The cover of Quietus by Vivian Schilling says it is a novel of suspense and man is that one accurate description!

What it's about: After a plane crash that kills everyone except for five people, the remaining survivors (especially Kylie and her friend Amelia) start having a very strong sense of foreboding. Kylie starts seeing people that aren't there and she is terrified that her and the rest of the survivors were not meant to live. After a very upsetting tragedy, Kylie's paranoia reaches a new high that has her fearing for her life.

This description of the plot is pretty vague, but I think it still gives you a good enough idea of what the book is about. Quietus is quite long at over 600 pages but the pages turn very quickly and had me on the edge of my seat pretty much the entire time. This might be the most suspenseful book that I have read in an extremely long time, and I have to give props to the author for managing to keep over 600 pages that interesting.

If you are terrified of dying in a plane crash or supernatural occurrences, this will probably be very frightening to read. For the longest time I was scared of dying in a plane crash so when I first started reading Quietus it was a little tough to read. But after the initial crash scene it really just moves into a bunch of supernatural stuff and is freaky in a completely different way.

Viewpoints switch from Kylie, her friend Amelia, Kylie's husband Jack, Jack's brother Dillon, and a few other people. I really liked all of the different viewpoints and some of them were a nice respite from all the suspense there was in Kylie and Amelia's POVs. Schilling sets up a very complex story and plot that is both terrifying, and incredibly interesting to read.

Final Thought: The ending was actually a bit of a let down in my opinion, but I guess it fit with the overall feel of the book. Other than the end, I really enjoyed everything else about the book. It does have a bit of a Final Destination vibe, but it was so much more than that. I would recommend Quietus to people who like reading about the supernatural and enjoy long books filled with suspense.

The concept of this story sold me from the start and the first part of the book, I was ready to roll, but somewhere at the third way through mark I got lost a little and from there I was in and out of this book.

Kylie O'Rourke and her husband and another couple are on a private plane and for many reasons the plane crashes. She barely survives the crash and from there her world is turned upside down. The book is less about the actual crash and more about the aftermath of it all. With survivor's guilt and paranoia and PTSD, Vivian Schilling explores all the effects of surviving a near death experience.

For me, I loved most of it, but there were definitely some parts where I had to suspend my belief and get out of reality and it was just ok. It was so interesting reading this book, I would be so in where I couldn't take my eyes off the page and invested in Kylie and Jack and then weird things would start happening and I would try to refrain from rolling my eyes and I would get distracted and had to will myself to get back to the book - reading it was a roller coaster. I loved it and hated it all at the same time.

After I finished the book, I read reviews to help gather my thoughts. I read often that people were comparing this to the movie Final Destination and while I haven't seen the movie I could see where the comparisons are and I would say I would have enjoyed this book as a movie more than that movie. The other thing I read often was about the length and I agree with those thoughts also. I don't mind a chunky book when I feel as though every page is worth it and it takes that long to get through a story. I didn't feel that way with this book - it felt as though there were some pages and parts of the story that didn't seem worth it and could have shortened the book to make it more of an impact.

Overall, I would read more books by Vivian Schilling, but I would probably read the synopsis and maybe a review before diving in.

This is a fantastic, dark and eerie story about a woman who survives a plane crash and is then haunted by supernatural visions she experienced before being rescued from the wreckage. I liked the little nod to the movie 'Final Destination', with one character actually saying those two words, almost with a cheeky wink to the reader. Although there are some small similarities to that movie this story is much cleverer and more grown up. It is also richer, deeper and darker, making for an elaborate, disturbing and unsettling horror about near death experiences, fate and destiny.

A wonderfully inventive and thought provoking book that will stay with me for a very long time.

Great story! Looking forward to reading more by this author! Highly recommend!