Customer Reviews

Quietus

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I could not put this book down, and I cannot stop thinking about it, and the characters, since I have finished it. I thought it was a wonderfully written book, exprssive, complete, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It is a suspenseful, gothic like, ghost story, with characters I fell in love with, and some that really scared me! It wasn't exactly new territory, the premise of the book, but it didn't matter, I was so caught up in it, I had to sit and read it until I was done. I look forward to more work from Ms. Schilling, as a matter of fact, I just ordered her previous book from Amazon. Can't wait until it comes!

After seeing this novel listed on ABC News as a "Recommended Summer Read", I picked up a copy at the airport. Once I started the first page, I couldn't stop reading! My only complaint is that it consumed my entire vacation. I was at first skeptical when I saw the reviews on the cover comparing Ms. Schilling to Iris Murdoch and Mary Shelley Wollenstencraft. Now I'm sold. Schilling's terrifying imagination is underscored with intelligence. My only advice -- don't take it on the plane. It starts off with a nightmarish crash!

I absolutely could not put this novel down. I found myself looking forward to my lunch breaks where I could steal a few more minutes of the characters, the plot, the suspense. Quietus is not your run-of-the-mill thriller, but a novel of substance. If you've ever been touched by death, this book will not only entertain you, but make you think. I also very much appreciated Schilling's research. As a Boston resident, I found her portrayal of the city not only extremely accurate, but insightful. A must read for not only lovers of suspense, but those who can appreciate quality literature.

I was thoroughly absorbed in this tale for days. I was reminded of Anne Rice's vampire tales or, more recently, Tannanarive Due's strange immortals, all the while enjoying Vivian Schillings' unique take on the whole human meets un-human genre.

The background history was good and never quite resolved or neatly explained which to me makes sense as that entire aspect of our existence is rather mysterious anyhow. The simple possibility that there is a 'there' there, and that the spirit or 'other' world at times intrudes upon ours and even has designs upon it and/or us is always fascinating fodder for great stories.

I couldn't wait for my personal time each evening to curl up and read like mad to find out where in the world this story was going and what was going to happen to Kylie and her friends. This book was a page-turner for me.

While a few others where utterly tripped up by their own proofreading and editing bugs, I found myself caught up in the storytelling and quite unbothered by all that.

Overall I was very impressed and will be anxious to see if Schilling has more tales to share with us.

I've looked at the other reviews and have tried to understand why some people don't like this book. I think that people who read Gothic fiction fall into two camps. One camp likes a fast read with an ax murder or an animated corpse showing up at the door every couple of pages. The other camp likes a slow build with a lot of complex characters and a boat load of atmosphere. This book will suit the latter camp.

There are several erotic scenes, all of them from a very female point of view. If you are a male who just doesn't get women at all, then you probably won't enjoy them.

I loved this book!

Our book group was fresh off reading Iris Murdoch's The Nice and the Good, when one of the ladies recommended Quietus. She had picked up the novel when she saw a review on the cover likening it to the work of Iris Murdoch. As a fierce Murdoch fan, I was skeptical. I found the first couple of chapters of Quietus interesting but remained ambivalent. Schilling's voice is very eloquent, but completely different from Murdoch's. But as the story began to unfold, and the author went deeper and deeper into the psyche of the protagonist, I realized from whence the comparison came. With her fixation on her own mortality, longing for those lost, her struggles between good and evil, and her dark addictions to love, Kyle O'Rourke is straight out of a Murdoch masterpiece.

Layered beneath this riveting thriller, lies a brilliant examination of mortality as we know it. In her exploration into darkness and light, Schilling has created a ghostly world like no other. Though at times more brutal than Murdoch's work, Quietus is a psychological thriller that cuts to the bone, to the very marrow of what makes us human and ultimately mortal.

I fear the marketing team behind this novel short-changed it. Quietus is threaded with such intellectual and philosophical thought it is undeserving of the simplistic "suspense" labelling. This is a classic work by an exciting new author and deserves to be in the best literary collections. I can only hope Schilling continues on to a career as prolific as Murdoch's. Novels of this caliber and intensity are difficult to find!

Highly recommended to readers in search of something more than a simple suspense novel.

After a teacher told me about this book I decided to read it. I was sadly dissapointed. The book has it's interesting moments, but that is all they are. The end of the book was very dissapointing. I read the ending and thought "that's it, it took 600 pages just for that" The books whole point is about death, and what happens if you go looking for it. This book could have gone through some very serious editing. There were many parts in the book which could have been left out and would have never been missed.

The book also had to many, mini-plots going on. They basically tried to pile every tragic event the main character, and then some other minor characters had ever been through and deal with all of them at the same time.

The plane heading for Boston crashed in the New Hampshire White Mountains. Rescuers save five survivors including Kylie O'Rourke and her spouse Jack trapped inside the doomed flight. Kylie relates a strange story that just before crashing, she noticed a raven perched on the plane's wing. Kylie also insists that she and the other four survivors were restlessly hiking the mountain though they were found inside the fuselage when they were rescued. No one else who lived to talk about his or her harrowing experience substantiates Kylie's claim.

Kylie's psychologist insists what she says she saw and believes happened was caused by post-traumatic stress combined with drug stimulated hallucinations. However, Kylie continues to see a raven with human eyes and turning paranoid insists that the malevolent beings she saw on the mountain are after her while people in good health that she knows start dying.

QUIETUS is a strong suspense that has readers resolving questioning whether it is a psychological/medical thriller in which Kylie is losing her mind, a horror tale where the spirit domain has entered the living realm, or a combination of both. The story line is exciting but the wide use of psychological, medicinal, and spiritual elements enhances the audience's perceptual guesses yet slows down the pace of the plot. Still, Kylie is a wonderful lead protagonist walking a thin line between insanity and real danger, which is what makes Vivian Shilling's novel hauntingly work.

Harriet Klausner

I've never read a novel so compelling! The story starts off with a plane crash and the tension doesn't let up from there. The main character, Kylie O'Rourke is so well drawn, so likable yet beautifully flawed that I didn't want to leave her journey for one moment. I read this in two days. I laughed, I cried and I ultimately wanted more! And the author doesn't let the reader off once the book is finished. Her words and the deep philosophical questions she poses find their way into your every waking hour.

Quietus is so riveting and frightening on one hand, yet so introspective and thought-provoking on the other! It's so far ahead of the other vapid thrillers out there, there's just no comparison.

Read this if you want relentless suspense coupled with a good dose of philosophical and spiritual thought.

Award winning author Vivian Schilling's novel Quietus is a bold and terrifying tale of suspense as survivors of a deadly crash awaken in a hospital with untrustworthy memories and uncertain futures. As if they had somehow cheated Death, and Death stalked them, waiting to reclaim its mortal due. A tense, involving, complex, deftly written and highly recommended saga about unraveling the defenses of the human mind one by one, Quietus is aptly titled after the moment of release from life, and haunting to the very end.