Silent Child is this month’s Criminally Good Book Club selection, and also a book I’ve been wanting to read for some time now.
In the summer of 2006, Emma Price watched helplessly as her six-year-old son’s red coat was fished out of the River Ouse. It was the tragic story of the year – a little boy, Aiden, wandered away from school during a terrible flood, fell into the river, and drowned.
His body was never recovered.
Ten years later, Emma has finally rediscovered the joy in life. She’s married, pregnant, and in control again…
… until Aiden returns.
Too traumatized to speak, he raises endless questions and answers none. Only his body tells the story of his decade-long disappearance. The historic broken bones and injuries cast a mere glimpse into the horrors Aiden has experienced. Aiden never drowned. Aiden was taken.
As Emma attempts to reconnect with her now teenage son, she must unmask the monster who took him away from her. But who, in their tiny village, could be capable of such a crime?
It’s Aiden who has the answers, but he cannot tell the unspeakable.
This dark and disturbing psychological novel is a page-turner you will not be able to put down.
Silent Child is one of those novels that I wanted to love but sadly, I didn’t – it wasn’t all bad, there were some things I loved about this novel and thought worked really well, however, they were outweighed by the things that didn’t work quite so well.
My favourite thing about this novel was Denzil’s writing style, I love the way she chose to tell this story from Emma’s perspective – this allowed you to feel her emotions along with her, her despair at losing Aiden, her frustration at him not speaking, her determination as a mother to save her child. There were some really powerful moments, for example, when Aiden went missing, Emma talks about what it really means to ‘lose control’, it demonstrated how powerful words can be in conveying a parent’s grief. It was paragraphs like these, moments were Emma’s pain was so raw, that really made me appreciate Denzil’s writing ability.
There was also a creepy undertone present throughout this entire novel. Who knew a child that didn’t speak could be so unsettling, it really did give this novel its darker edge. And the suspense, oh my, the continuous building of suspense was brilliant, it had me desperate to know what happened to Aiden. Now, here’s where this novel fell short for me – the suspense far outweighed the ending, and left me feeling utterly underwhelmed. There was one line earlier on in the novel that hinted at who was involved in Aiden’s ordeal, and I didn’t mind knowing said individual was involved ahead of time because I think it was pretty predictable based on their actions throughout the novel, however, as Emma comes to know the truth, I thought the way it played out was exaggerated and unbelievable. Emma is heavily pregnant yet she appears to have this invincibility about her and I just didn’t buy it, and it led to me rolling my eyes several times. Even the parts of the ending I didn’t see coming, were so underwhelming, and again, the actions of some of the characters, at certain times, had me rolling my eyes.
What started off as a powerful novel, full of suspense, concluded in a dramatic and unbelievable fashion, so much so, that it overrode all that I did like about this novel. Would I recommend this novel? Sadly, not. Would I read another Denzil novel? Absolutely, the writing ability is there, for me, the plot just lost its way towards the end.
This book is available to buy from: Amazon UK / Book Depository
Aw a shame that you didn’t end up liking this one. Sometimes stories just go too far to be believable. It sounds like this happened!
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Indeed, the thing is, I don’t actually mind suspending belief if it’s entertaining (like Believe Me by JP Delaney or The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena) but here it was just completely eye-rolling, like the author forgot they wrote a heavily pregnant protagonist 🙄
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That’s definitely the kind of thing that you can’t ignore. 🙄
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A shame that you didn’t enjoy this one, not every book works for every reader xx
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Yeah, I read a couple that didn’t work for me this month, but it’s bound to happen. I’ve had this one on my Kindle for AGES so I’m glad I finally read it 🙂x
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This book sounds like it had a lot going for it, too bad it fell apart near the end. It actually sounds like the kind of book my mom would like, she reads a lot of mysteries and thrillers. 🙂 Great review!
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Thank you 😊 It’s so frustrating about the ending! Ooo, your mum enjoys mysteries/thrillers, tell her I said she has great taste in books!
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Aww, bummer it held so much promise and then ended like that, Janel. I hope your next read is consistent and brilliant!
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Damn that ending 😂
But, tomorrow’s scheduled review is a book I absolutely loved from the first page till the very last 😉❤️
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I’ll see you there! 😉
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Wonderful honest review! I read this quite a while ago now I’m going to go need to read my review to see what I thought, LOL can’t even remember the twist?💛
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You can’t remember because there wasn’t much of twist at all, maybe 🙈😂
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Well that would explain it!🙃
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It sounds like a sort of flat finale and lacking credibility doomed this one? Still, I am glad the narrative choice worked for you! As always, I really enjoyed the review Janel ❤
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‘lacking credibility’ – that’s the exact way to describe the ending – why didn’t I word it like that 😂
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Your wording was perfect! I always admire your ability with reviews, positive or negative.
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❤️💝
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