5 of 5 ⭐️
I can see this book as a movie. Amazing!

Imagine being stranded on a planet with people who slowly are going insane... and add your own family issues to the mix.
Explosion of goodness!

Enjoyable and easy to follow space story with fast pacing. I will be recommending this one to my customers.

A creepy, deserted space station. A disjointed team. Secrets around every corner.

This was my first book by this author and it won’t be my last. While I get the “horror” side of things this was less scary and more intriguing for me. I found the characters to be interesting and the concept pulled me in.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the amount of introspection by the MC but she is a psychologist and I think that played into it.

By the end I was hooked though and it made the read enjoyable.

Watching: Quite a bit of language in this one.

My rating: 3.8*

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Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this gifted copy, all opinions are my own.

In Ghost Station, Ophelia Bray volunteers for her first extended mission in space in order to escape her family and their manipulative shadow. She is a therapist (future space therapist, but still a therapist), and she is sent to join a group that is mourning a recent loss. As in Dead Silence, the crew finds themselves in a secluded and mysterious location. Although they have their own job to complete, they are forced to piece together what happened to the previous crew that caused them to abandon the station.

This is where Barnes excels at creating tension and fear. It's incredibly creepy to watch the characters essentially walk through a graveyard without knowing how or why (or even if) anyone is buried there. Barnes does a lovely job of creating tension by giving you hints toward this mystery at the exact moment you want them. The horror aspect of this book is at its peak in the dread that you will find out the answers and the conflicting fear that you will not.

As in her previous work, Barnes makes the most of the setting in terms of horror. I think it is most effective in Ghost Station because of the balance. She makes the location feel claustrophobic and stifling as well as unfamiliar and exposed. She counterweights the danger of unknowable and eldritch enemies with familiar, recognizable humans within their own ranks.

In general, I enjoy the way that Barnes writes science fiction. The technology and social structures of the future are present, but they aren't painstakingly spelled out for the reader. It's clear that Barnes knows the details of the world, but she does not burden us with that knowledge. I do not need to know how a doorbell is made to feel dread when I hear it ring in the middle of the night. Instead of an oversight, Barnes accomplishes making this lack of detail feel natural and realistic.

In Ophelia, Barnes achieves a believable heroine who is imperfect and flawed. However, she is still so unsympathetic for readers. The character is similar in that way to the main character of Barnes's Dead Silence. The entire cast of characters, indeed, prove to be fairly unlikable. The dynamic between Lianna and Suresh feels more natural than any of the other platonic pairings. Indeed, the two people who are meant to "motivate" Ophelia as a character are almost entirely absent from the narrative. This removes much of the urgency the reader might feel on behalf of these characters. Do I care if they make it out?

The quick romance is somewhat realistic but still frustrating. Of course I've started a new job and immediately thought a coworker was cute, but the too fast, too close, too tense connection between characters made me cringe. I feel that Barnes hits near the mark on this one but still misses. Some of the dialogue between the main couple here is realistic and charming, but some is wildly hyperaware and verbose.

Finally, Ghost Station's ending leaves something to be desired. I will not include spoilers here, but it's enough to say there are a few threads I would like to see connected. I feel that several central concepts were left hanging. I actually reread the last few pages because I thought I must have missed some menacing hint about the final outcome. I really would have preferred a wild twist or even a more sudden, up-to-interpretation ending than the epilogue offers.

All in all, I really enjoyed Ghost Station despite feeling that a few changes could have made it far better. I think it was creepy and frightening, and I want to read more by Barnes in the future. If you have any interest in the horror genre, this one is worth picking up when it releases in April 2024.

Usually, I don’t like books about sci-fi topics. This book was actually pretty good to read, and so much more detailed than I could’ve imagined. I felt like the ending was a bit abrupt, but all in all a pretty great book. As someone who tends to skip over aliens, and such, that is pretty high praise. The characters were written, beautifully and overall a great story. I would definitely like to see more from this author and I’m so grateful for the free advanced readers copy to read and evaluate.

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

Ghost Station was an enjoyable read. The author is good at making you want to read one more chapter, then maybe one more…I wasn’t sure where the plot of the book was going until over half way through. Even then, the plot didn’t grip me as much as the author’s first book. I felt this book was more character driven than plot driven. I wanted to read Ghost Station because I really enjoyed Dead Silence. I will still continue to read what S.A. Barnes writes.

While this book is not my usual genre I do find I sometimes fall in love with the stories and I liked the concept of the science mission, it was an interesting choice to go with. A crew that visits other worlds to help their corporations lay claim to them. I was intrigued early about the main character early on, Ophelia, and was more curious than anything to see where the psychologist thread would go, but I wasn’t a fan of her at the start. That actually held true for at least half of the book. That changed around half way through, but I really hated her at first.

This really is a slow burner though and I usually need a book to grab me right away. It started off dragging for me, but I believe others may like the build up especially true sci fi fans.

After we get some of Ophelia’s backstory, why she’s taken a job with a competing company, and what the competition most likely looks to gain from her presence, things start to open up a bit more. While underway she figures out pretty quick that none of the crew really want her there, partly due to her job, and mostly due to who she is. Then things start to pick up a little.

From there, it felt like the story started to slowly speed up, and the final 30% or so (I keep my kindle on %!) really picked up. The tension really rose more and more as the last 3rd of the book progressed.

Without giving anything away, I wish there was more explanation for some of the very weird things to happen. That flows to the ending for me as well. I feel like the ending is because of the pacing earlier on, and maybe that’s why it felt clipped.

I do have to give props the character building. I felt like I knew someone just a particular crew member, which made me dislike him in the story even more. He had to be based off of someone the author knew.

Overall, I liked it and give it between a 3.5 and 4 stars, so I’ll bump it up to 4 simply due to the character building she did with some of Ophelia’s crew. Thank you NetGalley and Tor the arc of this book.

Thank you Tor Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC of Ghost Station in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is my first S.A. Barnes novel. I will definitely be adding Dead Silence to my TBR list. Great Science fiction novel. Kept me guessing the whole time. Kept my attention throughout the whole story.

Dr. Ophelia Bray has secrets. As the newest member traveling to another planet with a crew, she intends to keep those secrets. The crew is not very welcoming to the Dr who was sent to keep an eye on their mental health.

It doesn’t take long for everyone to realize that things aren’t right on the planet that they are on. Could the company that sent them there have known what they would encounter?

*2.5 stars rounded up

No one is more disappointed in this rating than me.

I was highly anticipating Ghost Station, but overall it didn’t scratch the space horror itch like Dead Silence did for me. The writing as a whole is great (the characters were especially well written); it was the story itself that didn’t do much for me. It took SO long for things to get moving, and by the time they did, I didn’t find it very interesting. This was one of those books where I kept waiting for things to get really good, and it never quite got there.

I’m sure there are others who will really enjoy this, but it wasn’t for me. I ultimately do enjoy S.A. Barnes, so I’ll be checking out whatever else she comes out with.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

Space terrifies me in general, but space horror? I’m done…

This was a claustrophobic and scary book that combines science fiction and horror on an abandoned planet. We follow a crew on an exploratory mission, with newcomer, Dr. Ophelia Bray. She is a newcomer to the team, but not to space exploration, having spent her career studying a condition called ERS, which affects a person’s mental state, causing them to act violently.

When someone inside their team is found murdered, things quickly spiral, making Ophelia fear the worst… with secrets hidden beneath the surface and something horrifying lurking just out of sight, this book had me completely on edge.

Barnes writes some really terrifying situations and there were moments in this one that gave me the heebie jeebies!

I was so excited to read this because “Dead Silence” is one of my favorite sci-fi/horror books, but this one fell flat for me and I had a very hard time getting through it. I almost put the book down completely when we are introduced to the ship’s crew. The reader is given a list with names and facts about the crew members that goes on for several pages. It was more textbook than storytelling. I found it to be lazy writing and quite boring. The rest of the book didn’t prove much better; it was slow-paced and more of a drama than science fiction..This just wasn’t for me. But; i know what this author is capable of and will absolutely try a future book. Thank you for the opportunity to read in advance!

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes is story about a rich socialite with a scandalous upbringing, looking for redemption by psychoanalyzing the grieving crew of a space mission. Ophelia Brey, Phe to her friends, never fit in with her rich proper family because she was their little secret, their little thing that shouldn't have been. Phe spends her life trying to atone for her father's misdeeds and for her families atrocities in this futuristic sci-fi space story. Phe, a trauma counselor, joins a space mission in hopes to help the crew with their grief over a lost colleague and in hopes to prevent ERS, a psychological disorder that makes everyone crazy. What Phe signs up for is not what she gets.
This story touches on friendship, isolation, trauma, resilience, and prejudice. It is marketed as a sci-fi story and it does have some sci-fi elements, space travel, alien planets, and strange alien beings but the elements are not fleshed out well enough to really be a sci-fi story. Yes, you question if everything happening is due to ERS or some mysterious alien disease or intra-space political sabotage, but it isn't fully developed. The scary tense feeling of space is missing. As a story about a girl trying to redeem herself and conquer her trauma, this book succeeds. As a sci-fi story, it falls flat, especially with that ending. It was quite rushed and unfulfilling.
I liked the redemption arc part of the story but was greatly disappointed in the sci-fi aspect of Ghost Station. There were so many great ideas that could have been explored, the Lyrians, the towers, the alien goo, and even ERS could have be explored more in depth, making this an epic story. However, it ended up more like it was a rough draft instead of a complete book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Publishing for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

This is a story about the ghost in the machine.

I loved this!! Scifi horror is my favorite thing bc space is so vast & terrifying- and this one did not disappoint. I loved that she was a clinician & that you got to experience the decent into fear through her lens. I also really enjoyed the way the antagonist was explored.

Thank you so much @netgalley & @tornightfire for the eArc!

DNF'd at 25%. Intriguing concept, but the prose was so clunky and the character so thinly-sketched that I couldn't get invested. Also, the author has this weird tic where they'll use a word, and then write out the dictionary definition, like so:

"A planet where aliens used to exist, intelligent life that was not from earth."

"But now that she's aware of the trigger - the unconscious connection her brain is making between past and present -" she'll manage it."

- and I haven't got a clue why.

The minute I saw the author came out with a new sci-fi horror book, I immediately had to get my hands on it. Ghost Station reminds me so much of Sphere in the creepy happenstances that occur all throughout. Whatever happened on this planet have our main characters questioning each other and themselves at every turn. What really happened here and what is calling to the crew in their sleep? I loved this book so much and if you love sci-fi with a mix of horror, I highly recommend. I only wish the end had more resolution.

I liked the concept of the science mission, it was an interesting choice to go with. A crew that visits other worlds to help their corporations lay claim to them. I was intrigued early about the main character early on, Ophelia, and was more curious than anything to see where the psychologist thread would go, but I wasn’t a fan of her at the start. That actually held true for at least half of the book. That changed around half way through, but I really disliked her at first.

That said, this is more of a slow burner. It started off slow for me, the way I feel a good original non-canned sci-fi should.

After we get some of Ophelia’s backstory, why she’s taken a job with a competing company, and what the competition most likely looks to gain from her presence, things start to open up a bit more. While underway she figures out pretty quick that none of the crew really want her there, partly due to her job, and mostly due to who she is. Then things start to pick up a little.

From there, it felt like the story started to slowly speed up, and the final 30% or so (sorry, kept the kindle on % instead of pages since I swap from phone to tablet a lot) really picked up. The tension really rose more and more as the last 3rd of the book progressed.

Without heavy spoilers, I wish there was more explanation for some of the very odd/tense things to happen. That flows to the ending for me as well. I feel like the ending is a victim of the pacing earlier on, and maybe that’s why it felt clipped or far too easily explained/closed.

I do have to praise the character building. I felt like I knew someone just a particular crew member, which made me dislike him in the story even more. He had to be based off of someone Barnes knew.

Overall, I liked it and give it between a 3.5 and 4 stars, so I’ll bump it up to 4 simply due to the character building she did with some of Ophelia’s crew. It reminded me of Event Horizon in terms of building style and horror without copying that formula.

This book follows Ophelia Bray as she embarks through space as a therapist to a crew who just lost a member. Her goal? To prevent ERS, a disease in space faring crews which leads to them harming themselves or others. I loved most of the characters in this. Ophelia wasn't my favorite protagonist if I'm to be honest. She seemed childish for being thirty years old and a professional psychologist. However, like Dead Silence, which I loved, this book builds atmosphere and tension well and keeps you guessing as to what's really going on. That being said, I felt like the payoff wasn't there. We, as readers, get very few answers in the end. I would've liked to have understood what was actually going on and had the world fleshed out a little more. As is, there's a lot of hand waving away at the end that was unfulfilling and lacked what made me love Dead Silence: the return to the ship where readers got answers and learned what was happening. I will say though, up until those last two or three chapters, I was having a great time reading. The ending just left me whelmed.

Ophelia Bray is carrying around a ton of guilt. Things that family members have done as well as a professional failure. She is having a hard time understanding how she missed seeing what was coming. She makes the decision to join a small space crew, hoping to understand, and potentially treat the effects of Eckhart-Reiser Syndrome.This condition destroyed her childhood and changed her life. None of her crewmates are happy that she is on board. Seeing her role as a waste of time or worse that she has an ulterior motive.
When they reach their destination, it seems that all of Ophelia’s fears are coming true. Could the crew be infected with ERS and has it got a hold on her too. With no means to communicate with anyone on the outside and the chances of getting home, looking slimmer, Ophelia must battle her own demons, if she hopes to save this crew.
I did question Ophelia’s abilities as a therapist more than once. But I don’t suppose part of her training involved living through her worst nightmares on an alien planet. I never knew what was around the corner or what would happen on the next page. The ending wasn’t my favorite, but I seem to be ‘ending adverse’ lately.I loved Dead Silence and enjoyed Ghost Station.

Ghost Station has a couple of interesting ideas, in both the personal history of its lead character, and the nature of its “big bad”. Unfortunately the latter is mostly unexplored, while the former dominates the narrative to the point where it loses all its bite.

There’s a solid novella in here, padded out with so much repetitive, hand-wringing angst.

While many of the story’s mysteries/plotlines depend on the Nobody Tells Anyone Anything trope (which I mostly loathe), the character motivations are pretty solid, their revelations well earned. I found the payoffs of those interpersonal arcs far more rewarding than the actual ending, which feels far too easy, with no bite at all.

The novel is well structured but poorly paced—which is to say all the parts are there and in the right order, but the flow is off. It moves in fits and starts, sometimes frustratingly belabored, then breezing past more compelling elements.

Ghost Station is a pretty standard scary-place-in-space narrative that’s far more interested in the previous personal trauma of its lead and supporting characters. And that would be more than fine, if it handled those aspects with any degree of subtlety or restraint.

That gorgeous, vivid cover is ill-matched to the matte-gray world within the pages, built mostly from stock sci-fi bits and bobs that your brain will automatically fill in from other books and movies. The one unique, looming aspect of its alien world setting? Hardly explored at all.

Verdict: An intriguing but unfulfilling experience that doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its premise. Readers who rarely dabble in mildly-horror-adjacent sci-fi might find some thrills. More experienced genre readers might consider passing on this one.

This was a good book for me not typically diving into sci-fi. There were certainly some good twists and turns with the characters and arcs within the story. There were points where stuff was explained about the characters like you should already know them from a previous book. I did thoroughly enjoy the story as it was and when it pieced together.