Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes was a phenomenal sci-fi horror story.
I just love her writing. She creates amazing tension and builds exciting anticipation throughout her story.
Everything is described vividly so you feel within the scene making the horrific parts very chilling.
I enjoyed reading Dead Silence and her newest title was unputdownable as well!

Thank You NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This has been one of my most anticipated books of 2024! I loved DEAD SILENCE and, although I didn't like this one quite as much, it solidifies the author as one I'll be auto-buying future releases from, especially if they continue to be set in space.

I loved the futuristic worldbuilding here, especially the parts about settlers and miners and stuff on other planets. It feels like the author could continue to write in this setting with the books having similar characters or news events, etc -- like they could all be connected, which is super fun.

This would make a really good movie, the gore and descriptions of what was going on were so easy to visualize. Although I didn't particularly care about any of the characters, I also didn't hate any of them - I was just kind of eager to see what would happen.

My biggest annoyance with this is that the synopsis tells you a character dies, which is a major spoiler in my opinion because that doesn't happen until like 70% into the book. Other than that, the pacing could have been a bit better - the first half+ was a lot slower than the later portions, which seemed to really fly by with blood and action and hysteria.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release Date: 4/9/2024

First off thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book, this is my first read from this author and I really enjoyed it!

Something I loved about this book is there was a strong build up throughout the entire storyline. We start off with Ophelia being prepped for an assignment on an abandoned planet. We learn of her past and how it has haunted her, her entire life! Being a new member (and ones that is not welcome) makes her job a little harder, as the story unfolds you see Ophelia and the crew have stumbled upon a rather terrifying discovery. The first part of the book is a little slower as you get to learn the crew. The second part of the book is jammed pack with action! Will they survive this mission? Find out on April 9th!!!

This book was entertaining from start to finish. Ghost Station shows us the potential horrors of interplanetary exploration, but also the more familiar terrors of the human experience (capitalism).

I thought the perspective of a mental health professional was unique. One who could examine crew behavior convincingly but who's knowledge of a common affliction casts doubt over whether the crew's experiences are real or imagined.

Space horror has always been an interesting genre to me, but one I've never really tried in book format. I've already added Dead Silence to my TBR and will look forward to any new releases from the author.

Thank you Netgally, S.A. Barnes and Tor Nightfire for the ARC of Ghoast Station.

I absolutely love Ghost ship by this author so when I was given the chance to read her new book I was excited. This book was a bit slower for me and felt like it didn’t get good till about 50-60% in. I did enjoy it and will continue to read anything this author writes in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for an advanced copy of Ghost Station.

3.5 stars rounded down to 3.

Ghost Station is a space horror/science fiction story following Ophelia, a psychologist who joins a team that is heading to an abandoned planet for research/sample collection. When they arrive, they discover that a team had explored the planet previously, and their mission failed miserably. To make matters more complicated, Ophelia has secrets she is keeping from her team...but they also have secrets of their own. When the mission goes south, can they trust one another so they can survive and make it home?

I loved the author's previous novel, Dead Silence, and space horror is the one type of horror that absolutely terrifies me. Unfortunately, this one didn't quite meet my expectations. The pacing was very slow, and some parts were repetitive. The pace picked up about 70% in, and after that I found the ending too quick and unsatisfying due to the lack of explanation. I feel like if maybe 150 pages or so were cut out of the repetitive parts and instead more about the planet or the alien species were included, it would have added more depth to the world and characters. I would have actually liked if this had multiple POVs, so we could see things from the perspective of the other teammates. It could have made the overall themes of greed and capitalistic corruption more impactful like I was expecting it to be.

Other than that, I really liked the concept of Ghost Station. It was fairly realistic, which makes it more terrifying. The secrets from Ophelia's past were a really cool twist, and I wish that had a bit more focus as well. I also think the other characters were unique and if they had more of a backstory, I could have felt more of a connection to them, since they had all been affected in some way by corporate greed and the wealthy. Despite some of the shortcomings, I really enjoyed this one and flew through it in just a couple short days.

I loooved 2022's Dead Silence, and as you can imagine, this was one of my most anticipated books of the year. While I may have loved it ever-so-slightly less, I still devoured it! In Ghost Station, we meet Ophelia, who despite being from a crappy rich family, has dedicated her career to helping figure out the devastating illness of ERS, which strikes down entire space-faring crews at its worst. She's clearly trying to atone for the sins of her family, and she is pretty thrilled when she gets the chance to join a small team who might be affected by the illness.

Thing is, the team doesn't think they're sick, and they really do not want Ophelia in their business. But she has a job to do, and one of their crewmates is dead under mysterious circumstances, so they're going to have to find a way to co-exist. That's one plot point, of course: these people trying to live with one another in the confines of space, as well as the mystery of what happened to their late crewmate.

The second part comes into play when the team lands on an abandoned planet. It is clear that humans had maintained a station here, and it is also clear that at one point, an alien civilization called this planet home. What isn't clear, however, is why the last team left in a hurry, who the aliens were, or what the heck is happening on this planet. It is incredibly atmospheric, with a constant feeling of eeriness and dread. There are moments of humor and camaraderie that break this up, so it doesn't feel overwhelmingly dark, but the author does a great job in making the stakes feel always high, and always present.

There is also a lot of thought provoking discussion on nature-versus-nurture, and if we really are able to break free from the sins of our ancestors. Ophelia has a lot of time to work on her own growth, as do the other characters, because scary space is not exactly full of hobbies. It makes for a great mix of excitement and adventure as well as character and relationship development.

Bottom Line: Cannot wait for more sci-fi creepiness with awesome characters from S.A. Barnes- I simply can't get enough!

I loved Ghost Station almost as much as I loved Barnes’ first book, and read it in just a few days. It was a touch predictable in the beginning, and the doctor’s flashbacks and self-doubting inner monologues were a little too frequent for me (we get it), but when her unease starts tiptoeing into palatable dread? **chef’s kiss** I’m looking forward to recommending it to our readers.

Calling it quits at 54%. I am not normally a reader of sci-fi books, but I was intrigued by the intersection of sci-fi and horror Ghost Station offered. The beginning of the novel worked fairly well as Barnes executes solid world building; however, I feel as though things stalled out around the 30% mark. This may just be the wrong time for me to be reading this particular book, but I did not feel a great sense of attachment to our MC or really enjoy (what seems to be) the romance subplot. The small scares that are implemented at the end of each chapter toward the beginning of the novel do not go very far in setting the tone given that they don't advance past initial shock value. Perhaps I'll come back to this at a later time, but for now, it's just not working for me. A huge thanks to Tor Nightfire for allowing me to read this title, I so desperately wanted to love it!

S.A. Barnes is very quickly becoming my go-to for sci-fi horror! What's more scary than the vast expanse of unknown space? Heck if I know, but this is a great read that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⁣⁣⁣
📖 I received this digital copy of Ghost Station from @netgalley and it was an easy 4 star read! This is my second S.A. Barnes book, and it did not disappoint. I feel like only she can write a book that is sci-fi, future, horror all rolled into one and have it make sense!

This story had a lot of creepy vibes which I loved. If you are looking for a unique book with an interesting genre combo, this is it! The only thing I wish I had more of was character development and more of “what happened after.” Overall, great book!

Imgur link goes to Instagram graphic scheduled for April 12th
Blog post goes live April 9th
Will be discussed in April Reads Pt 1

**TL;DR:** S.A. Barnes hits that sweet spot of horror where the gore is high, but it’s not SUPER scary - because I’m a wimp. I enjoyed this immensely.

I was a big fan of S.A. Barnes’s book last year, Dead Silence. This year Ghost Station hits that same sweet spot for me. In this one we follow a psychiatrist as she departs on research mission with a team that’s recently lost a member. She struggles both with her identity and the dynamics of the team as they’re trapped within a station that’s empty and haunted by something or someone.

This is a fairly introspective novel at first. Ophelia spends a lot of time waxing melodramatic about her family, her mistakes, etc but once past that her story is actually very interesting. Her father was a mass murderer, famous and notorious for his murders. While her mother is part of one of the richest, ruling company families in the galaxy. She has grisly memories of the massacre perpetrated by her father, and she fights that ghost while everyone else sees nothing more than a spoiled rich girl.

The story does seem a big hung up on that inner conflict and turmoil but in the later half I truly enjoyed the insidious and creepy horror of the novel. It’s gory and gross, and just the right amount of creepy for me. There is a lot of ignoring obvious red flags but it still managed to surprise and spook me.

Overall another solid win for me with Ghost Station from S.A. Barnes. If you like Sci-fi horror I do think she’s an author to try.

4 out of 5 creepy wandering shoes

What an introduction to S.A. Barnes! I love claustrophobic sci-fi horror books and this was no different. One could argue it's sci-fi thriller but I definitely see the horror elements coming through. My main critique is that I feel the description of the book gives away a major plot point that doesn't even happen until we're ~60% through the book so it felt a bit anti-climatic because I knew it was coming. I also wish the epilogue was a bit longer but overall I loved this book and I'll definitely be checking out Barnes' other book soon.
*Thank you to NetGalley and TOR for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel to read in exchange for an honest review.

Ghost Station was a great read. I enjoyed it from start to finish. The book is the perfect balance of science fiction and horror that fans of both genres could find entertaining. But on top of that it's also just a very well-written book that tells a good story, two things that don't always go hand-in-hand in the horror genre. I was pulled into the story right away, and kept immersed throughout by the rich details the author used to weave into the world. From the rich history belonging to the main character to the clear motivators driving supporting characters, it felt well thought out. You could tell that this was a world the author crafted with care.

I haven't previously read this author's work, but just based on how much I enjoyed this book I'm going to go back and read her other novel, Dead Silence. I will absolutely be looking forward to this author's future work.

This novel was everything I wanted it to be and what we’ve come to expect from S. A. Barnes. It was suspenseful and thrilling. The oppressive sense that something is about to happen was present throughout and handled masterfully. The characters were not extremely developed but we came to know them well enough to suit the narrative and for us to care about them. A must read!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Dr Ophelia Bray is not only a member of one of the richest and most powerful families on earth, she is also a renowned psychologist whose specialty is one in which her family is deeply involved. It is the syndrome that seems to infect space workers who are subjected to long periods of space travel. Unknown to her colleagues, she is also a victim of a person suffering from this syndrome in its most famous case.

She feels she has made a lot of progress in treating ERS, until the patient who she considers one of her most successful cases commits suicide almost right in front of her. This affects her so badly that she requests to leave her lab and travel on one of the missions with a crew who have recently lost a member, presumably to ERS. The idea is that if she observes the crew while they are actively on a mission she may be able to better understand the syndrome and identify some of the early symptoms.

But the crew is more than upset by the loss of their crewmate, they are secretive and not receptive to any help that Ophelia might provide. And there are strange things happening in and around their habitation. Then one of the crew recognizes her in her former identity and threatens to expose her.

The death of two crew members sends the survivors to find a way to abandon the mission and return to earth, but what will they be bringing back with them?

Quite the read, and I was never sure if Ophelia was the villain or the victim, or who (or what?) exactly WAS the villain. And sometimes neither was Ophelia.

sci-fi horror is right up my alley, and while some of this didn't work for me, it was on the whole a quality read. i didn't really vibe with ophelia as a protagonist (it doesn't help to have a character self-aware about the bad decisions she's making if she STILL MAKES THEM), and i didn't love the climax, but the premise and the atmospheric execution were both great. the tower shape reveal was stellar and really made the book. very much looking forward to reading dead silence

I loved this book! I had previously enjoyed Dead Silence, but I thought Ghost Station was even better! There is so much suspense and dread in this book and the eerie atmosphere leaves you unsettled. Ophelia is a total mess, and has no business being a therapist but it was fun to watch her try. I kept thinking, "Doctor heal thyself!" I really liked Ethan and Liana, and I enjoyed the growth that some of the characters showed. While I wouldn't say this book is truly scary, there were definitely some moments of body horror that gave me the creepy crawlies. The ending was interesting, but I wish there was more of it. Some things were left unexplained, and I would love to know more. Also, there could have been a few less flashbacks. It wasn't a big deal, but there were a lot of them, and it could be a bit repetitive. Overall though, I thought Ghost Station was an excellent space horror and I'm looking forward to seeing what S.A. Barnes comes up with next!

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the ARC!

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of "Ghost Station" by S. A. Barnes in exchange for an honest review.

Psychologist Ophelia Bray, survivor of a mass murder aboard a space station when she was a child, has dedicated her life to fighting ERS, a psychological condition afflicting certain space-based professions and the cause of the mass murder. To this end, she signs up for a planet-hopping expedition with a team who recently lost a member to ERS. They land on a planet that features the remains of a lost, alien civilization with the intent of completing a planetary survey.

The crew dynamics are messy, they all seem to hate and resent her, and after they set up in an abandoned human base, they discover signs which suggest that the last human mission didn't end well.

Ophelia and the others start thinking and acting more erratically, until finally their pilot ends up horrifically, gruesomely dead, seemingly by his own hand. What follows is a taut, scary, sometimes bonkers tale. Ophelia works, sometimes with and sometimes against, her crewmates to get to the truth of what's happening to them.

The first quarter of the book starts a little slow. There's a lot of context to establish, including Ophelia's credentials as a fringe member of a monstrously rich and powerful family as well as her Traumatic Past, both of which loom large throughout the story. But if you push on through, things pick up considerably after that 25% mark. It's scary, weird, and compulsively readable. It's not quite as overtly ghostly as the title might suggest; mostly the haunting occurs psychologically.

One interesting aspect is the explanation for what happened to the previous team and why things are going to heck for the current one. Without spoiling anything, this one felt fairly fresh.

Highly recommended for readers who enjoy space horror, heavy on psychological messiness and relatively (though not completely) light on gore.

I've been a huge fan of S.A. Barnes since her YA days, and honestly this did not disappoint. It still has the great structure and quick paced plot that made her a tenet of YA collections (for me), while providing and unique and engaging story that kept me reading late into the night. I absolutely loved Ghost Station and cannot wait to see what she'll do next.