There's something about fictional haunted houses that is both thrilling and mesmerising. As editor and novelist Charlotte Northedge suggested via The Guardian, the haunted house “has long proved a source of fascination and fear”, with two famous examples being Henry James's novella The Turn of the Screw and Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House.
Both stories feature unreliable female narrators “whose psychological problems and struggles with loneliness tinge their perceptions of the danger around them”. It's just as horror novelist Joe Hill famously argued: “Houses aren't haunted – people are.”
Interestingly, American author S.A. Barnes's science fiction horror novel Dead Silence fits well into these descriptions. The story is set in a “haunted house” for extremists – a luxury cruise spaceship that had gone missing 20 years previously. Worse, the ship's 500 guests and 150 crew had died in a variety of gruesome ways.
The protagonist, Claire, is a victim of childhood trauma, and a perfect unreliable narrator who is constantly questioning her own decisions and actions. When she and her team boarded the Aurora, it's to salvage something that would lay claim to what they found. However, when darkness and paranoia began to close in around them, Claire ended up in an escape pod with a skull fracture and no memory of how she left the ship.
Concerned about her team's welfare but unsure what happened – had she murdered them, or was she fleeing from something evil and malicious that killed everyone on the ship? – Claire returns to the Aurora, almost in the same way that Ellen Ripley is determined to confront her fears head-on by joining the investigation of LV-426 in Aliens.
Indeed, Dead Silence is likely to remind readers of horror films such as Event Horizon and Ghost Ship. The story is quite an enjoyable read, with many mysteries and creepy vibes. One scene is almost a dead ringer for the Lady in the Bathtub in Room 237 in The Shining.
Barnes is obviously an experienced author, as the story boasts solid sci-fi and steady pacing, an almost android-like character, plenty of plot twists and cliffhangers, and even a Hollywood-style budding romance. But there's always a reason for everything to exist the way it does.
For example, while the romance serves as a minor incentive for Claire's return to the Aurora, it's also a solution to her self-doubt, offering someone to rely on when she cannot trust herself.
Meanwhile, Claire's frequent recollection of the details of her childhood trauma helps illustrate her psychological and mental issues, prompting readers to sympathise with her struggles. More importantly, it explains why she is betrayed – and how she is ultimately able to turn her unique problems into her strengths.
Perhaps Dead Silence can be read as a study of characters, particularly in the way that two separate timelines are used to drive the story while providing clues to the evolution of relationships, not just between characters but also between a character's past and present. Highly recommended.