I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I expected to. There are definitely some interesting ideas, but I found it hard to connect with the events of the book and definitely found my attention wandering as I read

I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys horror and sci-fi.

The beginning and premise of this story was already scary to me! I think going into “cold sleep” for space travel is a scary idea in the first place.

From there, our newest crew member Ophelia is pranked but the veteran crew and that was unsettling.

I loved the pacing and the flashbacks worked really well in the story. I enjoyed this and would read more from this author!

I enjoyed this book immensely. I think that the atmosphere of this book was probably my favorite part. I also really enjoyed that the author made each of the characters interesting and their flaws felt real and relatable. I am not a big sci-fi reader, but I will definitely be picking up more from this author.

S.A. Barnes Ghost Station is best explained as a space exploration mystery with aliens in a closed setting. Ghost Station starts with Dr. Ophelia Bray (story narrator) getting ready for the sleep cycle of a three-month travel in the Resilience ship making their way to Lyria 3936-C, the planet that her new team is going to reclaim for their company Montrose. After the death of one of her patients, Montrose and she decide that she should be out of the spotlight for a while, suggesting she accompany the reclaiming team.

The problem is that one of the crew members of the Resilience died in the last job, now the Resilience crew is wary of Ophelia and her new ideas to prevent ERS as it shows up. The crew of the Resilience consists of Ethan Severin the mission commander, Birch Osgoode the pilot, Kate Wakefield the engineer, Suresh Patel the inventory Specialist, and Liana Chong the scientific coordinator. Ava Olberman used to be the system manager, but she died in the last expedition which readers will later learn in the story why.

The awakening of Ophelia’s sleep cycle is not the best, she is alone and is pranked by Suresh and Liana. While she is there to help them deal with their recent loss and potential mental health issues, Ophelia (a psychologist burdened with a complicated past with ERS, a syndrome linked to space travel that manifests as hallucinations and violent outbursts in the afflicted) immediately understands that the crew doesn’t want her there and feels that she is just on this mission to report back to Montrose and all of them will lose their job.

Lyria 393-C is a planet that is currently going through an ice age and the weather is constant storms and blizzards. It is a planet that was once owned by a group known as Pinnacle. As the crew of the Resilience starts their mission in Lyria-393 a strange phenomenon starts to occur on the ice planet, and not all of them might end up surviving this mission. One after the other, crew members seems as though they have been possessed by an alien species that was thought to have been extinct.

Meanwhile, Ophelia's own past, and her own family misdeeds is brought to the forefront when her real identity that she long buried comes up. This story is a blend of mystery, murder, and psychological thriller. Straight away the reader starts to notice that something is not right with the station that the crew is using in Lyria 393, it seems that the previous team that was there left in a hurry and many of their personal belonging were left behind, Ophelia even finds a prosthetic tooth that somebody left. Something is playing games with their minds and wants them to stay forever.

The reader will start getting an idea of what’s happening and who is behind it, but even at the end, there are a lot of twists and turns. Ghost Station blurs the lines between horror and science fiction. The novel immerses readers in an atmosphere of eerie suspense, evoking the unsettling sensation of being trapped in a situation where you know something is wrong, but the underlying threat remains elusive.

I loved this author’s debut book. It was the perfect blend of sci-fi and horror that I tend to enjoy. I couldn’t wait to read another book by S.A. Barnes.

Unfortunately, this one did not work for me. I found it very slow and uninteresting. It was not giving me the unsettling feeling that her first book did. I’ve been reading this book for three months, and I’m only 40% through. It’s time to declare this a DNF and hope her next book works better for me.

This is a wonderful mixture of science fiction and horror. Readers seeking a darker twist on science fiction will enjoy this. The author is great at developing the atmosphere. I greatly recommend.

“𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵.”

Thanks NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced reader copy and advanced listener copy!

This was a curious one and as a sci-fi fan, I liked it. Some aspects reminded me of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars and The Expanse, so fans of those should give this one a try. Though I received advanced copies of an e-book and audiobook, I opted to only do the audiobook. At a few points I got a little confused with characters but overall it was pretty easy to follow. Definitely gets heavy into the sci-fi and psychological and as the premise grows in intensity, some scenes that get described may be a bit too much for some readers. I do wish there was more explanation for the way it ends as it felt abrupt.

“𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳?”

Content and trigger warnings include profanity, mental health, suicide attempt (brief description of aftermath), sci-fi violence and descriptive gore. I give it 3.5 out of 5.

“Some of us are broken enough that we don’t get to be fixed. And maybe we’re better off that way. Not hiding from the damage like everyone else. Just accepting it and figuring out how to work around it.”

What Worked: I’m really enjoying my foray into space horror, and by that, I mean the two books by S.A. Barnes that I’ve read. It’s a fun mix of spooky and science fiction. Readers still get fun new worlds and technology while also getting a nice adrenaline bump when situations get eerie. A nice additional element is the history that the author has created for this novel that includes settlements on all these wildly different planets.

What Didn’t: While the story was fun and came to a nice conclusion, there are still a few holes I would like filled. Without spoilers: What was going on with that thing? How did all those creatures die? How did they fix that stuff when she was asleep?

Rating: Liked it

This was a great horror novel! Loved the slight body horror. It was wonderful to watch everyone struggle with this idea that these issues could be their own madness.

The first half of this book is slow-moving and uninteresting. Once the crew arrives on the planet, it gets better. The claustrophobic atmosphere and unknown contaminants combine to create an uneasy atmosphere where no one knows who to trust. I requested this arc from NetGalley because I loved Dead Silence. This one is not as good, but still enjoyable.

Title: Ghost Station
Author: S.A. Barnes
Rating: 4 stars

In this space horror we follow psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray as she embarks on a mission with a small crew who has been through something awful on their last mission. No one wants her there and are fighting her help at every turn. However things come to a head when one of the crew is brutally murdered, and fear/paranoia set in. Ophelia and the crew have no choice but to unite to uncover the truth and get off the abandoned planet they find themselves on.

Barnes' writing is masterful and I loved so many aspects of this book.

What I loved

science fiction elements combined with horror
unreliable narrator
characters you like
the atmosphere
the mystery element

What didn't work for me

I desperately want this to be a series instead of a standalone!


If you love space horror then I think this book is a great read that will check all of your boxes!


Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley or the gifted copy!

I love sci-fi horror and I'd heard such great things about [book:Dead Silence|57693184], so I was excited to read the newest from S.A. Barnes. Unfortunately, this didn't really work for me, though I have seen some people really enjoy this, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

The pacing was slow, which as a fan of gothics isn't usually an issue for me, but this just felt too repetitive and didn't have the payoff in the end that I was expecting. I also really struggled with Ophelia as a main character. I can understand and even can root for, an unlikeable protagonist, but I found myself questioning so many of her decisions and not in a good way. To be completely honest, I find myself forgetting details of this story and it's only been a week since I read it. I'm not sure how someone can make such a fascinating premise boring and forgettable, but Barnes managed here.

Okay. Full disclosure: I received an eARC of this for review. I started it months ago and was never able to get past 15%. Library audio book to the rescue.

I really enjoyed Barnes’s Dead Silence. I thought it had some genuinely creepy atmosphere. I liked the action and the main character.

I was soo excited for this release. I started it right after I was approved (thanks to the Tor Nightfire team!). But this one just wasn’t doing it for me.

For starters, it’s kind of a slow start? And I remember there being a lot of confusion on my side in the beginning. Random people kept telling our main character Ophelia not to go on this mission, not to feel guilty, something felt wrong. It wasn’t her fault.

But it’s not explained until much later in the book, what the mission even is, or what Phe feels guilty about. What wasn’t her fault… it didn’t work here because it didn’t get me to care about or feel compassion for the character.

And the atmosphere I loved so much about the first book, was totally absent from this one. There’s some body horror I guess later in the book, but no real build up, no creepy vibes. There’s a lot of flashbacks and dream sequences, but I don’t think they were as scary as they were intended to be (especially since the reader KNOWS they are dreams/memories).

And then the ending is wholly unsatisfying. There’s no pay off, there’s no figuring it out… I just… I don’t know.

I did get through it in the end. And I don’t think it’s bad per se, hence the 3 stars. Just not what I was looking for when someone says Space Horror.

I’ll definitely keep reading Barnes, especially since commercial space horror releases are pretty rare, and like I said this wasn’t bad, it just doesn’t stand out much.

Thank you to the Tor Nightfire team and NetGalley for the ARC. Apologies the review is late….

I’d heard really good things about this author’s debut novel, Dead Silence, so I jumped at the chance to download her newest release from NetGalley.

Psychologist Ophelia comes with a lot of baggage. She’s working to distance herself from her family (tons of drama here) and her father’s crimes, while also trying to atone for a failure in her professional life. She’s devoted her career to studying ERS, a space-based condition that lead to a person brutally murdering twenty-nine crew members several years ago. When Ophelia is assigned to an small exploration crew, she’s determined to prove her usefulness and prevent history from repeating itself.

The treacherous setting of an abandoned planet and all the dangers that come along with it provide plenty of tense moments. Barnes really knows how to create a mood. The crew is sent to take samples, which sounds like an easy task, but they make a shocking discoveries instead. They make the decision to scrap the mission and get off the planet, but that’s easier said that done.

Ophelia is the newcomer to this crew who’s worked together for so long, and most of them are less than welcoming. Plenty of personalities clashing and insults hurled. She’s far from my favorite character (that would be Ethan) and almost immediately starts crushing on the ship commander, makes questionable decisions, and acts like a juvenile at times. It almost made the crew’s treatment of her understandable. A good bit of the time is spent in Ophelia’s head in the first part of the novel – family drama, best friend issues, career disappointments – and it slows the pace. I was ready for the action to begin. Once things got rolling, I rooted for the crew (what was left of them) to escape the horror of the planet. I really liked how the author wrapped up the story.

This was a mixed bag for me, but that won’t prevent me from checking out this author’s future releases. Recommended for readers who enjoy slow-burn stories, space horror, and precarious settings.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Ghost Station is my second read from SA Barnes and I'm ready to devour another book by them. Space horror is a favorite and can sometimes be a difficult genre to find material to consume. SA Barnes writes in such a way that everything is easy to picture in my head, and I cam easily see Ghost Station as a movie. Highly recommend, it's a good time with great pacing.

Thank you NetGalley for gifting me an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review and opinions.

Unfortunately, I was unable to download the file prior to it being archived and have no gotten a chance to read it. I hope to read it in the future.

After reading S.A. Barnes first book Dead Silence and feeling lukewarm about it, I wanted to give them another chance. I hate to say it but I feel lukewarm about this one as well. I gave Dead Silence a 3 star and this one will be a 3.5.

First off I feel like these are marketed incorrectly. They are supposed to be Sci-Fi/Horror but I feel they are more Sci-Fi/Thriller. I can see a little more "horror" in this one but not enough to call it horror. I went into this one knowing there was more than likely not going to be a strong horror element like the last book and that helped my reading experience.

S.A. Barnes writing is very accessible and I flew through this book in 2 days. The character development of Ophelia and Ethan was excellent and I feel that we really knew them by the end of the book. I wish we were able to get to know some of the others a little bit better.

All in all I think this will sadly be my last S.A. Barnes book.

This author has yet to disappoint me. I loved Dead Silence, and though this follows a different situation and plot line, it is just as unsettling and creepy as the last book. It isn’t often that sci-fi and horror are meshed, but this author does it in a way that works perfectly.

One of my favorite niches - space horror. And this one is exactly that! It is about a rich and famous girl, who is a psychologist sent with a crew on a mission to a planet to take some samples of left over ruins. And it starts out a bit creepy, with hazing, lots of tragic backstory, and of course a harsh crew that doesn't seem friendly, and maybe in ruin by a space "sickness" that makes them go crazy little by little, The psychologist herself, cannot grasp if it is the sickness, if she herself is sick with it, or maybe everything is normal, and she is just a paranoid person stuck with an aggressive crew that has their own secrets.

It was quite slow with building up the tension. Though it was always there, just not really delivering a full impact. The different questions of who is going crazy or maybe not crazy, the back and forth took away from the claustrophobia and horror. Though in the end, the big reveal felt a bit not new (like I've seen a movie on this sometime ago), but it also did create the creepiness of the future. Maybe we'll get a book two? Do we need to?

All in all, I will keep coming back to this author for Space Horror. Thank you to Tor NightFire for my review copy.

I really liked Dead Silence, right up until the dismal ending. While I hated the ending, I did enjoy the process of getting there so I gave the author a second chance with Ghost Station. It was slow to start and continued to be slow and boring up to the anti-climactic ending, where again, a bunch of nothing happened. It also wasn't particularly scary. I think this will be the last book I read by this author I try. If you want something really scary with good writing, check out Darcy Coates!