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A review by incipientdreamer
Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
4.5
<b>4.5 stars</b>
<blockquote><i>What else was she, really, but another animal body afraid of being alone in the cold?</i></blockquote>
Maybe the real horror was your failing marriage all along.
My first time reading anything by Lee Mandelo, and believe me I have not missed the hype around his work. I went in with very high expectations and ended up being pleasantly surprised. Did not expect so much nuance and depth to this short novella about a crazy experiment where a scientist links her brain to a wolf to experience life through the eyes of said wolf. I really enjoyed the ethical discussions on the science being carried out, especially when it is funded by some big corpa, but at the same time acknowledging the lack of funds for research in academia. The themes on preservation, climate change and sustainable science were all very very interesting and Mandelo gives it the time and respect topics such as these deserve, which is no small feat.
The main character is extremely insufferable but her exceedingly worse and worse choices make for a fun read. Her issues with her wife and her sense of isolation "no one gets me except for the wolf I kidnapped and put fancy tech in", is also a major part of the book. I do believe she was let off too easy by the end and the book publishing seems to be another chance for her to stroke her own ego. Her pride is the main reason for her downfall, the research she so claims will "better our understanding of how wolves think" is just her selfishness and desire for fame in her field.
This was a pandemic book and you can feel the sense of doom looming just in the periphery of the book, as well as Sean's isolation from other humans. I really liked this part of the Author's Note:
<blockquote>Feed Them Silence grew from that fertile, toxic soil. Ultimately, the novella wrestles with the fears and worries of a singular moment in time—but the emotions and critiques at its core remain, I hope, prescient. I’m sure plenty of other artists will be scribbling their way through closing notes like these over the next decade or more.</blockquote>
There is some gore in the book but most of the horror is psychological and weird. Still something really enjoyable. I will be reading more of Lee Mandelo's works in the future.
<blockquote><i>What else was she, really, but another animal body afraid of being alone in the cold?</i></blockquote>
Maybe the real horror was your failing marriage all along.
My first time reading anything by Lee Mandelo, and believe me I have not missed the hype around his work. I went in with very high expectations and ended up being pleasantly surprised. Did not expect so much nuance and depth to this short novella about a crazy experiment where a scientist links her brain to a wolf to experience life through the eyes of said wolf. I really enjoyed the ethical discussions on the science being carried out, especially when it is funded by some big corpa, but at the same time acknowledging the lack of funds for research in academia. The themes on preservation, climate change and sustainable science were all very very interesting and Mandelo gives it the time and respect topics such as these deserve, which is no small feat.
The main character is extremely insufferable but her exceedingly worse and worse choices make for a fun read. Her issues with her wife and her sense of isolation "no one gets me except for the wolf I kidnapped and put fancy tech in", is also a major part of the book. I do believe she was let off too easy by the end and the book publishing seems to be another chance for her to stroke her own ego. Her pride is the main reason for her downfall, the research she so claims will "better our understanding of how wolves think" is just her selfishness and desire for fame in her field.
This was a pandemic book and you can feel the sense of doom looming just in the periphery of the book, as well as Sean's isolation from other humans. I really liked this part of the Author's Note:
<blockquote>Feed Them Silence grew from that fertile, toxic soil. Ultimately, the novella wrestles with the fears and worries of a singular moment in time—but the emotions and critiques at its core remain, I hope, prescient. I’m sure plenty of other artists will be scribbling their way through closing notes like these over the next decade or more.</blockquote>
There is some gore in the book but most of the horror is psychological and weird. Still something really enjoyable. I will be reading more of Lee Mandelo's works in the future.