17281362Title: Where Silence Gathers

Author: Kelsey Sutton

Publisher: Flux

Publication Date: July 2014

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Fantasy

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone; Companion Novel

 

 

Synopsis can be found here.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review:

Let’s be clear. I loved Some Quiet Place, the author’s debut. It was heavy, lyrical, meaningful and beautifully written. So I was more than excited to get my hands on the companion novel Where Silence Gathers. Yes, my expectations may have been high. While I didn’t expect the same emotional pull I had fallen hard for in the first book, I did hope for a story that held my interest and tugged at my heart.
Sadly, I didn’t have that reaction.

Alexandra is suffering. Her parents and little brother are dead, killed in a car accident that she walked away from. Living with her aunt and uncle, she’s on a mission of destruction. She wants to kill the man who took her family. Revenge, her best friend and love interest, sits next to her every night, watching from afar the man that stole her family. Suddenly, someone else is there too- Forgiveness.

And now Alexandra isn’t sure who she wants to choose.

There’s a lot of good stuff about this book. I like Alex’s constant struggle with Revenge and Forgiveness. I like how different they are, yet alike. And while Alexandra’s heart belong to Revenge, it’s unclear until the end what that really means. What he really means to her and what she really means to him. Great commentary on destructive and dark relationships, caught up in emotions and rollercoasters we can’t understand, how suffering can kill the survivors and those who love them.

But there was something lacking in the plot that I just didn’t believe. I”m not going to get too far into it, but somehow, Alexandra’s family is involved in seeing these Emotions, Elements and Choices. While in the first book, it becomes very clear why that girl can see the other realm and is  very natural answer, in this companion book, it becomes more of a scientific plot point, making room for other books in the series. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I loved the first book so much, it was damn near perfect. And though I love returning to the world, I wish this second book was done differently and it makes me a little suspicious of future books in the series if they follow this storyline. (Nurturing this trait to see the other realm in people and what effects it has on the victims.)

While Revenge is interesting, there wasn’t any deep chemistry between him and Alexandra. And in fact, Forgiveness the other choice fighting for a chance, falls flat. I don’t have a very good grasp on either of them. I feel like we’re told there’s this triangle, but I don’t see the triangle. In fact, there’s so much going on with Alexandra, from her revenge plot to all the side characters and their challenges, it’s hard to focus on the main storyline.

And let me say flat out that I had  a hard time liking Alexandra. She’s obviously suffering, wrapped up in her own hell. I get that. But there’s not a lot to her besides that. I didn’t” get a good sense of the girl she was before this happened. Or the girl she would turn out to be when it was all over. Perhaps this was intentional. A commentary on how these types of occurrences an eat people from the inside out, leaving a shell of a human being. I’m not sure but either way, it didn’t work.

I had high expectations for this one, so maybe it’s my fault. I was sadly uninterested in Alexandra’s struggles or the numerous plot lines regarding the mines, her little boy neighbor, her father’s past.

Rating 5 Okay