Overall I really enjoyed the suspense this book provided. The book starts off with 6 friends at a music festival and an accidental death. The friends decide to keep the death a secret. After a year of silence the secret begins to eat away at all of them in different ways especially when they begin to suspect someone knows what they did.
Some parts in the middle lagged a little but the twists and turns were well placed. The ending leaves you wanting more!
Would definitely recommend this book. The author writes well and is easy to read.

Matt, his partner Alexandra, and their four friends take a road trip to a music festival honoring '90s music. The trip is great and they party like they're back in college while camping out as far from the stages as they can get. They're right next to woods so the site is private, though also a bit spooky when they have to get up in the dark to pee behind a tree. Then everything goes wrong and in the middle of the night they kill a stranger and hide his body. They should have called the police, but the truth sounded unbelievable and they feared they would not be believed. No sooner had they buried that body than they realized the person they killed was a serial killer. But it was too late to change their actions as there was no way to explain why he'd been buried and not look guilty. The six friends make a pact to keep the events of the night a secret, promising that any action taken had to be agreed upon by all. About a year later the friends are still dealing with the emotional fallout from what happened in the woods, perseverating on the question: was the killer working alone? Then the killing starts again.

Suspenseful, a bit spooky, and a little over-the-top like you expect serial killer books to be, The Silence is also psychologically honest in a way serial killer books often aren't. Books/movies tend to gloss over the emotional aspects of killing when it's done for the greater good or self-defense. In real life I imagine the guilt and grief would be more like what is shown in The Silence than the superhero moving on without a substantial backward glance that is more frequently portrayed.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions in this review are honest and my own.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

The plot sounded so intriguing, but the characters did not engage me as much as I had wanted them too and seemed a bit flat. The twist did genuinely surprise though, so I will give it a three and a half

Liverpool. 2015 with Flashbacks to 1992 which tell how the six friends met. Matt is the narrator. He asks his friends to attend a revival of 90's music festival in the countryside. Matt brings Alexander, Stuart is with Michelle and Chris is with Nicole. They hear a scream in the middle of the night and find Stuart being attacked by a man. They killed the stranger and covered it up. They didn't know their victim was a serial killer. The six promise each other they would not tell anyone about the body they buried. A year later, the pact has been broken. And the killing has started again. They start to think the killer has a partner and is coming after each of them.
This is a standalone thriller about The Candle Man who is a serial killer. It's a chilling book which is hard-to-put-down with a shocking ending I didn't see coming. The characters are unique and the plot is dark. I'm looking forward to reading more books by Veste as I do like his writing style. I would highly recommend this book to those who love thrillers. I would like to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a free copy for an honest review.

The Silence is the fist book I've read from Luca Veste but you can bet I'll be reading so many more! What a phenomenal and creepy read! I was so invested with this story and what was happening that when I finally looked up hours passed me by! I highly recommend this one!

The Silence by Luca Veste started with promise, then during the middle section began to slog along where I found myself skimming the pages, but it did pick up the last third of the book.

I liked some of the characters, but I had issues with the main character, Matt. I'm still on the fence if I liked him or not. The storyline reminded me of a version of I Know What You Did Last Summer, which was fine.

The ending was explosive, which I liked. I like a book where I am surprised and not able to guess what is coming next, and I definitely did not see that ending coming. So kudos to the author on that front.

Though I wasn't a huge fan of this book, I will check out Luca Veste's other books.

@Sourcebooks #NetGalley

4-5 stars! This was a fun, chilling read, that truly shocked me! I had some hunches, but didn’t nail everything. It would have been 5 stars, but it was truly needing a better editing job or something, as parts seemed to be missing. I know it’s an advanced reading copy, but this wasn’t minor errors, but more like a thought started and didn’t finish. I think if these past memories were more complete or at least ended in a manner that wasn’t so abrupt it would be so much better! Overall, a fun read if you are looking for a serial killer thriller that brings some goosebumps and gasps! Highly, highly recommend!
Will make sure to buzz it up on the different platforms!

From other reader reviews, I had high hopes for The Silence. I love a good serial killer novel and was looking for something a little darker after a string of suspense reads.

Six friends on the verge of transitioning to the next phase in their adult lives decide to attend a 90s themed music festival (really, their first mistake, since nothing good can ever happen at a 90s themed festival, lol). After a tumultuous last night, they retreat to their tents, only to be woken by a scuffle. Stuart's in trouble, being attacked, and in the midst of defending themselves, the attacker is killed. Fearing condemnation and blame, they decide to bury the body instead of going to the police, and in doing so, they stumble on a second body and realize the person who attacked them was more than a random stranger.

A year later, it seems he's back for revenge. The friends must reunite in the wake of tragedy before they're all taken out by the Candle Man.

Okay. The Silence was so fun. I thoroughly enjoyed this read. First and foremost, I think, because it reminded me so much of 90s slasher cult favorites I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream. Vestes might not have intended it to be that way, but The Silence felt like an homage, a love letter, to these cinematic horror gems. The group dynamics were similar with polar personalities: the bad ass, the loner, the smart guy, the outsider. I appreciated how he used their traits to push the conflict and dig deeper into the local legend of Candle Man.

I also appreciated the alternating flashbacks to the formation of their friendships. Spanning decades, The Silence reads a bit like It but without the monstrous clown eating children in the sewers. It's both a coming of age and an exploration of urban legend, something that could've seemed silly or overwhelming but worked really well the way Vestes structured it.

I think my only gripe was that because I had such a strong IKWYDLS vibe, I was not in the slightest surprised by the climax and conclusion. The final chapters played out exactly how I imagined they would from the beginning, and in that aspect, I wanted more of a devious twist. That's not to say it was a bad ending, just that if you're familiar with the movie plots, you probably won't be shocked by how the final moments unfold.

Overall, The Silence was an enjoyable, fun, quick read with cinematic features and a cast of unreliable weirdos who could be your very own friends. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me with an eARC in exchange for review consideration.

Unfortunately, this didn't work for me at all. I found it very slow, which dulled any sense of suspense. Around midpoint, I guessed the resolution and skimmed the rest of the way through.

The Silence is a dark thriller with a lot of character, strong plot line and fast paced. I’d recommend this book!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The book was good. The only thing that kept me from giving it a 4 stars is it has a lot of dull moments wherein I found myself drifting off from the story. I was not particularly fond of the Author's writing style. There are so many unnecessary narration that could have cut the story to a more shorter and more thrilling pace. Although I was really surprised with the twist of who the killer was, and what really happened that night. It was still a good book.

This hooked me from the very beginning. I have read his other book The Bone Keeper and I loved that one so it was no surprise that I enjoyed this one as well. A great standalone thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat.

I really enjoyed Luca Veste's previous book, The Bone Keeper, so I've been waiting to get my hands on this one! I believe it also goes by the title The Six.

Matt, a 30ish website designer, goes to a 90's revival music festival with his girlfriend Alexandra, and best friends Chris & Nicole, and Stuart & Michelle.

Hearing screaming in the middle of the night, they get up and leave their tent to investigate, and find a man with a machete attacking Stuart, and the altercation that follows, the man dies. Knowing that they will be accused of the murder, and believing they have stopped a serial killer known as The Candle Man, they agree to cover it up, bury the body, and never speak of it again.

A year later the death is still haunting the group, Matt and Alexandra have split up, they haven't gotten over that night. Matt is barely sleeping. Stuart and Michelle are not together either, but Chris and Nicola seem to have moved on from that horrendous night. Stuart is found dead from an apparent suicide and Matt thinks the killer’s partner is out for revenge and will not stop until they are all dead.

The story, written from Matt's point of view, allowed the reader to see into the mind of a guilt-ridden and slighty agoraphobic, who just wants to save his friends. Makes you wonder if he was a reliable narrator. We learned how the friendship between these six came to be, their childhood shenanigans and university life, up to that night. Luca Veste did a fantastic job at giving pieces of info that gets you thinking about where the story is going, but not giving away too much.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

A final weekend of freedom before marriage ends in tragedy when a group of friends accidentally kills someone. To add to the sense of the surreal, the victim turns out to have been a serial killer. Maybe their accident was providential. They vow to keep the secret, but then the murders begin again. It would appear the serial killer they took out had a partner. And guess who the next victims at the top of the list are?