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.

I knew immediately, probably about 3 pages in, that the writing was not for me. The prose doesn’t flow very easily, and it seems very disjointed,
I’m sorry, it just was not my favorite.

Ghost Station was unsettling and satisfying at the same time. The story slowly pulled me in from the start not knowing what was real on the abandoned station. I could feel Dr. Bray's sense of vulnerability and aloneness along with the horror and eerie atmosphere. This is one of those books that will stick with me though I might not understand exactly why.

After reading Dead Silence a couple years ago, I was so excited to read another scifi horror from this author. The cover is stunning and the synopsis brought me in immediately. I am sorry to say that this one didn't work for me as well as the first.

Now, I do love this author's writing. I get sucked into her books easily and am so invested throughout. I did enjoy following these characters and I do think the horror elements were well done. However, it took way to long to get to those horror elements that I was looking for.

There is a part of the synopsis that doesn't even happen until over half was through the book. While I do think the buildup was needed to get to know these characters, I was just waiting for the change to happen and the horror to start. I can enjoy a slow burn horror, but I felt like I was just waiting too long for it to hit. When it did, I was really enjoying but that was so little of the book.

I really wished that I had enjoyed this, but I just felt unsatisfied with this by the end.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the arc.

I read and loved this author’s debut Dead Silence so I was really looking forward to reading another spooky sci-fi book from her! And overall, I liked it! Not as much as Dead Silence, but it was still good.

Ophelia is a therapist who sees patients after they return from space with ERS—a space-based mental health condition that is characterized by hallucinations and violence. The first case of ERS was a literal massacre, so Ophelia takes this very seriously. But now, instead of waiting for patients to come to her, Ophelia is going out to space to see a crew before the possibility of ERS even has a chance to set in—a crew that recently lost a crewmember. Prophylaxis. I liked the idea. Unfortunately for Opehlia, these guys are hiding something and they don’t entirely trust her...

And on top of that, the planet they landed on is... not great. I mean, it’s cool because it’s a planet with former intelligent life (that’s what the crew is there to explore—ancient ruins), but the weather conditions are brutal, but more importantly, they find their pilot freaking dead!!

Ophelia is worried that she’s too late and that this may be the work of ERS. Or maybe not 👀 But she and the (remaining) crew are gonna have to start getting along long enough to figure out what the heck is going on, before another one of them ends up dead.

Like I said previously, I didn’t quite enjoy this one as much as I did Dead Silence, and one reason is because it didn’t start off that great for me. First of all, I was excited for another creepy sci-fi book, and while this was at times creepy, we got a lot of fakeouts in the beginning and I just am not about that. Listen, I have read a ton of R.L. Stine books and he tends to overuse fakouts, so now I’m sick of them. But this is definitely a me issue. Sometimes they can be done right, but here it was just nonstop eye-rolls from me.

And this goes hand in hand with my second issue: I felt like it started off pretty slow. For me, it started to pick up just over the halfway mark. It took a while for me to really get invested in the book and story, but once I was invested, let me tell you, I was INVESTED. I just needed to know what was happening! Crazy things kept occurring and you didn’t know whether it was the sequel to the Blood Bledsoe massacre or... something else 👀 Even though I didn’t find this book to be as creepy as Dead Silence, it had some pretty good body horror and overall gore! There were parts that made me cringe and shudder, and that’s how you know that descriptions were well done! 😆

Despite the fact that I didn’t find this book to be as atmospherically creepy as Dead Silence (which was my favorite thing about that book actually), I still did enjoy this one! I really liked the premise and the direction the story went—it was wild! And even though I guessed a couple of plot twists and honestly could’ve done without the fakeouts in the beginning, the second half of the book was very engaging! I really enjoyed unraveling the mystery of what was going on with the crew and the creepy abandoned planet they were on.

S. A. Barnes second book, Ghost Station continues to meld the promise of a sci-fi future with the uncanny horror of the unknown. Ghost Station is focused on Dr. Ophelia Bray and the research and exploration team she is tasked with keeping sane and stable as they head out to their next mission, grieving their lost member, who died on their prior posting.

Interstellar travel is possible, but humans must undergo a cold sleep process. This comes with risks to long term mental health and Dr. Bray and her colleagues are focusing on learning more about Eckhart-Reiser syndrome (ERS) as well as treated its causes before those afflicted harm themselves or others. ERS is the name given to the mental breakdowns contributed to by working and living in space, loss of circadian rhythm, isolation, stress, poor diet and lack of privacy.

Bray comes from a very wealthy family that runs one of the corporations making space exploration possible. However, she is a black sheep wanting as little to do with the family as possible, having gone her own way in both career and employer. The family still seeks to control her in the name of the family and their image. As we join the story, the family is adamant she not undertake her new posting.

Bray continually has to fight against the expectations of others, but she goes on the mission. The team is tasked with visiting the claim of another R&E team and securing samples and information for the good of the company they work for. Discoveries can fuel both understanding and technology. The planet was inhabited by a sloth-like people that had mastered space travel between the planets of their local planet. Due to some unknown cataclysm they have died off and the planet is now their crypt, desolate and frozen.

Ghost Station has a great setting and atmosphere. Bray is a conflicted main character trying to do her best and move out from both the shadow of her privileged upbringing and a traumatic past that is first hinted and then detailed in full. Much of her internal voice is the balance between trying to maintain her status as a competent professional and her deep insecurities.

The the plot is driven by the interpersonal tensions in the R&E team down a member, seeking to adjust. Grief is heavy, but much more so is keeping sane when your day job requires constant danger that is not always acknowledged or properly compensated. There is also some class conflict as the R&E team have a variety of backgrounds and often are looking for possible ways to increase their earnings. In a nod to our present, many took to the stars because artificial intelligence had left them no other Earth based possibilities.

Ghost Station has a slow start but tensions build to a dramatic and fitting climax. It is reminiscent of The Thing or Alien a small crew of humans are tasked with exploration and come across something unknown that, at first slowly, forces them to question their sanity or if something hardly seen is starting to influence their actions. They are working at the behest of larger corporations that properly are more profit focused than concerned with their health and safety.

Recommended for fans of Kali Wallace or spookier/scarier science fiction.

This book was fine. I had heard a lot of good things about the author’s other book so I went in with pretty high expectations that I can’t say were quite met. Maybe it was a me issue but I just felt like the story moved a little too slow.

Ghost Station is a new sci fi horror novel about a group of people who go to a new planet and discover something. Dr. Bray is a woman who is trying to help people with a disease that is similar to PTSD and is caused from space travel. She goes on this mission to try and help this crew.

I liked the characters of this book and the setting. Everything was described well and very vivid.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like this book. I felt very bored throughout and it wasn’t very scary to me. I’m not a huge sci fi reader and all the technical stuff was just so boring for me. The action and horror didn’t start for a long time either.

This book was not for me but I hope others love it. Thanks so much to netgalley and tor for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Wow, what a page-turner! I've never considered myself a huge horror fan, but after reading Barnes's last book, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for allowing me an ARC! Barnes has a way of weaving visceral description into extraterrestrial worlds, and making the reader reflect on their humanity while exploring these imaginative sci-fi settings. The cast of characters is strong, the twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat, and I finished reading it in a day!

The story follows Ophelia Bray, the estranged daughter of a wealthy family, who has spent her whole life fighting to define her own identity beyond her last name. Ophelia is a psychologist specializing in ERS, a syndrome that has caused deep-space travelers to meet violent ends, even attacking their own crews. She is assigned to accompany a small exploration crew following the death of one of their own, to help them avoid a similar fate. When they reach their assignment on an abandoned planet rife with alien ruins, it becomes clear that things are not as they should be.

Three and a half stars for this space thriller. Dr. Ophelia Bray travels with a small expedition to an isolated planet. She is there to observe the crew members and make sure they do not suffer from a condition that can lead to PTSD like systems and quickly turn into psychotic tendencies, even leading to murder and suicide.
Ophelia was not very likeable, and I didn't feel any connection to the other crew members. However, there was enough simmering tension and unease to keep me interested. The space hub they occupy looks like it has been deserted in a hurry and things don't seem to be right. Eventually more sinister events occur.
The ending was pretty quick, and I wish there had been a longer epilogue to help explain some things. However, I enjoyed this slow burn of a sci-fy thriller. I received a complimentary eBook from the publisher in exchange for a review.

I love, love, love sci-fi horror and S.A. Barnes is killing it!

Ghost Station follows a psychologist with a shady past on a scouting ship full of people who don't want her there. When the crew makes landfall on an abandoned planet, they are immediately drawn to the inexplicable evacuation of the previous researchers. Barnes incorporates the unreliable narrator in this book and it shines as a psychological thrill ride.

Ghost Station and Dead Silence are some of my absolute favorite Sci-Fi Horror books!

When Dr. Ophelia Bray, a psychologist who specializes in the little-understood disorder Elkhart-Reiser Syndrome, joins a crew ((who recently suffered a crewmate death) on their next exploration mission, she is prepared for the team to be a little resistant to her help. Despite this she tries her best to be helpful upon arrival to the planet as the team begins to take samples and explore the ancient alien ruins. Until the pilot starts to act a bit weird…and then is found dead, mutilated, and assumed to be murdered. Trying to balance her own raising dread that she might be affected with ERS herself, as paranoia starts to set in, Ophelia must try to figure out the mystery surrounding the abandoned station and the brutal death of their pilot. Before more people die.

I was really excited to get a chance to read this book early. I was (and still am) completely obsessed with Branes’ prior space horror novel Dead Silence so when I saw she was putting out another book in a similar vein, I jumped at a chance to read it. This took me a while to get into to be fully honest but, once I got into it, I couldn’t stop. The first few chapters were slow, the rest were definitely not. While psychological, shadows in the snow, what’s happening? horror is not really my favorite horror genre, Barnes does a great job of building suspense and dread. I thing Ophelia is a compelling main character and really enjoyed her relationship with Severin growing throughout the book as the pair learn to trust each other as things get progressively more dire.

While I was a bigger fan of Dead Silence (I love a Bioshockey vibe), Ghost Station will easily scratch that same space horror itch and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Ghost Station in exchange for my honest review.

Ghost Station is another amazing space horror from S.A. Barnes! I love how Barnes sets up her main characters and alludes to things that they are hiding from the reader. I also love how it feels like sci-fi without it being overly complex, and the backdrop of a snowy, stormy, dark planet. I was HOOKED from the very beginning and I haven't been able to think about reading anything else. I also appreciate how this book is more psychological rather than jump-scare horror. I feel like that makes everything way more creepy! I loved this book and I can't wait for more from S.A. Barnes!

I was so excited to see S. A. Barnes was writing another space horror because I love the genre so dearly and it's just so under-represented, and she knocked it out of the park with this one again. Things don't REALLY get going with this book until almost 50% in but it doesn't feel like that because there's still tension and an unnerving sense of wrongness that seeps from the pages starting at chapter 2. I also appreciated the backstory given to our main character, I think it really enhanced not only the mystery, but the psychological (hehe) tension of the story. I always wish I could write a space horror story but I worry that it would be too much like Alien - Kade has managed to create something that has that same feel to it but is different enough I can't imagine anyone complaining that it's just a rip-off (although there are similarities. But that's to be expected for space horror). I also have to say that I really enjoyed the cast of supporting characters here. I didn't have any problems keeping them straight, and they were all enjoyable. They added a great dynamic to the story, and I was honestly sad to see some of them go (because inevitably people will die). I think my one main complaint here is that I would have liked a little more of an explanation as to what everything really was, and maybe where it came from. Although I suppose that in a situation like that one it would probably be more realistic not to know. I'm just the kind of person who wants that information though, while I'm sure there will be many others that don't are either way. Despite that I will happily hand-sell this to anyone I can, and I'll certainly be writing a shelf-talker for it when it hits shelves. Fingers crossed Barnes writes more space-horror, because it's a niche I love and she's very good at it. Another slam dunk for Tor Nightfire.

Well, that was a book.

It is eerily similar in plot and tone to We Have Always Been Here, which I was not quite expecting based on that blurb.

After feeling meh about Dead Silence and meh about this one, I think I can say that SA Barnes is not for me.

Despite my own meh-ness on this one, I really think that it'll resonate (heh) with other readers.

S.A. Barnes is quickly establishing herself as an iconic space horror author and I can't wait to read what she writes next.

So…yeah 👀 I’m gonna go ahead and shelf this one for later. I think I’m going to enjoy it eventually but at 30% in it’s still really slow with some odd subplots. The insta jealousy thing was also really distracting.

My big side eye tho is reserved for the almost painfully blatant ‘there’s-something-in-my-past-that-is-going-to-blow-your-mind-and-drop-your-jaw’, foreshadowing.

Well, until later when I decide to finish this *wave awkwardly*

This book merges the eerie vastness of space with the depth of human psychology, creating a novel that is both a psychological thriller and a science fiction horror. Following Dr. Ophelia Bray, a psychologist with a unique interest in ERS—a deadly condition tied to space travel—the story sets a chilling stage for exploration and survival on an alien planet.

Barnes's commitment to a slow-paced narrative serves as a double-edged sword. On one hand, it meticulously constructs an atmosphere thick with tension and foreboding, allowing readers to fully immerse themselves in the haunting setting and complex themes of guilt, accountability, and the impacts of capitalism in dire circumstances. On the other, it tests the reader's patience, requiring breaks to refocus due to its demanding rhythm and occasionally frustrating character decisions.

Despite these challenges, "Ghost Station" shines in its atmospheric tension and dark undertones. The novel's strength lies in its ability to transport readers alongside Bray and her crew, making them witnesses to the unsettling mysteries and horrors of their mission. The depiction of Bray as a flawed yet compelling protagonist, struggling with her past and the weight of her decisions, adds layers to the narrative, engaging with themes of vulnerability and redemption.

Nevertheless, "Ghost Station" is a testament to Barnes's ability to weave together the existential dread of space with the intricate facets of human nature. It is a book that will appeal to fans of space-based horror and those intrigued by the psychological depths of its characters. While not without its flaws, it stands as an engaging entry into the genre, offering a narrative that is both chilling and thought-provoking.

I would recommend Dead Silence over Ghost Station. Despite my feelings, I did appreciate the ARC opportunity to read this book thanks to NetGalley, Tor Nightfire, and S.A Barnes.

From the author who wrote the awesome book called Dead Silence. GHOST STATION . This book is as good as its predecessor. I loved every moment. I did not wanna put it down but sadly I had to sleep. But id pick it back up when I had free time. I loved this book. Thank You Netgalley.