This sci-fi/horror follows a salvage crew as they receive a distress call from a ghost ship. The Aurora is a luxury space ship that vanished more than 20 years prior. Now, Claire Kovalik and her crew pick up a distress call and go investigate, thinking they could win a bounty for finding the lost ship. Once they are on the Aurora, they quickly realize something on the ship is very wrong. And when her crew start showing symptoms of whatever killed the initial passengers, Claire must figure out what happened before her crew meets the same fate.
TW/CW: suicide, death of a parent
This was an absolutely fantastic read that 1000% paid off on the premise. I had a very specific idea of what I wanted from the story going in and this hit every single point I was hoping it would. It mixed the best parts of the movie Ghost Ship and the Firefly episode Bushwhacked perfectly together. I highly recommend this and it is in the running for a favorite read of this year.
The unreliable narrator aspect was spectacular. The book opens with Claire trying to explain what happened on the Aurora but we know that she can't always separate true memories from hallucinations. As we flashback in time to the events both on the Aurora and earlier in Claire's life, we see her have this same struggle of sometimes not knowing what is real. I really enjoyed the slight twist on the unreliable narrator trope where Claire knows her memory can be unreliable. This isn't one of those times where being unreliable is the twist, it is part of the puzzle right from the beginning.
Claire is such a complex and interesting character and we really see her go through a significant change through the events of the story. We get to know the other characters a bit as well and I really found them all to have really unique voices. They all have a ton of personality and defined roles both on the crew and interpersonally. In a different world, I would love to read a series of mystery/adventures of this crew getting up to shenanigans in space. These are characters who have worked together for quite some time in very close quarters and Barnes does a great job of quickly establishing their relationships since the reader is dropped in right at the end of a months-long trip.
The horror elements are fantastic and range from creepy to gory. There were times where I could feel my anxiety rising, especially when the crew is exploring the Aurora. There are so many great horror details in this book but I don't want to spoil anything. Barnes does a great job of really walking the reader through each detail of the scenes in order to really make an impact. We also get enough character build up for our crew that when it is their turn in the horror, it made me a bit emotional. There's a great blend of physical and psychological horror that really kept the tension high - just because a character was safe from one, doesn't mean they're safe from the other.
There was a definite pacing change between the first and second half of the book that was a little jarring at first, but looking back, I think it was the right call. I didn't expect the second half at all since none of those plot points were mentioned in the book description. At first, I was a little worried that the second half would end up being repetitive but I think that's where the faster pacing really helped push thought a lot of those repeat moments. I do wish we had more of a gradual come-down at the end but at least we do get a bit of an epilogue.
Overall, I absolutely loved this read and if the cover wording "A ghost ship, a salvage crew, unspeakable horrors" intrigues you, then I highly recommend picking this up.
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