The Silents: An Everhaven Novella (The Reaper Trilogy)

Joining a mysterious holy society of the hooded Silents was never on Kat's radar--until an arranged marriage forces her hand to spare her from a vindictive would-be spouse and instead live a life in the same place as her true love, Adam. The star-crossed lovers soon realize that they've jumped into something far above their heads, with no one to turn to and nowhere to run, in a city where those who were born there, like them, physically cannot pass through barriers into the outside world.

I decided to give a new world by a new author a try when I saw this novella listed for a free giveaway with other Fantasy novels/novellas in March 2021.

The Silents, for a novella, was a very interesting and hooking short read. It was not what I was expecting--it has less of a fantasy feel and more drama than I was expecting, but it was an original premise. Elizabeth's world-building was stunning! I was able to picture myself alongside her characters in their white-picket-fence-image of a "perfect" town and inside the Silent Compound where the world has an opposite appearance but is the flip-side to the same imperfection that the town wishes to maintain.

Having not read any of the other books in the series, I found this novella to be a super-helpful set-up for what I imagine will be an amazing story about Dean and Abigail in future books.

My only disappointment while reading it was purely my preference as a reader, not a necessary flaw of the story-telling. We follow the majority of the story through the eyes of Kat and Adam, but toward the very end (over 80% of the way in), unexpected head-hopping to different characters in each chapter felt odd to me.

Had it not been for that, I would happily have given Kat and Adam's portion of The Silents a solid 5/5. Great tension between the characters, a sweet, clean romance doomed from the start but true and pure, and the fire and conviction of discovering one's purpose in life truly rule in this thought-provoking novella! Well-done!