Tim Lebbon

A family and their friends struggle to survive in a world overrun by ravenous creatures that hunt purely by sound. By the award-winning author of Coldbrook. Original.

The Silence

Kelsey Lynn

Warning, as I tend to do for all my reviews, my reviews tend to be stream of conscious, so my grammar and such may be lacking, and my organization may be poor. However, bad grammar aside, my review should not be discredited based on it. Also a warning, included in this book review is a review of the movie and the movie "A Quiet Place".

 So, I read “The Silence” by Tim Lebbon, 100% because of the Netflix release of the movie of the same name, Reading the description of the movie, I went, as many did “ oh, Netflix did a crappy knock off of the ‘ The Quiet Place’”. However, upon research, I relied, that “The Silence” was released a few years prior to “The Quiet Place” and as an avid book reader all signs pointed to the fact that “A Quiet Place” might actually be a knock off of this book.
 I’m an avid reader of horror, and especially SciFi horror, a lacking and often overlooked genre, so any excuse to read one is eagerly seized by this lady. I also enjoy reading books prior to viewing the films, because once you watch a film, their visual interpretation is permanently in your brain, whether you want it or not. In this case I was glad, as the order of these media is absolutely in my mind as; The Book> A Quiet Place> The film of the book.
 If we reflect on many other media, or for the sake of this review, one of my favorite books turned to film (Annihilation), very little of the original material is necessary for the “film” version, you can take as little as the general concept, or description on the back of the book or even less (Annihilation) and make an official film. With this in mind, “A Quiet Place” 100% ripped off this book. Taking the general concept of “apocalypse brought on by creatures who hunt by sound, featuring a deaf protagonist” (already more than Annihilation, but I digress). The Tim Lebbon books concept 100% lines up with this blockbuster movie. A movie that I absolutely loved, the theater experience will be one of my most memorable experiences, I’ve never experienced such a quiet theater, everyone was thoroughly invested, scared, and silent. 
 So, onto the review of the book. I absolutely loved this book, let’s just get that out of the way. SciFi Horror is an underutilized and often terrible genre. This book focused on the birth of an apocalypse and told the story through the eyes of a deaf protagonist that utilized social media as her connection to the world. It opens with her watching a Discovery Channel feature on the discovery of a isolated cave system, one with no entrance or exit, that is discovered via a sinkhole. She watches this feature, only for it to end in bloodshed, as the cave system is home to a flying rat like species unlike anything on the surface of the planet. These creatures are blind, and hunt via sound and minor echolocation. This slaughter then spreads to random incidents and reports via social media recording the spread, and more bloodshed, as these creatures migrate and reproduce and spread across the globe. First and foremost, to clear up inconsistencies in my reviews, I still hate, and disagree with the namedropping of anything modern. As I feel this automatically dates books. Utilizing names like “Twitter” and “Facebook” will at some point be laughable when these companies eventually fail and make way for the next big thing. Think of if a book referenced Myspace. So I will argue right away, I do believe the author should have referred to these things simply as “social media” rather than utilizing their actual names. 
 As the stories get worse, and the spread becomes clear, the family must make the decision “fight or flight” and they choose flight. As they most likely should. The protagonist, her mother, her father, her brother and her maternal grandfather, and her “uncle” (her father’s best friend, something I thoroughly understand, as I grew up with an “uncle” that was just a best friend of my father, who died untimely from throat cancer, and most likely made me more connected with this character) all decide to flee to their old summer home in Scotland, far from the city, far from noise. They take off in a car earlier than most people and try and make a run for it. The story then follows them as they run into the desperateness of humans in times of plight., from the early stages to the late ones. Eventually finding their way to temporary shelter, after struggle and loss, and most definitely not at their destination. While in this temporary shelter, they encounter an extreme in a situation like this, a religious cult, that has found their own way of dealing with the devil knocking on their door, and believe they are in the right. They want her (the deaf protagonist) to teach them sign language, and don’t take “no” well. Leading ultimately to a face off, that is hard to do silently, and remember, making noise calls the creatures, and usually means death.
 I really enjoyed this story, and how the author presented it. As a wannabe writer, I’ve been reading a lot of books on writing, and it seems like this author did as well. Every time you could ask “So what” or “but why” this author had a reason, and explanation. All action made sense, and the reactions made sense to the characters, I believed all of them, and was quickly attached to each of them. Leading to many of tears, as in a story of the apocalypse, people will die. It’s very rare to find a book, let alone an apocalyptic book, where the characters aren’t doing wild crazy stupid things that yield in their deaths. Every death, every action, fit the character and was meaningful in this book, a feat arguably. The continued use of social media created a character within itself, I feared for “the grey” or the failure of electricity, as the disconnection to the world felt as palpable of a loss to me as it did to the protagonist. They continued to watch the world fall and explored the fallacy of social media as it did, some of the world denying it, some questionable tweets and releases as it was uncertain whether government bodies had fallen or not. It was a subtle statement of the utilization of social media as your sole news source. 
 Now to take this to the next level. “The Silence” the movie, was…. Terrible. It’s like whatever the author learned in their studies was thrown out the window. 35 minutes into the movie, we were at the same point we were at 50-60% in the book. I was… obviously concerned. How will we finish this movie? How is there so much left? They did so much so fast. They set the movie in the United States, rather than Europe, for… no reason. Not an egregious decision, but not a needed one. We open with our deaf protagonist, step one, and then immediately the horror is upon us. They cut out all the social media aspect, all the buildup, all the slow looming terror of 500 miles away, 300 miles away, 100 miles away. It was there. They were running with everyone else, not because they got a jump on them. All backstory was stripped away, along with it the explanation for all character actions. The father’s overprotectiveness due to his daughter losing her hearing in an accident, that also caused him to lose his parents, and thus resulting in him immediately fleeing in the face of a building apocalypse, none of that was established. They just ran, when everyone else ran. The social media was only utilized for her to maybe message her “guy friend” twice. After 50% of the book was delivered in 20 minutes, the rest of the movie must be focused on the cult, right? Hardly, I mean it was, but it wasn’t? They drug out the wrong moments, and the cult situation was rushed as well, which is odd, considering they had 70+ minutes left. They decided the concept of a cult dedicated to being silent being obsessed with someone that can sign, was too complex for viewers. Instead choosing “SHE IS FERTILE” to be the reason they were so obsessed they would sacrifice and risk their own lives. Seriously, the mast egregious issue in this. She is fertile, seriously? 2 weeks, maybe? (time is not well established in the movie) and people worry about fertility? It makes no sense. Then, abruptly, the movie is over. No joke, as abruptly as I delivered it here.
 A frustrating film, considering how good the book is, how much care the author took in developing meaningful, believable characters. It seemed they were spooked by “A Quiet Place” and rushed it, and unfortunately delivered what comes off as a “crappy knockoff”. Few will ever know it was the original, few will know there was a very good book behind this concept. Also, the names that attached themselves to this must be kicking themselves, Stanley Tucci, Keirnan Shipka, Miranda Otto, John Corbot. They deserve better, the readers deserve better. The world deserves to know this genre is valid and has something to offer.
 “The Quiet Place” takes the story to another level. Picking up in an “established” apocalypse, AKA dropping us in the middle of it, a family has been living in this for a while and have a deaf daughter. The story is about their continued survival, and the hardships they face (sans a cult), with very little of the how this happened explained, a little is seen in headlines in news clippings, but that’s about it. Most negative reviews focus on this. Our instant gratification society, with terrible extrapolation skills and terrible reading and listening comprehension skills, found this lack of explanation… unacceptable. I did not, I LOVE when stories do this, but I am a minority. So, imagine “The Silence” continued, that is “A Quiet Place”. I believed in every character, and every thought process and decision. I was invested, I cried, I worried, I fretted, and stayed as quiet as I could for the fear that these large and non-flying (the main difference) creatures were somehow lurking in the theater, just waiting for me to cry out. Not to mention that the John Krasinkski and Emily Blunt combo was amazing, married in real life translated to palpable chemistry on screen. I know, this is a lacking and quick review of this movie, it’s been a while, I saw it in theater, just know it’s 1000000% better than “The Silence” MOVIE. 
 If I was forced to pick my favorite, which requires little coaxing, as simple as asking. I would say “The Silence” by Tim Lebbon, it was seriously a good book, I would argue a genre crosser, because of how well he wrote the characters ( I read 85% in one day, 15% the next day), it was incredibly readable, and believable, and just plain good. Between the films 100% “The Quiet Place”. Do I think they ripped the book off, yes, no question. But the movie for the Lebbon book, is seriously… not good. Like frustratingly, not me drunkenly gripping my seat in fury like “Annihilation” but still me sitting there going WT actual F, during the whole thing. EVERY SINGLE GOOD THING in the book was stripped away. They lost it, they tried to create a answer for what people hated about “The Quiet place” and sacrificed what made that book better in the first place. Had they just stuck to the better story they would have been fine. But they didn’t and here we are, you reading me rant, and me ranting. I would like to say, please read this book, but it’s 2019, and unless you are reading this review off GoodReads, I know you won’t. I’ve accepted it, I’m judging you, but I accept it. So I hate to say, watch “A Quiet Place” don’t bother with “ The Silence”, the movie just fails the book, fails the readers and ultimately fails society in general, as it doesn’t deliver a good story, it underestimates and babies the viewers. We don’t need character development, we need action, and until this mentality dies, I’ll continue to rant and be disappointed, and my rants will fall on deaf ears… eeeeh see what I did there?

Maggie Gordon

The Silence is a horrifying story about a world under seige by strange reptiles from sealed underground caverns. It's a story about environmental collapse and what humans go through when the world turns against us. Lebbon's story is slow, but the creeping suspense is delicious. The plot follows a single family who braves a world where talking gets you killed. Their daughter is deaf, giving them an advantage as they all know sign language. The one downside to the book is the abrupt ending. There's no clear resolution, and no guarantee for a sequel. Here's to hoping!

The Silence

Reviews