I liked this novel very much. I thought it flowed beautifully and appreciated the dry quality to the writing. The story will keep you interested and guessing. It reads a bit like true crime. The vibes and setting really transport you into the time this takes place. Really well done.

The Silence isn't a bad book. The writing is atmospheric, its (problematic) reveals are well constructed, and it does its best to try and tangle with some thorny issues around gender and race relations. However, it fumbles those issues in ways that re-inscribe the harmful and damaging thinking that perpetuate misogynistic understanding of intimate partner abuse and racist attitudes towards the so-called white man's burden.

Like many of its characters, it manages to skirt the sort of responsibility that would make it a bad book. It hates its women (again like all of the characters, male and female) but in a way that tries to blame the eras (1967 and 1997) being featured. The women, in turn, hate each other to curry favor with obviously abusive men--towards whom the women and the book extend an extraordinary amount of sympathy and empathy. The men can't help but be bad, and their badness is a very difficult burden for them to handle. Beyond the misogyny and abuse apologetics, the state-sanctioned abduction of Aboriginal children from their homes is used to create a redemptive narrative for several of the white characters.