Daughter of Deep Silence Review

Remember the TV show Revenge? It was a show with a wacky but compelling first season, about a young women on a mission of... revenge. I'm pleased to say that Daughter of Deep Silence is very similar to Revenge, both in subject matter and tone, but doesn't approach copycat status.  Well done, Carrie Ryan, if the nod to Revenge was intentional, which I kind of hope it was.

Daughter of Deep Silence follows Frances, a girl who was fourteen when unmasked gunmen boarded the cruise ship that she and her parents were passengers on.  Everyone was slaughtered, except Frances and her friend Libby, who escaped by hiding on a forgotten dumbwaiter.  Adrift on a life raft, the girls are discovered by Libby's father's own ship, but too late for Libby to survive.  While convalescing in a hospital, Frances discovers that Grey Wells, a fellow passenger that she had a brief, yet powerful, romance with, and his father, a U.S. Senator, survived the gunmen as well.  Only Grey and his father don't mention any gunmen... they blame an enormous wave for the disaster.  Figuring the Senator, and possibly Grey, had something to do with the attack, and that she is still in danger, Frances goes into hiding. Then, years later, hardened and formidable, Frances plays her own retaliatory hand.

First, let's get some issues of the way.  Much like Revenge, Daughter of Deep Silence has plot holes galore.  There were a ton of things that made no sense.  Fortunately for me, these plot holes didn't bother me so much.  This may not be the case with all readers, but I gave this book a lot of leeway, perhaps because I wanted to enjoy it.  However, I do acknowledge that the plot holes are a legitimate weakness of the book.

Secondly, Frances' actions can be maddening at times.  She waffles at moments, vacillating between being too hard and too soft.  These actions are consistent with her character, however, which is highly conflicted.  I can readily see how some readers would be very put off by Frances.

Thirdly, I have this feeling that the book had quite a bit of unrealized potential.  The novel had a very nice concept and solid characters, but wound up drawing back instead of moving forward a number of times.  I realize that this criticism is quite abstract... What I mean is, is that Ryan could have pushed the envelope a little further to make this book even better.

Now for the things I liked.  The flashback scenes were very effective, I thought.  The contrast between the young girl Frances used to be, and the hard woman she is now was striking.  Her memories are poignant and sepia-toned, knowing as we do how those blissful moments at sea before the disaster were Frances' last happy times.  The romance between a young Grey and Frances was pretty darn sexy, for them being so young.  I mean, wowza.  A standout scene in the book was a memory of Frances and Grey swimming together, playing around with his water-proof phone.  The scene is blissful and passionate and then Ryan transitions that phone into the future with cymbal-crashing shock.  It was my favorite moment of the book.

So, while I'd like to give Daughter of Deep Silence a higher rating, I'm more than aware of its shortcomings.  However, I did legitimately enjoy this book and I look forward to Carrie Ryan's future offerings.

 

 

Vicious Review

I am kicking myself for not having picked up Vicious sooner.  I knew it was well-received, but for some reason I thought the book would be boring.  I'm not sure why I got that impression, but I was wrong, wrong, WRONG! Vicious was a complete and total page-whipper!

The book opens with a man, Victor, and a young girl, Sydney, digging up a grave.  Quickly, we learn that this grisly task is all part of a mad scheme for revenge, years in the making.  Victor has just broken out of jail.  And he has one hell of a grudge against his old college roommate, Eli.

This decision to pit two former college roommates against each other is just inspired.  In my experience, your relationship with your college roommate is one of the most intense and bizarre relationships you ever have.  You're both "young adults," living in an oxymoronic state, under the influence of higher education, sleep deprivation, intoxication, and whatever the hell else you put into your system.  Your roommate becomes in turn, your friend, your ally, your enemy, your obsession, your nightmare. V. E. Schwab deftly captures all of these dynamics that bounce between Victor and Eli.

Eli and Victor's vortex of envy and murderous loathing begins ten years before the current events of the novel, when they choose their college thesis topics.  Victor chooses to study [spoiler]adrenaline.[/spoiler]  Eli chooses to research [spoiler]ExtraOrdinary abilities.[/spoiler]  The events that follow, during their spring semester of their senior year, are shocking.

Of course, Eli and Victor have back-up personnel to aid them.  Two talented sisters, Sydney and Serena, find themselves on separate sides of the vendetta.  And of course, Victor has his cell-mate and break-out buddy, Mitch.  And there's the dog, Dol.  All of these labels — hero, villain, sidekick, mascot — get tossed around and mixed up.  Who is who?

These characters were all fantastic.  I especially appreciated Victor.  He was a highly complex character, but Schwab still managed to keep him consistent.  I was at times, horrified by Victor's decisions, but somehow kept rooting for the man.  I loved hating the self-righteous Eli. Sydney and Serena were used as effective foils to Victor and Eli's twisted brotherhood.  I appreciated what it said about the nature of conflict that these two mirror-image sisters wound up on opposite sides of someone else's fight.  And Mitch was a steady column of normalcy and reason that balanced the other characters out. These were fabulous players in a fabulous plot.

The pacing was also a strong point in Schwab's novel.  The narrative flipped around in time, but this hardly phased me.  At first, I had a preference for the present events over the past, but very soon I was fully engaged in the entire story, past and present.  I was so absorbed in the book that at times I forgot that I was flipping paper pages and reading symbols made of dried ink.  I was inside the story.  What a  rare and wonderful experience!

So, in short, I HIGHLY recommend this book.  Five north stars out of five!