Yamna's Reviews > Silent Fear

Thank you to the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

To put it bluntly (and crudely), the target market for Silent Fear is privileged middle-aged people (mostly men) who have grown up believing everything they watch on television and have little or no idea about any other ethnicity except their own.

Let’s look at the summary.
Silent Fear is loosely based on the incidence of 1980 where a 20-year-old freshman student murdered two deaf Gallaudet University students. Drawing on the experiences the students of the deaf university gone through during the murders, the authors wrote a book to pay tribute to the deaf community.
The story starts with our killer burying his first victim in the basement and masturbating to his dead body (view spoiler)[ it was later revealed the body belonged to the killer’s own brother so you can imagine if the book can be this fucked up, how much else will it have in store (hide spoiler)]
Amidst the investigation, the university is declared a threat and put under quarantine.
Amidst those trapped inside the university, we have hot, sexy, eye-turner detective Valerie Crowther, small-scale media reps Kent and hot, sexy, eye-turner Hillary. Did I mention we will get the exact exact count of how many carpet layers and deliverymen and plumbers get stuck inside along with their names? You can now imagine why this book is 700+ pages long.
While stuck inside the university, the unfortunate 500-something population faces more murders (did I mention we get the exact count of students and staff and kitchen workers and what not?) How that helped the story is beyond me.
Soon, hot, sexy, (did I mention she’s an eye-turner?) detective Valerie (did I also mention we get an introduction to her full name, her qualifications, her physique every time her name comes up?) finds herself trying to catch a murderer who leaves behind no clues with each murder. The clock is ticking

Let’s get a synopsis of every character in the book:

The Deaf
You would think a book which is a tribute to the deaf would have them do something else besides eat or sleep or use BSL. I mean, it's supposed to make them shine , right? But no. We do not get a deaf hero, we do not see them fulfilling any important roles and the book is mostly about how they live and how their life contrasts with ours. But why? What's the point of that if it doesn't make me say "wow, this is really cool"???


Monkey Flu
I’m calling this a character because it well could have been. While the authors went to extreme trouble to understand the mechanism of viruses, how they become deadly and explained in (at least 15 paragraphs) how they work, I still have plenty of issues with the disease.
Firstly, if it’s so deadly and let’s say it has spread EVERYWHERE except Britain, logically, the number of deaths should have been much more than a couple of thousands (which was the claim up until 60% mark of the book). That’s a couple of thousands out of billions and that too after the authors state there are “mass burials” happening everywhere in the world and being broadcasted on television.
Also, I call bullshit on it never making it into Britain only because the borders were sealed and flights were halted (don’t even get me STARTED on how absurd that is. That’s MILLIONS stuck outside the country and NO ONE protests? How did they stop EVERY SINGLE flight and closed all borders? Just…). Let’s say the people WERE stuck, nobody bribed anyone to come back? No one was connected to the higher ups in the government? The virus was present solely inside a girl who had previously gone abroad? Out of literally MILLIONS?
My head hurts


The Quarantine
Also calling this a character because it was. An annoying, dirty-minded, shit-fucked one. Imagine the worst, irritating characters from Gone Girl, Kill Bill, Breaking Bad, Fucking Thanos, and you have this.
Yea, somebody watched Quarantine the movie and realllly liked the boarding up the building scene at the end. I call this plagiarism.
So the military realized a student has the Monkey Flu and decides to put the university under quarantine. We’re not talking an apartment building like the one in the discounted movie. We’re talking a giant university and you tell me they easily got everyone inside, boarded up EVERY single window (using planks) and then plastic wrapped the building? Is this a cake?


Why did no one try to run? How can one of the most prestigious and “modern” universities in the world not have multiple buildings, entrances and gates? How did they round up everyone from the supposedly vast grounds INTO the building?
I could rant about the quarantine alone for 5 pages but since I don’t want to exceed the word limit, let’s move on.

Valerie Crowther
Our Detective was previously married to the current Chief Inspector and is hot and sexy and did I mention an eye-turner? She got even them deaf students gesturing about her ass, man. She that hot. If you think this is where the sexism ends, I would like to say you WISH.
First of all, the authors REALLY wanted us to know she’s hot. Secondly, they REALLY wanted us to know she’s the Chief’s ex-wife. I’m talking repeat-it-on-every-damn-page-make-you-pull-your-hair-out type of mentioning. And to make matters worse, every couple of moments she’s either showering or exercising or fucking standing in front of the fan fanning herself. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was a discount porn novel. And I’ll prove that point later on too.
I didn’t ESPECIALLY have an issue with the blatant mentioning of her figure until it was all she was about. She encounters a guy gang (we will come to that later too) and that’s portrayed as something sexy. She fights the said guy gang and suffers a couple of injuries and of course, it makes her sexy. She’s fucking holding a gun and we can see she’s sexy.
There is SO MUCH focus on showing her as this every-man’s-wet-wild-hotshot-cop-dream that the authors forgot she’s supposed to be a detective.
Up until the 75% mark of the book, our dear Valerie goes around looking hot and chatting and missing her ex. We get a glimpse of her childhood, we find out her (view spoiler)[ mother is a manic depressive – who later dies (hide spoiler)] and we see that she’s bored and tired. But heaven knows where the investigation was.
To make matters worse (read “add fuel to the already burning fire in my mind”) our “very sexy” heroine ends up getting rescued by her ex-husband not once but TWICE. The same heroine who is supposed to be strong and trained and whatnot because don’t we all love a knight in shining armour story and don’t we all just REFUSE to want a strong heroine for once who can fucking EXIST without a man. Am I asking for too much here? Does nobody else want strong heroines?

Kent and Hillary
If the quarantine was annoying, let’s just say these two were the bane of this novel’s fucking existence. I realize media reps are ruthless and heartless. But to be this unethical and unjust and horrid and be appreciated is blatant blasphemy. That’s like saying “fuck you, we support the cruel shits” to the innocent public. Let’s see a few examples:
1) Bullying the fucking Wandsworth Founder on his death bed
“Just doing my bloody job,” a defensive Hillary said
That ain’t your job, sweetie
2) Filming Monkey Flu patients without any regard for the sick.
“Don’t dare stop filming!” Hillary hissed.
Yes, her mother would be thrilled to watch her daughter practically dying on national television.
3) Filming patients getting burned in the incinerator when the university freezes are out of capacity.
4) Filming the (view spoiler)[ shooting of a student when she escapes the university (hide spoiler)] and then unabashedly hiding the filming’s copy from Valerie so they can air it on television
Kent said as he slipped his hand into his trouser pocket and pulled out a spare flash drive. “Always keep a backup,” he smirked.
5) Watching Valerie get beat up and filming her while doing so without thinking of stepping in.
“I guess we wanted to see if you had any more tricks up your sleeve…”
Or you would rather watch someone die than help?
Lastly, did I mention Hillary is petite and hot and attractive? And is considered just as “strong” as Valerie?
I am SICK of a female’s attractiveness being used as the only plus point she can fucking have in her fucking life.
And to make matters more cheesy (read out of plot), of course Kent and Hillary start a sexual rendezvous. Of course, they fall in love. Of course, half of their actions earn them “brownie points” from their fellow “inmates”. And of course, we never address how fucking unethical and inhumane the two were because fuck humanity, right?

The Murderer
As my read list would indicate, serial murder thrillers have always been one of my favourites. So this is a first that a murderer not only failed to impress me, but also was so limited to his dick that he makes the book a fucking chore to read.
The sadistic intruder was soon groaning with pleasure, and he came quickly.
Much as he wanted to, he couldn’t hang around to pleasure himself
Here, in the privacy of his little sanctuary, he could pleasure himself at his leisure

I admit a discount Stephen King villain is very attractive to put in your book, but from my viewpoint, a villain isn’t supposed to be just masturbating. Where is the thrill when all I get is how he is just jerking off every three seconds? There was no villain in the book. Just a sex addict.
Oh and the murders? Yea…there were only two till about 70% of the book

Where them serial killers at, bruh?
And then we get a measly third murder and that’s it. I guess it was more important to speak about the other issues in the book

The Sexism Continues
Examples:
She was blonde South African beauty Liezel Kloss, a part-time model who had a reputation for being rather free and loose with her favours
I would like to mention some men are quite sexually fluid too but do we call them “free” in the book? Even when one is a professor preying on girls at least a decade his junior? No no. That’s just him being “sexually active”.
he recalled she’d recently turned seventy – and despite her small, trim frame
O we don’t spare the grannies either
She cut an impressive figure in the tight-fitting, lightweight tracksuit pants and matching singlet
Don’t even…
females were a second class minority on the force, and pretty females were considered fair game by the dominant males
And
Despite her good looks, Valerie was only mildly aware of her attraction to members of the opposite sex
THIS after she “notices” she’s being leered at about twenty fucking times
using pretty Chinese student Katherine Lee as her model
And about fifty more

The Big Issue
Yea…let me just cool down a second.
Going back to what I said at the start, imagine someone who takes all his/her info from television. I am talking all information. And then that person recycles said information and puts it in his/her book. And we have this plot right here.
Let’s start with the blatant display of ignorance.
Mister Lee had taken the news of his daughter’s death with typical Chinese stoicism
I know the Chinese are rumoured to be “stoic” and “upright” but it isn’t something you can outright say in a book and be all like “O that’s how I see them on television.” That’s just wrong

Valerie couldn’t help but notice Mustafa’s room and furnishings were adorned with Islamic symbols. Some were quite militant, leaving the detective in no doubt as to their underlying message.


A thorough search turned up nothing unusual apart from the array of militant Islamic posters, reading material and symbols the Saudi apparently treasured.


Let me just stop you RIGHT THERE.
First of all, as a Muslim who has been sufficiently exposed to the terrorism happening in a few Islamic states, I got NO IDEA what in Heaven’s name are “militant materials” or “symbols”.
Second of all, also as a Muslim who has studied in a university, I can safely tell you any of these “militant symbols” are not only ILLEGAL but NOT ALLOWED inside any educational institution. And to think the author wants such “symbols” to be in a university in BRITAIN, the so-called very careful state, tells me he got no idea how universities (or countries or STATES) operate and just wanted to add some “dramatized” shiz to make his book appear cooler.
Well, let me tell you, not only is this a farcical part of the book, it is also highly insulting to the Muslim community, the otherwise NOT terrorist Islamic states (which is about MOST of them) and the general population who knows stuff you see on TV about so-called “Muslim terrorists” is mostly exaggerated and entirely racist.

sari-clad Priyanka Patel, the emotional Indian student Valerie had observed communicating with her parents via a video interpreter relay service, was signing hysterically to a group of female students
First of all, Indian women, especially young females, do not wear sari even INSIDE India, let alone a foreign university (I know because I asked).
Second of all, 500-something students and we have a supposedly extremist Muslim and a single claustrophobic Indian while the rest are normal? Hmmm…what do I sense here?
Third of all, this?
As a final insult, her sari had ridden up, exposing her thighs and buttocks for all the world to see.
Not appreciated.
Three murders, two of them males, and we get nude scenes only from the females? What is this, some dead women fetish?
How about you peruse my quotes and realize a certain race is altogether missing from the prominent mentions (except from a HOT African FEMALE) because…?



Amongst the male students, quite a few tattoos, piercings and unusual hairstyles were on display, including a sprinkling of shaven heads, dreadlocks and even a couple of Mohawk cuts. Equally outlandish fashion accessories amongst the females, including Goth and emo makeup, hippy-style clothing…
I understand that there are a lot of television shows and news reports that show all gangsters have Mohawks and tattoos and are likely to revolt. But this book took this to a whole new level.
First of all, the author clearly stereotyped (becoming a regular word in my review but sorry, only way to describe it) by showing this gang in an extremely negative light. While this would be appropriate in 1980s or 1990s, I understand it’s 2018, nearly everyone with an open mind has a tattoo and a lot of people dye their hair with eccentric colour. People also get piercings. But does that make them gang members?
If that doesn’t drive the nail home, consider that the only rebellious students in the university are of course these couple of kids. And of course, they lead a revolt. And of course, they are as the author called it, given to using “obscenities”.
If an Indian’s heritage or a Muslim’s habits or a female’s appearance is so heavily stigmatized, do I believe the description of how this virus came to be or how the government is concerned about the masses’ well-being?
Nope.

The Plot
Moving on to the last leg of the review, I’d like to say I’m all for murder plots with thickening tension and a couple of issues going on side by side. But this plot was pregnant with about a dozen side-by-side storylines.

1. A Satanic Cult
What would be obvious, however, was the assembled were practising the dark arts of the occult.

2. Depraved Professor
depicting the latest occult ceremony Clisser presided over
Yep, Clisser’s video appears in Valerie’s phone (through we have no clue what means and nor is this addressed in the book) in which he is using Katherine as his sex-slave/pet and having his fellow occult members fuck her.
After this, you would think the university would have expelled and sued him for tarnishing the university’s image. But he is happily embraced
I can’t even…

3. BDSM
BDSM sells. BDSM would make it seem like the book is very “modern” and “open” and “2018-ish”. I don’t know which thought went through the publisher’s mind but all were wrong.
She bent down and prized the board away to reveal it hid a variety of BDSM or bondage and discipline items
Highly frowned upon in most educational institutes, btw
Scores of females stared out at her from the screen, many of them in highly compromising positions.
“Katherine was my slave,” the student finally admitted. “The bitch enjoyed it when I left scars on her... like a branded slave.”
P.S That’s Troy, the Head Boy’s, room. But do we see him facing any legal action? Nope. Why? Because his “activities” were just there to supposedly “make the plot spicy”. Bland. It was fucking bland.
O also? Pretty sure satanic practises are ILLEGAL in most universities. And BDSM activies.

Overall, the plot dragged on and on. You get routine life of all students, what’s in the menu, who is fucking who, which student died when of the flu etc. In my opinion, a lot of this mundane stuff can be cut down to leave the actual “thriller” stuff one expects from these books.
On top of that, the Monkey Flu? Yeaa…a thumbs down from me. It’s pointless, it’s just there for the benefit of putting 500 people in a building and it doesn’t add to the plot, save for the times there’s news of how many people died from it.
I know the book has been prolonged to chop it down enough for a script for the upcoming movie. But do I wanna know how many staff members are there who is in what cult when all I want is some bloody, tortuous murder and a dark storyline? Nope.
The ending was just meh. Bennett, who fucking withheld crucial people saving information for about three-fucking-hundred pages, (view spoiler)[ arrives in the uni via a secret tunnel (not even GOING there) to save his “beau” and dies, of course, after confessing his love. The killer is caught and turns out to be an obvious person and WHO finds a cure to the virus (hide spoiler)].

To conclude:
If I had it my way, I’d recommend making the flu into something that reshapes the cells, makes a human a zombie or something. Imagine 500 people stuck in a building with a patient who has turned into a monster and can turn others into ones too if bitten. Although it’s a complete rip-off of Quarantine the movie this way, it makes for a better reading, right?
Unfortunately, it’s not a “Not My Cuppa” type of book. It’s an “Avoid At All Costs” type unless the sexism and stigmatization is toned down in the next version of the book. I really wish I had liked this book but there’s just too many negatives.