Hannah has to keep her gifted son safe because he would be taken from her if those in charge found out. Humans have to live at night because of the heat of the day. A thoroughly captivating book that will keep you up all night well developed characters and a plot to make you think. Thank to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for this review copy.

I love a dystopian novel and this one didn't dissapoint. The Quiet is absolutely terrifying yet thought provoking. It drew me in from the start and will stay with me.

3.5 ⭐️ I liked this book but didnt love it. I really thought it sounded amazing and I was so intrigued by the whole time flip of being awake at night and sleeping in the day. At times it was making me think that this whole situation could be reality in the future and that was scary. The beginning gripped me straight away up until about 30% then in the middle I did struggle to stay with the story, however the ending pulled me back in. If you like a dystopian, futuristic read then you would enjoy this.

A very tense scary dystopian read that I wont forget
I mean this could never happen could it
I did shudder as read this in the middle of a heatwave we are having
Covers numerous subjects inc cancer,illness etc
Superbly written and thought provoking throughout

I was hooked from the first pages on. Hannah, first of all a great mother to her six year old son Isaac, is also a scientist who worked on a project to try and understand what the Soundfield is. Since it arrived twenty years ago the world has changed a lot, and not for the best. People have to live during the night, because during the day, the UV radiation is much too strong; it can kill in an instant. And that’s not all; many people were forced to leave their home country and are trying to find shadow – literally.

We slowly learn how Hannah and Isaac spend their nights – we learn about the food shortages, Hannah’s worries about her to be forced to be a sort of guinea pig in a government project. And Hannah knows what that means – her own scientific findings were at the base of it. We read how she lost her brother and how she met the love of her life.
And then suddenly they have to be on the run and Hannah is forced to rethink a lot of things from her past.

I just love dystopian books where is never becomes clear what happened, but where we read how people cope with the new situation in any which way they can. A few examples are [book:We Are All Ghosts in the Forest|208284867] by Lorraine Wilson and [book:The New Wilderness|48836769] by Diane Cook. In The Quiet we read how humans slowly come to understand what the Soundfield may be – but will it be a blessing or a curse?

I was very impressed with the story, the setting and the characters and recommend this book highly.

Thanks to PanMacmillan and Netgalley for this review copy.

Looking for a different type of dystopian Sci-Fi, anchored more deeply into soft sciences but just as unsettling? Plunging into human psyche, especially what it meant to be a mother and parental responsibilities and love. If that all sounds like what you want to enjoy, then The Quiet might be just want you need.
It reminded me a little of another heavily language-bases fascinating anticipation novel "To Each This World".

Tour spot!

Better late than never, it's my turn on the tour for The Quiet today.

Fans of dystopian, get ready, this one's for you!

About the book:
A mother's love can be deafening . . .

Isaac is Hannah’s entire world. She knows that her son is gifted, and that those gifts make him vulnerable. To keep him safe, she spends every waking moment by his side. If she lets her guard down, lets him out of her sight, lets him show what he’s capable of, he will be taken from her.

When the Soundfield arrived twenty years ago, the world changed with it. Now, people are forced to live at night due to the deadly heat of the day, food and water are scarce, and everyday life is punctuated by the constant and disconcerting hum from the Field. A brilliant scientist, Hannah spent her early career working on the enigma of the Soundfield, looking for answers; now, resigned, she has focussed all her energies on keeping Isaac living, not just alive.

To do so, she will have to lie to the people she knows and hope she can trust the ones she doesn't. Because the only thing more dangerous than her lies, is the truth of what she has done.

What did I think?
The premise of this one was fab - I love a dystopian and in terms of the concept it really didn't disappoint. I found Hannah and Isaac so likeable and loved leading their story. It was a compelling read too - I found myself wanting to come back to it and find out what happened next. It's also fair to say that the author knows exactly what he's talking about - the science of sound and his knowledge shone through. That said, it's my biggest criticism of the book too. While I enjoyed it on the whole, I felt a bit blinded by science at points which I did find myself skimming - but that didn't take away my enjoyment.

The ending was pretty abrupt too, but the positive is, it sets it up perfectly for a sequel which I'll likely pick up.

Overall - this one was good and I'd love to see it brought to life through an adaptation. With sound playing such a big part, I think it'd add a lot to the experience of the story.

Thanks for having me on the tour @libraryofchlo
and @panmacmillan for the finished copy 💙

I liked the premise. The prologue and the beginning of this book really had me hooked and wanting to read more. The world was interesting and unique and the main character Hannah and her son were developed quite well. I felt as though a lot was going on and I wish some of the themes were explored in more depth. Otherwise, it was an entertaining book.

20 years ago the sound field arrived and completely changed the world now people are forced to make "The Switch" and live at nighttime due to the blistering heat of the day. Hannah knows her son Issac is gifted and those with gifts get taken. To keep him safe she never lets him out of her sight. She was a scientist studying the sound field looking for answers but now all she cares about is keeping Issac safe.

This book drew me in from the very start. I ended up listening to this on audio after realse date and I'm so glad I did the audio was brilliantly read with some really good sound effects (plus an interview with author and narrator at the end which really made me think more about the book) This was a really unique story and a brilliant concept. I am a big fan of speculative fiction and this will go down now for me as one of my favourites.

Thank you to Netgalley, Pan MacMillan and Barnaby Martin for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book!
Isaac is Hannah’s entire world. She knows that her son is gifted, and that those gifts make him vulnerable. To keep him safe, she spends every waking moment by his side. If she lets her guard down, lets him out of her sight, lets him show what he’s capable of, he will be taken from her.
The world has changed totally. People sleep during the day and are awake at night due to the extreme UV rays The world is covered by Soundfield.
This book keeps you guessing and I would highly recommend it.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC

✶ PRE-READING ✶
I haven't read anything by the author before, but books with even a hint of dystopia always draw me in. The Soundfield was intriguing, not something I'd read about before, and I wanted to see how Isaac was wrapped up in it.

✶ POST-READING ✶
As I thought... It's a very original idea, not one I've seen anywhere else. There's not much action - it's much more about the people, their reactions to the Soundfield and their lives now.

It surprised me by... taking so long to explain anything. There's a prologue, then it jumps in a direction that's not explained but well after the Soundfield arrived, and we're dripfed information at a very slow pace. I can imagine some readers getting fed up and stopping, though I urge them to hang in there. It's worth it.

✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦
Book Recommendation: The Power by Naomi Alderman — Another speculative novel exploring how a sudden shift in the natural order (in that case, the emergence of female power) changes everything. It shares that same tense, rule-bound worldbuilding where power and survival are deeply entwined, and mothers and children are central.

TV or Movie Recommendation: The Last of Us (TV series) — For the fierce, flawed parental love, the post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and the exploration of what’s worth protecting when the world is broken. The moral ambiguity in both is rich and compelling.


See the full review at https://readandreviews.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-quiet-by-barnaby-martin.html

The Quiet is the sort of story that makes one think about choices, life, love, protection of the planet and humanity's role in its destruction. It also relies the future on the hands of a few that are being guided with not the best interests in mind. They had to live in the dark and with no sound except for the humming of the Soundfield, food was scarce and children with the special genetic condition were taken from their families. Hannah will do anything to keep Isaac with her, or better, to keep him safe and thriving, and she'll go under any sacrifice to keep it happening. The Quiet is not an easy read, but it's beautifully written and provides lots of food for thought. Highly recommended!
I thank Mr. Martin, his publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.

I liked the premise of this book - A dystopian land where the world has been covered by a soundfield and inhabitants must live at night to protect themselves from an over engorged sun. However, I think I was expecting more of a Stephen King's 'The institute' vibe with the mention of Isaac's gift that must never be discovered, and that is not what I got. That doesn't mean that the story isn't well written and that in some parts the book holds real promise and heart, but for me it wasn't the dystopia I imagined.
The scientific elements were well written, however that Is not particularly something that I enjoy nor understand and I found myself skimming through those portions of the book as it just went over the top of my head.
The book gave off slight middle of a trilogy book for me even though it is a standalone, I wish that there had been more peril and more risks.
Overall I enjoyed the book, but for me it started off strong and slowly dwindled the further I got into the story.
Rounded up for 3.5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book via Netgalley.

If nothing else, Barnaby Martin’s book The Quiet might win a prize for the weirdest post-apocalypse. And that’s saying something in a genre that has had killer viruses, killer mushrooms, zombies, aliens and robots. But even with its wacky premise, The Quiet falls quickly into the same lazy and tired tropes as many other books in this genre and does very little to make them new or interesting.
The Soundfield is some unexplained form of atmospheric anomaly that began about ten years before. It significantly increased both global temperatures and UV, rendering some parts of the world uninhabitable but also preventing people going out during daytime to the point where people have “shifted” to a nighttime existence. The Soundfield also creates noise – it creates a musical in the air which seems like it may be some form of communication. For those looking for an explanation – where the Soundfield came from, why it does what it does, or how – Martin is not going to provide one.
The action is set in Britain (while the country is never specifically named this is clearly British post apocalyptic fiction). The country is under some form of authoritarian rule and the authorities are taking children for something called the “Atavism Project”. Why this is only comes clear later in the book. One of those children is Isaac, who, when the book opens is being taken from his mother Dr Hannah Newnham, an expert on the Soundfield.
The narrative focusses on Hannah and Isaac. Following the opening Martin goes back a few days to describe their lives – Hannah hiding the fact that six-year-old Isaac does not speak but can sing, her fraught relationship with her dying mother, her work as a lecturer, and the hand to mouth nighttime existence in a towerblock. Once the narrative catches back up to the opening scene, it then moves forward with a little more pace and threat.
The Quiet is full of post-apocalyptic tropes, particularly those in books of this type coming out of the UK (Ali Smith’s Gliff, This Fragile Earth by Susannah Wise, The End We Start From by Megan Hunter). An authoritarian regime, food shortages, special clothing for going outside, a resistance movement (who live in an abandoned shopping centre, naturally). But despite the heat and UV, there also seems to be a fairly unspoiled “countryside” in which animals roam around. Never mind the unanswered question as to where the food is coming from in a world where it is apparently too hot and blasted to grow crops. This feels like lazy worldbuilding – the Soundfield as an idea that is never allowed to make sense.
What is worse, or at least more unforgiveable, is that nothing actually resolves by the end of the book. The characters never discover where the Soundfield comes from or how it works or how to communicate with it. Isaac is somehow a key to all of it in a way that never makes sense (it has something to do with “atavism”) but in the end he is seemingly ignored by the authorities. The final couple of twists, in particular, make no sense.
All in all Martin has a few interesting ideas about music and language but they are buried in a nonsensical post-apocalyptic scenario.

Many thanks to PanMacmillan and NetGalley for a free eARC of this book.

Slow paced yet gripping. A disappointing ending yet an engrossing read.

The book begins and continues with a steady, slow pace yet the situation and characters pulled me in, and I lived this book through the main character’s eyes. I loved Isaac and feel a second book, where he and his special abilities are explored further, would be beneficial and interesting.

As it is, the ending withholds answers, lots of threads are left hanging, and Isaac’s abilities could have been more central. However, mostly, the story focuses on how far you’d go to protect a loved one. A vulnerable child who needs to stay away from anyone in authority. From anyone who may see and report his musical ability. For, since the Soundfield arrived, music and musical ability has turned into a guaranteed arrest and assessment—if you pass the authoritarian-government’s scientists keep you. It isn’t clear what happens to those who fail. The taken children are never seen or heard from again.

A few great one-liners stayed with me, and here are some:

‘That’s what you do when you think the world is ending: you become everything you haven’t been before. In reality, though, the world doesn’t end in a point, but a curve.’

And …

‘I try to order things in my mind, but every move I make dislodges something else. A knot in my head that I can only make tighter.’

And …

‘Mum and I would spend a few hours together, looking at things that were too expensive to buy and buying things that were too cheap to survive.’

A slow but gripping book with more than one theme, and it goes deep. Though I would have preferred a stronger, more definite ending, I enjoyed the read immensely, and had I been able, I would have read this in one or two sessions, easily. If you enjoy futuristic dystopian novels with a dictatorial, authoritarian government, this will make a good read for you!

***

NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.


5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.

4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.

3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.

2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.

1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for this eCopy to review

The Quiet by Barnaby Martin is a gripping dystopian novel set in a world transformed by the mysterious "Soundfield," an enigmatic force that has left humanity living in darkness, forced to avoid the scorching, radiation-filled daylight. The story centres around Hannah, a brilliant scientist, and her gifted son, Isaac. Hannah's life revolves around keeping Isaac safe from the dangers posed by his unique abilities and the oppressive regime that seeks to control them.

The plot unfolds as Hannah navigates the challenges of survival in this harsh new world. The Soundfield, which arrived twenty years ago, has drastically altered the environment, making daytime uninhabitable and resources scarce. Hannah's early career was dedicated to understanding the Soundfield, but now her focus is solely on protecting Isaac. The tension between her scientific curiosity and maternal instincts adds depth to her character.

One of the standout aspects of The Quiet is its exploration of the impact of the Soundfield on society. Martin's world-building is meticulous, creating a vivid picture of a society struggling to adapt to its new reality. The constant hum from the Soundfield and the necessity to live at night add a unique and eerie atmosphere to the story.

The characters are well-developed and relatable. Hannah's determination and Isaac's vulnerability make for a compelling duo. Their relationship is central to the narrative, highlighting themes of sacrifice, love, and resilience. The supporting characters, including those Hannah must lie to and those she hopes to trust, add layers of intrigue and complexity to the plot.

The Quiet is a compelling and original novel that offers a fresh perspective on dystopian fiction. Fans of science fiction and stories about survival and resilience will find much to enjoy in this book.

I really enjoy speculative dystopian fiction and in The Quiet, we are introduced to Hannah, an academic who is determined to protect her son in a world where children are snatched by the government for their musical abilities.

Isaac cannot talk, but he can mimic the sound of the soundfield that has caused the planet to over heat to the extent that life now carries on at night and daytime is for sleeping. Hannah knows that she can't protect Isaac forever and as the government close in, she turns to a rebel group for help and that's when the action really hots up!

Emotion and the strength of a mother's love combine with science fiction to make this a gripping and enjoyable thriller of a read.

4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Barnaby Martin and Pan Macmillan for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Motherly love, language and music, and the constant need for answers. All key themes throughout this novel that I found super easy to read, I was slipping through the chapters without even realising.

We're in the future on Earth and climate change means people live during the night to avoid the searing heat of the daytime. On top of this the Earth has been covered by the Soundfield, which makes noises that nobody can interpret. Our main character is a former scientist but she is now trying to keep her son safe from the government.

None of that is a spoiler, but you also don't get any solid answers about what on earth is going on in this book until the 50% mark. Luckily this book was so easy to read otherwise I would've given up in frustration before that point. But the ~170 pages flew by and I was curious to see what I'd learn.

There is sign language representation in this book, and from my very limited knowledge when the signs are described they seem to be accurate to BSL which I'm so glad Martin took the time to add this detail. I also enjoyed the discussions on musicality and genetics that played into the sci-fi aspect of this novel. I'm trying not to spoil things here!

The constant need of humanity to have answers to everything, and the lengths they'll go to get those answers, is a plot point in the novel. But Martin also explores this in how he has chosen to end the story. We don't get a conclusion. Not one that was satisfying or explains anything. Don't get me wrong, we get a few answers, but I want to know more about the Soundfield! I want to know about the scientific research and what happens to the characters and to the planet! Unfortunately, we don't get that in this book.

I do really hope that there is a sequel in the future, even if there is still a lot left unexplained there is so much that Martin could work with in the world-building he has set up and I'd definitely want to read it! If you can handle an ambiguous ending, I recommend this one.

Thanks to the folks over at BookBreak for sending me a physical copy for review, as well as NetGalley for an eARC.

I liked the premise of this dystopian thriller. In the near future, climate change forces people to sleep during the day and work at night whilst living on rations and in decrepit conditions. The narrative pace is slow in places though I liked the character of Hannah and her bond with Isaac.

Excellent science fiction

Thank you, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC of Barnaby Martin’s, The Quiet.

The Quiet is an interesting read, good voice, with an excellently executed double timeline. The plot is intriguing. From one day to the next, a Soundfield emitting a constant hum, appeared above Earth. Solar intensity and UV levels increased to (near) lethal, and humans had to turn night into day and day into night. There is quite a bit of science (musical and scientific jargon) in this science fiction novel, which I like.
I would have welcomed more worldbuilding; this near-future version of our planet is alien enough to warrant it. And more background. How did governments slip into the autocratic, militarised state they are in, for example.

Barnaby Martin’s, The Quiet, is a good science fiction novel, around the theme, how far will a parent go to protect their child. Still, I can’t escape the feeling it could have been much more than that, if Isaac’s connection with the Soundfield had been expanded and given more prominence. If there's to be a sequel, with Isaac as the main character, I will definitely want to read that.