The two main characters are 14 year old Ally and her father Huw. Tim Lebbon spends a lot of time developing his characters and giving them a backstory so the reader can invest in them more as just protagonists of the novel. They each give their take on the events and, as a reader, you can really feel the family bond between them all as they work as a team to plan their survival in the ghastly future where they could be devoured to pieces at any given moment. Written in an informal style with a modern touch and splash of casual swearing, the narrative is presented in a personal way through the character of Ally in first person and her father Huw in third person. It soon becomes apparent that it’s no such thing, and that the nightmare is frighteningly real.įrom opening the first page, The Silence was an easy book to get into. It all feels rather realistic and believable how the events unfold with very little information initially being drip-fed to the British residents, with news broadcasters still wondering, like every other person, whether this is all fake, a clever promotional stunt for a movie. The story and panic slowly unfolds across the pages as the characters learn more and more of the evil unleashed overseas. Lebbon does this by including Twitter posts, blog quotes and social media entries at the beginning of each chapter, to help set the scene and give the reader a feel for the current state of crisis. Lebbon explores the changes and impact the release of the carnivorous winged beasties, referred to as vesps, have had upon the Earth, from both a personal and onlooker’s point-of-view. The Silence is a mature teen survival horror-thriller from author Tim Lebbon that focuses on one family’s fight for survival in a world that has been turned upside down over night. Watching the violence unfold in Eastern Europe via news channels, the British public look are urged by the Prime Minister to stay indoors in case the swarm reaches the UK’s shores but is that such a good idea? Ally, a 14 year old deaf girl, and her family aren’t so sure and set off on a quest of survival where the horrors they will face won’t just be the winged creature variety. Rapidly spreading and breeding, the carnivorous creatures are attacking everything living thing, from bird to human. When a cave expedition in Moldova led by scientists and screened live on the Discovery channel ends up going horribly wrong, unleashing hordes of flesh-eating winged creatures unidentified to man, the whole of the world is sent into panic.

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