They Fly Silent
Mayhem & Madness Collide in the South
by Barb Lanell
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Pub Date May 12 2021 | Archive Date May 06 2021
Parly Press Publications | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
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Description
Cassandra Cleopatra Collard is a mentally unstable divorcee haunted by a family curse her eccentric grandmother warned her about as a small child. Her life gets more complicated when she's arrested for a town fire and finds herself the topic of a local gossip column which ignites a stash of highly flammable family secrets generations old. To uncover the truth and clear her name, she agrees to twelve months of mental evaluation. Dr. Telford, a psychiatrist helps her examine her past and understand her frosty relationship with her mother, along with her dysfunctional Southern upbringing.
The past explodes into the present which sets off a series of events both harrowing, heartwarming and disturbing. Forced to rejoin a world she left behind, Cass is thrown into psychological turmoil where mayhem, madness and the mystical collide. Not only will she fight for her innocence, but her mind, her identity and the darkest secrets behind the pine curtain of her childhood.
This dark and mystical novel delivers a haunting prose of southern life with wisecracking, moving characters and the discovery of faith in unexpected places. It provides a raw and revealing portrait of mental illness, its creative genius, and its destructive tentacles.
THEY FLY SILENT is a psychological page turner chock full of family secrets, generational curses, southern maladies and haunting redemption. A captivating debut with a beautiful reminder of hope, healing and letting go.
Advance Praise
“Author Barb Lanell has crafted a truly chilling work of fiction with plenty of deep and complex psychological plotlines to offer its readers. One of the features which I found particularly impressive about this piece was the keen eye for the subtleties of mental illness and how that played into the psychological element of the plot as it unraveled. The atmosphere chilled me to the bone with its overtones of Southern Gothic styling, painting a bleak and tense portrait of Cass’s world as her past comes back to haunt her and her present-day pressures increase. When combined with the author’s attention to detail in close narration and the presentation of Cass’s speech and emotions, this makes for an intense and satisfying psychological journey that will have you gripped from cover to cover. Overall, I would highly recommend They Fly Silent to fans of emotive drama, accurately penned psychological exploration, and for suspense enthusiasts everywhere.”
— K.C. Finn for Reader’s Favorite (5-Star Seal)
“With a sinister and frightening plot and engaging characters, the book is mesmerizing and impossible to put down once you start reading it; I stayed up all night to finish it. This novel had me crying, holding my breath, and finally feeling jubilant as Cass comes to terms with her past and present. Impactful and profound, it is a poignant and enlightening story of how a woman overcomes the darkness residing in her mind. Carrying the empowering message that living a happy life is not only a dream, but is possible, the story is a sensational psychological thriller that is paradoxically chilling, yet inspiring. Containing some violence, strong language, and sexual references, the story is more suitable for a mature reader.”
— Susan Sewell for Reader’s Favorite (5-Star Seal)
“In this deep story of a woman struggling to understand her past and overcome personal demons, there is beauty, life, and love. I was swept away by Barb Lanell’s style of writing. She brought me to tears. Emotionally, I was spent just as Cass was spent after battling her countless issues. They Fly Silent taught me about 'making lovely your losses' and remembering your inner child. A lot of us forget the dreams and hopes we had because the world wanted something different from us. The innocence we may have had disappeared. So much of what we do or what happens to us as children reflects in our adulthood. Lanell shines a light on that and gets readers thinking. Let's not forget who we were for who we are now.”
— Hayley Haun for Reader’s Favorite (5-Star Seal)
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781735608112 |
| PRICE | $15.99 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Tara R, Reviewer
They Fly Silent is a novel that follows the recovery of Cass Collard, a 25 year old woman with amnesia, trauma and a repressed childhood.
I had a very turbulent relationship with this story as I read it. Cass’ backstory was eerily similar to my own, which led to plenty of highs and lows as I read.
The way the book discusses therapy so candidly, and you can place yourself directly in the position of someone who feels vulnerable sharing their hurt out loud. It felt at times like the story was speaking to me directly, giving me advice on how to let go. It was so surreal, and I loved the experience of feeling like I had fallen in alongside Cass and was on her journey with her. It was so different to anything I've ever read before and I loved it.
You are taken on a journey filled with descriptive imagery and choppy sentence structure to truly place you inside the fractured mind of the protagonist. The story flicked between the mundane expectations of the town which were the very traditional “don’t be different” christian family values, and the absolute chaos of the otherness of Cass’ repressed internal monologue.
You’re flung from memory to memory to therapy to the news and back into a memory again. You can’t get your bearings on anything and I believe that’s intentional. The book is very artistically constructed. It felt like this structure represented the unstable sense of self in a mind touched by trauma.
You get to understand her younger self is so confident and accepting of what’s other about her, which is a direct contrast to the now where she is sarcastic and angry and disconnected. Societal conventions squashed her growth, and this story takes you on the uneven road to regaining herself.
The magic talked about in this book wasn’t the commercial kind you see in Harry Potter and the like, but rather an earthen spirituality that was woven into every single chapter. I feel like this book would be done a disservice if you didn’t read a physical paper copy. Something about it begs to be connected with physically. I love that aura.
I would absolutely recommend this to anyone to try. It’s a really detailed read full of depth and questioning and spirituality. It touches on trauma in a really healing way, and whether the reader connects with that or not it’s a very unique and worthwhile read.
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