I'm usually not really into young adult urban fantasy, but this was by Michelle Sagara, and it didn't sound bad, so I gave it a try. And it paid off, because I actually liked this book quite a bit. It avoids the angsty teenager bits. It avoids the obvious romance bits. Oh, I'm sure there will be romance in one of the sequels, but there's only the merest hint of it here. The book is about a bunch of teenagers, but it also avoids the bitchiness of teenage social behavior. The main character, Emma, had real friends that back each other up, and one of those friends is the social queen of high school. Another of her friends is autistic. It makes for some very interesting dynamics, especially when Emma finds out she can see dead people. So yes, this is an easy-to-read young adult urban, but it also has a bit more depth to it. In particular, Emma and her friends have more depth to them. The bond between them is of such a nature that you just want to spend more time with them. This'll be one of the few ya urbans of which I will read the sequel... ( )

Really great on friendships and grief but less great on explaining the mechanics of the magic system. Granted, it is the first book of a series but there really ought to be more detail on who and what. I do love Michelle Sagara (West)'s writing, but it was a little opaque here. ( )

Emma is a high school student coping with the recent death of her boyfriend Nathan and prior death her father. She has an unusual group of mutually caring friends. A grave yard encounter with a fellow student and an aged spirit catapult her into a very dangerous world where she can see and interact with the dead and others who can do not mean her well. The characters are much better than almost all of the teen-girl with extras I've read and the body count, while not negligible, doesn't require a mass grave. The action is swift and steady, the dog realistic, and the plotting excellent. The friend group is a bit too good to be true, but it was part of who Emma was that she would have good, true friends. A bit dark and completely lacking in magic-as-fun for my taste. ( )

Recommended?: Highly recommended, particularly for people who love ghost stories, strong friendships, and human-shaped monsters.

Our main character, Emma, spends part of her nights walking her dog Petal (a delightfully sweet and funny Rottweiler) to the cemetery so she can sit in silence by her boyfriend’s grave. The night the book opens, Emma actually sees someone she knows, new boy Eric.

Eric isn’t alone; he’s with an old woman who gives Emma the lantern she carries, along with a disturbing kiss, after she realizes Emma can see her. This unwelcome touch brings unfortunate side effects: excruciating headaches, lots of nausea, and, suddenly, Emma can see and hear things no one else can.

At the heart of it, this is a pretty straightforward story: Emma can see the dead, talk to them, use them to gain power. She’s tempted by the power, mostly because she sees the ways she could use it to do good, to help the ghosts, to solve the mystery surrounding what happens to them after they die.

There are other people like her in the world, necromancers who have no qualms about taking the power for their own needs, and Eric, his pseudo-brother Chase, and the old man who trains them (plus others) hunt down necromancers and kill them.

Emma is an excellent main character and narrator. She’s loving, loyal to family and friends, and driven by her desire to do good in the world. I particularly love her friendships; this is no lone girl, different from all the other girls (ignore that bit in the description). She is different than most people because she sees ghosts, but she participates in her life, even as she mourns her father and her boyfriend. She is close with her mother, she has dear friends, and those two things are such a nice change. Female friendships forever.

Also wonderful is the lack of a love triangle, which can be done well, but so often isn’t. Here, Emma is still in love with her boyfriend, and so desperately mourning him, there is no real room in her life for a new romance. It’s not that she’ll never love again, but it would have weakened the story for her to start out mourning him, and then immediately enter into a love triangle with Eric and Chase. The way the guys are introduced could lead to that, and I braced myself, but was happily surprised when it didn’t happen. Emma convinces the boys not to kill her not because they’re flirting with her, but because of how much she loves her friends, her family, and how much she tries to do good for the ghosts.

For the most part, I enjoyed the Sagara’s writing style, but there were a couple times that the narrative became far too talky in the middle of an action scene, including one of the last big scenes at the climax. That’s not the time I should be flipping ahead, hoping for something to happen, but that’s what I did.

Emma’s group of friends are pretty wonderful (I particularly love her best friend, Allison, who is smart and funny and sweet, and the token mean girl who is actually friendly and loyal and snarky), but there are some issues surrounding Michael, who is autistic. I’m neurotypical, and would be speaking from a place of privilege, so I’m going to link instead to Ada Hoffman’s review at Disability in Kidlit, which hits the things that pinged for me, and then goes into more depth with them: Ada Hoffman’s review of SILENCE.

Quote:

This is where a lot of my misgivings about the book come from, and is complicated to talk about. I don’t want to suggest that it is somehow bad or undesirable to provide clueful help to a disabled person. Yet I think a lot of us with disabilities will feel a familiar wince at the idea of being a charity case – of being valuable, not for ourselves, but so that someone else can earn goodness points by helping us.

I really love Michael’s character, particularly the way he is with child ghosts (oh, man, could be creepy because CHILD GHOSTS, ends up surprisingly sweet), but Hoffman has an excellent discussion of his purpose in the story.

In the end, I really enjoyed SILENCE, loved the characters, and immediately purchased the next book in the series. I can’t wait to see what happens next, and to explore more of this delightfully developed world.

Emma Hall has been visiting the graveyard - and more specifically, one particular grave - during her nightly walks of her Rottweiler Petal since her boyfriend, Nathan's death over the summer. Usually, the graveyard is a quiet place, but on one of their nightly walks, not only does Petal run off and cause a bit of a disruption, but Emma sees the new guy from school, Eric.

Only, it wasn't just Eric that Emma saw. She also saw a woman, who looked more than ancient, standing beside him. A woman Eric claimed not to be able to see and who set Petal on edge.

That night - and that encounter - start something for Emma that she never could have even imagined. A new life fraught with danger, things usually only read about in ghost stories . . . and people that might want to kill her.


Silence is the first book in a new YA trilogy. Not a lot of books deal with necromancy - and even fewer young adult novels it seems. Silence has a strong and unique paranormal story line that unfolds over the length of the book while still supporting a great non-paranormal/contemporary plot involving the characters and their lives.

Emma and her friends really make this a great story. As she's discovering things about these 'ghosts' and why she can see things others can't, her friends are right there alongside her. Her friends are not just throw in characters who are there when it's convenient and forgotten about for most of the rest of the book; they're integral to the plot.

As this is the first book in a trilogy, it's great that Emma's friends are a part of things and have scenes that Emma is not a part of. It allows the reader to find out more about Emma - and her past - than they would if it were told either in first person or did not integrate the secondary characters as fully or as well.

Readers are also discovering just what is happening to/going on with Emma as she does. It can make things a bit confusing at times - if she doesn't understand something, chances are the reader doesn't, either - and there are a few instances where the characters seemed to have one up on the reader. Overall, however, it was nice not to know more than Emma - and the other characters. As she figured things out, so did I. As she questioned things, so did I. It left for a bit of tension, some uncertainty and great fun in reading.

This first book absolutely sets up the next book in the series incredibly well. Not only do we have a basis for who the characters are and how things operate in Emma's world, there's also a killer ending and enough things left open that make me incredibly anxious for Book Two's release.

(And may I just mention that I kind of love Chase?)


received from the publisher for review