Book Review: Silent Lust of Us: A Hidden Case Behind Digital EyesÂ
This was written by @missexistence!
Silent Lust of Us: A Hidden Case Behind Digital Eye is a part 1 of a conspiracy thriller series. After Detective Adams interrogates a man by the name of Arthur Monroe, he relates a story to help with the detectiveâs toughest case yet. In a close-knit neighborhood, Christine seems just like everyone else thereâperfectly satisfied with the way things are. Only, a heartbreaking event in her past has slowly been tearing her âperfectâ life apart. Even those in the neighborhood might be unable to save her if she is unwilling to see that she needs helpâŚor maybe those around her are not as benevolent as they seem to be.
This was fun! Thriller and horror in general are genres that Iâve been wanting to get into more, so I think this was a nice way to explore that. This part of the story follows Christine, but sheâs neither a traditional heroine nor even antihero. Sheâs just struggling. At the heart of the story is a tale about overcoming grief and addiction. Almost immediately, itâs clear that she is going through a lot and is not using healthy coping strategies. There are multiple nightmare sequences that are very immersive and unsettling. They each feel like that type of dream where you wake up in the middle of the night and just lay awake for a while, trying to think of something else or simply to avoid the chance of dreaming more. Throughout the story, I kept feeling worse for Christine. She has a friend (Oliver), a sister, and a frenemy who has a boyfriend, but itâs like she really doesnât have anyone who she can just talk to. In my opinion, this reads like a cautionary tale of what can happen when we ignore those who are silently begging for help and what can happen when we shove down our feelings instead of confronting them.
My favorite character was probably Arthur. I wonât spoil anything (and I technically donât know too much about him yet), but he just seemed very interesting to me. I want to know if my guesses are correct. Iâll be excited to see what he does next in the story as well as what happens with the rest of the cast. Oliver also seemed intriguing, but I might be a bit too suspicious of a reader to have properly assessed the type of person that he is. Weâll just have to see!
On the more technical side of things, there were some changes from present to past tense that distracted me from time to time, but this didnât affect my overall enjoyment of the story. The only other thing would be that there was a lot of use of description. On one hand, I like how in-depth this got, but with the story being a novella, I started to get antsy with longer sections describing foods or outfits when I was worried about what was about to happen plot-wise.Â
Overall, Iâd recommend this! As I said, itâs a very short story, so it can be a fast read if youâre in the mood for something eerie and unsettling that will still make you think about what more you can do for those you care about. Hereâs the Amazon link so that you can check it out for yourself!
