Genre: Speculative Fiction
Release Date: Expected 9th February 2023
Publisher: Atlantic Books | Corvus
Emilia is breaking the silence.
She's begun writing her memoirs with the help of the notebooks her Mother left behind after she quietly burned herself to death along with thousands of her followers. The Silence Project is going to tell the real story for the first time.
She hadn't heard her Mother speak since she was thirteen, not even in those final painful moments, but she's determined to finally find her own voice and speak about just how twisted The Community her Mother created has become in the years since her death.
The Community exalted Rachel as their saviour, their leader, their guiding light into a new age, the outside world condemned her as a terrorist and murderer. But to Emilia, she was her Mother. And all she can do is hope to speak loud enough to be heard before she's silenced again.
"Rachel was none of these. She was neither saint nor demon. No matter what she did, she was very human. She was deeply flawed and deeply courageous. She was a bad person and a good one. She was also my Mother."
What would you hear if you truly listened? If you got sick of your voice being unheard and let your silence speak louder? If you rose above the noise and allowed yourself to hear instead of respond? The Silence Project has countless questions to make you truly wonder about not only yourself but the world around you.
From the very start, it was a compulsive read with the kind of quiet terror that blends and blurs fiction with the real world. The kind where what isn't being said is more frightening than any words on the page. It lives firmly in the grey - forcing you to confront the delicate complexity of human nature, and the lines between right and wrong, anarchist and troublemaker, martyr and murderer.
A searing and timely statement abut cult mentality and its prevalence even today, this story is a twisted parallel of modern life in a deeply disturbing way. We explore how it easy it is to commit violence and hatred when you're just a voice in a crowd, and how out of control things can spiral with just one misplaced command or sentence. The reflection of the current political climate is unsettling. The Community started as a small movement, before launching into a worldwide platform, advocating for their ideas and infiltrating every aspect of society.
Th characters were multi-faceted, complicated people that were undeniably intoxicating. Rachel was a Mother, a Martyr, a Murderer - she was all these things and none of them. Everything single person you'd ask would have a different opinion about who she is and if she deserves to be revered or reviled. As for Emilia, our guide through this tale, she becomes immediately personable and relatable as she bares her soul to show us the simmering, seething emotions that have been brewing since her childhood and how they have shaped her. She is cold and concise but not uncaring - and as she goes through life she tries to balance being the daughter of an iconoclast or icon with simply being her.
Emilia talks directly to us, interspersing her story with letters, emails, news reports and other sources to create a truly engrossing experience - and while it was very dense and word-heavy in places, it never lost focus and evoked a desire to carry on the journey.
The Silence Project is a strange, alienating tale that painfully mirrors the darker and confusing parts of life. It doesn't have a clean satisfying end, nothing wrapped in a neat tidy bow and all packed away, but instead offers the reader a chance to reflect and a lingering sense of a dread that lasts long after the last page.
"Silence threatens people because it's only when you're silent that you can hear the truth behind their words."
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in this tour.
CW: Death, Graphic Violence, Cults.
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