Rating: 
Summary: Literate dark fantasy comes close,...
Review: ...very, very close, to being something special, but it falls short of the classic mark by a visible margin. Robert Londrigan, a television news anchorman, has worked hard building a happy life for himself and his pregnant wife, Denise. Then comes the Halloween night when he does the story on the baby born without a brain...and, returning home from a cooling off period after a fight about the story, Robert plunges into a nightmare where reality and myth become one. While In Silent Graves is undoubtedly a literate piece of dark fantasy writing (the layering of stories and literary references reminded me of Peter Straub's work), the book just wasn't that scary or unsettling to me. I think the author will go on to write more impressive fiction in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Thought-provoking Fun
Review: Braunbeck does a fantastic job with what he sets out to do in this book. The fairy-tale presentation of the back story really is a unique, fresh method.One never knows until the end, if the mysterious forces behind the action are good or evil, and one struggles along with the protagonist. If I have one criticism of this book, it's that it doesn't give me enough of the mythological background hinted at in the story. It wets my appetite, but doesn't go all the way. Still, it's a fantastic read and definitely worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Do You Despair?
Review: don't take critic blurbs on a back cover of a paperback seriously. But when a critic says the book is "not for the squimish" it piques my interest. So when In Silent Graves came in the mail thru my Leisure Book Club I decided to read it first.
The foreward was an interesting take on the modern publishing world. The writer compares Mr Braunbeck's writing as more then just a novel but a classic all readers should read. I 100% agree w/ him!
In Silent Graves is about a man's journey thru grief, societies views on children born less then perfect, true love and soul mates, the Caballah, Gnosticism and a little bit of Greek Philosphy thrown in.
Robert is a man who had a troubled childhood. On Halloween his wife Denise dies and his stillborn severly deformed daughter Emily is born. In the morgue Robert is attacked and Emily's body is stolen. The attacker asks Robert "Do you despair?".
He must cope with his grief and try to keep his sanity as he slowly finds out the world as he knows it may not be what it seems to be.
Somewhere else a child is born unloved and abused, another severly deformed, another thrown away like trash...
I will not go further and spoil the plot but I gotta say following Robert thru his journey of self realization is an enjoyable jouney.
I do have to warn those who are easily upset to be aware there are some graphic scenes of child abuse,child murder and desecration of childen's corpses. Not to mention a psuedo incestual sex scene but it isn't what it seems.
And as weird as it sounds this whole book isn't what it seems. Yes it is a horror story, yes there is some gore (but all plot driven and not thrown in for gore's sake) but it is also a love story, a fairy tale(as a matter of fact some of the plot twists come from a very specific fairy tale) and a story about redemption. Maybe even redemption of society.
So, Do You Despair?
Rating:
Summary: Simply Wonderful
Review: I have read thousands of books and this one place amoung the best. So powerful in it's depth of emotions. Tragedy and redeption have rarely been more eloquently fleshed out. I'm not ashamed to admit this book brought me to tears more than once. An amazing blend of horror, drama, soft science, philosophy and theology. Wonderful, and must read.
Rating: 
Summary: As exciting as wallpaper
Review: I must be illiterate, because I thought this was one BORING read.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing story
Review: I picked this up because it sounded like a good horror read, but it's much more than that. The first little bit of this novel convinced me that it was going to be a gore novel - hardly my favorite type of story. But I pressed on, and those tendrils of gore wormed their way into an incredibly in-depth plot that had me caring about the characters and story to a level that few stories have achieved with me. Do yourself a favor and read this.
Rating:
Summary: A truly wonderful read
Review: I've read thousands of books, of all types, and rarely has one moved me so deeply. I'm not entirely sure why this book is categorized in horror, it does have some gore albeit not gratuitous, but it was not "scary" in the typical way. What is scary about it are the parts that are all too true in our world today, knowing that our beautiful children are sometimes (if not often) abused in the ways put forth in this novel, is truly frightening.
This book though can't really be classified in any one way. It is so unique as to need a classification all it's own. Yes, the editing could've been better. There were misplaced words and some mispellings which can sometimes ruin a book for me. But this book went beyond a "reading" and was an "experience" I will be forever thankful for, in spite of the editing sometimes being poor. An excerpt from the introduction by Michael Marano: You feel this book, and you're made to feel in new ways because of it. It exists to be read and experienced and it exists to take you into those deep places within us most books are too afraid to let us acknowledge even exist. I cannot recommend this book more highly, it is a MUST read! Yes, I despair......
Rating:
Summary: A truly wonderful read
Review: I've read thousands of books, of all types, and rarely has one moved me so deeply. I'm not entirely sure why this book is categorized in horror, it does have some gore albeit not gratuitous, but it was not "scary" in the typical way. What is scary about it are the parts that are all too true in our world today, knowing that our beautiful children are sometimes (if not often) abused in the ways put forth in this novel, is truly frightening.
This book though can't really be classified in any one way. It is so unique as to need a classification all it's own. Yes, the editing could've been better. There were misplaced words and some mispellings which can sometimes ruin a book for me. But this book went beyond a "reading" and was an "experience" I will be forever thankful for, in spite of the editing sometimes being poor. An excerpt from the introduction by Michael Marano: You feel this book, and you're made to feel in new ways because of it. It exists to be read and experienced and it exists to take you into those deep places within us most books are too afraid to let us acknowledge even exist. I cannot recommend this book more highly, it is a MUST read! Yes, I despair......
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, affecting novel
Review: If you enjoy substantial, intelligent horror that contains genuine emotion, you need to read IN SILENT GRAVES. The story is by turns touching and creepy, and is always thought-provoking. This is the kind of book you should give to friends who claim they don't like horror on the grounds that horror is shallow and full of gratuitous gore (there *are* some graphic scenes in here, but each one of them is necessary to tell the story). Braunbeck has been horror's best-kept secret for far too long. If you are any kind of fan of fantasy and horror, I bet you would enjoy this book as much as I did.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: If you're looking for a wonderful, affecting, and downright creepy novel, look no further than In Silent Graves. Braunbeck has been horror's best-kept secret for far too long.
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