Review: Sweet, haunting ghost story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 30, 2014
I’m a huge fan of Theo Fenraven’s work, but I’ve been putting off reading his backlist because I don’t want to get to the point where I don’t have new words of his to read!  But since he is one of the GR Authors of the Month, I figured this was a good time to pick up some of his “older” stories.  A Silence Kept was the one everyone said I should read first.I’m not real big on ghost stories, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one.  It had a creepy moment or two, but for the most part, I found myself feeling profoundly sad for Thomas, the ghost.  I felt he was simply trying to get Mikal to notice him.  The descriptions of the moments when Mikal did, most certainly, notice Thomas, were chilling, moving and almost erotic – all at the same time – and that’s classic Fenraven.  No other author I’ve found can so easily make me “feel” everything with such clean, simple prose.I ran across a passage that I had seen before on a blog or something a long time ago.  I recognized it the instant I hit it in A Silence Kept. Such a simple paragraph that describes time, setting and mood between Mikal and Seth all in one simple paragraph.“We sat for a while in what was now full darkness, neither of us getting up to turn on lights, either inside or out.  His silent presence was soothing, and I did not want the evening to end.  But time doesn’t care; it moved on relentlessly, and it was time to say goodnight.”I say it every time I review one of Theo’s books, but his ability to paint a picture makes reading effortless.  Case in point:“He’d been crying as if someone was tearing the soul out of his body through a keyhole.”The storyline between Mikal and Seth was realistic and cute, but, for me, Thomas is the character that has haunted me since finishing the book.  I highly recommend this sweet ghost story and anything else Theo Fenraven writes.  You won’t be disappointed.