The Noise

3.5 stars

Tennant and Sophie Riggin, are daughters of survivalists living in a remote and isolated village in Oregon, were going about their day when the vibrations/noise began. The screams, the noise, the terror, the blood flowing from their ears, eyes, etc. Their poppa put them in the shelter with their dog, Zeke, for safety and when they leave the shelter everything has changed – there is no one in sight, their village is destroyed, and Sophie is not acting like herself. Tennant decides they should move to another shelter when the noise/vibrations begin again.

What is happening? What is the cause of the noise? What is the word that Sophie keeps saying? How can Tennant help her sister? Where did everyone go? Where is Momma? Where is Poppa?

A group of elite government investigators are called in to investigate. On the team is Dr. Martha Chan, a psychologist who analyses long term medical emergencies. She studies them. Another team member is Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Fraser, a career military leader with a mistrust of civilians. He is sent to contain them. The noise is continuing and spreading across the Pacific Northwest, things are getting out of hand. But how do you study and contain when you don’t understand what and why caused this “Noise” to happen? How can you stop something that you have to fight with every fiber in your being to resist?

There are several POV’s being told in this book and there is a lot of minor characters as well. Readers will learn things as those in the book do. I liked the feeling of being unedge and unnerved not know what is happening. For me, this book is more horrifying than “true” horror, which in many ways makes the book more appealing.

This is a book that I was all over the place with rating. I loved the originality of this book and yet it had me thinking of other books due to the dystopian feel to it. I had flashes of The Stand, The Walking Dead, The Girl with All the Gifts and even I Am Legend while reading this. Not that this book’s plot is like any of those, (it’s not!) but part of this book brought those to mind.

This book is highly imaginative, and I believe that this book would make a fantastic movie! I could see it playing out in my mind. There was everything but the kitchen sink thrown into this book! It’s part science fiction, part dystopian, and as I mentioned earlier, horrifying.

My one issue with the book is that I didn’t connect with any of the characters. I am speculating that so much time, thought, effort was put into the plot, the execution of the plot, the pacing, the action, and into the “noise” that the characters took second billing. The “Noise” is a HUGE character is this book and the others pale in comparison.

But I cannot deny that the execution of the plot was brilliant. I feel most of the credit goes to Barker for this. I can say that this is a book, I enjoyed more after I sat with it and contemplated it. Very creative and well thought out – again, I feel this is all Barker.

The ending was interesting…I wasn’t sure what I thought of it at first. Honestly, I still don’t know what I think of it. I have always devoured J.D. Barker’s books and enjoy those by James Patterson. This collaboration was enjoyable but didn’t grab me as much as their previous collaboration. Again, I think it is due to me not being overly invested in the characters.

.Creative, horrifying, original and tense!

Thank you to Little, Brown & Company and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.