Customer Reviews

Breaking the Silence

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My first book by Chamberlain and I was VERY impressed. I read this book in about five hours nonstop. I couldn't put it down!!

After her father died, Laura Brandon felt obligated to carry out his last wish...meet an old woman in a nursing home that is in the early stages of alzheimers. Laura is mystified and has no idea what to expect. What she didn't expect was her husband's violent reaction to her visiting Sarah Tolley. Going against her husbands wishes, Laura visits Sarah with no more answers to the truth than before. When she comes home, she finds her daughter screaming and her husband dead from a self inflicted gun shot wound. Before the day is over, Laura realizes that her five year old daughter, Emma, has not uttered a single word.

After eight months have passed with no progress with Emma, Laura remembers her promise to her father and again visits Sarah Tolley. She has no idea if she should believe the extrordinary tales of terror that Sarah has to tell her, but she listens anyway. She also does the one thing that she swore she would never do...she seeks out Emma's birth father with hope that Emma will learn that not all men are angry and yell at little girls.

Dylan Geer is stupified when he receives the call from Laura. Not only does he deny it, but it also spikes his anger. When Laura tricks him into looking at a picture of Emma, there is no doubt in his mind that the little girl is his. Now he'll do all he can to help Emma, and help Laura who he is developing deeper feelings for than he expected.

Breaking the Silence is a heartbreaking tale in the present and the past. The way that Laura, Dylan and Emma come together is heartwarming, while the tale of Sarah and Joe Tolley is heartbreaking. There were many times that tears came to my eyes throughout this book, especially at the end. If you like a great book, don't miss this one!

The talented Diane Chamberlain, whose KEEPER OF THE LIGHT was one of the most innovative romances of the 90s, doesn't disappoint with BREAKING THE SILENCE. Rich and multi-layered, this is a novel of deep emotion. Delving into the world of human experimentation in a psychiatric hospital through Sarah's eyes, the book is at once disturbing and at the same time a beautiful testament to true love. The reader gets a bonus with BREAKING THE SILENCE which is essentially two books in one -- the story of Sarah's life from the 1930s to the late 1950s and then the budding relationship between Laura and Dylan. Chamberlain has woven the two together is such a spectacular way with twists and turns keeping the reader up into the wee hours of the night. This is an exceptional read and a keeper in every sense of the word

Diane Chamberlain is my new favorite author! I read this book in one weekend. I couldn't wait to finish it but I didn't want it to end either! One of the best stories I have read in a very long time. Not predictable at all and that is what added to the excitement of reading it. After reading this one I began right away reading Summer's Child and again I wasn't disappointed. I wait to order more of her books!

What a wonderful, wonderful book! I was up into the wee hours finishing and still this morning can't get it out of my mind. What powerful story. Chamberlain is one of the best there is at writing of difficult relationships. The reader really gets two stories in one here as Laura's quest to find out why her father wanted her to take care of Alzheimer's patient Sarah Tolley after his death reveals insights into her own life as she deals with trying to get her young daughter to speak again. Excellent!

"Breaking the Silence" is the best book I've read in a long time --maybe since Diane's last book. Diane Chamberlain has a unique style that invites the reader into the world of her making, you feel like you're part of the story, not just a bystander. The story flows so smoothly from the present to the past that I found myself caught up in its drama, also in the lives of the charaters, wondering about them well after I had finished the book. Oprah, Why haven't you discovered this authur? All Diane's books are GREAT!

My first book by Chamberlain and I was VERY impressed. I read this book in about five hours nonstop. I couldn't put it down!!

After her father died, Laura Brandon felt obligated to carry out his last wish...meet an old woman in a nursing home that is in the early stages of alzheimers. Laura is mystified and has no idea what to expect. What she didn't expect was her husband's violent reaction to her visiting Sarah Tolley. Going against her husbands wishes, Laura visits Sarah with no more answers to the truth than before. When she comes home, she finds her daughter screaming and her husband dead from a self inflicted gun shot wound. Before the day is over, Laura realizes that her five year old daughter, Emma, has not uttered a single word.

After eight months have passed with no progress with Emma, Laura remembers her promise to her father and again visits Sarah Tolley. She has no idea if she should believe the extrordinary tales of terror that Sarah has to tell her, but she listens anyway. She also does the one thing that she swore she would never do...she seeks out Emma's birth father with hope that Emma will learn that not all men are angry and yell at little girls.

Dylan Geer is stupified when he receives the call from Laura. Not only does he deny it, but it also spikes his anger. When Laura tricks him into looking at a picture of Emma, there is no doubt in his mind that the little girl is his. Now he'll do all he can to help Emma, and help Laura who he is developing deeper feelings for than he expected.

Breaking the Silence is a heartbreaking tale in the present and the past. The way that Laura, Dylan and Emma come together is heartwarming, while the tale of Sarah and Joe Tolley is heartbreaking. There were many times that tears came to my eyes throughout this book, especially at the end. If you like a great book, don't miss this one!

After reading a few of Diana Chamberlain's more recent novels, including my favorite, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, I could tell immediately when I started this one that I was reading one of her earlier books. That's not to say that this novel isn't good, it is -- but it is a fairly predictable story and the revelations at the end come as no surprise to any mystery reader. There are multiple things going on in the book but all eventually comes together to wrap up the various pieces. It's a story of family relationships including great love and loss and getting answers.

I enjoyed the book well enough -- it's fast paced and the narrative draws the reader in with the topic -- torture and experimentation on patients at psychiatric facilities circa 1950s. It's hard to believe that many of those "treatments" were allowed and even encouraged!

In another note, however, I must say that the sudden muteness experienced by the child, Emma, in the book was never fully explained and then mysteriously disappeared. I'm assuming it was some sort of traumatic guilt-like reaction.

All in all, this is an easy read, an early work by an author who has since become more accomplished!

Astronomer Laura Brandon makes a promise to her father on his deathbed, to visit an elderly woman in a nursing home. She has no idea who this woman is or why her father was so insistent and so, ignoring her husbands petulant demands that she devote herself to his needs only, she visits her in the nursing home. Sarah Tolley is in the early stages of Alzheimers and, while being unable to cope with everyday things, has total recall of all the horrific events which happened to her in the Fifties. She was a pyschiatric nurse, working in a hospital where new methods of dealing with mentally ill patients were being tried, and where patients were subjected to the most horrific drugs and brain washing techniques. Laura has a five year old daughter Emma who was the result of a one night affair with a man whom she hasn't seen since then, so when a much older male friend offers to marry her, she accepts to give her child a father. Lauras husband Ray is a chronically depressed individual who suicides in view of Emma who becomes mute as a result of the shock and when a therapist suggests that Laura contacts Emmas birth father to try to help the situation, their love story begins. Lauras and Sarahs stories intertwine so much that we are watching two stories simultaneously. The love stories are well done but I must admit to finding the treatment of the mental patients distressing in the extreme and while not doubting that these practices took place, some of them even government sponsored, I found them to be unpleasant reading which left me shaken.

I've read all of Diane Chamberlain's books and loved them all. Breaking the Silence is the best one since Fire and Rain. Chamberlain is definately much more than a romance writer. Her ability to write about contemporary relationships is way above average, as is her writing style. This book is top notch and will not disappoint. Chamberlain just keeps getting better and better. You won't be able to put this book down!

Diane Chamberlain does it again! The first book of hers that I read was Keeper of the Light and I was delighted to find she hasn't lost her touch. Great book! I couldn't sleep until I finished reading it!