Dead Silence was highly memorable and impactful. Ghost Station has an interesting premise, but I would not recommend it unless readers already enjoy space horror or stories of isolation. The pacing in the beginning made me think it was going to be a slow-paced character study, and when it became more of a mystery/thriller I was a bit surprised (despite it being advertised as such). Ophelia is not a super likable character, so luckily you don't have to spend too much time within her character's mind.

I really loved her first book, so I’m sad that I didn’t like this one as much. I found Ophelia’s voice to be very grating, which made it difficult for me to connect to the story. I think some people won’t mind Ophelia, but I’m a very character-centric reader so it just wasn’t a good fit for me.

Between this book and Dead Silence, I think Barnes is quickly becoming a favorite author for sci-fi horror for me. If you liked books like Contagion by Erin Bowman and Dead Silence, then you'll like this one.

This book has one of my favorite sci-fi topics, an abandoned station on a spooky planet. This is one of the few planets to have shown evidence of extinct aliens, but oddities make the crew question what happened to the research team before them. Then their own odd symptoms start, making them wonder if they are doomed too.

I liked Barnes' take on the aliens and ruins. The towers made for some creepy visuals and it was refreshing having a crew fighting to help each other survive. I enjoyed watching Ophelia slowly become part of the crew as she faced her own past. So if you like space horror mixed with characters having to decide who they want to be as they face down hard decisions, then grab a copy of Ghost Station.

Thanks to the publisher for letting me have an ARC copy.

First and foremost, thank you to NetGalley, Tor Nightfire, S.A. Barnes, and everyone else involved in making it possible for me to read this book before its publication! You know how sometimes you finish reading a book and then just stare into space thinking, “I’m going to be thinking about this book for the next couple weeks.” Ghost Station did that to me. Sometimes, thinking about a book for a while after you finish it isn’t good because you’re thinking about how much you didn’t like it or something. That was not the case here. I am haunted by this book, which is exactly what you want from a good horror book.

Do I have some complaints about the book? Well, yeah. But that’s because every book is always going to have some kind of issue–despite how much I may desire it, there’s no such thing as a perfect book. My disappointment with this book really came from its ending. The resolution happens off-page where our narrator is not witness to it, which means there is so much about what happened to resolve the story that we don’t get to see. And I want those details; I need them. Having the ending happen this way made it feel very sudden and jarring. Does it make sense for the world in which the story is placed? Well, yeah. And it even makes sense to have this kind of open ending from a story standpoint, but that doesn’t mean I like it.

What did I like, though, you may be asking. Well, for one, the world. Barnes has created such an entrancing science fiction futuristic world. One of the things I love about it is there are events that happened to make the world like it is that are just mentioned off-hand. The narrator will just be like “oh, yeah, the fire that destroyed Chicago a few decades ago” or whatever, and I’m just like “of course, yes.” Do I actually know anything about this fire? No, because we aren’t given the details, but I don’t care to have the details because the off-hand mentioning does the job it needs. It indicates that this is such a normal part of everybody’s life in this world that it would never occur to them to explain it. Plus, the lack of details prevents this fire from distracting from the story overall. We don’t need to know about the fire, and any world-building elements that require us to get some kind of explanation are explained to the reader. I don’t know if this is a world Barnes will ever return to, even if the characters aren’t, but I hope she does because I would love to learn more about the world these characters inhabit.

As for the characters themselves…they are part of what I can’t get out of my head. The way each of the crewmembers, as well as Ophelia herself, react to the everything that’s happening around them–it’s so interesting. We only get snapshots of the backgrounds of most of the characters other than Ophelia, as she’s our narrator, we can only know about them what she knows. Despite this, we are still able to get to know the characters so much because of how they react as things get more and more unsettling in their base. When one character reacts with violence, another with by asserting dominance, another by making jokes, and another by seeking support… We may not really know where these characters come from or what precisely they experienced up to this point, but we know these characters. I think Barnes does a fantastic job of balancing the reader’s need to know the characters intimately while also maintaining the distance required of having a narrator who does not know the characters intimately.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and I’d definitely recommend it to horror sci-fi fans. While I don’t think it’s a ground-breaking concept Barnes has gone with, I do think she’s executed in a way that makes it enjoyable. And the little details of that execution may just stick in your head the way they have in mine.

I have loved space horror ever since the first time I saw Event Horizon. There’s something absolutely terrifying that lies in the unknown of space. Since the vast majority of us have never experienced it, it’s easy to take advantage of a reader’s natural fear of something they could only ever guess at. At least in our lifetime. This book absolutely capitalizes on that. While it wasn’t as fast and furious as Event Horizon, and nowhere near as bloody, it definitely makes its mark in the space horror subgenre. The characterization and pacing were on point. Personally, I would have liked a little more bloody action, but that’s just me. All in all it was a fantastically entertaining book and I would definitely read more from this author!

Huge thanks to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

I was very happy to have received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, since the premise sounded very interesting.
I really wanted to love the book more than I did, there was so much inner dialog that I felt I never really got to know the characters very well. The storyline unfolded very slowly and not until the end did it really speed up which made the ending feel rushed. Overall it was an interesting read but it won't make my list of books that I love to read over and over again.

WHAT a tense & creepy read! Barnes's second space horror manages to blow her previous novel (Dead Silence) out of the water. Ghost Station brings all my favourite parts of space horror together in one novel-- think Alien (1979), Event Horizon (1997), & Prometheus (2012) rolled in one.

I felt a little tentative at first when I picked it up, but once the characters have their boots on the planet's surface, the story moves quickly. I felt the entire thing was paced really well, aside from the very very end.

Overall, would definitely recommend, especially to those who love space horror! A great time.

That isolating, cold, and empty feeling that space gives off is present in this novel! A crew must survive on an abandoned ship defending themselves against ERS, a violent and brutal virus.

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes
Pub date: April 9, 2024

Ophelia Bray is a psychologist from one of the wealthiest families on earth. She has a specialized interest in ERS which is a condition that causes a type of violent psychosis in space. One of those events, the most bloody and brutal, has ties to Ophelia, and hence, her motivation to ensure it never happens again.

Going against friends and family, Ophelia goes on an exploratory mission with a small crew to an abandoned planet. Her sense of unease grows as she senses things are off with not only the crew, who resent her presence but with the state of the habitat they left behind. When the pilot, Birch, who knows more about Ophelia than she’d like begins to show symptoms of ERS, things take a turn and a grisly murder occurs but who’s responsible?

Things only get hairier from there and Ophelia and the rest of the crew must pull together despite their differences to fight against an unknown opponent.

While this was more of a slow start for me, I found myself immersed in the imagery. The futuristic way that Barnes writes about it makes it all seem so plausible. There’s a lot of issues at hand, classism and social/economic disparities being among the biggest, and I could feel the rage of someone who’d been wronged by big corp just to earn an extra penny.

That aside, the atmosphere is absolutely eerie and creepy, and the secondary characters were well-written and well-described from Ophelia’s POV.

Tense and thrilling, I’ll be looking forward to Barnes next book!

I loved Dead Silence so I was hoping to love Ghost Station. Both protagonists from Dead Silence and Ghost Station annoy me. I think this one, Ophelia, is worse. She just keeps making terrible decisions and not being rational or understanding to the people around her.

Ghost Station follows Ophelia or Dr. Bray, so is a psychologist brought on a mission to hopefully help prevent a type of PTSD people experience after these missions. There’s also the rest of the crew and most of it set on a planet that has a long dead civilization.

The pacing was off. The first 30-40% dragged and I struggled but then it speeds up but it feels like too much happens in a short amount of time. I didn’t connect to any characters, I didn’t feel the same tension, or eeriness that I did in Dead Silence, and I just wanted it to be over. It was fine.

Here’s the thing: this has a fantastic premise. And parts of it move right along and have your heart pounding. However, it took a fantastically long time for me to get through it. I just never really engaged with the characters, and the pacing overall was soooooo slow. I probably picked up and finished 7 or 8 other books before I finished this one tonight, and I had to keep forcing myself to come back to it. That, to me, is a sign that a book is not for me.

I’m bummed. I really wanted to love it! I can see from reviews thus far that I’m in the minority, and I truly hope the book does well. I want to give this author another try with her highly-rated previous novel, “Dead Silence”.

Trigger warnings: gore, extreme violence, profanity, PTSD, unresolved trauma

I received an eARC from NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group/Tor Nightfire. All opinions are my own.

The horror premise of this novel is solid. However, the slow burn pace of the first half of the novel was a little too slow for me personally, and the ending felt rushed. It was entertaining enough and is a reliable recommendation for sci fi and horror fans alike.

Ghost Station by SA Barnes is an engaging and terrifying fight for survival on an alien planet, pitted against a mysterious menace. Full of well-developed characters, the tension and claustrophobia that comes from having a small group of people in a small space far from home, and the unraveling mystery of what else is on the planet with them. This book is a must-read for fans of space horror, and a great follow up to Barnes’s 2022 space horror book Dead Silence. This was a great story and highly recommended!

Thank you to Tor Nightfire Books and NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks first to Tor Nightfire for this complimentary Net Galley copy of this book! I was hooked from page one and read it literally every day til i finished it( I am not great at reading e-books for long sittings). This book gave me the same thrills and chills I got from watching Alien and Event Horizon. The psychological drama teamed up with an alien presence made for an incredibly suspenseful ride. The only slight I had was my lack of confidence in Ophelia. Her character while developed didn't make me confident in her role with the team. I could have used maybe a few more chapters on her actually giving the crew therapy instead of them just bull dozing her. I could go on and on about this book! Definitely go pre-order this book now!

Ghost Station brings the thrill of space adventure to a locked room/abandoned planet mystery all within the most atmospheric old research station one can imagine. Strangers working together, a death mystery and all the psychological horror space can provide. Ghost Station is one place I'm sure never to visit but did quite enjoy from my comfortable set right here on earth!

Ghost Station by S. A. Barnes, an interesting book that had a good premise, I did feel it needed a tie-in to the ending somewhere closer to the middle than it had or a stronger foreshadowing but a good book.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. At first it took me a moment to get used to the tone & style of dialogue that Ms. Barnes uses (this is my first novel by her), but once I got used to it, Ghost Station blew me away. I love horror, especially space horror, and this book ticked every box for me. I loved the characters, the stakes, and the environment. It was unique, fresh, and absolutely terrifying. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

A reclamation and exploration team goes on a mission to a long uninhabited planet once the home of an ancient civilization. Darkness, cold, and a desolate landscape set the perfect stage for this eerie, claustrophobic sci-fi horror tale.


I loved the alien setting and dark, foreboding atmosphere of this story. An abandoned station combined with wintry, isolating storms, and the mystery regarding the planet's former inhabitants made for such a dread filled reading experience. 


I enjoyed the main story where space exploration has become common, but there are still plenty of areas holding unanswered questions and dangerous answers. I really loved the alien civilization aspect of the story and would have loved more about that story thread. This is one of a few elements that I felt were left hanging and gave the ending a rushed, incomplete feel.


For me, the biggest weakness of the book, and what kept me from rating Ghost Station higher, was the characters. I struggled to connect with any of the team members and often found their behavior juvenile and hard to understand. It gave the story a young adult feel, which threw me off, given that the characters are adults.


Overall, this was a pretty entertaining reading experience, especially the second half. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the author's prior book, but it would still be a fun read for those who enjoy sci-fi horror with a movie feel to it.


Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group, Tor Nightfire for providing me a copy to read and review.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group!

I absolutely loved Dead Silence, so I was thrilled to get an advanced copy of this book! Science fiction/space books-even of the horror variety-can have a tendency to get bogged down in technical terms and end up a little dry, in my opinion. S.A.Barnes has the ability to bring home the human side in her stories, so you still get all the cool space feel, while still caring so much about her characters.
She also has the skill to absolutely terrify her reader, sitting safely on Earth, while being horrified with what’s happening to the characters in the darkness of space! High recommendation for this one!

Another thriller from SA Barnes, this time on an alien planet. Full of suspense (and a bit of Succession vibes), this story keeps you reading.