The Silent Treatment – Blog Tour

 

 

GoodReads:

A lifetime together. Six months of silence. One last chance.

Frank hasn’t spoken to his wife Maggie for six months.

For weeks they have lived under the same roof, slept in the same bed and eaten at the same table – all without words.

Maggie has plenty of ideas as to why her husband has gone quiet.

But it will take another heartbreaking turn of events before Frank finally starts to unravel the secrets that have silenced him.

Is this where their story ends?
Or is it where it begins?

With characters that will capture your heart, THE SILENT TREATMENT celebrates the phenomenal power of love and the importance of leaving nothing unsaid.

Book Details
Title: The Silent Treatment
By: Abbie Greaves
Publication Date: April 2, 2020
Publisher: Century
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover/Kindle

My Review

Content/Trigger Warnings: Suicide attempt, self-harm, rape/sexual assault, loss of a pregnancy and drug addiction.

I read the first two pages and wrote down in my notes ‘Already emotional.’ This pretty much set the tone for this novel.

Frank has gone silent, for SIX months, and his wife Maggie cannot figure out why. She’s tried to be understanding, it doesn’t seem as if he doesn’t love her anymore or anything of that sort, he just…refuses to speak.

But, can Frank keep quiet when he finds Maggie, overdosed on sleeping pills?

He breaks his silence, but, now the real question is, is it too late?

It truly is emotionally charged from start to finish, and the book is divided into two sections. Her silence, in her coma, and his silence. In both sections, though it’s about two people trying to tell each other everything they’ve meant to, not wanting anything left unsaid that should have been.

The silence seems to revolve around their lives as parents because as parents and caretakers will know, having someone to look after consumes your life in many ways. They have a daughter after giving up, and this is her story as much as it is theirs.

Greaves has a way of going directly for the heart of the matter while still using beautiful prose to do so. You fall in love with Frank and Maggie, and I became their personal cheerleader, loving so much of their relationship and feeling so much of their pain.

The reasons for the silence, for the overdose in pills, all of it is utterly heartbreaking, but this is not a story without hope or love. So, do not despair too much, I can’t say how it ends, spoilers, but I can say it’s truly worth a read.

A lot of sentiments in this book actually hit very close to home for me, so, this was maybe a bit of a biased read in some ways, but, I saw this as a good thing for me. Frank and Maggie’s daughter is in some regards like my sister, and the effect of those similar behaviours was mirrored in my own parents, so again, hit very close to home.

I also loved Greaves throwing in the narrator, and finding out who it was. A ++ for that, truly a nice touch to put on it.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel, it was a great debut that doubled as an emotional rollercoaster!

Four cups of coffee from me, thank you to Abbie Greaves and Century for a copy of this during the Cornerstone showcase, and thank you to Anne for letting me join the tour in exchange for my honest review!

 

About the Author

Abbie Greaves studied at Cambridge University before working in a literary agency for a number of years.

She was inspired to write her first novel, THE SILENT TREATMENT, after reading a newspaper article about a boy in Japan who had never seen his parents speak to one another before. It will be published in April 2020.

Abbie lives in Edinburgh with her boyfriend and is hard at work on her follow-up novel, THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.

Author Links

GoodReads | Website | Twitter | Instagram

 

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