SA Barnes once again proves herself the queen of sci-fi horror. She truly brings the creepiness of being alone on a spaceship full of cryogenically frozen people to life. Halley's pluck and grit, her proactiveness and determination to do the right thing, made her an easy protagonist to root for, and I enjoyed the gradual revelations about her past and what she was running from. The plot took some twists and turns that I honestly did not see coming, keeping me glued to my earphones. The audiobook performance was excellent, too.

The timing of this book's publication is quite...interesting, given the way it explores themes that are directly relevant to current US politics. I'm not sure I totally agree with some of the messages considering what we're seeing unfold in real time, but the themes were interesting nonetheless!

I have a very specific niche of horror that I love the best and S.A. Barnes delivers on it every time! I've read just about everything I can find that fits the bill, so I was very excited to have another book by Barnes to read.

This was suitably creepy with the human element that added to the horror and the hopeful aspects of the story. This story included more references to modern day ideas and concepts which I found interesting since, especially the one to Five Nights At Freddy's since I had had that exact thought a little bit before it.

I eagerly await the next S.A. Barnes book!

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

Another winner from S.A. Barnes. Halley’s life has been destroyed so she finds the perfect opportunity to hide from everything: she will become the caretaker of the Elysian Fields, a cryogenic facility in space. What could possibly go wrong? The plot managed to surprise me, I was not expecting what happened. Halley is a compelling, likable protagonist. Amara Jasper’s audiobook narration really gets her. At first it is not clear whether what she thinks she sees and hears is really happening, or if it’s all in her mind, since the spaceship is pretty much an abandoned mausoleum. Her performance of the rest of the characters is also pitch perfect. Jasper also makes her compelling when she could have sounded whiny. All the voices are distinctive, including a very creepy one that made my skin crawl. I loved the gothic atmosphere. Barnes is a master of reflecting what is normally a very old-world tradition and translating it into a futuristic setting. The plot is fast paced and I devoured this in two sittings. I loved it.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Macmillan Audio.

*3.75 stars*

This was creepy and very atmospheric. An abandoned spaceship full of cryogenically frozen dead people is the creepy space setting I didn’t know I desperately wanted. Lots of great haunting imagery.

I enjoyed this. The twists were foreshadowed with a rather heavy hand, and at sometimes it felt like the story lagged in places especially in the start. I would have liked more exploration into the big explanation. Overall I think if you liked Barnes’ other books or you’re looking for a creepy space horror, you would probably like this.

The audiobook narration was well done and easy to listen to.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

S.A. Barnes has an undeniable talent for crafting tense, spooky atmospheres that pull you in and keep you on edge. She knows how to build suspense and create that eerie, claustrophobic feeling that makes her stories feel truly unsettling. Unfortunately, where her stories shine in atmosphere, they tend to fall flat with character development. All her main characters feel cut from the same mold—so similar that it’s hard to tell them apart from one book to the next.

I don’t need to like a main character, but I do need to be invested enough to care about how their story ends. Sadly, that wasn’t the case here. The character felt too familiar, too predictable, and it made the story feel redundant, especially compared to her previous works. Which is such a shame, because the premise of this book was incredibly intriguing and had the potential to be something fresh and memorable. I just wish the execution had lived up to the promise.

S.A. Barnes continues to be a must read for me each time I see a new book by them and this title did not disappoint. They return to a run down/abandoned spaceship and then allow the story to play out from there. The tension between what was going on around the main character, and what happened to them in the past made it impossible to put the story aside. I had to know how it ended in one day. And the hint of romance was perfection. A must read for fans of space horror!

Barnes has created another horror/thriller based in outer space. This time around, Halley is providing live in security to a mostly empty ship currently in dry dock. The ship, the Elysian Fields, was first used to help dispose bodies in deep space, and it has a decidedly sinister history. The creep factor is not limited to the past, though, and Halley soon begins to see and hear things that can’t possibly really be there. Or can they? Another master work of terror in space.