Silent Child by Sarah A Denzil Review

Holy hell, this has over 1000 page views? Wow, I guess a lot of you must hate this book as much as I do...

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“As if the jealousy of a lover could ever compete with the ferocity of a mother.”- Silent Child, Sarah A Denzil

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.

The author's note in the back cracks me up. Apparently, Ms Denzil has blessed me with her permission to leave an honest review. Now, I didn't really think that I needed her permission in the first place, but hey, it's always nice to know it's there.

This book lied to me. It promised it was perfect for fans of The Butterfly Garden, and that it was a twisty and disturbing psychological thriller. It also promised me it was about a kidnapped boy trying to survive after captivity and a mother trying to figure out who kidnapped her son.

In reality, this book is perhaps better for someone who liked The Girl on the Train, or hell, even The Cellar (though the idea that anyone unironically actually likes The Cellar still confuses me). It's a rather tame "thriller" that ended up being more about Emma than anyone else, including Aiden.

The Girl on the Train is the most obvious comparison, and one I'm surprised the blurb didn't make. Denzil clearly tries to mimic Paula Hawkins' writing style. I don't know, though. I thought the way Silent Child was written felt hollow. There was something off I couldn't quite put my finger on- some of the descriptions and phrases were nicely written, and there was some cool imagery, but it didn't feel like it fit in with the story, and kind of forced. I don't think that's Denzil's natural writing style. That topped off with the fact that there's so much telling and the narrative style was such a turn off made the writing unpleasant to say the least. 

But believe it or not, the writing was the most tolerable part about this book. The characters, and the way Denzil took this story was horrible.

Let's start off with Emma. Emma's one of those martyr mother main characters with a huge victim complex. Everything is about her, and nothing is her fault. If this was a cancer book instead of a kidnapping book, Emma would spend the entire time whining about how hard her child's illness is on her. For some reason, I kept thinking about the mother from My Sister's Keeper in comparison to Emma, and how that mother wasn't a particularly fine specimen of motherhood but I could believe she honestly cared for her children, and everything she did in that book was for her cancer-ridden daughter. She didn't spend entire chapters moping over how horrible her situation was and playing the victim martyr. Honestly, nothing in this book is really about Aiden. Even the motivation for his kidnapping is all about Emma. And to top it off, she's one of those characters who we are tailored to like- the poor, grieving mother in the clutches of bad, bad men. Spare me the Lifetime movie. 

Honestly, half the time I felt like I was reading the literary equivalent of a soap opera. Like the chapters should end with "Next time on Silent Child..." and then open with "Last Time on Silent Child..." with Silent Child written in cursive and there would be a bunch of overly dramatic clips of people talking taken out of context and someone would be dramatically slamming doors and there would be a slow close up of the heroine with tears rolling down her cheeks. My point is, no one in this book acts like real people. Every twist, every turn, all the dialogue sounds nothing like the way real people act. You can tell the villains coming a mile away. I think within the first 10 pages I literally wrote down in my notes "[spoiler] did it. I don't know what yet, but he [let's be honest here, did you ever think Denzil would have a girl do it? Come on now, this is 21st century feminism here!] did it". And honestly, as much as I like when I'm right when it comes to mystery novels, figuring out was the villain this early killed the fun of it. And it being that transparent didn't make the other mystery elements fun, either. It made them just seem boring, especially it's over 400 pages of trying to figure out who is a villain when it's obvious from the first page. 

And the plot felt really confused, too. It's not about Aiden and his kidnapping. It's about Emma. Hell, the actual climax has barely anything to do with Aiden. The resolution of Aiden's mystery- the mystery I picked up this book to read, mind you- is at the end of the book, by the time we're basically done with the story and just want this book to be over. The entire time I was reading, I was drawing comparisons to The Likeness, because I think Denzil was influenced by that book, and yes, in The Likeness one of the mysteries is solved almost as an afterthought. The difference, though, is that French made sure the mystery solved secondary wasn't the mystery the novel advertised itself as being about. In this, Aiden felt like an afterthought. And now, spoilers, because I want to talk about the ending.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

I mean, it's obvious who the villains of this book are even before the "big reveal". But my God, it takes talent to write a villain as bad as Jake. Seriously. This is why this book reminded me of The Cellar, because Jake and Clover oughta get together. They'd have a grand old time spouting off cheesy villain monologues, spitting out horrid catchphrases (seriously, "hello darling" is on par with "good evening, flowers") and manically grinning while twirling their nonexistent mustaches. Everything Jake said in that little speech during the real climax cracked me up, and made me think that Denzil really, truly believes that the only way to write a villain is make him as despicable as possible. No morally grey characters, here! I think my favorite part in that whole scene was when Jake was giving this dramatic speech about how Hugh (another transparent villain) was right to cheat on his wife with Amy (yet another paper thin villain) and Emma (tied up, with her baby daddy bleeding on the floor) heroically sticks up for marital values. I think I almost pissed my pants laughing at that. For fuck's sake, that's the hill you want to die on? Okay, whatever. Also, Jake hits Rob in the head with a stone statue, leaving Rob to bleed out on the floor. Of course, like 2 hours and a shitload of exposition later, Rob still ain't dead. But when Jake gets hit in the head with the same exact statue, he dies instantly. The fuck? And then Aiden remembers he has a story arc, so he takes his mother (who also happens to be in active labor) to the cage Hugh kept him in for the last ten years while his father is still dying on the floor. His father must be Superman. And no fear! The only villains here are the controlling husband, the cheating husband, and the backstabbing bitch. Don't worry, this is a no-risk zone.

MAJOR SPOILER SECTION OVER

So what is this book? Boring. It's about as twisted as a piece of cardboard left on the side of the road. Hell, I think even The Cellar is more disturbing than this book. It's truly tragic that it was even mentioned in the same sentence as The Butterfly Garden. I think I'll put this book in the same mental place as The Girl on the Train- the kind of book that I would recommend to an angry woman who just divorced her husband for cheating on her. But while I wasn't in love with The Girl on the Train, I still prefer that novel to this one. The writing and mystery both worked better there, I think. I might pick up another Sarah A Denzil thriller if I want a good laugh, but for right now I've got Natasha Preston for that. I'm starting to think maybe English thriller writers aren't for me.

3.5 out of 10