An eerie horror debut about a little boy who recovers from a mysterious illness and inherits an imaginary friend who makes him do violent things… Kids have imaginary friends. Rachel knows this. So when her young son, Billy, miraculously recovers from a horrible flu that has proven fatal for many, she thinks nothing of Delfy, his new invisible friend. After all, her family is healthy and that’s … healthy and that’s all that matters.
But soon Delfy is telling Billy what to do, and the boy is acting up and lashing out in ways he never has before. As Delfy’s influence is growing stranger and more sinister by the day, and rising tensions threaten to tear Rachel’s family apart, she clings to one purpose: to protect her children at any cost—even from themselves.
We Hear Voices is a gripping near-future horror novel that tests the fragility of family and the terrifying gray area between fear and love.
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Very imaginative with a good ending.
Some unintended similarities with current events made it more interesting as well.
Compelling, addictive and a perfect example of how we use stories to understand ourselves, the world, and our collective social experiences.
Interesting story. The creepiness built as more and more was slowly revealed. Clever premise.
Creepy sci fi horror tale
I loved this book. It hit all the high points for me from the first page until the last.
This sci fi dystopian horror tale takes place in the not-far-off future in London, England.
Earth is in a downward spiral, with ever increasing numbers of animals going extinct and environmental issues negatively impacting quality of life all over the world.
A new terrifying pandemic has struck worldwide, mainly hitting children and seniors and some of those surviving the J5X virus, especially the children, find that when they recover, they have a voice in their heads that tells them what to do – some terrible things.
The story centers around one family especially whose young son hears the voice in his head. They are a low income loving family that is just trying to get by when the young boy does something terrible and is isolated with some other similar children.
His older sister, who is in an outer space training program, starts asking questions and trying to find out the “whys” of current happenings.
The character development was super in the story. I loved the whole premise. The story was timely (as the world is in the middle of dealing with the COVID-19 virus at this moment).
I highly recommend this book to readers who love horror, science fiction, thrillers, and medical thrillers.
I received this book from Berkley Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
We Hear Voices is a cool crossover between Sci-Fi and Mystery. And boy, does it work. The book takes place in London amid a pandemic similar to what we are experiencing in the U.S. In the offing is a planet where humans can start fresh, climate change, and pandemic free. On Earth, a wealthy developer is building a utopia-like community that offers strict regiments and a degree of certainty in a vastly uncertain world. Throw in a doctor trying to rehabilitate children who have been exposed and recovered from the virus, and strange side effects manifesting in children hearing and communicating with imaginary friends. Affairs go from bad to worse and the reader is left stunned and taken aback by this all to the relevant and prescient novel.
The synopsis had me utterly intrigued and I honestly can’t say no to creepy kid-based horror books. There is a strong start to this read that has you quickly sucked in but as things unravel and more POVs start to come in the plot seems to overstretch itself into different directions. Mind you there is a reason for it, and it ties together epically in the end. Getting there was a slight sluggish battle for me though.
There was a decent number of extra scenarios occurring that took away from the overall plot for me. The inner monologues were repetitive for the mom and daughter even though I could understand the weight on their shoulders. I also debated the necessity of the doctor’s POV outside of the institution he ran. I liked the inclusion of the pandemic and the tie in to looking to settle on another planet. Very time appropriate for our current era and it really makes you sit back and think.
Overall, I was hoping for more horror but even though that aspect was minimal I still found myself flipping Kindle pages pretty fast. The characters are easy to root for and the plot is unique from others I have read. I look forward to finding more by this author in this genre.