The Silent Land (original 2010; edition 2012)

Zoe and Jake, a husband and wife in their 30s and sharing a deep, loving bond are on a romantic skiing break when they become caught in the middle of an avalanche. Jake digs Zoe out and both return unhurt to their hotel. The hotel is empty of guests and staff and the entire village is completely deserted. Guessing that the village has been evacuated, Zoe and Jake attempt to make their way down the mountain only to find that various routes all lead them right back to where they started.

By now most readers will have an idea of what is going on and it is testament to Joyce’s writing that even though you can figure out the main premise of the novel a third of the way through it really doesn’t matter. It is all about the journey. They eat and drink only the best food and wine from the hotel’s kitchen, make love like honeymooners and togged out in the best sking gear the empty shops have to offer spend their days skiing. They also bicker and reveal secrets they have kept from each other. Gradually they discover that they are needing to remind each other what something tastes like or feels like before they're able to experience it. This makes them relive some the best moments from their relationship. This magical story is about Zoe and Jake and what their relationship means to them, their shared memories which grow more poignant as their life in their snowy prison grows more uncertain.

There is a growing unease that something is coming…..

….phantom voices on a mobile phone that doesn’t have a signal, hallucinations, frightening dreams and delusions, a visitation from Jake's long-dead dog.

Gradually they are forced to confront the frightening truth about their silent land.

The Silent Land is a novella, only 256 pages but you really have to force yourself to slow down and read without rushing to the end, it’s atmospheric, haunting and emotionally intense.

“You’ll laugh, albeit nervously; you’ll cry, unless you’re completely heartless; you’ll give your nearest and dearest hugs without really being able to explain why you’re so glad to see them – really, what more do you want from a novel” SFX
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A young couple caught in an avalanche during a skiing holiday think they've survived but slowly it dawns on them that they're dead. The story of people trapped in death has been done before, but this is a very enjoyable and quite sweet version. ( )

Ugh, I had such high hopes for this. Basically, what happens is two people are caught in an avalanche, and when they get themselves out, they find that everyone else has diasappeared, and they can't contact anyone outside the mountain village where they're staying.

Well, that sounded cool. Maybe there was an alien invasion! or a zombie epidemic! Or even maybe they're dead and it's the afterlife?

Nope, it's just that one of the people is in a coma or something and it's all in her head. Wow. Amazing.

Other things that were not awesome about this book:
--There is almost zero character development beyond the fact that they like to ski.
--There are several cringeworthy sex scenes.
--The writing is painfully bad. Some of my "favorite" bits:
"Jake had close-cropped black hair and baby-blue peepers"
PEEPERS. Really.

"His skin was like parchment in this light, she decided, holy parchment, and his glittering blue eyes and his nut-brown eyebrows and the hint of crimson of his lips were like a monk’s illustrations on a sacred manuscript."
Then about two pages later, she addresses this holy parchment with the remark, "Your eyes look like pissholes in the snow." ( )

3.5 stars

I might have even given this 4 stars had I read it in winter. Does that sound weird? Some books are just seasonal to me, and this is definitely a cold weather book. I think it would have enhanced the experience.

Reading the first page, I was worried that Joyce's writing style (choppy and somewhat repetitive) would bother me too much to enjoy the story. Either his writing got better as the book progressed or I was just too engrossed to notice it anymore. This is a can't put it down / can't wait to pick it up book (and I really needed one of those). It succeeded in creeping me out more than once, and the description of being trapped in an avalanche had me feeling downright panicky. The ending was a slight let down, but I've kind of come to expect that with stories like these. The resolution never seems quite able to match the tension and suspense of the buildup. Once the questions have been answered and the mysteries solved, it's... well, not mysterious anymore. And that's the driving force of the story, so it's natural to feel a bit deflated once that sense of the unknown is gone. While it's there, though, it is good.

By the way, I liked the ending of LOST. So there.


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Wow. This book is just amazeballs. Also, don't spoil yourself before reading it. Just don't.

I wasn't quite sure how to classify this book. I can totally believe that this book would be nominated for awards, but I'm not sure how it didn't win... then again, I haven't read the winners.

This is a deeply atmospheric book. If you ever seen the Shining, it's like that. But x 1000. And better. It's beautiful and scary and suspenseful and heartbreaking and oh, so very, very atmospheric and emotional, which is my favorite kind of tense story (I'm reluctant to call it a "horror" book, though that's how I felt about it for almost the entire book).

I do not like the cold. I am somewhat terrified of snow and ice and the horribleness of it all. So I listen to this book (narrated by the always-awesome John Lee), and it's about a couple on a snow-ski vacation in the Pyrenees mountains. They get buried by an avalanche and then escape. And then everything gets weird. And you figure it out, and they figure it out, only you haven't really figured it out, and you start to wonder what it is that's going on. And it's creepy... and cold... and nerve wracking... and awesome.

There were a few bits that took me out of the story... some of the explicit sex, that I wasn't expecting... something... patriarchal? dudely? about the attitudes (I could tell it was written by a dude). But overall I thought it was really good. It used some of it's harsh language well. In fact, all of the language was used supremely, absurdly well. It got repetitive when it needed to for effect, it was overly detailed when it needed to be and vague where it needed to be. And when I would think "no, that doesn't make any sense/is wrong" there seemed to be a reason for it. The beginning and the end had a beautiful symmetry, actions and words have more than one meaning. It's a true masterpiece.

I had read one of Joyce's works before and didn't like it very much, but this... this was glorious.

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