The Indifference of Heaven

Cedar Hill #1

by Gary A. Braunbeck

Robert Londrigan seems to have it all. He is a newscaster with a rising career. He has a beautiful wife, Denise, and a new baby on the way. But in just a few short hours Robert's world is turned upside down. And the torment only gets worse when his daughter's body is stolen from the morgue by a strange, disfigured man....

Robert is about to begin a journey into a world of nightmare, an unimaginable world of mystery, horror and revelation. He will learn, from both the living and the dead, secrets about this world and things beyond this world. Though his journey will be grotesque, terrifying and heartbreaking, he will not be allowed to stop. But can he survive with his mind intact? Can he survive at all?

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Dark

350 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Gary A. Braunbeck is a prolific author who writes mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mainstream literature. He is the author of 19 books; his fiction has been translated into Japanese, French, Italian, Russian and German. Nearly 200 of his short stories have appeared in various publications.

His fiction has received several awards, including the Bram Stoker Award in 2003 for "Duty" and in 2005 for "We Now Pause for Station Identification"; his book Destinations Unknown won a Stoker in 2006. His novella "Kiss of the Mudman" received the International Horror Guild Award in 2005."

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 1 out of 5]

there is a battle happening within In Silent Graves involving three diametrically opposed forces: Braunbeck's vision, his actual skills, and his urge to shock & disgust. unfortunately the latter two trump the first. the author's vision is striking: he wants to weave a tapestry full of loss and mourning, creepy folk horror and the darkest of dark fantasy and the eeriest of October Season hauntings, storytelling that is layered and ambiguous. but his skills don't support his ambitions. the reviews for this book are schizophrenic: some laud the literary prose while detesting flat characterization, others despise the pretensions of the prose but applaud the realistic characters, still others appreciate the narrative and ideas but don't feel the skills are there to execute. I think I'm in the third camp? I admire ambition but there is such an amateurishness present at times, from the unrealistic dialogue to the regular misuse of words that an editor should have corrected (e.g. "sparse, matted chest hair"). this was often a pain in the ass to read. it brought out my own inner editor and at times I just wanted to grab a highlighter and pen so I could bring to the author's attention the many things that could have been improved if more rigor and reflection had been applied to the writing.

but there was nothing to be improved about Braunbeck's weird child-centered obsessions that really, as they say, go there. you can't improve bullshit. the urge to disturb people can be a slippery slope for writers prone to self-indulgence, and I think that some don't realize their story is sliding into eye-rolling bullshit with every new instance of vile, inexplicable behavior that they are trotting out and putting on display. in this book, these over the top scenes involve infants & kids & the physically disabled & a father grieving over his dead family: repulsive bizarro moments where readers like myself are taken out of the story and shoved into a place of reacting with disgust over what was just read and then questioning the author's motives for even bringing me to that place. there's only so much that I can tolerate before I have to say n to the o to the no no no. and so I gave up, I think about halfway. life's too short to deal with this.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Silent Graves is a rich, multi-layered and complex story about Robert Londrigan, a newscaster whose life begins to fall apart when he returns home from a walk in the park to find his pregnant wife dying.

This is not your traditional horror story with lots of action, blood and gore. It starts off slowly and gradually becomes a deep, moving, and very heart-wrenching story as Robert Londrigan copes with his grief and finds his life altered when he meets a mysterious masked figure in the park.

I’ve never heard of Gary Braunbeck before and picked up In Silent Graves on a whim. It is one of the best horror books I’ve read recently and I definitely plan on looking for more of this author’s work.

[Paul Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Silent Graves, I didn’t realise till I finished is the first in the Cedar Hill series and Gary Braunbeck certainly writes with a philosophical prose that flaunts a vivid imagination.

Robert Londrigan has it all it or so it seems, a sterling reputation as a TV news reporter with eyes on the upcoming anchor-man position, a beautiful wife and happily expecting their first child but things are about to take a cruel turn for our reporter as Halloween brings tragedy. An argument sees Robert storm off leaving Denise alone in the house and while cooling off in the park he meets a truly horrific figure that leaves him questioning his sanity but worse is yet to come when he discovers his wife collapsed on the floor.

Life becomes a blur as horror and despair assault his grip on sanity, with his wife dead, the body of his daughter is stolen from the morgue and here starts a trip that bends his conceptions of reality.

Thinking back there is such a lot that goes on in this book you seriously have to wonder how the page count is under 400 pages and not a 600+ page tome, it would be almost a crime to enlarge further on the plot but up till now I don’t think I’ve sold it.

There’s a lot of deep issues covered in this story from the despair and loss of the protagonists family to the horrific entity that leads to the true beginning and the unmasking if you like of a second time path, a second reality where things are very different, where we see the true horror of man and what the world has done to its children, to the children it no longer wants.

There are many layers to this book and for that reason it’s difficult without writing almost a short story to describe how clever and poignant In Silent Graves is, for a horror story the overriding feeling is a heartfelt sadness on more than one level and the emotion and vision showed by the author are something not seen very often. It was almost like the book when I finished bared very little relation to the book I started, with the exception of the main character and the revelations he encounters on his journey.

A 4.5 Rating rounded up

Highly Recommended.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Braunbeck delivers an intricately plotted, disturbing tale here to say the least, and I can see why the reviews are all over the place on it. Braunbeck's prose, while quite lovely at times, also makes the reader work pretty hard with long, long sentences, odd metaphors and such. Nonetheless, In Silent Graves comes off as a unique read that does not rely upon old horror tropes to make its impact. The story centers on Robert Londrigan, a TV newscaster in Central Ohio (while part of this takes place in Columbus, most is in the fictional city Cedar Hill, somewhere near Columbus).

Robert is 'up and coming', eying the job of lead newscaster, and for the most part happily married, with his wife about 7 months pregnant. The novel starts with some odd prequels/intros, with police at hotel in Indiana investigating a grizzly scene (dead, decaying bodies in a room) and some memos between Indiana cops and ones in Cedar Hill. Don't worry-- this will make sense by the end of the novel. In fact, the rabbit hole Braunbeck takes us on here seems totally off the wall and random, but he manages knit everything together.

One day Robert comes home from work (the 6 PM news!) and his wife is furious that he did not warn her that the show featured some bizarre struggle over a deformed infant in Florida; the child, born without a brain, is on life support, but some Christian fundamentalists are in arms to let the child live while the parents want to pull the plug. Anyway, Robert leaves home, gets some drinks at a bar, and hangs out in a park. It is Halloween and kids are about. Some other strange people are about as well, and Robert is struggling to come to grips with some bizarre sights; is he going crazy or are there really weird things going on? Well, he gets home only to find his wife dying...

In Silent Graves starts with a bang, and then Braunbeck starts tossing in the weird. Someone steals his dead infant from the morgue (and clocks Robert good while doing it). Later, he finds the dead girl on his couch at home, and he buries her in the backyard. Someone, or something, obviously knows Robert and starts communicating in strange ways; at times a deformed boy, people from his past, etc., all telling him things he just does not understand...

On the one hand, this is a study in grief and mourning; Robert endlessly ruminates over how he could have been a better partner for his wife, all the things he wished he could have done, and his struggles with how shallow he was as times. On the other hand, Robert plunges down a rabbit hole into fantasy land, populated by myriad deformed and abused children, with their 'leader' Rael telling him how the world actually works. The moralizing was a bit over the top at times, as was the dialogue, but the author kept my interest all the way. Very disturbing to say the least; in fact, more disturbing than scary, but so be it. 4 weird stars, but YMMV!!

[Frank Errington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review copy

Have you ever read a story that confused the Hell out of you and yet you found it to be totally enjoyable? For me, this perfectly describes my experience having just finished reading Gary A. Bruambeck's In Silent Graves. There were times reading this book where I felt totally lost and yet by the end it all made sense.

Robert Londrigan and wife, Denise, have a spat about a child abuse story which Robert used as the lead on the six o'clock newscast without giving his pregnant wife a heads up. Denise finds such stories disturbing and Robert will usually let her know so she can avoid getting upset. Robert leaves the house to clear his head and when he comes back he finds his world has been turned upside down.

In Silent Graves is a book that, at times, is bizarre, inexplicable, surreal, utterly strange, disgusting and yet ultimately beautiful, with richly detailed characters, and a story which explores the ancient Greek concepts of time. You see, the Greek had two words for time, chronos, referring to chronological or sequential time, and kairos, signifying a time lapse, a moment of indeterminate time in which everything happens.

"As a child I longed for 'Once Upon a Time.'
As an adult I dismissed it.
Now I have no choice but to embrace it."

As confusing as I found In Silent Graves to be, I'm very glad I read this book. I have a feeling it's going to be on my mind for days to come. This is a new, author's preferred version, just released simultaneously by JournalStone publications, in hardback, paperback and e-book editions.

Recommended.

[K.Z. Snow · Rating 2 out of 5]

On page 130, this is said of the protagonist: "He felt as if he'd stepped into the fifth reel of some impenetrably enigmatic foreign art film, one of those profoundly ponderous black-and-white meditation pieces . . ."

Yo, Robert. I felt the same way throughout your story. And honestly, I couldn't come up with an accurate synopsis of it to save my soul.

I bought this book because I was in the mood for a good creep-out. A good one, mind you, not assembly-line slasher fic or some tome a "giant of horror" plagiarized from himself for the 136th time. But this book, in spite of being nearly as loaded with grotesqueries as some of China Mieville's work, isn't a good creep-out. I don't think it knows what it wants to be. A dark fantasy structured around its own tangled mythos? A morality play? Beats me. All I got out of this limp-along reading experience was a simple three-word message: SAVE THE CHILDREN. So if you're a fan of all the delicious nuance in, say, The Little Stranger or The Haunting of Hill House, you'll likely disenjoy (yeah, I made that up; "dislike" doesn't quite convey my reaction) In Silent Graves as much as I did.

From Michael Marano's Introduction (a stridently condescending rant against all popular culture) to the very last page, I found a whole lot of nothin' to relish in this rambling and pretentious novel. Wait, I take that back. Braunbeck is a very good literary stylist; he knows his way around prose. In this day and age, that's saying a lot. However, his worthwhile message would have been better supported and better served by a much leaner, subtler framework. (Sometimes, less is more.) Or, he could've left his "profoundly ponderous" rococo framework intact and dispensed with messages altogether. For me, the two just didn't mesh.

[Ck78 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this novel. It is such a sad, and dark story that feels half horror and half fantasy. Main character Robert Londigran, finally gets a break for a seemingly bright future with a gorgeous wife, Denise, who is pregnant, and these two are very familiar with tragedy after enduring two miscarriages…

All starts to get dark when Robert takes a stroll around the neighborhood around some trick or treaters on Halloween night. 🎃 💀 This is where the dark descent begins and where unreality begins. There is a scene in this book that had my jaw on the floor from is unforgiving, unflinching gore… like 😮…. The grief portrayed through the story is displayed so amazingly well, and Mr. Londigran, goes through a pain inducing metamorphosis. There is quite simply characters, and imagery from this book that I will never forget, I still don’t know if that’s good or bad. But I’ll take it as a good thing I need more of author Gary A. Braunbeck, in my life. 💀💀💀

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of the most lyrical, moving novels in the genre of horror, though more accurately, it's probably dark fantasy.

This is the story of a man who has lost everything--his wife, his unborn child, his reason for being. The book follows his attempts to find meaning after hope is lost, to bring back those he loves, and finally, to help those who are still alive and in need of his compassion and grace.

I can't recommend this book enough. If I could give it ten stars, I would, it's that good.

[Martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hardly know where to start, this book was such a mess. You know the worst part about it? There are good ideas here that are poorly executed. The plot reads like a strange cross between Clive Barker's Sacrament (also not recommended) and Richard Matheson's What Dreams May Come. I don't understand the reviewers calling this book literary horror, did we read the same book? The reviews on the book cover also sound like they're from another book, or possibly written by friends of the author. Otherwise, I just can't imagine people saying such positive things.

The story and quality are very disjointed and messy. It goes from wonderfully written in a few parts to run-on sentences, missing words, or wrong words (ex. saying "from" instead of "for") in the rest of the book. There are also quite a few very nasty parts here, so nasty I'm amazed I got through them. For example, the main character holding his dead baby and lovingly massaging inside its chest cavity after it was autopsied and had its organs harvested. Gag.

The dark fantasy aspect of the story really had the potential to shine, so it was frustrating to me how sloppy it became. I was able to finish it just to see if the ending redeemed the story at all. Unfortunately it didn't, and the main character even uncharacteristically commits murder.

If this book sounds good to you from reviews here, it'd be in your best interest to pass it by. I can only imagine it being loved by the most forgiving dark fantasy readers, or maybe big fans of the Leisure Horror books. I think I will be passing most of those by after I finish reading a few I still have on hand. If you'd like to read an excellent fantasy about grief and loss, read Richard Matheson's What Dreams May Come instead. Or if dark imaginative horror appeals to you, pick up one of the great Clive Barker fantasies like Weaveworld, The Great and Secret Show, Coldheart Canyon, or even Imajica. Those are so well done that even the nasty parts meld seamlessly with the story.
As far as this book goes, I am unimpressed and most likely will not read another of this author's books.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so heartbreakingly amazing. It's sad, it's gorgeous, it's mesmerizing. It introduced me to Braunbeck and made me an instant and loyal fan.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about the grief that a man suffers after losing his loved ones. The texture and depth that Braunbeck gives to this man's emotions reminded me of the stuff that Murakami wove into "Wind-up Bird Chronicle." Here, the fantastic takes more of a front seat, and yes, there are some horrors present, which probably explain why this book appeared under the Leisure Horror imprint a handful of years before that publisher went defunct.

There's more going on here than creatures and creeps. In fact, though Braunbeck adds some acute doses of frightful weirdness, these elements peel away in the latter half of the book to reveal a mythological landscape that casts the main character's plight onto a larger stage. Really, I have trouble calling this a "horror" book at all, insofar as those tropes that it peddles turn out to be prestidigitation that keeps the larger truths well hidden until Braunbeck is ready to reveal them.

This book surprised the hell out of me: rather than going for scares, Braunbeck shows the way to a hopeful and rather romantic alternative to the big sleep that threatens all mortals. I found his premise moving, and I enjoyed the road to this tempting fiction.

[William M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Silent Graves is a sad and darkly macabre tale of regret, isolation, and the spirit of the human heart. Needless to say, it's not your typical horror novel. This is my first time reading Gary Braunbeck's work, and it won't be the last. Every page of this novel is so utterly original that other authors should be embarrassed. Mr. Braunbeck has definitely raised the bar in the field of dark fiction... notice I didn't say horror fiction. The scare factor wasn't quite there, but I still loved the ride he took me on. Mr. Braunbeck obviously put a lot of effort into this book and it was well worth it. I am a fan for life.

[Christopher Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

One moment, Robert Londrigan is a rising-star newscaster, devoted husband, and expectant father; the next, he's a widower in a morgue, staring at gaping holes in his daughter’s body where surgeons have harvested every useful scrap of her organs and tissue. The rock-bottom falls out from under his life when a disfigured man knocks Robert out and steals what’s left of her tiny corpse out from under his nose, and leaves a gruesome surprise waiting for him back home.

Robert’s search for the disfigured man leads him through a rapidly-fragmenting reality into a chiaroscuro world and the discovery that neither his wife nor his daughter are who he thought they were.

Gary A. Braunbeck’s work has earned, 7 Bram Stoker Awards, an International Horror Guild Award, 3 Shocker Awards, a Black Quill Award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gary Braunbeck may have just become one of my favorite authors.

This is one heck of a story. It follows Robert Londrigan, a TV journalist, who loses his wife and daughter in childbirth. What follows is a nightmarish odyssey as his world slips into the surreal and grotesque.

This premise reminded me of a novel I read a long time ago, called
Fear, by L. Ron Hubbard. I didn't much care for it. I find some stories that involve alternate planes of existence get way too out there, to the
point were I'm left confused, and I'm resenting the author, who started
out with a good thing, and ends up with something so outrageous that
all it resembles is a writer who's trying too hard.

I'm a tough critic, though, because these aren't the type of stories
that usually turn my crank (Clive Barker's brilliant Imajica excepted). In fact, I didn't even know where this story was going to go, as I selected this based on a Pod of Horror podcast where they were imploring readers to read this guy.

Well. In Braunbeck's hands, I was totally wrapped up in this tale. In Silent Graves does get "out there", but at no time did I feel I was thrown into the state of mind where things stopped making sense. Braunbeck engages the reader by making this a multilayered story. There are stories within stories, and eventually these layers reveal an understanding to the whole.
This made the novel seem to be a very fast read.

There was one break I had to take where I stared off into space to
get the whole story straight, and once everything fell into place, well,
it was pretty friggin cool. And a story this layered didn't take 800 pages to get the point across. I love that.

Beware, though, that this is a horror novel, and some pretty gross things happen. That will throw off a lot of readers, and that's too bad. This guy is really good, and he deserves a wider audience.

[Doseofbella · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Silent Graves (ebook)
By: Gary A. Braunbeck
Copy Courtesy of Librarything Early Reviewers
Reviewed By: tk

Robert A. Londrigan is a 38 years old, an ace reporter, and has just had an argument with his pregnant wife. Like some men Robert decides to take a walk to cool off. Feeling miserable he finds a park bench to take a few moments to regroup and go back home to make up. He arrives to find something terrible has happened. His wife is unconscious and bleeding…the worst possible thing to happen is losing his wife and unborn child. That is until he realizes someone has stolen is daughter body from the morgue…

Incredible read! Braunbeck creates an extraordinary cutting edge thriller.

I am having a hard time with the review because I don’t want to give up anything. I want you to reach in with both hands and hold tight! It will pull your heart strings and cause you to have faith in the unbelievable. It might even make you laugh out loud with Braunbeck’s unique humor. If you believe in everything happens for a reason there may be a silver lining…Or it could be a product of a nightmare.

5/5

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Londrigan has a great reputation as a newscaster. He has a beautiful wife Denise, with a baby on the way. Denise and Robert have a terrible argument and Robert storms out of the house. Robert, goes to a near by park where he can cool off. When he returns to their home, he discovers that Denise has collapsed on the floor and was bleeding. Both his wife and his unborn child die. Robert discovers that someone has stolen the body of his unborn child from the morgue. Robert, will find out about dark secrets about the living and the dead. The secrets are not only in his world but in the world beyond. Braunbeck, reaches out beyond the grave, with many interesting twist and turns, to make this a very enjoyable read. I highly recommend this book!

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every once in awhile, I read a book and it leaves me speechless. Hey, it’s rare, but it happens. Written with brutal honesty and a pain that runs so deep, it reveals a part of the author that incites both revulsion and hope. Within this book will you not only find agony, suffering and a horror so unspeakable it’s never breathed out loud, but also interlaced in these pages you find emotions so intense and powerful, it leaves you thunderstruck. Is he horror’s best-kept secret? Maybe. Is he the future of Horror? Definitely.

On to business, shall we? The plot was well developed, unique and exceptionally clever. Taking a story so commonly over-looked, Braunbeck adds a cup of terror, a pinch of the supernatural and a spoonful of spirituality with ease. Though it seems the writer chose the pace in the book to be deliberately slow, it soon begins to grate and annoy. The atmosphere is mournful and depressing, only occasionally letting up for those brief moments of humor; they are few and far between. For this I suggest removing any and all phones in your house should you get nostalgic and phone ex-boyfriend/girlfriends.

Written realistically, with flaws and distinctive aspects, the characters actually seem to be materializing right in front of you as you read. They style of writing is graceful, direct and cultivated. Now, I like pop culture right along with the next guy, but I felt Braunbeck took too many liberties in their usage. Also, the editing needed another once over.

Now, before I go, I must take this moment to say, “Amen” to Michael Marano. With an introduction to the book, he grants us a rant about one of the few truths of Horror publications today that most readers ignore and half of the authors today dismiss. Preaching what we-the fans have been saying for years, "That although there are more horror novels today, they have moved away from the thrill of the intellectual scare, choosing instead to dish out what the big corporations think we want and passing it off without a second thought." Amen!

My rating? I give this book a 3 . Although the story was a gem, the flaws were too many, downgrading this book to a cubic zirconia.

-As reviewed for Horror-Web.com

[Mark Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy crap this book is awesome..! Gary A. Braunbeck, where have you been all my life..? In Silent Graves is a rare example of what a horror book should be at it's best, and a guide for would be horror authors to strive for... Descriptive, disturbing, characters you feel for, root for even, this story builds like a snowball rolling downhill until it reaches the bottom of the valley and smashes the village to bits... Really well done....the hunt is on for more Braunbeck stories...

[Ravenskya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't able to finish this... too much time jumping, dream scenes, stories, halucinations, and too little actual story or sense made. I only had 50 pages left and just couldn't force myself to finish it. Editing was terrible as well - Run-ons, bad grammar, etc.

[Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes. I know it's horror, but damn, this was some unsavoury shit. It's ambitious, I guess, but if you're a less-is-more type of horror lover you'll want to pass. As for the plot, I wouldn't know how to explain it. It's insane. I need to lie down.

[Hugo · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it has a lot going for it, this book is a complete mess.

Braunbeck has written, at heart, a very affecting book about loss and bereavement, but the excessive horror undermines much of what should be sensitive work, but which descends into gross-out far too easily. (I've been reading horror - from the lyrical to the grotesque - for 35 years, so I've certainly seen it all, but the scene in the morgue will be hard to stomach for many people.) Adding to this detraction, the protagonist spends much of the first third of the book flailing uselessly - this may be realistic, as far as it goes, but it's a terrible slog to get through as a reader, especially when the presumed antagonist becomes a partner and excuses his previous actions with a flip comment that infuriates more than explains.

The second half of the book seems pathetically indebted to the sharp and incisive work of Jonathan Carroll, a sentiment and style utterly at odds with the rest of the laborious horror that has come before.

Unbelievably - as I had persevered with this book because of its glowing reviews, despite my almost complete lack of interest or enjoyment - Braunbeck somehow managed, in the final pages, to pull off a scene with such uncloying sentiment and heartfelt emotion that I finished In Silent Graves with an honest and unexpected tear in my eye. Really still not sure how that happened.

[MB · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read all the great reviews. They apply to the first half of the book.

SPOILER ALERT!

The second half of the book comes together in a clash on unbelievable circumstances, dumb luck and grim images that will sear themselves onto your brain.

Let me just say this: the main character awakens to find he's making love to someone. When he opens his eyes, the person is alternately his dead wife, a woman he just met, and his dead daughter.

That's not the biggest part of my objection. The character isn't the least bit skeeved out by it.

Because it's ok to have violent sex with a variety of women as long as you shout out "PROTECT THE CHILDREN. WE MUST PROTECT ALL THE CHILDREN." Because championing a cause like that makes any sort of behavior acceptable.

The beginning was eerie and well written. The second half, I had to keep checking to make sure I hadn't picked up the wrong book by mistake.

I do not understand how this book maybe it onto anyone's list of top horror novels.

[Jerrod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, dark and thought provoking. Braunbeck slowly twists the readers point of view to see from the 'villians' side of the story. And by the end, well, lets just say that the ending was worth the full cost of the book. If you can find a copy of this book, buy it, it's worth every penny.

*EDIT*
Discovered this book was released in paperback as In Silent Graves, don't worry, it's the only Braunbeck book to be released with a different name.

[James Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very emotionally sad, graphic at times, Twilight Zone-ish story dealing with love, loss, and the desire to know why.

[Zoey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now wth was this... I went into this book thinking it would be a whimsical, fantasy, type mysterious book but was left with an eerie, disgusting, vulgar, gory, outlandish, dark fantasy, sci-fi horror mess of a book. I honestly felt like I kept reading it because I was curious, how would a book like this turn out, where was this heading, because quite frankly it was all over the place. I don't know how someone could think of a story like this. It was just gross. I'm left wondering, why? What was the point? It's a very confusing story. This was by far the strangest book I've ever read.

[Ash · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let's preface this review with the fact that I read...A LOT. Also, while I read many different genres, horror is one of my favorites. So many people don't realize that horror holds some of the most amazing writing, because it's based on making you feel SOMETHING. I do not get grossed out easily (Chuck Palahniuk, one of the few authors who can achieve such a feat. Seriously, what was that guy's childhood like?!). So, these are not reasons for me to dislike this book. Onto reasons to dislike this book...

Let's start with the writing style. As has been aforementioned in other reviews, there are some good prose here. The issue? There's too much contemplation, reiterating contemplations we had already been over time and again. The protagonist is wallowing, and yes, this is very realistic in light of what has just happened to him, but it should have been written in a way that moves the story along. Don't trap the reader in said wallowing. Hell, he's wallowing even BEFORE his wife dies.

Speaking of the protagonist, I could not bring myself care about the man. I should have been enthralled with this story. A hint of magic, a spouse's death just after a fight, the setting eerie, what's not to love? Instead, even when something "interesting" was happening, I was staving off yawns and the occasional eye roll. Usually the eye roll was due to clunky dialogue, and characterizations that just didn't make sense. For instance, the doctor who told our protagonist that his wife had died. He had this obnoxious "don't-ask-questions" mentality (even as he was doing the protagonist a favor) that could only be explained by the fact that the author was trying to keep the reader in suspense, and didn't want to answer questions too soon...it didn't work. I knew what was going to happen, before it happened, regardless of whether or not the doctor told him where they were going.

Onto grotesqueness. As I said before, I don't get grossed out easily, this story was no different. I was never really "grossed out", but I have a tendency to sneer a bit when an author writes in grotesqueries just because; which seemed to be the case here. It was like the author realized things were getting boring, so, "ope, better put something gross here." I think this may have been a better supernatural type thriller than a horror, without the nonsensical nastiness in certain scenes. I'll try not to add a spoiler and simply say:

What you did in the morgue...really? And there was no thought at any point that you just might be going crazy? Come on, you're a smart man, none of this makes you think you just might be committable?

In the end, what really made me rate this book a whopping one star, was that I felt nothing while reading it. I should have, considering its plot, but I didn't. I HAVE to feel SOMETHING while reading a book like this, or the endeavor was completely pointless.

I feel the need to bring my point home, by telling you where I was when forced to read this. I was stuck in Les Schwab for a good four hours, waiting for my snow tires to be put on. So bored with this book was I, that I had to take breaks and look out the window in order to fight off sleep. If only I had stuck another book into my purse before getting out of the car, it would have been a much more productive four hours.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Robert Londrigan has a promising career as TV anchorman on a midwestern local station. His wife, Denise, is pregnant, although she has already lost two children to miscarriages. This time she has made it into her sixth month. On Halloween night, a quarrel sends Londrigan out of the house, where his enjoyment of the parade of trick-or-treaters is interrupted by disturbing encounters with a old woman who merely watches him strangely and kid in a grotesque mask who accepts Londrigan's compliment by saying, "Go fuck yourself, Willie." When Londrigan returns home, Denise is losing the child. Both she and the fetus, in a visceral, horrible scene, die at hospital. While Londrigan is alone with the two corpses, the boy in what Londrigan still thinks is a mask appears, knocks him unconscious, and steals his fetal daughter's autopsied corpse.

Braunbeck has a complex story to spin for his readers. Londrigan will spend the next three hundred plus pages encountering a world parallel to our own, one populated by damaged children guarded by eternal beings, but in danger of contamination by the incursion of our everyday reality. He will also finds that he has an involvement in this alternate world he never dreamed and certainly never asked for. He will face some terrifying moments, and some rote scary bits, and come to understand much about grief, commitment, and love.

But in his first novel, originally published in 2000 as The Indifference of Heaven, Braunbeck doesn't have the narrative skills to pull all this off. Visions of this alternate world begin to come at predictable moments and take a standard form. He pesters his sentences with lists of adjectives and participial phrases that rather than adding nuance just make you wish he would make up his mind. His pop cultural references tend to fall flat. When in the alternate reality of Chiaroscuro, characters often tell stories, and the language of those stories does not lift the narrative into a different realm they way they should. They, like the book itself, go on too long. (Full disclosure: I skimmed about 100 pages in the middle of the novel.)

Braunbeck comes into his own in the final section of the story. The ending balances gory imagery with Londrigan's final acceptance of who he is and whom he has loved all his life. I felt he should have gotten their about a hundred pages sooner.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Londrigan leaves to cool off after him and his pregnant wife, Denise, get in an argument. While he out strange things start to happen to him and he wonders if he is hallucinating. When he returns home he finds her in very bad health, she dies at hospital. She had been pregnant with a daughter. While viewing their bodies, Robert is attacked and the body of his daughter is stolen. The doctor patches him up and the police promise to look for his attacker and find out what has become of his daughter's corpse. After he returns home things get weird again. Is he hallucinating or is what he is seeing really there? I would love to get into more detail about his hallucinations but I can't without giving things away.

This is not the first book I have read by this author, but it is by far the most complex and imaginative. This is a unique dark fantasy/horror book that I can compare to nothing I have ever read. You know the famous quote from the movie Shrek 'Ogres are like onions.'? Well this book is like an onion, it has layers. This is a book about grief, crime, true love, mythology, faith, consequence, and I could go on and on. The story dips in and out of our world entering alternate dimensions.

This is not a book you read to pass time. If you decide to read this make sure you can do so with undivided attention. This isn't something you can pick up, then set it down and come back to it later, it's too complex for leisure reading. (Side Note: Don't read it at home alone while your husband and kids are camping either...FREAKY!)

My reaction after finishing this book: At first I just sat in my chair trying to process all that I had read. THAT WAS EFFING AWESOME! I want to run up and down my street shouting praise for this book. I want to buy a copy of for everybody I know and give it to them as a birthday gift and forcefully make them read it (no way in hell am I loaning anybody my copy of it...MINE! MINE! MINE! DON'T TOUCH!).

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't recall the last time I started a book and simply couldn't finish it, but here I am, having finally decided to put this book aside a little over 50% of the way through. I love all the genres this book fits into -- fantasy, horror, psychological thrillers...so I should have been enthralled, particularly by the halfway point. I think the prose was lyrical and the quality of the writing quite good. But what was I reading? Was Robert's bizarre experience in the park at the beginning of the story supernatural, and was it somehow the catalyst for his wife's sudden miscarriage and death? And was this the beginning of some sort of sadistic haunting? Or was his experience in the park some sort of mental break, but, if that were so, was his wife's miscarriage and death a coincidence? And was everything that began to happen thereafter psychosis? Surely someone didn't actually steal his stillborn baby just after beating him to a pulp in the hospital morgue... And the parade of characters that followed were what exactly?

Perhaps this is a metaphorical psychological thriller that I just ran out of patience with after being a bit too thick to comprehend the plot. I'm aware that is probably the case here, which is why I persevered for so long. Whatever the case, I simply didn't have faith that it would turn out to be worth the time and effort. The story was very dark and depressing, not scary or fantastic. And I didn't care nearly enough to find it thrilling. But I hope it all worked out for Robert in the end although I'm fairly certain it didn't.

I received this book in exchange for a fair review. I did my best.

[Aaron Ramson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't honestly say I've read the whole thing because I haven't. About 197 pages in I just threw in the towel and called it a loss. A mental tax write off. About 2 hours of my life that i'd never get back and I'd just have to eat the cost on. I first came across Braunbeck in an anthology called "Robert Bloch's Psychos". Braunbeck wrote a short story called "Safe" that was as disturbing and emotionally taxing a story as I had ever read. I think I actually wept, it was so sorrowful. I ordered "In Silent Graves" off of amazon, based on the rave reader reviews it was getting. Maybe I was expecting too much, but "Graves" holds none of the impact for me that "Safe" did. Rambling and not fully realized, this story comes across like a first draft that his editor never bothered to read, and the worst thing I have to say about it is that it seems, I dunno, amateurish. The dialogue is so melodramatic and forced in some places, I felt a little embarrassed at reading it. It's a very strange feeling. The story did nothing to draw me in and the whole thing seemed "staged"; not very plausable. And this is coming from a guy who loves fantasy. I kept waiting for the payoff and it never came, so I quit about 2/3 of the way through. Hope this review doesn't upset any fans, it just wasn't enough to keep me going.k