White Silence (Elizabeth Cage, #1)

by Jodi Taylor

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

4.75★ Audiobook⎮White Silence was an amazing listen that I almost didn’t hear. I picked it up during a recent Audible 3-for-2 sale as a sort of “throwaway” book. I had already picked out two books that I really wanted but I needed to find a third in order to take advantage of the sale. I quickly read the synopsis for White Silence and listened to a bit of the sample before deciding that it sounded interesting enough to be my third selection.

It wasn’t until after I had already begun listening that I realized this book was authored by Jodi Taylor. I have nothing against Jodi Taylor, personally. But my one and only previous experience with her work was less than stellar. I tried listening to her St. Mary’s series last year and did not love it, to say the least. If I had noticed her name on the cover of White Silence, I’m almost certain I wouldn’t have gone through with the purchase out of fear of repeating my previous experience.

However, I’m so glad I went ahead with it. I absolutely adored White Silence. In my opinion, the writing and structure of the story were miles above anything I heard in St. Mary’s. Honestly, if I didn’t know that they were by the same author, I would not believe it. White Silence was incredibly well put together. It was inventive and original, all the while being extremely easy to follow. And, my god, was it creepy. Oh, and there was a bit of time travel too. White Silence was damn near close to being the perfect paranormal tale.

My favorite thing about White Silence was that Taylor didn’t take the easy way out. There were no witches, werewolves, vampires, or fairies. Pick up a paranormal title and odds are you will find at least one of those things included. Taylor designed her own type of paranormal character and made it work. I’m also usually pretty tired of the “Evil scientist/Corporation conspiracy” angle (à la Replica), but I’ll be damned if Taylor didn’t freshen that up as well.

My second favorite thing about White Silence was how Taylor broke up the larger story arc into approximately three semi-separate smaller arcs. One flowed easily into the next, but each felt somewhat succinct, like an episode of a TV series. I’ve seen got done with series installments, but never within a single installment. Again, it just worked.

Hearing White Silence has taught me a huge lesson about preconceived notions. I almost missed out on a great listening experience because of a previous encounter with the same author. It was still a risk, but I’m happy to report that this one more than paid off. I will absolutely be continuing on with the Elizabeth Cage series. In fact, I’d like it now please! In the meantime, I’m even considering checking out some of Taylor’s other works, or {gasp!} possibly giving the St. Mary’s series another go…

Narration review: Kate Scarfe appears to be a newcomer on the narration scene, as this is her only listed title on Audible. After this experience, I am hoping she comes out with more titles soon! I would love to hear from her again. I much preferred the narration of this title over that of the St. Mary’s series. Scarfe did everything perfectly, as far as I’m concerned. I was very pleased with her performance. ♣︎