by S.A. Barnes
Book Review
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Before reading impressions:
One of my book buddies happened to be about to read this book too, so we did a buddy read. I ended up getting COVID while reading, so it took me a bit longer than anticipated to finish this one.
The cover is very cool and the summary seems interesting. I am a Titanic and Shining fan so I’m intrigued.
During reading:
It is definitely taking me time to read this book and get every detail. It’s a really good book though and nothing seems to be thrown in just for added length. It took a lot of mental energy to get there.
This book is very scary and disturbing.
I am confused about the connection with the Aurora and the disaster the protagonist was part of?
It was explained! Wonderful.
I like the banter and antics of the characters. I like the tension.
I don’t like how this book is becoming more and more about PTSD and the grief of the main character and less about the actual plot itself. I see how this is part of what makes the story come to life, but for me, I was just wanting to skim over those portions? I understand her mother died, which is horrible, and that she sees her. I understand she needs help and is not mentally well and that this is being used against her in this plot. This point was hammered in so much that it began to feel less like an escape?
I was definitely scared during this book.
The last 10% was weirdly disappointing to be completely honest. I felt the ending could have been perfect with Max. Sometimes providing every single detail and leaving zero room for curiosity takes the magic out of a book.
I’ve seen a common trait where books over 330 pages either have too much detail or they are not enough or just perfect. In this case, I thought it was a bit too long. There was no science in this book, at all. A good amount of the pages focused on her PTSD over and over again.
Thoughts after finishing:
I really had to push through that last portion. When a sci-book has a space setting, I expect science. This had a few mentions of an environmental lock, a blackbox that’s also in airplanes, but mainly it was horror related. The beginning had a bit more space in it, but this book just was not all that much about the space setting itself, I didn’t get my Andy Weir itch at all, and felt like I struggled to finish this book once I made it to the 95% mark. I am not a person that needs that much closure. I just didn’t bond with Claire like I would have wanted and expected to, and didn’t root for the friendships or even cry? Intercepts did scare me more. This is more disturbing?
This is going to be a hard read for you if these are any of your triggers:
PTSD, $uicide, hallucinations, gore, death, grief
There’s definitely more, but I can’t think of any of them right now.
I wish this had more Titanic elements to it, and less of The Shining element. Going to find some more bottom of the sea books, as I have given up trying to find a good hard sci-fi book at this point.
It feels weird giving a horror book 4 stars when I feel icky after reading it, but that is the point of a horror book I think? I just wanted a different icky feeling. This is still a good thriller, but for the length, I don’t know that I will re-read it soon. It’s better than the Silence of The Lambs books though! It’s not my new favorite book, and I guess that’s where my hopes were.
Goodreads link https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20503057.S_A_Barnes
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