Book Review: Breaking the Silence by Diane Chamberlain
Monday, January 07, 2019
I was holding my breath throughout the entire
story. Breaking the Silence is definitely a mind blowing read and I am so glad
that I picked it up from my shelf after years. I don’t know how I should
classify the genre of this book since it has everything from romance to horror,
psychological to family drama. It started with the death of Laura's father,
Carl and right after that her husband, Ray, shoot himself to death. Following
the horrifying death of Ray, her sweet and chatterbox daughter Emma became mute
and never talk to her again. Then, her promise to her father to take care of
Sarah, of whom suffered from Alzheimer’s. Mystery after mystery enveloped
Laura's life after those unfortunate events and she was so desperate to find
the answers to each one of them. When everything was coming together, she
finally reunited with the truth and she embraced her fate with tears of
joy.
Chamberlain used the alternate storytelling with
two different settings: the present and the past and as a fan of alternate
narratives, it worked wonder and I absolutely loved it. With her brilliant plot
twists, I found myself riding a roller coaster ride through the entire journey
and I was horrified and chilled to the bones whenever the story traveled back
to the St. Margaret mental hospital. The drug injections, the electric shocks,
the lobotomy surgeries, everything at the house of horror felt so real and it
left a great impact to the story. The injection of romance between Laura and
Dylan I the other hand giving some sweetness to the story despite of all the
bitter tragedies. Furthermore, all the characters in the book were significant
to the story line and my favorite character is the young Sarah. She was kind,
brave and absolutely a strong woman at heart.
Despite of all the greatness about this book, I
was a little bit distracted about the fact of why Emma became mute and had the
tendency to be scared of men. Chamberlain did explain briefly about it towards
the end, however I really wanted to know a little deeper about the relationship
between Emma and Ray before everything else happened. But well, I have to
accept the way it was, no big deal whatsoever. It was just my curious mind. So,
all in all Breaking the Silence is absolutely stunning read. For those who want
to read a book in one sitting this is going to be a great choice. Period.
0 comments