After the Silence is a quiet book. It creeps into your mind and sits there, a seed which continues to grow long after you've finished reading it. Before this, I have only read two books by Louise O'Neill, both of which I adored but neither of which were rooted in reality. It was interesting to see her style in a more grounded setting and I was pleased to see that the writing still managed to be beautiful and thought-provoking.
This is the story of Keelin, a woman living in the shadow of a murder accusation launched against her wealthy husband. Ten years prior, a beautiful girl named Nessa was murdered at their house party whilst a terrible storm raged on. Her husband Henry was considered to be guilty by everyone but could not be charged. Now in the present day, two filmmakers have come to the island to make a documentary about the dead girl. Told in the past and present, we soon learn that Keelin has some secrets of her own.
If you're looking for a typical thriller, this is not the book for you. The mystery is not hard to solve but it's also not really what the book is about. This is more of an exploration of Keelin's life, how she ended up with not one but two abusive husbands and how her life came to be the way it is. It explores the various facets of abuse through different lenses and also paints a picture of Irish culture on a small island. It is a deeply absorbing story and one I know I'll remember for years to come.
I only had two flaws with this book which stopped it being perfect. Firstly, I found it very difficult to tell what time period I was currently reading about. This may have been changed in the final copy but my ARC had no dates, only subtitles for some chapters which meant it was always a few paragraphs before I could tell when it was meant to be. The other thing is more personal taste but I feel the book ended too soon. There isn't really a concrete ending and things are left very open, and it was the plotline with Alex I found particularly frustrating with the way it ended (or didn't).
Apart from those minor niggles, After the Silence was an immensely enjoyable read. It wasn't the thriller I was expecting but I definitely loved reading it and I thought it had a lot of interesting things to say. If you like O'Neill's other work, this is a fantastic new addition to that and it's well worth the try for anyone looking for an absorbing story.
Overall Rating:
.5
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