This past month I was provided a free copy of Silence in the Basement by Alex Mura for ARC reading, and as horror and thrillers, especially anything promising a terrifying outcome is right up my alley, I read this one in my free time.
Silence in the Basement is a shorter book, but what it may lack in length it makes up for the true space of time that a reader experiences with each horrifying event the book details. Warning: this book is NOT for the faint of heart.
Mura’s book starts innocuous enough, a simple truck driver making his way in life, looking forward to the nicer things in life, a cozy bed, some good music, and the best memories with his late wife. But what sense of comfort and ease there exists in the first few chapters is quickly shattered by a charismatic cannibal who only wants one thing: a family of his own, and converts, to his cannibalistic ways.
Every chapter of Silence in the Basement draws you along a thin thread of hope till the very end. It drip feeds the chance of escape, to both the characters, and the reader, all while it always feels like the only thing worse could be death, until it’s not. Morality falls into question, battles of wits and wills are fought over and over, and by the end, it’s almost a relief to see the last page signaling that finally, it might all be over.
Mura has a succinct, almost Hemmingway-like writing style that rambles on into stream of consciousness. It allows a doorway into the mind of the main character, and once you’re inside you won’t escape until you finish reading. Hank is rather endearing, but his journey through the book takes horrifying twists and turns, and some of it is rather difficult to stomach. But the book still ends on a note of righteous triumph, a final desecrating act. It’s a full circle of life, death, and terror.
If you love the gripping, gory, and gruesome and you don’t mind a bit (or rather a lot) of surgically detailed cannibalism, this book would be right up your alley. I haven’t read Stephen King, but I think this book has a King-esque vibe to it, mixing mental and body horror, as well as a sort of Hancock-style terror that just grips you in your stomach and doesn’t let go. It’s a true work of horror, and terrifying down to the very bone.
You can purchase Silence in the Basement on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble, and you can find and follow the Author Alex Mura on Goodreads.