Well, that was intense!

First off I absolutely loved that it was set in Australia and during the ’40s, ’60’s and ’80’s. This already made it stand out amongst the usual books I read, usually set in the US or UK. The author is fantastic at descriptive writing and so even though I’ve never been in the country and wasn’t alive during that time period, I really had a clear picture in my head of the place and the time. I ordinarily hate too much description unless it’s really well written, and it is extremely well written here.

The book is slow-moving, particularly the first half, but there is such a tense atmosphere throughout that you just want to keep reading because you know something is going on but you haven’t had it confirmed just yet. It really made me jump into Joy’s mindset as her whole life is one big anxiety-filled tension.

We jump between time periods between Joy’s life as a child growing up in an abusive household and her present-day life as an adult when she comes back to her childhood home as her father lays dying. We also witness the POV of her mother from when she meets her husband, marries him and navigates life on a farm with him. Later in the book, we get a brief few chapters from the POV of Constable Alex Shepherd.

The subject matter is very very dark. Child abuse is never an easy subject but I think Yeowart handles it so well. You just feel so much dread and tension and anxiety for these poor kids. I particularly loved her description of the eels in Joy’s stomach which we as readers recognise as the dreaded stomach flip of anxiety.

I loved the various characters of the area. They really came to life off of the page. I can sometimes find it hard to keep a lot of character straight in my head, particularly when they only pop up now and again, but she describes their various quirks so well that I would immediately recognise them whenever they would show up again.

This is no page-turning thrill-seeking twist and turn book, so it may not be for you if you’re looking for something like that. However, it is an amazing study in the psychology of abuse and how the effects can continue for the victim’s whole life and how people can be aware of badness going on around them yet turn a blind eye.

This book was amazing, even more so as it was a debut! A dark, claustrophobic and harrowing journey that tells the story of the Henderson family in a small, Australian rural community where the father, George, is outwardly a pillar of the community and the church but his family know differently. It is told in three timelines - the early 1940s while WWII is still raging and many goods are rationed, the early 1960s when daughter Joy is 11 and 12, and 1983 when Joy comes home to care for her dying father. This is a story of a toxic family, of lies and secrets, of damaged children and religion wielded as a whip. It is also about resilience and the extraordinary lengths people can go to when desperate.

In 1942 George Henderson meets Gwen at a dance and sweeps her off her feet. They are married 2 months later after a whirlwind romance. When Gwen is whisked off to the marital home, a rather marginal dairy farm miles from anywhere, her world changes completely. George has rules, lots of rules. By and by the children are born. First Mark who learns from an early age that crying is against the rules and later Joy. There is also Ruth but Ruth had an unfortunate ‘accident’ so we don’t really talk about her much. We join the family again in 1960 when Joy is 11. In this time period she makes a friend and loses another as 9 year old Wendy Boscombe disappears, never to be seen again. Mark is beaten down and desperate to leave home and Ruth is the only one keeping Joy sane as they plot against their father.

In 1983 Joy returns home to care for her dying father (or not)! In this time period all the toxic pus leaches out and a lot of things become clear. Senior Constable Shepherd who was part of the search for young Wendy all those years ago, a case that still haunts him today, is called when George finally fizzles out. He is now the only police officer in the little town and the circumstances of George Henderson’s death are ambiguous to say the least. Shepherd is determined to pin it on Joy but as he investigates and learns more about the family he finds that nothing is as it seems and nothing is clear.

This book was chilling, spellbinding and compelling. It is not a thriller but a dark domestic drama that leaves you intensely unsettled most of the time. When you learn how George managed to evade the draft for the war you just want to slap his horrid fictional face! There were some mixed reactions to this. It is rather long and rather bleak but I read it in record time as I couldn’t put it down. I had to know how it ended. This will be one of my favourite books of the year and I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next. Just one comment on the blurb - it mentions gothic, there is nothing gothic about a small, struggling, Australian dairy farm so if that’s your schtick you may be disappointed. Other than that I highly recommend this book. I received an advance review copy for free from Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I loved The Silent Listener. It's one of those books that sticks in your mind and you NEED to keep reading to find out how it ends. You don't want to know, but you have to know. Then when you do know, it completely blows you away. This book is one of a kind.

Silent Listener
Lyn Yeowart
Fiction
Nancy
5


It is 1942, and Gwen is swept off her feet the moment she meets George Henderson. Handsome, gallant, attentive, George has created a stir among Gwen’s friends and an obvious relief in the great-aunt charged with her care after the deaths of Gwen’s parents. Gwen has such dreams about what married life with George will be; she has already pictured the dairy farm he has told her about, and imagines that his clothes, charm, and manners indicate that he is a man of some wealth. She doesn’t recognize the freedom that her small salary from the factory allows her, and certainly doesn’t understand how safe she has always been in Wiltshire, surrounded by the town and its familiar people. In fact, Gwen has no idea of what her life is about to become until the long ride in her new husband’s work van comes to an end in the brutal poverty of the mud and isolation of the farm.


My thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for the opportunity to read this stunning novel. At this time Silent Listener is difficult and expensive to find in the US, but I encourage you to add it to your “must-read” list and watch for its publication here.

Find this review and others on NancysBookNook on Facebook.

The Silent Listener is a disturbing and uncomfortable read, that explores family violence and the psychological effects it has on a child well into adulthood. I enjoyed skipping back and forth between timelines, which slowly revealed the shaping of the Henderson family and how they came to be - how different would life have been, if different choices had been made from the beginning? Although there are some predictable elements to it, the narration flowed logically to ensure that the events taking place throughout the story made sense. However, I’m not sure how I felt about the ending - it was all a little too tragic, and for me a bit too far fetched - I didn’t quite get the closure or justice that I was hoping for which was disappointing. There was an unexpected twist though that I thought was very cleverly done - and I’m all for being taken by surprise.

I always love a book with multiple timelines and this book delivers! There are many perspectives and timelines alternating throughout the book. The twists at the end shocked me to my core! This book is very dark and depressing at times but continued to hold my interest through character building and the slow realization that something was off. A good read!

This is good book but there are triggers for family violence. This is a very good story, well developed characters and a brutal environment vividly brought to life, it almost feels like you can feel the heat of the sun and the cool of the rain through the seasons. The story is told through three timelines, Gwen and George during the 1940's, Ruth and Joy during the 1960's and Joy and various others during the 1980's. Gwen meets George who is a bit older than her and it literally swept off her feet, they quickly marry and move out to a remote area of Australia. Children quickly follow, Ruth, Joy and Mark, the story is told mostly from Joy's point of view, the discipline she, Mark and Gwen are subject to at the hands of her father is beyond brutal and leaves scars, physical and emotional. Life is not easy, they live on a dairy farm and most of their income is from the milk they sell. Gwen begins a home business creating flower arrangements for weddings and funerals which provides a small income that allows her to provide items to the kids that would otherwise be out of reach. We learn that a nine year old child has gone missing in the early 1960's, this missing child has haunted the local police chief his entire career. In the 1980's George is on his death bed and when he passes suddenly, that same police chief thinks Joy, who had come home to nurse her father, may have had something to do with it. The eventual reveal of the killer of the missing child was a shock, I had guessed wrong on that one. Overall a very good story and highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Silent Listener by Lyn Yeowart.

This book, this BOOOOOOK! Every page turn hurts, but you turn the pages compulsively because you have to. The story is so intense, so violent, so hard, and so readable. It's full of subtle turns, and it never ceases to shock.

Joy and her family live in rural Australia in the 60's. Her father, who seems charismatic and helpful to the community, is a religious tyrant at home, doling out severe physical punishments to all members of the house. Everyone at home is terrified of him, and no one is there to help them. Skip back to when Joy's mother and father started courting, to getting married, and then skip way ahead, to when Joy's father is on his death bed, relying on his daughters for care. When he finally does die though, the details of his death are suspicious, as well as some of the things he left behind...

Here's the thing, I haven't had this hard of a time putting down a book in a while. I had to know what was going to happen. But also, I don't know that I could recommend it. It's NOT an easy read, it's red with violence and injustice. But, holy cow, I'll never forget this one, that's for sure.

The main character, Joy, returns after "escaping" in 1983, to nurse her dying father, George, a highly respected and upstanding citizen of their community.

The story was then brought back in time to George’s marriage to Joy’s mother Gwen, their whirlwind courtship and the old dairy farm they live in. But Gwen’s dreams of a happy new life are quashed within days of her wedding as she learned what a monster her new husband is and that his charm is only reserved for the people outside of their home. He relies on isolation of his property, the silence of his family and the complicity of those who will not look any further or act on their very real suspicions. Their children cower under their father’s control, their innocence slowly stripped with every brutal strike of the belt that leaves their bodies, and minds, bleeding and scarred. I feel especially sad on how Mark's life turned out. I always think every person who experienced this kind of abuse will have a better life when they're older, it's painful to read the conclusion of these children's' life as adults.

According to the publisher, this book is “loosely based on events from her childhood growing up in rural Victoria”. Given the things that happen in this book, particularly to children, I fervently hope that they are not events that specifically happened to her.

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending still, while it absolutely fits with the story, it’s sad and dispiriting. I hope people will realize how abuse plays a huge role in children's lives and the long-standing effect of it as they mature.

I always wonder how fun and simple it is to live back when internet is not yet a thing, but also, it makes me think about some of the most ridiculous upbringing stories we hear back then that we can only imagine today.

There are so many elements to this story and to say too much would be to give away spoilers, however, please note that there is a strong theme of domestic violence and child abuse.

Overall, this is an engaging but pain filled read.

The story alternates between three time-lines - George's wooing of Gwen in the 1940s, their life in the outback with their young children in the 1960s and the present-day with daughter Joy returning to the family farm to look after dying father, all tied in with the disappearance of Joy's young friend in the 1960s. .Harrowing, child abuse, domestic violence all hidden from public view Views of life in rural Australia are believable for their times - remotes, close communities, resilient and self sufficient. Well-written and well-characterised. Good twist at the end. Just not totally my cup of tea. Thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

The story is set in rural Australia. It is dark and absolutely gripping. It made for a super read! This is the first novel by this author and I cannot wait until she releases another.
There are 3 different timelines embedded within this book alongside different points of view.

This story is centred around family. A family with dark secrets - everyone seems to be hiding something!

We see George and Gwen’s life beginning in the 1940’s. In the 60’s the children arrive and we see George dying in the 80’s - this is the main bulk of the book.

I cannot believe how many excellent debuts I have read lately and this is another one.
Set in rural outback Australia over 3 different decades, it’s starts with Joy Henderson being informed of her fathers death and the need for her to return to the farm to finalise things. Her father, George was a pillar of the church and the community, loved by everyone. What they didnt know was that he was the worst father possible. His children, Mark and Joy and to an extent his wife, lived in fear of him. Any tiny indiscretion led to 15 lashes of his belt and buckle.
The children when not at church work hard on the farm and in the house, and are constantly verbally and physically abused.
So when Joy finds her father dead with the very belt he used on the her, around his neck, she rings the police. Senior Constable Alex Shepherd, isn’t convinced that Joy is innocent and suspects she is pulling him into her cleverly thought out lie.
I loved all three time frames that the book revolves around, the 1940s when Joys parents met, their whirlwind marriage and the subsequent realisation by Gwen that her husband isnt who she thought he was. The 1960s when Joy narrates her life as an 11 year old with her brother Mark and awful tyranny of her father, and the present being the 1980s when she plays the cat and mouse game with Alex Shepherd.
Scattered through Joys story is the disappearance of her friend Wendy Boscombe, in the 1960s although she is never found Joy is certain her father killed her.
Some twists In the book were predictable as was the main twist at the end but there were other discoveries I hadn’t thought of and the happy ending I expected didn’t happen. A great read that had me hooked from start to finish.

#netgalley #thenightlistener

This book goes back and forth from the 40's 60's and 80's.
And starts in the year 1983 Joy Henderson's father passes away it's a relief and a revenge the belt is still dangling from her hand. George Henderson has gone to his maker this is the happiest day of her life, she stays in control and arranges everything then get's on with her life.
The book then takes us back to 1942 the beginning of the Henderson family story.
This is such a one powerful read that is not for the faint hearted, it will chill your bones reading, a completely different read for me but had to carry on right to the end of the story.
an exceptional good read.

Unusual story recounting the sad life of the God fearing Henderson family. Set in Australia, told from daughter Joy's point of view, how her father George Henderson brought them up in a climate of fear and anger, whilst appearing to be a model citizen to the community.
Set against a backdrop of everyday life, something sinister is lurking and the suspense slowly builds to a crescendo which I could never have anticipated.
Well worth a read.

Thanks to Joffe Books and NetGalley for my digital copy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.
5 Stars!
Highly recommend.
It was hard to put this book down. Well written, well plotted, engaging characters.
The Silent Listener is a disquieting tale of a dysfunctional family, draped in tension and dread.

I found this just OK. The storyline was interesting but I found myself at times just wanting to get to the end. I do think the character development was good, and really felt how Joy was feeling throughout

THE SILENT LISTENER by Lyn Yeowart Portions of the book are hard to read due to the brutality towards the Joy and Mark and Gwen by the two faced monster, George. There a number of light hearted moments, Robert Larson's a fine lemming meringue pie and other mixed up descriptions, the Felicities and their welcoming of Joy's visits and Colin's love for his elderly kitty. The writing is impressive and the character and story development are masterful. Must say that I have never been too fond of eels and the author's descriptions of the eels were vivid enough to make me uncomfortable. The ending was a surprise and unexpected.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

If you are looking for a suspenseful, unputdownable page-turner, this book is for you.
Each turn of the page leaves you not wanting to put this book down as there are twists and turns that uncover more about this family's history.
The writing holy WoW y'all! Amazing! Truly a remarkable book! Looking forward to reading more by Lyn! She's a dynamite!

My God this book was good. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Very intense because of a domineering father/husband who beat his children mercilessly while on the outside behaving like a community minded God fearing Christian.

His daughter is mainly the one telling the story and there are a few surprises along the way.

This reminded me of Jane Harper's books and will be the book I most recommend this year. My review is not describing this book adequately but please read it. Incredibly good story telling.

This story will stick with you, long after you finish reading it. The Silent Listener is a dark and intense story set in three different time periods centering around the Henderson family and the disappearance of Wendy Boscombe. The switching from decade to decade adds to the suspense of the book; however, this book is a bit of a slow burn with the first half of the book dragging. The subject matter is dark and heartbreaking – this book will not be everyone’s cup of tea but if you stick around to the end, there are plenty of twists and turns as we learn what really happened in the Henderson household.

Thank you, NetGalley and Joffe Books for my copy.