Frank and Maggie are married and the book begins with Maggie being hospitalised and Frank (who hasn't spoken to her in 6 months) is by her side.
I was really interested in this as the premise of a book. However, despite it being really well written, it just didn't engage me at all.
It's more of a family drama, written from the perspective of Frank and told in his reminiscing of their early days together.
Overall, a well written read, but, due to my struggling to engage with either the storyline or characters, an OK read for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, UK Random House for the opportunity to preview.

I feel like saying I enjoyed this book isn’t quite right. It was fascinating and thought provoking, and it prompts lots of questions about the secrets people keep from each other.

The book starts with Maggie, Franks wife of over 40 years, taking an overdose. And Frank has no idea why, because they haven’t spoken in 6 months. The story is Franks narration of their life until this point (as told to a comatose Maggie) and Maggies version of the same story, as discovered by Frank.

I didn’t really relate to the issues they faced (which other reviewers have touched on) but I don’t think it mattered to my engagement with the story. How people respond to life events and how they share them with the people they love is fascinating, and the author does a good job with it. The story was equally well told from both Frank and Maggie’s perspectives, and the events in their lives weren’t dramatic to the point of disbelief. It would be a great book club pick, I can imagine it provoking a lot of discussion.

The Silent Treatment is a truly emotional read and one that felt a little too close to home in a lot of ways.

It is easy to see myself in Maggie and my husband in Frank….having gone through similar trials and tribulations; having similar personality traits and emotional states. I won’t go into that lest I reveal too much…. suffice to say the characters feel completely authentic; their responses to life’s hardships, to love, loss and grief felt so real…dredging up some things I would much rather leave where they are.

Dredging aside, I enjoyed this novel. Yes there were tears…and a pile of tissues on the couch…..but the writing is beautifully languorous…slowly winding the reader through the hearts and minds of the characters and building a solid foundation of care and empathy towards them.

Told first from Frank’s point of view, then by Maggie’s through a series of letters/diary entries to Frank, The Silent Treatment is a love story 40 years in the making. A portrait of the way love, lies, guilt, grief and loss can shape a relationship and an expression of true unconditional love.

The Silent Treatment, by Abbie Greaves is a heart-breaking story of love, life, parenthood and relationships. An exceptional debut.

Synopsis: Frank and Maggie have been in love and have been married for a long time. But, for the past six months they have lived in complete silence. Frank has suddenly withdrawn and hasn’t breathed a word to his wife in this time. Maggie doesn’t know why and the silence has been eating away at her. Six months of silence has passed until Frank finds his wife on the kitchen floor with an empty pack of sleeping pills by her side. The hospital place Maggie in a medically induced coma, but they don’t have high hopes for her. Can Frank find his voice again? Can he tell Maggie why he has lived in silence for so long before it is too late?

So, before I begin, this book is not what I expected. I was expecting to follow Maggie and Frank’s relationship as it slowly breaks down, and while that is what happens it is not what the story is necessarily about. It is a book about their relationship but more importantly their relationship with their daughter. I did not expect it to focus so much on parenthood and while I am not a parent I still found it to be utterly devastating, it was an emotional story and while I could not fully understand or connect with all the elements, I could feel symathy and empathy for their situation allowing me to feel more connected to the book.

THE NEXT PARAGRAPH CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS AS CONTENT WARNINGS HAVE BEEN GIVEN. PLEASE SKIP IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO READ THEM.

CW: (may contain spoilers so read at your own discretion) …………… : Attempted suicide/suicide, self harm, drug abuse (not detailed), miscarriage, rape (mentioned/referenced – not detailed), difficult parent-child relationship, ….. (relative spoiler) referenced/assumed Postnatal Depression/ Depression.

— Simple And Direct But Extremely Emotive And Powerful —
The Writing/Narrative. Abbie Greaves has a fantastic writing style. It is relatively simple and direct but extremely emotive and powerful. Her writing is easy to read, allowing you to race through the book, and very easily draws you in – it seamlessly creates an emotional atmosphere and empathy for the characters.

The book is told from the perspective of Frank as he recalls the story of his relationship with Maggie and builds up to what eventually led to his silence. We also get some insight into Maggie’s view of this story – interestingly done and incredibly effective. However, we predominantly see Frank’s perspective, his emotions and his motivations. This is restrictive as we don’t see what Maggie thinks (her view is also not until much later) but it works and is effective because it maintains some mystery in the novel, it keeps you reading. The slow build up and reveal works well with this perspective choice as you can feel Frank’s struggle with it.

Maggie’s perspective is a limited one, though I’ll refrain from saying how we see it. But it lends a deep and heart-breaking insight ito some of her own struggles and into Maggie herself. This was a wonderful inclusion that relly bought emotion and devastation to the novel and sheds light on some incredible difficulties.

The perspective was effective and aided the story and its slow reveal very well, it was a good choice and didn’t grow stagnant at all, it worked well and allowed us to piece things together ourself.

— A Wonderful And Powerful Story —
The Story/Plot. The story is a character driven one since it focuses around the two main characters relationship and Frank’s hesitation to reveal why he has been silent, there is no ‘plot’ so to speak but the characters are strong enough to drive the story.

The story itself is definitely an interesting one but I did feel a little misled. The synopsis made it appear that the book was about a couple’s relationship breaking down. While that does kind of happen it isn’t really a stroy about that – it is a story about parenting and parent-child relationships. This doesn’t become apparent until a little way in and was a little shocking as it was unexpected.

However, it is still a wonderful and powerful story. The slow build and reveal worked incredibly well, the way Frank talks to his wife about the start of their relationship up to the point where he grew silent was brilliant. I loved the slow progression as it felt like Frank was sorting through his feelings, it felt right to have it move in that way. The parenting aspect is incredibly essential to the stroy and was interesting and devastating to read about. At times it was a little difficult to connect with, since I am not a parent myself, but overall I could still feel the emotion and impact the events of the book had or evoked.

All the elements created and explored tied into each other very well, the mystery was well thought out and did keep me hooked. My only concern was the end twist, the reason for Frank’s silence was not as suprising as it was likely intended. To clarify as the ending is double layered. One element that occurs regarding the ending is not suprising as I figured it out pretty early on, but Frank’s part – his solid reason for staying silent was a little more surprising. Not overly shocking but definitely understandable and heart-breaking.

The story itself deals with a lot of issues, I won’t list them here as they are spoilers. But, it deals with them well, in a raw and realistic way – this was effective and difficult, it definitely created a lot of emotion, empathy and sympathy throughout the story.

— Well Written, Raw And Realistic —
The Characters. So Frank Maggie and Eleanor and the three key players in this story, other characters are present and are interesting and well written but I will only be talking about Maggie and Frank as Eleanor is too central to the plot and I don’t want to post spoilers and the other characters are minor ones.

Frank, Maggie and Eleanor are extremely well written, raw and realistic and their relationships with each other are very natural and emotional.

Frank. Frank obviouly loves Maggie, he is utterly devoted to her (despite his silence) and will do naything for her. However, he is naive and doesn’t appear to think deeply about her views or how things may affect her, he has a tendency to take people and their emotions at face value. He is, however, sweet and kind just a little too reserved. He also adores his child, but has quite a different approach to Maggie in terms of parenting, but it does deeply affect him as he does care about them both.

Frank, when Maggie ends up in hospital, is devastated and is desperate to tell the story of his silence but struggles too and opts to start from the beginning. We see his past with Maggie and his love is obvious, but his devastation and guilt is eating him up and the story progressively gets harder to tell and more devastating. Frank is a brilliantly written character who really brings out the emotion of the story as he tells it and places a lot of blame on himself – it is realistic and poignant.

Maggie. Maggie is the opposite of Frank. She is fiery, impuslive and wild – she is incredibly lively and headstrong often taking matters into her own hands. However, Maggie feels things deeply, she is incredibly affect by her emotions but knows how to put on a brave face. Her love and adoration for Frank is equally as obvious, she is passionate and her love she is equally so but his silence is devastating to her.

She is equally devoted to her child. As we get to her perspective her emotions become clear and her distress of the situation is painful. Maggie is an incredibly strong person and her character is powerful you can’t help but feel for her.

Overall: Despite being misled, it is a powerful story that is heart-breaking, emotional and difficult. The characters are raw and realistic and the story progresses slowly but effectively. This is a book that I would recommend, it is a difficult story about love and parenting and is a brilliant read. Though I was not the right audience for such a book, it is one that was worth reading.

*I received an eARC of #TheSilentTreatment by #AbbieGreaves from #Netgalley #RandomHouseUKCornerstone(Century) in exchange for an honest review*

This review will be posted to Goodreads, my blog and twitter on 2nd April - links will be provided on this date.

A touching and at times desperately sad tale which is thoughtfully written and unhurried,

The Silent Treatment explores love and loss, desperation for a family, mistakes and hidden secrets between one couple, and their daughter.

Each unable to communicate what they so desperately need to. Each wishing for the best for others. Each loving the other. But each locked in a six month long silence unable to break the loop.

At times it reminded me of Mitch Ablom novels. Beautiful and tragic. A recommended read if you are at a point in your life when you can read about such things. A truly heartbreaking story of love. Get tissues ready...

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC I. Exchange for my honest views.

Frank hasn't spoken to Maggie, his wife for six months. Why?
Maggie has had enough and decides to end her life but is found.
As she lies in a coma Frank opens up to her about their love, life and why he hasn't spoken.
Will Maggie recover and more importantly will they?

Thought provoking book, beautifully written

A beautifully written book, written from the perspective of both husband and wife. Although quite easily and early the book I guessed the main theme, the writing kept me intrigued enough to want to know the whole story. I felt as though I was there living their lives, and that is quite rare in a book

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I enjoyed this story very much and felt like I knew each character personally due to the description of them. I enjoyed the storyline. This is not my usual genre but in this instance I am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. Thanks again.

I'm afraid I couldn't get to grips with this book. The opening repeated scences annoyed from the onset,and as there's so many other books I'd to read, I decided I didn't want to waste my time and effort in this one.

As someone that absolutely hates getting the silent treatment, this book both interested and scared me to death. I couldn’t look away. Very unique idea that totally worked for me. Loved it!

This seems to be a book that you either love or it leaves you a bit unsatisfied. I am sorry that I am in the latter group. I read it fairly quickly, enjoyed it well enough but found the central premise rather unbelievable. To accept that after 40 years of apparently extremely happy marriage, Frank stops speaking to Maggie while carrying on normal life, is pushing my ability to enter the story. He has his reasons and she tries to get through to him but fails until the day he finds her slumped on the kitchen table having tried to take her own life. Silent treatment is generally thought to be a form of passive aggression. Someone who can't deal with their own feelings or who wants to punish you, stops communicating and refuses to explain why. This is one of the most painful and difficult things to deal with in any relationship and of course it can drive someone to take extreme action. But Frank - why?

The book is about the story of their relationship and their family and the struggles they had with their daughter. I wondered if one reason she went to completely off the rails was because her parents were cocooned in their own love pact and didn't want the outer world to spoil their threesome. Too much pressure. Too intense expectations. Who knows as this wasn't really explored in the story?

However, the book tells us in great detail how much Frank adores his wife and how in retelling her their story,, along with the bits that he had previously kept secret, he helps her recover from the effects of her suicide attempt.

It is an interesting idea and I was attracted to the book because of the themes but in reading it I felt a bit disappointed. I certainly read it quite happily but would have liked the book more if there had been more depth to the analysis of their claustrophobic relationship and what lay behind their daughters troubles. And I wish there had been more explanation for why a loving loyal husband would stop speaking to his wife - just feeling guilty didn't really convince me.

So, a mixed reaction from me. But I would try another by this author as I think her ideas are very interesting.

I liked this book but unfortunately I didn't love it.

I found it hard to warm to the characters entirely, however it's still a lovely story and a nice read.

This book enthralled me on so many levels that it is almost difficult for me to find the words to explain why it’s a novel I’d recommend. The voice of the two main characters, Frank and Maggie, is so powerful that I really felt as if I was intruding in their lives, peeking at their diaries, at their most intimate moments.

Both characters feel so real that, even with the mystery of the secret that led them apart dragging on until the very end, I never got bored. It was, overall, very cleverly presented – and very cleverly stretched until almost the epilogue.

The Silent Treatment is the story of a family thorn apart by secrets that Frank and Maggie kept in order to protect each other from a terrible truth. It’s the story of two soul mates whose world collapses the day that Maggie decides to end Frank’s six months silence treatment by swallowing all of her sleeping tablets. It’s a story of tenderness and care, of grief and joy, despair and elation.

The writing is fluid, never repetitive, and also quite evocative. There is only one downside I have to point out, and this is the choice to introduce a third narrator in the epilogue. This, in my opinion, ruined the end of a beautiful book, to the point that I wonder why the editors decided to keep it. However, as this happened just in the last couple of pages, I decided to give the book a full score, as I still enjoyed it quite a lot.

Frank and Maggie, having been happily married for forty years have hit a bump in the road. Actually it's more of a colossal boulder which neither of them seems able to clamber over or around. For the past six months Frank has not uttered one word to Maggie. Not one. But why?

One morning he finds Maggie slumped over the kitchen table having apparently swallowed the contents of a bottle of sleeping tabelts. Did she intend to kill herself, or was this an attempt to shake Frank out of his dreadful silence?

During the next few days, whilst Maggie lies in an induced coma, Frank sits beside her, and begins to talk to her, reminiscing about the early days of their relationship, their subsequent marriage and the only child Eleanor, who despite being a perfect child has become something else altogether as she entered her teens. As they struggle to help her, they each become mired in their own misery.

This is probably one of the most moving books I've read in recent months; it is joyous and tragic in equal measure with this small family of three all totally believable and all terribly flawed. To say the family is dysfinctional isn't quite right, but the missed signals, the miscommunication between people who love each other deeply was, at times, unbearable. It's a gentle, but at times brutal, unpicking of a relationship.

Beautifully written, not a word wasted, no cliches or sterotypes here - a book that will stay in my mind for a long, long time.

Trigger warnings for a suicide attempt and addiction.

This book starts with a wife attempting suicide. Then it’s a monologue interwoven with flashbacks from her husband about what lead them both to this point.

The book was alright I didn’t particularly like either husband or wife. I found that the topics discussed were fairly superficial on the depth. I felt like the ending was too easy and everything was tied up too quickly.

I couldn't put this book down. I was totally captured by the story. I love how the story is split, almost in half, with the perspective changing from Frank to Maggie. The epilogue truly is the cherry on top, as it gave the whole novel some much needed clarity and finality.

Without giving anything away, I can whole heartedly say that the love between this couple is so strong and they really do have each others best interests at heart. This story, fixates on their love and their life together, following the highest highs and the lowest lows. We get to see these moments from both perspectives, which really adds to both the story, and our understanding as the reader.

Although I know that this is a work of fiction, my heart still aches for Frank and Maggie, for everything they've gone through. I can imagine how they felt throughout their story; hope, helplessness and heartbreak being the predominant emotions. Closely followed by the strength of their love and the joy shared.

A heart-wrenching, utterly captivating debut from a shining new voice. In The Silent Treatment, Abbie Greaves celebrates the phenomenal power of love, loss and leaving nothing unsaid through a unique portrayal of a long marriage with all its secrets and silence. Cleverly crafted and beautifully written, this novel pulses with an unspoken tenderness that moved me beyond means.

Frank and Maggie are unforgettable characters who’s love and challenges will repeatedly capture your heart.

A must read debut of 2020.

This interesting novel grabbed me right from the start, as Maggie calmly swallows a handful of tablets, then gets up to make dinner from her husband. It takes till half way through prepping the green beans and she has collapsed suddenly, so suddenly there is no time to break her own fall. Frank is so engrossed in his study that the smoke alarm is the first sign of the tragedy that has unfolded in their kitchen. He finds their tea on fire in the oven and a little way away, Maggie is unconscious on the floor. Frank’s voice is hoarse and he’s unused to the sound as he calls the emergency services. This is when I found out that Frank hasn’t spoken to anyone, even his beloved wife, for the past six months.

When I requested an ARC of the novel it was this premise that first drew me in. Probably because, as my long-suffering partner will tell you, I nev. er stop talking. I imagine that not chatting to the person you live with takes concerted effort. Greaves came across the premise for her novel when she read an article about a Japanese boy who had never seen his parents speak to one another. It’s intriguing and does ensure that you keep reading; I kept wondering why and how this has started.

I hadn’t realised that the book was about pregnancy loss and infertility. Greaves writes about the grief and helplessness of this experience with real insight. Having been through the same experience, it was important that Maggie’s response be genuine. We see the ups and downs if a long term relationship and as Frank starts to reminisce, the romantic beginnings of building their home together. As Maggie lies in a coma at the hospital, her nurse Daisy encourages Frank to talk, to say everything he can to her because the time they have left together may be limited. This Is where Frank’s secret is revealed and we know why he hasn’t spoken for six months.

I enjoyed the novel, even though there were parts I didn’t fully connect with. Although Frank’s narration is emotional I found him difficult to understand. It’s a if there is a barrier between the reader and Maggie, both because she’s in a coma and because we only see her through Frank’s eyes at first until the narrative voice changes. I found myself waiting for a contrasting chapter from Maggie’s point of view early on, then with Maggie’s letters we start to see her inner life. I found this a moving and honest portrayal of pregnancy loss and parenthood. It’s hard to imagine a relationship where all the usual day to day things happen like eating together, sleeping together and sex, without a word passing between them. I guess it shows the strength of love, that Maggie can continue to give while receiving silence. I won’t spoil the ending, but it is emotional and I can see it staying with readers. This is an intriguing debut and I would read the author again.

Thank you to Netgalley for my ARC copy. This will have a longer review on my blog around publication day.

ALONG PETAL BY THE SEA

BY

Isabel Allende



Not usually a fan of books where politics are a prominent theme, I loved this book.
It has everything. I have a better understanding of the Spanish Civil War now and the emotional and physical turmoil that refugees suffered in the aftermath, losing everything.
Each chapter opens with a quote from the work of Nobel Prize winner, Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet and politician. He chartered a ship, the Winnipeg, to take 2,200 refugees from the war to Chile. The title of the book is based on a quote from one of his poems.
Cutting across the turmoil caused by the war there is at the heart of the book a love story that covers generations of the same family. Their dreadful loss and deprivation highlights the situation not only in Spain but every country where there is turmoil.
Isabel Allende is an ardent feminist and strong women feature in her books. She interweaves events in her own life and historical events and her books have an immediacy taking the reader into the minds and hearts of her wonderful characters. Because the books are based on truth this reader was keen to check events and do some further research on the time of which she is writing. What a dreadful time, leaving Spain a totally changed country.
Family circumstances see Roser is taken in by a family while merely a girl. She becomes an accomplished pianist but as the friction spreads across Spain she has to flee from Barcelona for her own safety.
Victor is a young doctor exhausted in his attempts to help the injured and victims of the war with little medication, eventually he too must flee his beloved home.
They are together on the ship to Chile where a new and different life awaits.But will it be better? This moving tale tells of the struggle of the young couple and the thousands of others who land in a country with its own problems.
Through several generations we follow this emotional and gripping tale of families trying to exist and survive in the face of what appears to be insurmountable hardship.
This is the first book I have read from this formidable writer but it will not be the last.

I didn't know what to expect from this book but wow, I was absolutely blown away. Such an emotive storyline, beautiful told and so believable. As a mother myself I could identify with so many of the emotions and insecurities of being a parent, 'learning on the job. Outstanding and highly memorable.