QUIETUS

Quietus
by Vivian Schilling
Paperback $14.00
Penguin Books 2003
ISBN 0 14 20.0305 9
Hannover House 2002
ISBN 0-9637846-1-7


How would you feel if you almost died, but lived? The average person would be very relieved and thankful for this gift. However, what if you had really cheated death and now death was chasing you? The fear in Quietus is based on this idea.

Kylie O’Rourke with her husband Jack and her best friend, Amelia and her husband are being treated to a ski vacation. On returning from this trip, the plane crashes into the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Only five people survive this crash, which includes Kylie and her friends. As Kylie recuperates in the hospital, she finds that her memories of the rescue are completely different from the other survivors. Her doctor explains that the difference is due to the morphine administered to her. Kylie though finds herself in a reality between this world and another, though we don’t know what exactly the other world is or who or what inhabits the other world.

The other survivors attempt to be understanding to Kylie, but also are recuperating physically and mentally from the guilt of being alive. Most dramatically is the distance this places between Kylie and her husband. Both need support and reassurances from each other and both are fearful and guilt ridden about their own individual needs.

What makes things worse for Kylie is that now she is being followed by her past! As a child, Kylie witnessed the murder of her teacher. Now the murderer, who was executed, is now following her in order to take Kylie to her death. To make this worse, no one sees him except for Kylie.

Whether the place in this book is strictly fictional, purgatory, heaven, or hell, the fear embracing the reader is real and I found myself never being concerned with the length of the book. The book actually engulfed my mind.

Quietus in the dictionary means: a silencing of a rumor, anything that kills as in a blow, or a final discharge as a debt. So evidently then, Quietus is the moment of death or the transition from life to another form. The fear comes when the form is known and waiting.

This book is beyond being a page-turner, it actually haunts the reader while you are reading it and afterwards. I found myself staying awake during the night due to the fear from this book. Chilling? Oh yes. Believable? Well, I wouldn’t have thought so, but Quietus made me look over my shoulder and had me thinking about the characters and my own vulnerability in this world long after reading the book.

The scariest type of supernatural is one that could be true and is logically true to the person. Before reading Quietus, I would never have believed that this book could even be written, much less believed. Now, I’m wondering. That is the sign of an exceptional writing experience, one that leaves you thinking.

This is the second published book by Vivian Schilling. Besides being a novelist, she is a screenwriter and a movie actress. After reading Quietus, I would highly suggest that she spend her time completely as a novelist. (I’m actually going to buy her first book also and though I can’t imagine it being near to the quality of Quietus.)