Dark Matter meets The Shining in Evie Green’s eerie yet oh-so-intriguing horror debut, WE HEAR VOICES (Berkley Hardcover; on sale December 1, 2020), the story of a young boy and his sinister imaginary friend who encourages him to carry out some very dark deeds.
Many thanks to the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
As a quick side note before we begin, I am very much appreciative of publishers offering digital galleys during this pandemic. Before COVID, I preferred physical copies over digital editions for many reasons but I have adapted well to this new way of reviewing books thanks to many wonderful publicists.
Horror fiction is not my typical go-to read but once I read the description of this plot, I knew I had to jump on this opportunity.
WE HEAR VOICES is Evie Green's debut novel and I am a sucker for debuts, too.
Buckle up for this...
The story starts with a mother holding her young son who is sick with a new, deadly, flu-like virus.
Sound familiar?
The boy recovers from the disease but it has caused many lasting, terrible changes for him.
...How about now?
Humans are worried about the condition of Earth and are planning to launch a new community on a nearby planet.
Have the parallels creeped you out yet?
It's thoroughly weird and scary and hard to believe it was written before COVID times. The issues at hand in this future dystopia do not seem too far fetched. Perhaps that's why I found this book unsettling.
For a chilly and dark fall evening, WE HEAR VOICES is an obvious choice.
Billy, Rachel's son who begins listening to his imaginary friend after recovering from the disease, does some incredibly strange and monstrous things. At times it was actually difficult to read.
Nina, Billy's sister, is focused on figuring everything out. She's devoted to her family and space exploration too.
If those two character descriptions seem like they would be in totally different books, we're on the same page.
Although WE HEAR VOICES was in fact creepy and checked all the scary novel boxes for me, it also left me thinking, "Did that really just happen?" and not in the good way. In the way like "That ending? For real?"
Evie Green set up such an amazing story with amazing characters but the dialogue throughout combined with the most out of place ending is pushing me to give the book three stars!
I enjoyed the book, I really did. But I cannot honestly give more than three stars because I feel the ending was rushed. In my opinion, Green had an opportunity here to do so much more than.. what she did.
If you're interested in see for yourself what all this plague/pandemic creepy futuristic dystopian world stuff is all about, you can get the book on December 1st, 2020. ISBN 9780593098301