Book Review: Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick [Audio]

Title: Silence
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Genre: Teen Fiction, Fantasy
Publication Date: October 4, 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
ISBN-13 Book: 9781442426641
Publisher Audio CD: Simon and Schuster Audio
ISBN CD: 9781442343818
Length:  8 CDs (Approximately 9.5 hours)
Narrator:  Caitlin Greer
Disclosure:  I received a copy of the audio book for review from Simon and Schuster Audio through Audiobook Jukebox (http://www.audiobookjukebox.com/).  This is my honest review!

Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Warning:  This review may contain spoilers from the previous novel Crescendo.

This third installment in the series takes place shortly after book two, Crescendo leaves off.  At the end of Crescendo Nora is been kidnapped by the Black Hand.  At the beginning of Silence we discover the desperate extremes Patch is willing to go to rescue her.  When she finally is returned to her mother, a lot has changed.  First Nora has no memory of the events of the last five months and second her mother is now dating Hank Miller, the father of her enemy Marcie Miller.  She knows there are gaps in her memory and she knows not everyone is telling her the truth, especially about a dark eyed boy that keeps popping up in her scattered memory.

Since this is the third book in the series, Fitzpatrick doesn’t waste any time thrusting the reader into the story.  The characters are familiar and we know their history.  What we can’t figure out is why their stories differ so completely from the ones we read in the past two books. 

While amnesia tends to be a bit cliché in books these days, given the powers of the characters I found it to be a believable motif, and it definitely lets her move from Nora’s captivity at the end of Crescendo to the events of this book without a lot of drawn out scenes and explanation.  In fact, I think it was great that we didn’t have to experience Nora in captivity. 

Once again the nephilim and the fallen angels are preparing for battle.  While I enjoyed Silence while I was reading it, in the end I was left feeling a little disappointed and felt that it kind of fell flat.  In essence we don’t learn anything new in this novel until the very end.  There was no new information, no new events; we basically waited for Nora to get her memory back so we could progress with the story once again.  It was good for a refresher of events, but kind of stalled the progress of the series.

The ending sets us up for a new playing field and for an exciting conclusion in the final installment in this series.  I am anxious to know what happens next.

I listened to the audiobook for this novel and found that it was a pleasant way to experience the book.  Given how much of the book rehashes the previous novels, I found myself less impatient listening to the book than I would have been had I been reading it.  The audio format suits this book well and is a good way to get through this novel. 

The audiobook is produced by Simon & Schuster audio and read by Caitlin Greer.  Greer does an excellent job narrating, and is clear and believable as the voice of Nora Grey.  Sometimes the male voices seem a bit stretched, but this is common with almost any narrator reading for the opposite sex.  Alter Graham (sp?) reads the first chapter, and it was worth listening to the audio just to hear Patch’s voice come from a male reader.

The production of this novel is well done.  The volume is consistent throughout the book and the quality is very good.  The pacing for the narration is perfect and the audio flows smoothly.  The audio is definitely a good way to get through this third novel.  In fact, there were several days when I found myself sitting in the car listening to the book even though I had arrived at my destination.

Overall, this was a good book, but it could have been better.  I felt that we spent too much time rehashing events that occurred in the previous books.  I still like the series and can’t wait to see what will happen in book four.  


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