Review of Silence by Michelle Sagara

Release Date: May 1, 2012

Publisher: DAW

Page Count: 289

Format: Paperback

Genre: YA 

Ever since her boyfriend Nathan had died in a tragic accident, Emma had been coming to the graveyard at night.  During the day she went through the motions at her prep school, in class, with her friends, but that’s all it was.  For Emma, life had stopped with Nathan’s death.  But tonight was different.  Tonight Emma and her dog were not alone in the cemetery.  There were two others there—Eric, who had just started at her school, and an ancient woman who looked as though she were made of rags.  And when they saw Emma there, the old woman reached out to her with a grip as chilling as death….
Emma was not quite like others teenagers. It was true that other girls had experienced grief.  Other girls had also lost their fathers, or had their boyfriends die in a senseless accident. But though she hadn’t known it till that night in the graveyard, unlike those other girls, she could see, touch, and speak with the dead.  In fact, Emma could draw upon the essence of the dead to work magic.  That was what Necromancers did. But Emma had no desire to be a Necromancer. She just wanted to help the ghosts who walked the streets of Toronto, unable to escape from the land of the living.  And that was just as well, because had she chosen the path of the Necromancer, Eric would have had to kill her.

*a copy of this book was provided by the publisher in return for a fair and honest review*

 Despite generally reading almost any book that seems or looks interesting (I even judge books by their covers) its a rare occasion when one of them gets DNF'ed. I'm not sure if its because I'm the opposite of a picky reader or if I just like almost any book but either way a DNF is a rarity when it comes to me. Silence by Michelle Sagara which I read a few weeks ago was the first book in months if not a year to break the trend of no DNFs. From the start of the books (and description) it was obvious that I would have to push myself to finish it, the premise had potential but it also had a big chance of turning out negatively which is what happened in this instance. The whole book was one big mess of failure for me, from the characters (Emma, Michael, Chase, they all lacked that edge of realism and complexity that I've become used to) to the plot (way too slow and really not that interesting) and more. Other people might have more luck with Silence than I did but unfortunately, this book was just not for me and I hated every moment that I spent reading it.

1/5 - DNF