"Hank had also heard a fallen angel's wing scars were his Achilles' heel. In this, the rumors appeared to be true."
I like Silence a lot more than I like the other books in the Hush, Hush series.
Before I get into what I enjoyed about Silence or what didn't bother me as much, I want to deal with the worst thing about Silence, Nora Grey.
In Silence, Nora is affected by amnesia. She has no memory of the last five months of her life. I thought that because of this Nora's personality would improve, but I was dead wrong. Nora whines, shouts at her mother for no reason and transfers blame onto other people. I understand that Nora would be irritable due to the fact that a part of her memory has disappeared, but it was just too much. Too much of Nora's anger, whining and self-pity! Nora's feeling towards her amnesia would have worked if it was done in small doses. Instead, it quickly got old and annoying.
I also thought Nora would be less trustworthy and more suspicious, but she still ends up trusting people that she's just met and continues doing stupid and dangerous things. Also, the only way she gets out of the dangerous situations that she puts herself in, is by being saved by someone else. The most stupid thing that Nora does in Silence is trying to stop a robbery at 7-Eleven. She doesn't know the full extent of what is going on, such as how many people are in 7-Eleven, who are the criminals, whether they are armed or not, and how many hostages there are. Instead of running away and calling the police, she jumps head first into danger and thinks that she can stop the robbery with nothing but her 'smarts'.
Nora is also very much into girl-on-girl hate. In Hush, Hush and Crescendo this is seen through her confrontations with Marcie (which I can kind of understand) and her negative comments about her best friend, Vee. In Silence, Dabria is Nora's next victim. Dabria makes Nora feel jealous and insecure and the snide comments and confrontations that they have just because they both want to be with Patch is cringy and laughable. I don't understand why Nora can't be friendly with other girls and why other girls in the Hush, Hush series are portrayed negatively in comparison to her.
The Patch that I saw in Silence is the Patch that I wanted to see in Hush, Hush and Crescendo. Patch is mysterious and dangerous and has enough of a bad boy vibe to pull it off, but he also has a vulnerable side. Because Nora has amnesia, we see her falling in love with Patch all over again. When I usually read YA novels, lust or 'puppy love' is made to seem like epic-out-of-this-world love. But, I could believe that the love between Patch and Nora is genuine. His actions towards Nora and the way he treats her and cares for her shows the extent of his love for her. However, just because I like Patch in Silence, doesn't mean that I've forgotten what a jerk he was in Hush, Hush and Crescendo.
Silence is less about finding out who's the bad guy. We know who the bad guy is, but we don't know fully know what his intentions are. Silence focuses more on the impending war between fallen angels and Nephilim, but it's still a side-plot to Patch and Nora's romance. I like the tension and build-up in Silence and I hope that it leads to something explosive in Finale. I also enjoy the fallen angel and Nephilim lore. The angel ranking, the wing scars, devilcraft etc. are things that I've kind-of seen in other fallen angel novels, i.e. the foundations of the lore are similar, but its execution is unique and interesting to read about.
Out of the three books that I've read in the Hush, Hush series, Silence is the one that I enjoy the most. The characters actions actually make sense (well, everyone's actions but Nora's), Patch isn't so terrible and the events that unfold are interesting.
"I had no past, no future. Only a huge void that haunted me." (Nora Grey)