This was really unique. The neuro link to a wild animal has the outcome you think it would but the journey is heartbreaking yet so familiar. This def raises a lot of questions but doesn't really answer any of them; in some cases that makes for an interesting read and in other cases, I needed the answers to feel more connected to the plot. I think the underlying larger conversation is an ethical one regarding human science/experimentation on animals. Regarding this particular plot, you understand both sides of the story but the experimentation gets a little fuzzy and lost as she becomes more involved with the wolf. Maybe that's the point but at the same time I was asking, what did you expect what would happen?!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mesmerizing, thoughtful, and sometimes brutal, Feed Them Silence is a short novella packed with resonance.

This is a sci-fi in the barest sense of the word, as the only sci-fi thing about it is the futuristic technology. Everything else in the novel could take place in the world today.

The main character, Sean, is so interesting because she’s quite unlikeable but in a way that feels like a real person. Sean and her wife are drifting apart. As such, Sean throws herself into her work (her work also being a reason why they were drifting apart), and finds the connection she’s missing with her wife in this wolf. In a way, Sean’s connection to the wolf is exactly how her wife is feeling. The connection is one direction (the wolf doesn’t tap into Sean’s mind - it’s like a one-way mirror), and this is how Riya is feeling towards Sean - that her attempts at connection are one-sided. And Sean doesn’t know how to fix this disconnect she’s created, but she’s also not entirely motivated. She’s selfish and complacent in their relationship, something I think anyone who's been in a long-term relationship has experienced to some extent. This aspect was raw and so relatable. The story is so intricate and well-developed and layered, with the connection to the animal not only being a metaphor for Sean and Riya’s relationship but a comment on how a connection to nature can also help us build connections with other people. It’s beautifully done.

The novella also deals with the topic of ethics in research in animal testing, in how the need for funding sometimes convinces people to do things they aren’t entirely comfortable with and to make justifications for it. While I’m not in that space at all, it was easy to comprehend and understand Sean and her team’s difficulties.

As usual with anything with queer characters, I appreciated the normalized diversity. The main character is lesbian, and while the cast of supporting characters is small, they are diverse in background. I loved the women in STEM aspect as well, but also in how the higher-ups - those funding the projects - are all white dudes (as is the case today with most corporations and even universities). It was a bit of jab at the still-intact glass ceiling.

The language is concise and clear but carries a despondent, almost melancholy tone. The novella feels like winter, but not like snow on Christmas but November rain kind of winter. Like walking on a frozen cold beach, alone.

Overall, if you couldn’t tell, I thought this book was fantastic.

And given the main character in Mandelo's other book, Summer Sons, has the propensity to litter, the environmental aspect of this novella was much appreciated!

Feed them silence, by Lee Mandelo, could be an interesting movie, which relies more on images to get the narrative to the viewer, but, as a book, it supports itself so much on descriptiveness that it makes the story extremely unreadable.

Ahoy there me mateys!  I have always loved wolves so the idea of getting the inside perspective of a pack was appealing.  In this novella, Sean links her mind using a neurological interface with a female wolf in the name of scientific research.  I found the technology aspect of this book to be intriguing even if the consequences were alarming.  However, this wasn't the strong science oriented book that I wanted.

What the novella focused on was the toxic and failing relationship between Sean and her wife.  Sean is set up to be a selfish person who is only focused on her research.  However, I didn't really sympathize with her wife, Riya, either.  Riya also makes bad choices.  In fact, the moral of this story might be that all people are selfish, want connection with no real effort, and ultimately make decisions based on pure emotion even when they believe they are logical.

This is not a happy story.  The people are miserable.  The wolves are miserable.  The world is miserable.  Greed is the leading motivation.  The near future does not look very pleasant or appealing.  And I kinda despised the ending.

That said for being such a stark and sad look at humanity, I did feel it was well written.  The people and situations felt realistic.  The ethical considerations are touched upon.  I can't say I liked this very much (despite the wolves) but I would read something else by the author.  Arrrr!

After loving Summer Sons, I knew I needed to read Lee Mandelo's next work, and while I'm usually the biggest sci-fi fan, again, I totally loved it. After all, who hasn't wondered what an animal is thinking and feeling?

I enjoyed the complexity that was packed into this short work. Sean's singular focus on her research comes at the expense of her romantic partnership, her friendships, and even her sanity. She's fighting corporations, trying to do research to save endangered species and the environment, all while dealing with complex and overwhelming issues in her personal life.

I always enjoy reading about queer relationships and Sean and Riya's was complex and multi-faceted even as it was falling apart. The gender diversity of Sean's research team was great to read also.

Overall, this was a wonderfully fun read that will leave you thinking. I will absolutely be recommending it.

First - ah! I am so thankful to Tor Books, Lee Mandelo, and NetGalley for fueling my love for short stories and novellas. This not-too-futuristic Sci-Fi/Love Story is set to publish on March 14, 2023, and I'm so happy for the chance to create some hype before its release.

Sean has been working on the project of her life's purpose, and after receiving funding from a corporate entity, she and her team of scientists are ambitious to jump on the bit. What is the project at stake? The goal is to tap into the inner workings of wild wolves and see if a human subject can track those feelings, actions, and thoughts. When Sean becomes the test subject for the trials, her inner brain wiring gets a little fuzzy as she begins to harbor the same emotional responses as the wolves.

As this goes against legal proceedings and research protocol, the study is shut down, as one's human life is way too precious to throw away for even the most complex analysis. Sean's wife and colleagues begin to stress their concern for her mental and physical well-being as she further isolates herself from the public and dives deeper into her passion.

Okay I need to read more of Lee Mandelo's works. (I know Summer Sons have been on my radar for so loooonngg.)

This was definitely an interesting read. Here we see Sean's research and interest on wolves affect her real-life relationships and her mental health. But in this story we also see science clashing with ethics and moral values, a messed-up version of a parasocial relationship and its impact, and maybe how big corporations can take advantage of anything and make profits out of it.

Lots of themes were explored, lots of questions were also brought up to make readers wonder and think. Overall, and entertaining and solid read.

I wasn't a huge fan of Summer Sons -- it had some great elements but they never quite came together for me -- but Mandelo seems to have cleared those up because this book blew me away. First off, THANK YOU for depicting a queer relationship in turmoil between complex, morally-gray-to-unethical characters. We need more portrayals of strive and the non-fun relationship stuff in queer characters! The length was perfect and I haven't stopped thinking about this book since I finished it a few weeks ago.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: I wanted to read "Summer Sons" when it came out in 2021 and so when I saw "Feed Them Silence" up for review I thought it would be a great opportunity to read a Mandelo book. I ended up being pretty disappointed in this book. It feels unfinished and gets us part of the way "there" but just doesn't delve into this topic as deep as I hoped.

The story takes place in the near future, in Minnesota. The story follows Sean, who has finally gotten funding for her research project. Sean wants to know what drives one of the last wolf packs in America. She gets approval to put a neural network in her brain that links to one of the female wolves in the pack. Sean's wife has an issue with the morality of linking a wolf's brain to a human's (and she's not wrong here). However, Sean's obsession with the wolf pack drives her beyond logic; she has determined that understanding this wolf pack will help them understand climate change and help the world as a whole.

I had a lot of issues with this book. I work in a science field and a lot of things in this book just didn't ring true. There's a lot of hand-waving around the science here and the way the research grant was dealt with was weird. If you want to read this you have to set aside logic and just to go with it. I expected more of a science fiction bent to this novel, however most of the time here is spent on Sean's relationship issues with her wife. Sean is a person obsessed with her work and she really doesn't think much about the other people in her life. Surprise, surprise this affects her relationship with her wife.

I expected things to get a bit crazy here and the character and the wolf to start affecting each other or something...but things remain pretty ho-hum throughout. There is the very typical plot-line of a university research getting their project taken away by a corporation (sigh, so overused). The ending was disappointing just like the rest of this for me. I was expecting something interesting, intriguing or exciting. This had an interesting premise but just didn't do anything with it.

SPOILER START--------------------------
The research project is stopped because there have been some changes in Sean's brain structure. Then the corporation funding the research destroys the wolf Sean was bonded to and she is surprised by this?? Anyone who's ever been involved in medical device testing on animals knows this is what happens; Sean works in the field so she should know this. Then her solution to the whole issue is to write a book about the wolf's feelings?? Is this supposed to be ironic because we just read a book about Sean and the wolf and their feelings? This just felt so shallow and incomplete to me. The repercussions of Sean's change in brain structure are never really explored and everything ends up feeling very pointless. Is the point to this story that it's pointless?
SPOILER END----------------------------

My Summary (3/5): Overall I was pretty disappointed in this book, I went in expecting so much more. The premise sounds pretty cool but it just didn't go anywhere. This ended up being more of a book about a professor and her failing marriage rather than being about than deep human interactions with the wild or anything cool and sci-fi-ish about mind melding with nature. It was just "blah". The premise was initially intriguing and it was a quick read, but I learned that Mandelo is not the author for me.

I've decided to read everything Lee Mandelo writes, so while this wasn't my preferred cup of tea, it is a thought-provoking, disturbing, and visceral read. It's a blend of questionable science, dubious ethics, animal and human testing, and the unexpected outcomes of shared consciousness. As the story progresses and the experiment begins to alter Sean, the lead scientist, I kept theorizing about how things would end (I was imagining some pretty gruesome stuff). Side by side with the growing unease and trauma surrounding her project is her failing marriage with her wife, Riya. As Sean bonds deeper with her wolf (a one-sided bond that the wolf is not aware of), she pulls back from others, including Riya. This novella presents interesting concepts and I was most intrigued by the idea of developing empathy through experiencing the wolf's life and emotions. Yet in the end, the empathy Sean gains is solely fixed on her wolf and the pack, and even that bond breaks. There's also more about conservation, the grim realities of ravaged environment, and the perils of private funding. All in all, a fascinating and haunting read.

I am still trying to decide if I like this book or not. It was compulsive and I read it straight through but did find it a bit disturbing. I am glad I read it but probably would not have had I read the reviews. It certainly was a wild ride.

Feed Them Silence was such a spectacular surprise. This sci-fi/horror novella is set in a near future, with a set of researchers using a brain interface to witness the thoughts and feelings of a wolf as she goes through the winter with her pack.
The writing is beautiful, the story is so compelling, the characters believable and interesting. The type of horror in this book isn't the "spooky scary" kind, but more of the "sympathetic psychological" kind. An extremely well done story, exactly the right length, and had a great emotional impact. Easy five star read!

I received my copy of Feed Them Silence as an ARC from NetGalley.

Thank you to Tor.com and NetGalley for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon wants to experience what animals are feeling, so she experiments with a neurological interface that allows her to do so with a wolf named Kate. She can taste her recent kill and smell the forest. The experiment, unfortunately, affects Sean's marriage with her wife Riya.

I enjoyed this one, especially the Sapphic representation, but it didn't get weird enough. I think this is a story that could benefit from being at least 50-100 pages longer. There also wasn't a lot of dialogue, so that made the story drag a bit.

I enjoyed the writing style, which draws me to future books from Mandelo, but this one didn't work for me. There wasn't a horror element to it, other than descriptions of dead animals. If focused a lot on Sean's marriage rather than the interface she was experimenting with. The ending was a cliffhanger, and now I'm wondering if that will be expanded on. Not that I need it to be.

I know a lot of readers will love this, so I'll still recommend it.

My thanks fo out to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Overall I enjoyed this read though it is also not one that hyper engaged me. However, it definitely is one of those books that raises interesting questions and doesn't offer any answers of its own, leaving room for the reader to explore these thematics and try to come to their own answers. Something I highly appreciate.

Our protagonist was a character I found evry frustrating to read from as she is very self involved and likewise unaware of just how much she is. I definitely was on the side of her wife in this one ;)

Thematically speaking, this book looks a lot at the ethical boundaries of science and the difficulty of balancing innovation with those questions of ethics. A thematic that I definitely enjoy reading about. If you like the exploration of that in Frankenstein, for example, than this could also work for you.

Another thing I very much appreciate about this read is it's open ending. I often prefer endings like this which leave the reader hanging to some extent. I feel like those often engage the reader's own exploration more. It leaves you in a spot where you can explore for your self what can come next, what would be best for the protagonist, what you believe the character will do considering their tendencies thusfar ...

5/5 Stars. No Notes. This is an excellent read and should be on EVERY SINGLE PERSONS TBR in 2023. I wasn't blown away by Summer Sons, but enjoyed my time reading it and this was just all love, no regrets! Detailed review to come.

I can’t believe this book is under 200 pages! In such a short amount of time I got so attached to the characters and the plot. The writing is so incredibly descriptive, it almost feels like you’re really experiencing what Sean is when she’s connected to the wolf. This is a perfectly dark, emotional story that really draws you in. If anything, it could have been drawn out a bit longer, but I don’t feel like I’m missing anything after getting to the end.

it is incredible how much lee mandelo managed to pack into 112 pages!

this novella was intense, obsessive, thought-provoking and a super quick, interesting read. i really enjoyed following sean's journey as she got the funding to conduct her 'mind-meld' experiment as it were, and began to crave the time she spent inside her wolf's - kate's - brain. sean very quickly becomes obsessed with spending time with her wolf, and being part of the wolf 'pack' - so much so that her personal life starts to fall apart, her marriage on the rocks and her colleagues worried about her.

i thought this was SUCH a scarily accurate insight into obsession and the pursuit of scientific knowledge vs morals, as well as touching on important topics like gender roles, capitalism (via the private capital loan that makes the whole endeavour possible, and what they want from sean as part of it), and racism. for a novella this really packs a punch and though, at the start i wasn't convinced this should be 'horror', by the end i definitely was.

You've heard of obsessed horse girls, but not obsessed wolf girls. This takes it to a whole new level. Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon becomes quickly obsessed with Kate (her research subject). She quickly loses everything after subjecting her mind and body to her own research.

Feed Them Silence is seriously one of a kind type of novella. I have not read anything like this before. I devoured it in a day.

Somehow I am surprised this was only 112 pages.... I feel like I read a whole novel (in a good way). I do wish that the ending had a little bit more to it, but all in all...I loved it.

Feed Them Silence is a sci-fi/horror novella that begs the question: What would happen if we linked a human brain with a wolf's?

Lee Mandelo's story is gripping and rife with political commentary and moral qualms about conservation and what we do to help animals nearing extinction. While the premise was intriguing, and I found the tech and science-based plot beats fascinating and well done, Sean's relationship with her wife took up almost a third of the book. Though Sean's "connection" with her wolf, Kate, highlights the disconnect she feels with everyone around her, the story would have benefitted from a trim where Sean's relationship issues were concerned. Apart from the relationship drama, I loved it.

If you've ever wondered what it would it would be like to inhabit another animal's mind, or find near-future technology fascinating, I recommend giving this 113-page novella a read.

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

An absolutely brutal Tor novella that is not for people sensitive to depictions of animals in dire circumstances. Sean is a queer scientist in a white man’s world, ready to push hard and give everything for her work— but didn’t anticipate that would include her marriage. Her current project, with private funding, uses her own body in an experimental procedure. A brain implant provides her a one-way connection with a wild wolf named Kate. During brief periods of live connection, she viscerally feels what it is like to live as a wolf—in contrast with her reality of despair as her relationship dissolves. Her time as a wolf begins to feel more real and vivid than her human time. This book reads fast, looking at relationships and scientific experimentation in blunt ways. It’s good, but harsh.