I had high expectations towards this book due to both the good reviews then the introduction and I was sorely let down.
I may be in the minority here, but I have never cared for books that detail dreams in a long drawn-out fashion, and this one resembled that sort of thing only it seemed to me that the narrator Robert was outright hallucinating rather than dreaming.
The story begins Halloween night when Roberts' pregnant wife
dies unexpectedly and the unborn child is stolen from the morgue. Robert's grief is very real and heartfelt to the core so I cannot claim it to be lacking true emotion.
Thereafter, the story, for me, loses any sense of footing on solid ground, all the while being related from Robert's point of view.
I suppose it matters if the reader views it as hallucinations, as I did, or off-the-wall reality that really makes the difference.
The grotesque individuals Robert meets in Pied-Piperville seemed to me about as comprehensible as the sun turning purple.
I continued to read the book in hopes of finding a logical outcome. I wanted to have a grasp of what was really happening, yet going through Robert's overly bizarre experiences and encounters left me empty and unbelieving.
I never did find a satisfying twist or reasonable explanation.
While being a well-written book full of emotion, grief, and feelings of loss and longing, it's overall premise was too fantastical for me. It did noy cause me to think deeply, ponder, or delve into the deeper places within as mentioned in the introduction.

Just finished the leisure edition of this novel, I blew through it and that can only be a indication of Braunbeck's storytelling skills.

I was made a fan of Gary Braunbeck in LA at last years Bram Stoker awards weekend. He did a reading of his zombie short story `We now pause for station identification'. His performance was so strong that I was moved (even though I was broke and promised myself not to spend anymore money) bought in silent graves to have him sign it. Gary being a swell dude he gave my wife and I a copy of the story chapbook. Thanks again!

The novel is the story of news reporter Robert Londrigan, his life falls apart when his wife who is six months pregnant dies and gives still birth to their child. This is a husband's nightmare and the vividness of the grief is so strong it makes me wonder who the author has lost in his life that makes these elements of the book so real, so strong.

The back of the book gives a vague description of the plot for good reason and indeed to much in the way of spoilers is something I would like to avoid. Robert's journey in the book doesn't seem like the seeds of an epic journey but in the end epic is what you get. In the hands of a less skilled story teller the main character's decent into madness could have been cheesy. Instead you are left wondering(in a good way) what the hell is going on for a long time.

Braunbeck is a horror writer of superior quality, in this novel there are elements that show an understanding of what makes the field's two most successful writers different and so successful. What makes Clive Barker so popular has a lot to do with his ability to create dark and fantastic worlds that are beyond the limits of conventional horror. Epic fantastic worlds which exist in dark mirror of the worlds in children's fantasy novels. Stephen King on the other hand is popular because his characters are rich, believable and you can tell on the page he CARES about his subjects. In turn we care.

This is not to say that Braunbeck doesn't have his own style, but he effortlessly creates a story that marries the elements of the world's most popular authors of dark fiction spinning them into it's own unique nightmare. This is novel that will mean more to those horror fans that are older, married and who fear losing their partners. If there is any weakness that maybe the one. Some people have complained that some chapters feel like padding, that may be true but I was very happy to read this book.

Read it.

I've been reading since I was a tiny girl of 3 years, and I've been in love with books ever since. But in the 33 years since opening my first book, I've never read anything like In Silent Graves. I first found this book about two years ago, and assumed I'd be getting the average, general horror novel when I picked it up. But when I curled up to read it, I couldn't stop, and finished the entire thing in one sitting. I emerged from the book with tears in my eyes, a rapid-beating heart full of fear, horror, faith and questions, and my life was never the same again. Gary Braunbeck took my world and shook it like a snowglobe, then put me back down again; only when I landed it wasn't on solid ground but on some invisible, ever-changing mass that I was unable to recognize or describe.

Even now, just thinking about this book gives me chills and stirs my heart. It's so full of every emotion that it goes way beyond just being a horror novel. Certainly it scared me, but it also touched me deeply, AND filled me with joy and hope at the very same time. There's no easy way to describe this book, and so I'm not even going to try. I'll just say that it is one of the best, if not THE best book I've ever read, and anyone who wants to be shaken at their core will find In Silent Graves and read it...immediately.

In a genre stocked full of average plots and average writers comes a guy who throws down the biggest monkey wrench one could ever imagine. Everything comes to a stop. His name is Gary Braunbeck and he just "kicked it up" a notch or four. "In Silent Graves" was absolutely amazing. I'm still thinking of that damn book today - and it's been six months since I finished it! Please do your mind a favor and read this book.

A bit on the philosophic side, but an interesting take on the Pied Piper tale. Robert Londrigan has just lost his wife and new born baby and is terribly depressed, as you can imagine. Then he delves into a mystery about who his wife really was, and just what she has to do with a bunch of deformed babies and children. Along the way he meets a strange scared man who assaults him wtice and then asks Robert for help. I can't say anymore than that because it would ruin the suprise and the rest of the plot. I really injoyed the book, it was more dark fantasy than out right horror. It makes use of some fairy tales that, while made up from scratch, has more in common with The Brothers Grimm than most Disney movies. It was also a pretty sad idea, "In Silent Graves" meditates long and often on suffering and pain, sepecially the pain of children. So it can be pretty hard to take sometimes. Also sometimes I wish that it would have gotten to the point a little faster. But it is one of the more original books I have read in a while, so I can forgive minor stuff like that. It is worth your time, I promise.