Imagine
being in a plane crash. After surviving such a horrible
fate, you manage to somehow cheat death. The "living
dead" from your past are coming to get you because
it is "your time to go." Is it better to be dead
than to live through hell on earth? This is the premise
of the new psychological thriller, Quietus, by Vivian
Schilling.
According
to Webster's Dictionary, "Quietus" literally means
a "release from life; death." According to this book,
it encompasses the final moment before you die. The moment when
your whole life passes before your eyes. I rarely write reviews
of what I would classify as a "disturbing" novel.
This book, however, is well written, intelligent, and really
gives the reader a lot to think about, albeit the subject might
seem a little grim.
Kylie O'Rourke is a well-established interior designer living
the good life in Boston. She, her husband and business partner
Jack, and friends Amelia and Dix, are on a wonderful weekend
getaway. On their way back home, their plane crashes into
the White Mountains of New Hampshire. All four of these
lifelong friends survive this terrible crash. Rescuers discover
the survivors trapped inside the plane, but Kylie recalls
something different.
It
all starts when she sees a raven on the wing of the plane,
just before it crashes. She then remembers being stranded
on a mountainside, in a cabin, where the birds and the deceased
people from her past come to take her away. As she's having
this strange "dream," a wilderness fellow happens
upon the plane and saves all of the passengers. Kylie never
gets to "reach the light."
When she wakes from her coma weeks later, she remembers
everything that happened on the mountainside, but none of
the other passengers have the same recollection. Psychologists
think she is making up the story, since there was no way
she could have been outside the plane after the crash. They
diagnose her with post-traumatic stress disorder, and send
her on her way home to recuperate. The tragedy, however,
continues to plague her.
The
raven "with the human eyes" is always watching;
she believes she is being followed by "the people from
the mountain"; and people close to her begin to die.
This book is a mystery, suspense, and an education rolled
into one. There are sections of the novel that go into a
thorough explanation of medicine, psychology, and religion,
which make it rich and intellectual. There is good reason
for this. The author was in a terrible car crash many years
ago in which she should have been killed. Instead, she had
a "near death experience" (NDE). Since then, she
has devoted her time to studying all of the elements of
NDE's and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her research is
valid and invaluable to this thriller.
Anyone who wants to branch out from their normal genre of
reading should read this book. It will take a while to get
through the 500-plus pages, but will definitely be worth
your time!
