*2.5 stars rounded up

No one is more disappointed in this rating than me.

I was highly anticipating Ghost Station, but overall it didn’t scratch the space horror itch like Dead Silence did for me. The writing as a whole is great (the characters were especially well written); it was the story itself that didn’t do much for me. It took SO long for things to get moving, and by the time they did, I didn’t find it very interesting. This was one of those books where I kept waiting for things to get really good, and it never quite got there.

I’m sure there are others who will really enjoy this, but it wasn’t for me. I ultimately do enjoy S.A. Barnes, so I’ll be checking out whatever else she comes out with.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

Space terrifies me in general, but space horror? I’m done…

This was a claustrophobic and scary book that combines science fiction and horror on an abandoned planet. We follow a crew on an exploratory mission, with newcomer, Dr. Ophelia Bray. She is a newcomer to the team, but not to space exploration, having spent her career studying a condition called ERS, which affects a person’s mental state, causing them to act violently.

When someone inside their team is found murdered, things quickly spiral, making Ophelia fear the worst… with secrets hidden beneath the surface and something horrifying lurking just out of sight, this book had me completely on edge.

Barnes writes some really terrifying situations and there were moments in this one that gave me the heebie jeebies!

I was so excited to read this because “Dead Silence” is one of my favorite sci-fi/horror books, but this one fell flat for me and I had a very hard time getting through it. I almost put the book down completely when we are introduced to the ship’s crew. The reader is given a list with names and facts about the crew members that goes on for several pages. It was more textbook than storytelling. I found it to be lazy writing and quite boring. The rest of the book didn’t prove much better; it was slow-paced and more of a drama than science fiction..This just wasn’t for me. But; i know what this author is capable of and will absolutely try a future book. Thank you for the opportunity to read in advance!

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes is story about a rich socialite with a scandalous upbringing, looking for redemption by psychoanalyzing the grieving crew of a space mission. Ophelia Brey, Phe to her friends, never fit in with her rich proper family because she was their little secret, their little thing that shouldn't have been. Phe spends her life trying to atone for her father's misdeeds and for her families atrocities in this futuristic sci-fi space story. Phe, a trauma counselor, joins a space mission in hopes to help the crew with their grief over a lost colleague and in hopes to prevent ERS, a psychological disorder that makes everyone crazy. What Phe signs up for is not what she gets.
This story touches on friendship, isolation, trauma, resilience, and prejudice. It is marketed as a sci-fi story and it does have some sci-fi elements, space travel, alien planets, and strange alien beings but the elements are not fleshed out well enough to really be a sci-fi story. Yes, you question if everything happening is due to ERS or some mysterious alien disease or intra-space political sabotage, but it isn't fully developed. The scary tense feeling of space is missing. As a story about a girl trying to redeem herself and conquer her trauma, this book succeeds. As a sci-fi story, it falls flat, especially with that ending. It was quite rushed and unfulfilling.
I liked the redemption arc part of the story but was greatly disappointed in the sci-fi aspect of Ghost Station. There were so many great ideas that could have been explored, the Lyrians, the towers, the alien goo, and even ERS could have be explored more in depth, making this an epic story. However, it ended up more like it was a rough draft instead of a complete book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Publishing for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

This is a story about the ghost in the machine.

I loved this!! Scifi horror is my favorite thing bc space is so vast & terrifying- and this one did not disappoint. I loved that she was a clinician & that you got to experience the decent into fear through her lens. I also really enjoyed the way the antagonist was explored.

Thank you so much @netgalley & @tornightfire for the eArc!

DNF'd at 25%. Intriguing concept, but the prose was so clunky and the character so thinly-sketched that I couldn't get invested. Also, the author has this weird tic where they'll use a word, and then write out the dictionary definition, like so:

"A planet where aliens used to exist, intelligent life that was not from earth."

"But now that she's aware of the trigger - the unconscious connection her brain is making between past and present -" she'll manage it."

- and I haven't got a clue why.

The minute I saw the author came out with a new sci-fi horror book, I immediately had to get my hands on it. Ghost Station reminds me so much of Sphere in the creepy happenstances that occur all throughout. Whatever happened on this planet have our main characters questioning each other and themselves at every turn. What really happened here and what is calling to the crew in their sleep? I loved this book so much and if you love sci-fi with a mix of horror, I highly recommend. I only wish the end had more resolution.

I liked the concept of the science mission, it was an interesting choice to go with. A crew that visits other worlds to help their corporations lay claim to them. I was intrigued early about the main character early on, Ophelia, and was more curious than anything to see where the psychologist thread would go, but I wasn’t a fan of her at the start. That actually held true for at least half of the book. That changed around half way through, but I really disliked her at first.

That said, this is more of a slow burner. It started off slow for me, the way I feel a good original non-canned sci-fi should.

After we get some of Ophelia’s backstory, why she’s taken a job with a competing company, and what the competition most likely looks to gain from her presence, things start to open up a bit more. While underway she figures out pretty quick that none of the crew really want her there, partly due to her job, and mostly due to who she is. Then things start to pick up a little.

From there, it felt like the story started to slowly speed up, and the final 30% or so (sorry, kept the kindle on % instead of pages since I swap from phone to tablet a lot) really picked up. The tension really rose more and more as the last 3rd of the book progressed.

Without heavy spoilers, I wish there was more explanation for some of the very odd/tense things to happen. That flows to the ending for me as well. I feel like the ending is a victim of the pacing earlier on, and maybe that’s why it felt clipped or far too easily explained/closed.

I do have to praise the character building. I felt like I knew someone just a particular crew member, which made me dislike him in the story even more. He had to be based off of someone Barnes knew.

Overall, I liked it and give it between a 3.5 and 4 stars, so I’ll bump it up to 4 simply due to the character building she did with some of Ophelia’s crew. It reminded me of Event Horizon in terms of building style and horror without copying that formula.

This book follows Ophelia Bray as she embarks through space as a therapist to a crew who just lost a member. Her goal? To prevent ERS, a disease in space faring crews which leads to them harming themselves or others. I loved most of the characters in this. Ophelia wasn't my favorite protagonist if I'm to be honest. She seemed childish for being thirty years old and a professional psychologist. However, like Dead Silence, which I loved, this book builds atmosphere and tension well and keeps you guessing as to what's really going on. That being said, I felt like the payoff wasn't there. We, as readers, get very few answers in the end. I would've liked to have understood what was actually going on and had the world fleshed out a little more. As is, there's a lot of hand waving away at the end that was unfulfilling and lacked what made me love Dead Silence: the return to the ship where readers got answers and learned what was happening. I will say though, up until those last two or three chapters, I was having a great time reading. The ending just left me whelmed.

Ophelia Bray is carrying around a ton of guilt. Things that family members have done as well as a professional failure. She is having a hard time understanding how she missed seeing what was coming. She makes the decision to join a small space crew, hoping to understand, and potentially treat the effects of Eckhart-Reiser Syndrome.This condition destroyed her childhood and changed her life. None of her crewmates are happy that she is on board. Seeing her role as a waste of time or worse that she has an ulterior motive.
When they reach their destination, it seems that all of Ophelia’s fears are coming true. Could the crew be infected with ERS and has it got a hold on her too. With no means to communicate with anyone on the outside and the chances of getting home, looking slimmer, Ophelia must battle her own demons, if she hopes to save this crew.
I did question Ophelia’s abilities as a therapist more than once. But I don’t suppose part of her training involved living through her worst nightmares on an alien planet. I never knew what was around the corner or what would happen on the next page. The ending wasn’t my favorite, but I seem to be ‘ending adverse’ lately.I loved Dead Silence and enjoyed Ghost Station.

Ghost Station has a couple of interesting ideas, in both the personal history of its lead character, and the nature of its “big bad”. Unfortunately the latter is mostly unexplored, while the former dominates the narrative to the point where it loses all its bite.

There’s a solid novella in here, padded out with so much repetitive, hand-wringing angst.

While many of the story’s mysteries/plotlines depend on the Nobody Tells Anyone Anything trope (which I mostly loathe), the character motivations are pretty solid, their revelations well earned. I found the payoffs of those interpersonal arcs far more rewarding than the actual ending, which feels far too easy, with no bite at all.

The novel is well structured but poorly paced—which is to say all the parts are there and in the right order, but the flow is off. It moves in fits and starts, sometimes frustratingly belabored, then breezing past more compelling elements.

Ghost Station is a pretty standard scary-place-in-space narrative that’s far more interested in the previous personal trauma of its lead and supporting characters. And that would be more than fine, if it handled those aspects with any degree of subtlety or restraint.

That gorgeous, vivid cover is ill-matched to the matte-gray world within the pages, built mostly from stock sci-fi bits and bobs that your brain will automatically fill in from other books and movies. The one unique, looming aspect of its alien world setting? Hardly explored at all.

Verdict: An intriguing but unfulfilling experience that doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its premise. Readers who rarely dabble in mildly-horror-adjacent sci-fi might find some thrills. More experienced genre readers might consider passing on this one.

This was a good book for me not typically diving into sci-fi. There were certainly some good twists and turns with the characters and arcs within the story. There were points where stuff was explained about the characters like you should already know them from a previous book. I did thoroughly enjoy the story as it was and when it pieced together.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC!

Horror and Sci-Fi yes please!!!! I enjoyed this book. Such a great read. Loved the horror aspect of it. I recommend.

Horror Sci-Fi? Sign me up.
Ghost station was an atmospheric, spooky thrill of a ride. I really enjoyed reading about the moral struggles of the main character and the isolated setting really amped up the intensity of the plot! What was really frustrating for me was the "romance". I could have done without the crush that was eluded to multiple times, I mean can't a lady just be a professional without getting the hots for her superior?I feel like that really didn't add anything to the story and was slightly distracting. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I will definitely be going back and reading previous work by the author.

A psychological space horror set in the point of view of a psychologist who joins a team of space explorers, this book begins to induce a feeling of uneasiness and paranoia all throughout. Definitely a slow start, and definitely something that will make you anxious if you are reading it alone at night, or really anytime that you read it at all. I think I have the same minor problem with this book that I had with the author’s other book in the same universe, Dead Silence (great book btw, helped me get into horror as a genre), which is that the society felt as if it was socially stuck in the late 2010s in terms of social things– there’s an offhand comment about how separating groups by gender is something that’s archaic, but it’s continued with them doing that, and although there is a line about it the characters don’t really have any actions that are against the norm of then– it’s futuristic only in terms of technology.

I enjoy Sci-Fi and Ghost Station is another one to add to the love list. This one gave me vibes of Pandorum and Event Horizon so I flew threw it.

I will say I had a hard time with Ophelia at first, but as time went on I understood her character a bit more and ended up liking her more.

The story itself was just plain fun for me. It has everything I enjoy...planetary mission far from civilization, mysterious beginning and chaos throughout with a satisfactory ending. I want to say more but don't want to give anything away.

Sci-Fi fans will enjoy this one. It doesn't release until April 9, 2024, so keep this one on those release radars. I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was one of my most anticipated reads after reading Dead Silence and so it was disappointing when it started off slow. It took awhile for me to get into it but once I did, I read the rest in one sitting! It was such an incredibly thrilling ride of a story. I knocked off one star due to the beginning but otherwise thoroughly enjoyed the characters and plot development.

I personally think that Dr. Bray would have made a horrible therapist. I enjoyed the horror aspects of the book, but I just didn't click with the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Ghost Station.

I don't read sci-fi often; when I do it's usually because there's a horror element to it.

The main characters are generally being chased by an alien or a monster or a zombie or an alien monster zombie. That's how I prefer my sci-fi novels.

I requested Ghost Station because the premise was intriguing and I never read the author before so I was going into this with an open mind.

Sadly, this wasn't for me for the following reasons:

1. It's very, very slow. Like waiting at customs at the airport slow. I understand in any novel, world building and exposition is paramount to establish the context and characters and their motivations but it's slow going here. Waiting on line at the post office during the holidays slow.

The narrative mostly revolves with Ophelia's resentment about her wealthy family, her Daddy issues since he was a serial murderer, and struggling with personal issues related to all this family drama. This got repetitive and boring FAST.

Then, we get plenty of fodder about drilling on a remote alien planet, the equipment, blah blah blah, The writing is good, but almost technical at times.

2. Ophelia is unlikable so it was hard to care about what happens to her. She's indecisive, neurotic, and easily offended. It was hard to take her seriously, much less believe she was a therapist.

3. This isn't horror; no way no how. I wasn't scared. Yes, there are some gross scenes, and those with weak stomachs may want to look away but I didn't. It takes a lot to scare me so that's not the fault of the author.

I hoped the author had explained the alien entity more.

4. And that lazy ending? After everything the crew went through and they wake up like Sleeping Beauty and all's well?

5. A lot of discourse and monologuing about the evils of capitalism and corporations, etc, etc, etc. We get it! Big business is bad. Now entertain me!

The narrative was slow, not suspenseful, and dull.

This wasn't for me, or maybe it's a combination of factors; the author, the genre, and the story didn't work for me.

If I'm in the mood for something horrifying and suspenseful, I'll watch the classics, Alien, Aliens, and The Thing.

_Ghost Station_ by S.A. Barnes is an unsettling horror read set in space. It follows Dr. Ophelia Bray, who has dedicated her life to treating patients with a disorder called ERS, as she is assigned to a crew as they explore a deserted planet with ruins from an ancient civilization. Soon it’s apparent that something suspicious happened to the previous crew, and even to the ancient society. Mystery, murder, and secrets keep the reader intrigued and guessing the outcome.