Thank you, NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for this ARC!

CW: abusive relationships, anxiety, gore

Space horror, but aliens aren't the only evil thing aboard…

This was an entertaining read. Different from what I usually pick.

Prepare yourselves for a lot of space lingo, real life situations and real life sh*tty people. Oh, and yes, there's a lot of swearing.

Each crew member is unique and we get to see their true colors. After all, during a crisis, don't we all show them?
At first, it was a bit confusing for me to figure out who the main character was. None? All of them? Then it was clear. (Note: The blurb mentions her, but I read it just once and had forgotten most of it by the time I picked up the book.)

There are snippets of the past all throughout the book and they provide a clearer picture of the present situation and why some characters behave the way they do.

I must say the story is quite dramatic and has eye-rolling moments pretty often.

Last but not least, I know this is an ARC, but I urge you, Flame Tree Press, to take a second, third and even fourth look at the Spanish used here (grammar and spelling). Better if it is through the eyes of a native speaker (I volunteer!).

Spoilers: I wanted an explanation for the rash.

This was a really fun and well paced horror-in-a-spaceship read that really puts an emphasis on the type of monster that abuses women and also the women's feelings toward that person. All while surviving a oose deadly alien on the ship. I really enjoyed the reverse-timeline and the characters. Raina made some decisions that i'm sure people wouldn't agree with, but then again she wasn't in her right mind to begin with. The characters each had their own strengths and weaknesses and it really lent itself well to the story. The foreign-biological was a little tired and re-hashed but it played the role well for what it was.
All in all it was a solid read for me and while not entirely unique, i will remember it for being a great started read for those who are super fans of Alien/Predator as well as Lifetime movies.

Thanks for the opportunity to review

I received an advance review copy for free via NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. My sincerest thanks to the publisher and author. :)

This one is a hard one to review for me. It had some very interesting premises but I felt they were poorly executed and not pulled off so well. I really enjoyed the backwards set up of delivery, not sure the official literary term for it, but the author introduces the characters and plot in present day then does flash back chapters to provide back story on said characters. So while the present is getting worse the flashbacks, in general, are getting better. I dug that.

What the author tries to do to set this book apart from being just another Sci-Fi "OMG there's an angry foreign biological aboard!" story is to introduce the interactions of the crew, particularly the main character's ex. So rather than everyone being united to against this threat it actually causes rifts in their dynamics. Which is very cool as an idea. Sadly until the big reveal these human failings were just very annoying to me. Not that I expect perfect characters, quite the opposite. It just wasn't executed well and was too much drama for me until the reveal. I found myself rolling my eyes and going "No one cares" or "Wow, just...wow you are being a complete idiot right now".

After the reveal? Amazing pace and story, Raina comes into her own as this bad ass woman lead much in the vein that Ripley was in the Aliens series. Before that she's troubled sure and makes some horrible decisions but again these decisions didn't feel like lending contrast to her character but rather like she was in middle school with all the stereotypical drama it entails.

A shame that the big reveal happens in literally the last 50 or so pages and to get there was an irritating slog. I would not consider the end, despite its excellence to be worth that slog.

This is the first time I have read anything from this author and I want more!! This book was fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat.

Nonstop action onboard a spaceship! At the end of a two-year mission to gather exotic plant specimens, the main character’s nerves are frayed. She is an inventive junior engineer and this is her first voyage. The problem is that she’s been stuck with a boss who punishes brilliance and an ex-lover who’s playing cat-and-mouse mind games. She just wants the trip to be OVER.

However, a biological hazard gets loose, and our engineering-minded MC must rely on her ingenuity, courage, and physical strength to survive. Between scenes of carnage and mayhem, flashbacks enable us to learn what has lead up to this moment. The story itself moves forward in chronological order, and the flashbacks are revealed in reverse chronology. The book is a very quick read; I couldn’t put the book down until I finished it.

You want gripping action? This delivers nonstop action. Due to the gory violence, this is NOT for the faint of heart.

I will be looking for more books by this author!

Thank you for the sneak peek, NetGalley.

Screams from the Void

[Blurb goes here]

I had a lot of fun reading the novel, although I read it in my own terms. A bit on that later. The writing is superb, loved it. What I have a problem with is one of the characters and first and foremost, the editing. Let me explain:

It's kind of 'à la mode' thing, to start of a TV series in the present, and then, after a few minutes, have a flashback of the main character. After that, is back to the present, and then back to the past, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Well, this novel reads like that. We start in the present, when the crew of an exploratory vessel, collecting life samples in different planets, is in danger. Guts fly through the cabin of the ship, blood spattered in its walls. So far so good. Then a flashback. A good one, no problem. This goes on through out the book, and here is where all starts to go sideways. The flashbacks become repetitive. There's no new information in them either, since most of that information, we already read from situations taking place in the 'present'. The flashbacks seem to be in reverse chronological order.

One of the antagonist is, simply put, a piece of human trash. A real monster of a man. We know he is, since we read it in one of the first flashbacks. Do we really need to know, nearing the end of the book, that he seemed like a genuine good guy, but was a manipulative monster from the beginning? Obviously, we don't. Those flashbacks become repetitive real quick, so yea, I ended up skipping them, making for a more pleasant read.

The main character. Ugh! Dear author, you should have kill this one first. Let me elaborate. She was in a relationship with the 'monster of a man' and has been abused by him physically, time and again. He has a temper and he's the stereotypical wife-beating red neck, only handsome, burly and tall. He has been consistently showing his true colors. Consistently. Other members of the crew know this. At some point she's in real peril, he purposely decreases her chances of survival, she notices. She knows what happened. Still she decides to trust him at every turn, even when he keeps on betraying her at every turn. Her life at risk because of him over and over again. And then come the -by now- infamous flashbacks, describing how sweet he used to be, at first. Nothing like a flashback to justify her putting her life in the hands of the man who was trying to get her killed a few moments earlier, and a few moments before that, and so on.

The creature. All I have to say is this: really?

Yes, I know, after what you read here, me recommending this novel seems hypocritical. Still, I do. I enjoyed the action, the suspense, the horror and the gore. Really enjoyed it. My suggestion would be, read it on your own terms, if you want to have fun.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

This is a good book. I really enjoyed it and how it moved along at a great pace. The characters are well developed and the story is packed with action and adventure. The authors do a great job delivering a story with a solid plot and interesting subplots. Will look forward to the next book in the series to continue to follow the characters. Left the reader with somewhat of a cliffhanger, so hope it won't be too long for the next one!!

Scary in space has always spoken to me as being like Alien in terms of suspense; there is a monster in the dark, and you know its coming.
Tibbets places you on the page with an ominous whisper in you ear; its already here. It’s behind you.
There is no hesitation, no stopping, and no escape aboard the freighter Demeter. The gradual introduction of the crew while unknown havoc explodes (literally) across the ship promises a story of high stakes, and with more than one element of horror.
The main protagonist, Ensign Reina, speaks to many of us as putting up with an awful situation for the “job” until enough is enough. From a boss who constantly degrades her to make up for his own ineptitude (who hasn’t been there?), to a sexy ex who’s bad boy side is way badder than any of us wants, Reina’s got her hands full. But her patience is running out quicker than the crew has members left.
Alongside Reina’s struggle is chief science officer Pollux who’s drive for constant improvement allowed dangerous cargo aboard. Something that’s hidden among the greenery of her collection of alien plant life to bring back to Earth. And when it bursts out of those early pages of the book, I wondered for the briefest moments if this fluffy critter wasn’t totally misunderstood.
Cue gore.
There are visceral moments of this book I won’t be able to scrub off my mind imagining. I’m not a big fan of bloody scenes, my empathy/imagination can’t hack it, but while the body count triggered my gross meter, it wasn’t the only vileness on the ship.
SPOILERS:
There is an alien on board. Its going to kill them all, and have I mentioned yet, that laser fire can’t kill it? Forget running out of ammo, throwing it out the airlock, or just plain wrestling it to death, lets start with the fact its invisible. You can’t see the damn thing. Pollux bought an invisible death machine on board and now she’s got to get rid of it.
Pollux’s zero BS attitude and Reina’s adaptability on a very dysfunctional ship give a hope that vanishes as quickly as the pace advances. Separated early on, the two differing viewpoints each add their own aspect of terror. Reina, side by side with her abusive ex, and Pollux, fighting off a debilitating rash that’s slowly stealing her thoughts.
For all their ingenuity, their struggle paints a horrible picture of how very f***ed they all are. And this was my one contention with the book. There were a couple of scenes were there was an over emphasis of the fact they had zero chance, but once that was done, I got on with seeing exactly how they were going to get out of it.
Because as much as you’re wondering what they’re going to do about this creature, it was only a part of the stakes. Reina’s ex Morven isn’t so much her ex as the guy from her past she can’t escape; from falling in love with, from still loving despite all he’s done, let alone what he’s about to do.
The two intertwining threads of Reina’s personal demons vs the actual one roaming the ship weave a tangled terrified stream through the story. How you can be mentally trapped, as well as physically, and the emotional turmoil trying to extract from that situation. Reina spoke to a part of me that has cringed when a man raises his voice.
Tibbets proves there’s more than one way to scare a reader and I’m not ashamed to say I kept the lights on and watched Disney after finishing this book. Thoroughly recommend for the well balanced characters you can empathize with in their weakness, the science fiction elements made believable, and the kind of horror that leaves you terrified of the void. When science advances far enough for intergalactic travel, nobody sign me up for space botany.

Really enjoyed this book, a first time read of Anne Tibbets. Science fiction, horror, and thriller elements, all mixed in. Great characters, and lots of action. Can't wait for more from Anne Tibbets. #ScreamsfromtheVoid #NetGalley

Flame Tree has a killer 2021 lineup, and I was thrilled to be approved for Screams from the Void. After a string of YA horror, I was looking forward to diving into something a little meatier and this title did not let me down.

At the tail-end of a two year mission, mechanic Raina has reached her wits end. Her superior officer is degrading, dismissive and verbally abusive, her ex, Ensign Morven, is a ticking time bomb, and the ancient ship is falling apart. But the biggest problem comes when an unexpected foreign biological breaches command, sending the mission, and their survival, into chaos.

I loved this book.

Told primarily from Raina and Sergeant Pollux's perspectives, I was pleased to see not only a variety of strength-defining moments, but also two iterations of what a strong woman could look like. In Sergeant Pollux's case, she possessed several classic traits: top of her class intelligence, bravery, no-nonsense attitude, limited tolerance for bullshit, yet humanized by the conflict in her past. In her narrative moments, I appreciated the almost visceral foil to Raina's more restrained nature. That didn't make Raina any less strong, however, and I loved the fact that she wasn't portrayed as "book smart." She' was clever, intuitive, and flexible--able to work through difficult problems by experimenting and doing. Rarely do we see both types of intelligence portrayed in female characters, and I think it's so important to acknowledge that these attributes aren't one size fits all. Clashing personalities aside, I think many readers will relate to both voices and their response to crises.

And there was *plenty* of crisis. Tibbets did an excellent job with pacing and structure, weaving tension and dread into every chapter. From brutally-graphic gore to that glorious moment of silence right before the creature makes itself known, this isn't the kind of book you'll want to put down, if only to save yourself from the nightmares.

On a final note, I will say that there was some subject matter that might warrant a trigger warning. Tibbets explored the complex, oftentimes conflicting, emotions a survivor of domestic abuse might struggle with--and while there were depictions of violence, the descriptions weren't gratuitous, voyeuristic, or suffer-for-the-sake-of-redemption arcs.

Overall, Screams from the Void is a fast-paced, insightful, bloody good read that isn't satisfied to rest on its laurels. I'd recommend for fans of the Expanse, the Ryan Reynolds space horror: Life, or anyone looking for a gripping trapped-in-space read.

Thank you to Flame Tree and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Being the first person to rate and review the book always brings out a sort of uncharacteristic generosity. But the goal is objectivity. And objectively, I’m not in love. Or like, even. I’m…mildly entertained. At best.
Actually, I read the author before, a forgettable novella titled Shut Up that seemed too young. Because it was forgettable I did forget about it, so I requested this one from Netgalley based on just on the description and the fact that it’s Flame Tree press, which has fairly decent quality control. And usually very reasonable page count, so you don’t get too stuck with a dud.
So anyway, second experience with the author has been objectively more favorable by comparison, but then again the bar was pretty low. This is one of those creature feature in space things that’s been done and done and done before. They are tons of fun cinematically, usually. In fact, this might have been more fun as a movie. It would have a young cast, a bunch of 20somethings, who cuss up a storm, to showcase their toughness or angst or something. Seriously, so much cussing. And I don’t even care about that sort of thing as a prude might, for me it’s more of a linguistic thing…language evolves, there are abundant epistemological evidence of that, so why hasn’t anyone come up with some new fun ways to cuss in the year 2231?
Anyway, that aside…so a bunch of these youngsters are on a spaceship Demeter…yes, seriously, someone went and named the ship Demeter and thought that was a good and safe and not at all ominous choice. Maybe Dracula’s gone out of print by then?
Anyway, that aside…the team is on a mission, the mission is to gather biological samples from other planets in order to bring them back to Earth and find out if they can be of use. Let’s pause to appreciate that terrible idea. Why would you want to screw around with biodiversity like that? Or take those kinds of risks? Australia won’t even let people bring pets in. Not even Johnny Depp, for crying out loud. Imagine that. And that’s all on the same planet. Imagine how many things can go terribly wrong by dragging things in from outer space.
Anyway, that aside…one day close to the two year mission’s end it turns out there’s a foreign biological creature on the ship. Free and murderously rummaging around. And now everyone has to overlook their differences, band together and fight. And the death toll goes up. And up. And up
So pretty standard fair, right? Space terror, horrific sci fi…one of those. But wait, there’s an angle. In fact, it is this angle that got the book sold. The book that’s originally been passed around and rewritten for years (the author rewrote Shut Up a bunch too, she must be very passionate about rewrites, it explains a fairly limited literary output). But then #MeToo era rolled in and all stories having to do with some sort of abuse of women gained new relevance and Flame Press not wanting to miss the train, grabbed this book. Because this book is indeed about an abusive relationship, in fact it hinges on it.
Yeah, tricky, right. You thought you were just getting a creature feature, but no, you’re getting also a relationship drama, a relationship so messed up ,dysfunctional and violent, it makes Ike and Tina (or we can use Johnny Depp again) look like that nice old couple form the first five minutes of Up. The couple here are Raina (GR’s description’s got a typo) and Moe.
Raina’s our protagonist, actually, the intrepid mechanic who has to deal with both a sh*tty boss and a lunatic for a bf. But, you know, a hot lunatic. They have spaceship quaking sex, despite strict orders not to fraternize, but then Moe turns psycho and starts confusing Raina for an emotional and/or physical punching bag. Raina puts up with it for a good while, because he’s so fine, he’s so fine, he blows her mind, even overlooking his rapey moments, but eventually she ever so reluctantly drags herself away from him and the entire novel is essentially that dynamic between them, they are fighting each other while fighting the larger scale fight of staying alive. And yes, it does get tiring. But it’s also the backbone of this entire production, because Raina and Moe are born survivors while the rest of the team are creature snacks.
So that’s the entire story. You can scream if you want to. It goes by fairly quickly, It still has some of that YA energy the author can’t seem to get all the way away from, but it’s for adults, adults are in it, technically. There’s action, alien scares, all sorts of things you’d expect.
The story is interspersed with the account of Raina/Moe sh*tshow of a relationship. That line of narrative goes backwards (an actually inspired choice) right to when first they met and sparks went wild. While the actual story is bullettraining forward over the course of a single day. I believe the novel is actually meant to be one of those female empowerment stories with Raina getting her groove and all that, but really her likeability is questionable and I suppose will depend on a reader.
And that’s that. Yes, I’m aware it isn’t the most encouraging of reviews, but it’s detailed, honest and might give you an idea about whether this book may be right for you. It isn’t terrible by any means, it does a fairly decent job of telling the same old story, it is, as mentioned earlier, mildly entertaining. Your mileage may vary. Thanks Netgalley.