The Quiet by Barnaby Martin

✦ BLURB ✦

A mother's love can be deafening . . .

Isaac is Hannah’s entire world. She knows that her son is gifted, and that those gifts make him vulnerable. To keep him safe, she spends every waking moment by his side. If she lets her guard down, lets him out of her sight, lets him show what he’s capable of, he will be taken from her.

When the Soundfield arrived twenty years ago, the world changed with it. Now, people are forced to live at night due to the deadly heat of the day, food and water are scarce, and everyday life is punctuated by the constant and disconcerting hum from the Field. A brilliant scientist, Hannah spent her early career working on the enigma of the Soundfield, looking for answers; now, resigned, she has focussed all her energies on keeping Isaac living, not just alive.

To do so, she will have to lie to the people she knows and hope she can trust the ones she doesn't. Because the only thing more dangerous than her lies, is the truth of what she has done.

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✶ PRE-READING ✶

I haven't read anything by the author before, but books with even a hint of dystopia always draw me in. The Soundfield was intriguing, not something I'd read about before, and I wanted to see how Isaac was wrapped up in it.

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✶ POST-READING ✶

As I thought... It's a very original idea, not one I've seen anywhere else. There's not much action - it's much more about the people, their reactions to the Soundfield and their lives now.

It surprised me by... taking so long to explain anything. There's a prologue, then it jumps in a direction that's not explained but well after the Soundfield arrived, and we're dripfed information at a very slow pace. I can imagine some readers getting fed up and stopping, though I urge them to hang in there. It's worth it.

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✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦

Book Recommendation: The Power by Naomi Alderman — Another speculative novel exploring how a sudden shift in the natural order (in that case, the emergence of female power) changes everything. It shares that same tense, rule-bound worldbuilding where power and survival are deeply entwined, and mothers and children are central.

TV or Movie Recommendation: The Last of Us (TV series) — For the fierce, flawed parental love, the post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and the exploration of what’s worth protecting when the world is broken. The moral ambiguity in both is rich and compelling.

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✧ VIBE CHECK ✧

A colour palette: Dark and dreary with flashes of bright orange.

A soundtrack: Clashing sounds with a persistent base you feel more than here.

A season: Dull winter.

A mood: Partly numb, partly defiant.

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★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★

Seven of Swords (Tarot of Me and You). It’s all about secrecy, deception, and the mental toll of carrying hidden truths - all of which feel central to Hannah’s story. She’s lying, protecting, and isolating herself from others, just like the figure in the card stealing away with stolen blades under cover of night. It fits the literal night-living world of the book too.

The Quiet publishes on the 3rd of June, 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.