#Review - This Splintered Silence by Kayla Olson #YALIT #SyFy #Mystery

Series: Standard
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: November 13, 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Action & Adventure / Survival Stories

From the author of The Sandcastle Empire comes a sci-fi thriller that’s equal parts Illuminae and One of Us Is Lying.

Lindley Hamilton has been the leader of the space station Lusca since every first-generation crew member on board, including her mother, the commander, were killed by a deadly virus.

Lindley always assumed she’d captain the Lusca one day, but she never thought that day would come so soon. And she never thought it would be like this—struggling to survive every day, learning how to keep the Lusca running, figuring out how to communicate with Earth, making sure they don’t run out of food.

When a member of the surviving second generation dies from symptoms that look just like the deadly virus, though, Lindley feels her world shrinking even smaller. The disease was supposed to be over; the second generation was supposed to be immune. But as more people die, Lindley must face the terrifying reality that either the virus has mutated or something worse is happening: one of their own is a killer.

 

Kayla Olson's This Splintered Silence is her follow-up to the novel The Sandcastle Empire. This is a story that is a mixture of science fiction and mystery. 17-year old Lindley Hamilton is the Commander of the station called Lusca. Lindley leads a group of second generation survivors who lived while the adults on the station died of a deadly pathogen. Learning how to keep the space station running, figuring out how to communicate with Earth, and making sure they don’t run out of food are just some of the issues they've had to deal with.

But, now some crew members from the second-generation who were supposedly immune are turning up dead. Has the pathogen mutated? Is it murder? Could an alien visitor be trying to make its move? I'm not telling obviously, but you get the idea; there's lots of possibilities. This Splintered Silence is not an action book, the pacing is on the slower side, but it kind of suits the book. The mystery unravels slowly and you can just see how everything is falling apart, how panic starts to rise among the people on the ship as they realize how dark and serious the situation that they're in is.  

There are six core characters; Lindley, Heath, Haven, Natalin, Zesi, & Leo which is a good thing because any more than that, and it would have taken a larger dry erase board to keep track of them. Lindley & the final encounter with the “villain” is very underwhelming and not much of a shocker if you pay attention. The reasoning behind the attacks isn’t very shocking or noteworthy.  

Sadly, the story features a rather dull love triangle which isn't settled by the time the story ends. The background was a bit lacking. There were a few details about why the ship was in space, as well as possible romance between Lindley's mother and another tertiary character. I would have liked more details as to what was going on with earth and more of a history of the mission.

 

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