more classic, claustrophobic-isolation horror (just in space). Instead it just kind of continued off the rails. Really wanted to love this one, but it fumbled most of the landing for me. 2.5/5*

Ghost Station

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