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?

Firstly, I was so lucky to meet the wonderful Abbie, who was so lovely. She spoke with such passion about this novel and I couldn’t wait to pick this book up 

This book is an unique, moving, heartfelt and unforgettable debut.  The characters in the book are so real that you feel you are part of the journey with them.  It is a thought provoking novel and had me questioning what I would have done in the circumstances. 

It is a beautiful and absorbing novel and is highly recommended 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Frank and Maggie haven't spoken for six months - despite being married, living in the same house, eating at the same table and sharing the same bed. When Maggie ends up in hospital in a coma, Frank realises he now has to come clean about why he's been silent for so long, as it may be his last chance to tell her.

Written from both points of view, The Silent Treatment is an emotional exploration of a marriage on the edge of breaking down. Despite it breaking my heart, I couldn't stop myself from reading on as the mystery of why they aren't speaking unravels further. Beautifully written, this novel highlights the importance of communication and is a powerful book about the dangers of leaving things unsaid.

I don’t really know how to review this book.  I guessed quite early on what had happened to cause the silence, I guessed what would be the outcome but something kept drawing me on to finish the book.  It is a well written, well constructed story with very real characters. Parts of the story had me almost in tears as I felt for Maggie and Frank. A very good debut.

This was such a heartwarming, and also heartbreaking read.

It follows the story of a married couple, Frank and Maggie, seemingly going about their normal day, the book jumps right in to Maggie preparing the evening meal for her and Frank, it then takes a bit more of a sinister turn, when Maggie just sits down at the kitchen table and starts emptying multiple packets of sleeping pills to take. Frank is unaware of what his wife is doing, and he is upstairs playing solitaire on his computer.

You see, even though Maggie and Frank have been happily married for 40 years, for the last 6 months, they haven't spoken to each other, at all!

When the smoke alarm goes off and doesn't stop, Frank goes to investigate, and finds Maggie slumped in her chair, with the packets of pills beside her.
After being rushed to hospital she is placed into a medically induced coma, and Frank is told that she might not pull through and that he should encourage her to wake up by talking to her.

But what do you say to someone that you haven't spoken to for 6 months?

And so Frank begins to tell Maggie the story of them, how they met, and all that has happened in between, but can he eventually tell her why they stopped taking?

We see Maggie and Frank through both of their eyes, and the story they tell is so beautiful, and heartbreaking, and so cleverly written, I was genuinely invested in their marriage.

Please grab this one when you can, you will not be disappointed!

I didn't know what to expect from this book but I was pleasantly surprised by the end! Told in two parts, Frank goes first; he hasn't spoken to his wife for 6 months because he has a secret he can't tell her. But now she's lying in a coma and he needs to confess. The second part of the book is Maggie's turn to confess-we discover she too has secrets. The two stories mirror each other to build a picture of this couple and their life. With a strong focus on the relationship between husband and wife, and parent and child, this was a relatively quick read but an important message about trust and communication.

I absolutely adored this book.  It's so well written with beautiful characters that really come to life.  The story of Maggie and Frank throughout the years and their difficulties with infertility and parenting, and the effect that had on their relationship is just glorious.

This was a very emotional book that was well written. It's quite heartbreaking but very real, with beautiful prose. 

I'd recommend it if you're looking for these features.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

I enjoyed reading this, well written, and it's an emotional experience indeed, gave me all the feels. Will definitely recommend the title.

I loved this book. It slowly unfurled into a lovely story of love at different levels. It's not only about the relationship between Maggie and her husband Frank but their relationship, together and separately, with their daughter Eleanor. It starts with the silence of the title, Maggie and Frank  not talking for six months and what follows is to explain the reason  why. I really became engrossed in the story and all of the characters, their good points and also their flaws. There are happy parts and instances of sadness too but overall, it is simply a really lovely book that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you Netgalley for letting me read and re view this book.

Love and forgiveness. Heart breaking novel full of insight into the human condition. You can try to be the perfect parents but circumstances can intervene. Maggie and Frank an adorable and devoted couple, make the best of their childless marriage. They appear content but Maggie still longs for a child. After many years she finds herself pregnant, they have a daughter Eleanor, who in their eyes is ideal child. Their lives start to fall apart as Eleanor rebels. Written from both points of view, can Maggie and Frank resolve their conflicts?.

Gosh but Abbie Greaves’ book is a beautifully rendered emotional read! It’s a love story wrapped in a mystery and so wrought with fractured emotions and tension that you want to find a way to intervene and make this couple communicate.

The Silent Treatment is a deeply intimate portrait of a relationship. Frank and Maggie have been married for 40 years. Eleanor is their only child, conceived long after they had given up trying and that just makes her extra special to them both.

Told initially in the voices of Maggie and Frank, the novel traces their relationship and where and how things went wrong. So we hear from Frank as he reads Maggie’s journal written in the form of letters and that enables us to understand what he is thinking and feeling as he does so.

Maggie and Frank have not spoken for 6 months, now we wonder if they will ever speak to each other again. Abbie Greaves’ accomplished debut is a heart-wrenching story of love and what can happen when two people stop meaningful communication and how relationships can dwindle on the vine if not nurtured and tended to with honesty.

As Frank reads, he’s talking to Maggie, explaining himself and as he recounts their life together it adds poignancy knowing that he may be too late in deciding to speak now.

The reader is witness to the initial strength of their love they met at University. Frank was shy and a little bit stuffy and Maggie was his heart’s desire.  40 years later and a climactic event has brought Frank to his knees. For six months he and Maggie have been punishing with each other with the silent treatment until, finally, Maggie has given Frank long enough and cannot bear it any longer.

The author slowly drip feeds the reasons for the fissure and as we come to understand the reasons for it, we realise that the love has not diminished but misunderstandings and parental heartbreak meant that secrets grew and resentment flourished.

Through Frank’s narrative we hear the story of their relationship, courtship marriage and of their lives as parents, which is what is at the heart of their current problems. It is a beautifully rendered portrait of love tinged with a host of other emotions from fear to guilt to plain worry, sadness and anxiety, showing us how even the best of relationships can falter in the face of enormous pressures.

Maggie’s journal is the catalyst for progressing the story and enabling us to find out what was in her mind as we hear Frank’s reactions.   A host of tragic incidents has led them to distance each other and to question the basis of their relationship and whether they were even good parents. Years of keeping secrets, being afraid of the other’s judgement and deciding on silence as the answer has broken this pair.

A switch in narrative technique enables to give us Maggie’s reactions and perspective to Frank’s declarations and this adds a layer of emotional clarity to our understanding. She tackles some strong and difficult themes and does so unflinchingly, making for some quite raw moments.

Verdict: Beautifully written, well-paced and immaculately plotted this is an immensely compelling book with a propulsive plot line and an emotionally wrought turbo charge. Read with a box of tissues.

The story begins with a tragic decision and the realisation that it might be too late to say the things that need to be said. The things Maggie and Frank should have said, but were swallowed in their months of silent treatment, and didn't.

I can't decide whether the silence or the dismantling of the marriage and relationship was more fascinating. The silence between the two of them could have ultimately lead to the choice Maggie made. Much like isolation experiments with monkeys have shown, humans can crumble under the pressure of isolation techniques such as not having any verbal interaction with the only other person who lives in your home - the person who loves you the most.

It seems as if the crumbling is due to a lack of communication and hiding important moments in their lives from each other, which creates an atmosphere of tension and a lack of trust. The reason why they do it is irrelevant because it becomes cause and effect. Or is it irrelevant? Does the reason or person at the core of the secrets automatically solidify the love the two have for each other because they are the same.

It's a contemporary read for all ages - a marriage stripped down to the bones. Heartache, lies, fear and grief are ground into the essence of this story to create a fascinating tale of loyalty, companionship and love.

This is a story with incredible depth. I think what I enjoyed about it the most was the simplicity of it and the basic structure. Proof that to write a captivating story you don't need more than two characters and a great storyline. This would make a great play by the way. Very - Barefoot in the Park. Hopefully this is the first of many.

A poignant, heart-breaking tale of a fragile relationship. 

When I started to read “The Silent Treatment” I really wondered if this book would be my cup of tea, as I found it difficult to imagine such a bizarre situation. 

It is a poignant, heart-breaking tale of the fragile relationship between Frank and Maggie who haven’t actually spoken to each other for six months, even though they had been married for 40 years!!! Why? I wonder? 

Luckily, I started to realise that Abbie Greaves has an eloquent, thought provoking style of writing, which then inspired me to really discover why this husband and wife were in this atrocious, distressing situation. 

Things finally came to a head when Maggie took drastic action, which gave Frank the motivation to reminisce over their entire relationship, telling Maggie of the highs and lows. Ironically, he discovered that his wife had put her own darkest thoughts in a note book. 

This is a dark tale, giving an insight into how and why mental health can take over in human situations, but I can see why it won’t appeal to everyone. It’s up to you, but I recommend that you give it a go. 

Galadriel. 

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.

I was fortunate to receive a copy of this book to read from NetGalley.

It was a beautiful story of a couple in a very long marriage and the challenges they experience during their relationship.

I loved the character of Daisy and her connection to Frank. I guessed quite early on the situation with Eleanor but not the reasons why Frank and Maggie were not speaking.

The story was beautifully crafted and I also had some contact with Abbie because there were a lot of duplications of text in the copy I had. Abbie promptly responded to my message and advised me to redownload, as the publisher had rectified these, and contact her if it didn't work!

The Silent Treatment was a beautifully written story about love, sadness and secrets which somehow manages to be both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

Maggie’s story really resonated with me as I know very well how your relationship changes as the years go on and how having children can affect the relationship you had with your husband. Suddenly you have all these little people who need you in order to survive and this often means that your husband gets sidelined. I therefore really felt for Maggie and how she was feeling.

The story is told by both Maggie and Frank so that the reader gets to hear the story from both points of view. My favourite part of this was Frank’s story as I loved that he was telling us what was going on at the same time as explaining himself to Maggie. This intimate glimpse into their relationship was really affectively done and meant that I felt everything they were going through like it was happening to me.

I so enjoyed this wonderful book and felt very sad when I finished it as the characters had started to feel like they were old friends. The message in this book was a beautiful one, that you shouldn’t hold off telling someone how you feel as you never know what’s going to happen.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Georgina from Midas publicity for my copy of this book.

The silent treatment is a beautifully written harrowing account of Frank and Maggie’s long marriage. Told by both parties, this is a minutely observed dissection of a life lived together over many years, detailing the intricacies and complexities of their unique relationship. Frank and Maggie haven’t spoken for six months and through the recounting of memories alongside much soul searching we learn of their shared past that has brought them to this moment in time. 
Frank’s perspective is relayed via Maggie’s beside where she lays in a coma and his grief and horror at the part he has played in the situation they now find themselves in is palpable. Spanning the years from when they first met, through difficulties in conceiving to finally becoming parents, Frank bares his soul desperate to explain his reasons for his silence before it’s too late. The way he interacts with her now is so tender and moving. It makes for  compelling reading not knowing exactly what the secret is he has been withholding. 
Not only is this novel about miscommunication and misunderstandings it is a love story, not just between Frank and Maggie but between their daughter Eleanor,exposing the strength of parental love. The whole spectrum of emotions every parent experiences is explored, ranging from elation and awe to guilt, fear, dismay and immense sadness when life doesn’t turn out how you expected. Eleanor is at the heart of  this lengthy silence between Frank and Maggie so that happy memories are overshadowed by years of worry and inability to reach out and help when it’s most needed. Reading this I could feel their pain in what is a tender and compassionately written novel, wanting to reach out and console these two people who blame themselves for feeling they have let Eleanor and each other down. In their own words they are seeking forgiveness and the chance to salvage their marriage for their love for each other has never really been in question.
Whilst this is mostly a sobering and thoughtful read, I felt connected to the storyline knowing that Frank and Maggie’s story could belong to any couple which adds to the poignancy. They are just ordinary likeable people who could be your friends or neighbours. Although life has definitely not always been kind and they’ve experienced much heartache you could tell these two people were meant to be together. Like chalk and cheese they simply compliment one another and since their first encounter knew that there could never be anyone else they would rather be with. Personally I think that is something to celebrate which is why I wanted Frank and Maggie to unburden themselves of secrets they had kept and release themselves from the constraints of blame. They deserved to be happy again in my opinion. 
I liked the way we hear Frank’s perspective first and then Maggie’s voice through a planner/diary that she has left behind in the kitchen. It made me feel sad to think two people who knew each other inside out hadn’t been able to communicate when it was most needed but I totally understand their reasons for doing so; they were protecting each other from further heartbreak. Who can judge whether the decisions we make as parents are right or wrong? We can only do what we think is best and hindsight is a wonderful thing. 
Highly recommend this debut novel and look forward to hearing more from this author. My thanks go to the publisher and Netgalley for for giving me the opportunity to read.

Frank and Maggie have been married for forty years. Haven't spoken for six  months. Maggie is at the end of her tether and takes an overdose. She's put I to a coma. They each kept secrets from each other. They didn't share them as they didn't want to hurt each others feelings. Whilst Maggie is in the coma, Frank takes the opportunity to say to Maggie all the things he should have told her before. 

This is a love story that has spanned forty years. A story that will tug at your heartstrings and ,if up your spirits. I felt every bit of Maggie's pain and Frank's guilt. We look into relationships, love, guilt and loyalty. Thenstory is beautifully written and thought provoking. Its told from both of their points of view. A really good debut novel. 

I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House UK,  Cornerstone and the author Abbie Greaves for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A slower-paced book that looks at an ordinary family and how miscommunication and small untruths can culminate in heartbreaking and tragic events. Each page is soaked in emotion as the reader experiences Frank and Maggie's relationship from the moment they met, right up to the present day, told firstly from Frank's perspective and then from Maggie's. Contained within the pages is love, obsession, pathos, grief, second chances, motherhood, fatherhood and pain. All is slowly revealed as the reader starts to understand what it is that drove Frank to stop talking and Maggie to commit such a drastic act. 

For some reason though, the book didn't resonate with me. Despite such heart-wrenching situations, I didn't shed a single tear, instead, I felt frustrated that the couple weren't more honest with each other. Overall, I think it was a case of 'wrong time and the wrong reader' for this book. 

I would like to thank the publisher and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

"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?"

This is a sweet, poignant debut novel. There is a strong focus on relationships and love, of course, but also a focus on families and parenting. 

However, I did find it a little slow to start off with. The characters didn't grab me. I did persevere and found that I started getting more interested as the book went on; Greaves does dangle the carrot in front of the reader well! I was also desparate to find out what becomes of Frank and Maggie's daughter Eleanor, who was mentioned a few times in the beginning of the book, introduced more as the book went on, but it was obvious she was not on the scene, so I just HAD to keep reading to see where she was!

The book was heartbreaking and heartwarming. It was well-written, and I'm interested to see what else Abbie Greaves writes in her career; this is a great start for a debut!

Frank and Maggie have been happily married for forty years, getting by all the bumps and twists that reality put in their way – and there were plenty of them. However, it seems that now they have hit a wall – Franks hasn’t spoken to Maggie for six months. Why? Maggie can’t take it anymore and one day Frank finds her slumped over the kitchen table after swallowing the contents of a bottle of sleeping tablets. He blames himself and is desperate to explain to Maggie why he hasn’t uttered one word to her in the last half year. Encouraged by a nurse at the hospital, Frank starts to speak – is there enough time for him to tell everything?

It is a beautifully written story, both plot – wise and writing style – wise. The narration flowed so naturally, it didn’t feel forced, it just felt so normal and human and the writing is almost lyrical, so very evocative and vivid it is. The author has a way with words, her narration is touching, poignant yet uplifting and flowing effortlessly, keeping you glued to the pages.

I would say that it is a very character driven story, and they all were really well written and developed, as well as the relationships and dynamics between them – and they were never the easiest ones. Their feelings and emotions were effortlessly brought to us on the pages.
Maggie and Frank’s voices are strong and distinctive. During Maggie’s stay at the hospital we learn everything about their life together, starting with the early days of their relationship and their struggle to have a child of their own. I have expected – probably like many of you reading the book – that they had a fight, that there must have been an understatement between them and this is why they live in silence, but the truth is much more shocking and heart – breaking. The story of them is unique, full of memories, anecdotes and thoughts and there emerges a picture of people committed to each other, loving each other and caring about each other.

I must admit that the epilogue confused me a bit – probably because the author has suddenly decided to use the third narrator, so out of the blue and only for the few pages of the epilogue. Somehow it didn’t sit with me so well, not sure why, but it didn’t fit the whole story.

The story explores marriage, parenting and more difficult issues in a gentle, understanding way, showing how hard it sometimes is to communicate with our closest ones and how secrets kept from each other may affect our relationships – but we still keep them, out of fear as we don’t want to hurt them, out of love.
It is a powerful and moving book, so very honestly touching upon many heavier issues, bringing the small family to life, creating them all believable and full of flaws. It is emotional, poignant and uplifting at the same time. It is a great debut novel and the author shows her strong voice – I am already looking forward to her next release. Highly recommended.