Review: Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

Title: Ghost Station

Author: S.A. Barnes

Genre: Adult, sci-fi, horror

Publication date: April 9th 2024

Published by: Tor Nightfire

Source: eARC from publishers via Netgalley

Add it on Goodreads

Buy it: Amazon | B&N

Synopsis: A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence.

Space exploration can be lonely and isolating.

Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she's assigned to a small exploration crew, she's eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something.

While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure than opening up to her.

That is, until their pilot is discovered gruesomely murdered. Is this Ophelia’s worst nightmare starting—a wave of violence and mental deterioration from ERS? Or is it something more sinister?

Terrified that history will repeat itself, Ophelia and the crew must work together to figure out what’s happening. But trust is hard to come by… and the crew isn’t the only one keeping secrets.

My rating: ★★★★☆

I read and loved this author’s debut Dead Silence so I was really looking forward to reading another spooky sci-fi book from her! And overall, I liked it! Not as much as Dead Silence, but it was still good.

Ophelia is a therapist who sees patients after they return from space with ERS—a space-based mental health condition that is characterized by hallucinations and violence. The first case of ERS was a literal massacre, so Ophelia takes this very seriously. But now, instead of waiting for patients to come to her, Ophelia is going out to space to see a crew before the possibility of ERS even has a chance to set in—a crew that recently lost a crewmember. Prophylaxis. I liked the idea. Unfortunately for Opehlia, these guys are hiding something and they don’t entirely trust her...

And on top of that, the planet they landed on is... not great. I mean, it’s cool because it’s a planet with former intelligent life (that’s what the crew is there to explore—ancient ruins), but the weather conditions are brutal, but more importantly, they find their pilot freaking dead!!

Ophelia is worried that she’s too late and that this may be the work of ERS. Or maybe not 👀 But she and the (remaining) crew are gonna have to start getting along long enough to figure out what the heck is going on, before another one of them ends up dead.

Like I said previously, I didn’t quite enjoy this one as much as I did Dead Silence, and one reason is because it didn’t start off that great for me. First of all, I was excited for another creepy sci-fi book, and while this was at times creepy, we got a lot of fakeouts in the beginning and I just am not about that. Listen, I have read a ton of R.L. Stine books and he tends to overuse fakouts, so now I’m sick of them. But this is definitely a me issue. Sometimes they can be done right, but here it was just nonstop eye-rolls from me.

And this goes hand in hand with my second issue: I felt like it started off pretty slow. For me, it started to pick up just over the halfway mark. It took a while for me to really get invested in the book and story, but once I was invested, let me tell you, I was INVESTED. I just needed to know what was happening! Crazy things kept occurring and you didn’t know whether it was the sequel to the Blood Bledsoe massacre or... something else 👀 Even though I didn’t find this book to be as creepy as Dead Silence, it had some pretty good body horror and overall gore! There were parts that made me cringe and shudder, and that’s how you know that descriptions were well done! 😆

Despite the fact that I didn’t find this book to be as atmospherically creepy as Dead Silence (which was my favorite thing about that book actually), I still did enjoy this one! I really liked the premise and the direction the story went—it was wild! And even though I guessed a couple of plot twists and honestly could’ve done without the fakeouts in the beginning, the second half of the book was very engaging! I really enjoyed unraveling the mystery of what was going on with the crew and the creepy abandoned planet they were on.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊