Silhouette by Justin Richards
Title: Silhouette
Author: Justin Richards
Genre: Fantasy, science-fiction, media tie-in (Doctor Who), childrens fiction
Publisher: BBC Books via Random House UK, Ebury Publishing
Pages: 256 pages
Publication Date: 9th September 2014
My Rating: 5/5
Hi there friends,
I’ve just read this amazing Doctor Who book and I couldn’t wait to share my review with you all! I’m also extremely excited to say that Random House UK have been amazing enough to let me have access to other new Doctor Who books to review via NetGalley. I can’t wait to read and review more Doctor Who books, so anyway here’s what I thought about Silhouette…
I received a free ebook copy of this book by the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I am a huge fan of the television series Doctor Who. In fact, if I’m being perfectly honest with you, it borders on obsession. I’ve either read or own the vast majority of Doctor Who books and when I received a copy of this book I may well have done a little happy dance. Justin Richards is one of my favourite authors of Doctor Who books. If you pick up any of his books from any incarnation of the Doctor it is almost guaranteed to be good (apart from the odd few which we don’t talk about.) So let’s just say I had my hopes raised when I received a copy of this and oh, I am so glad it didn’t disappoint!
The beginning of this book is really quite strange, but well what do you expect with somewhat ‘live’ origami birds, a carnival, murder in a locked room and Strax being… well Strax. It’s odd, but it’s that good kind of odd. The kind of odd that draws you in and makes you sit down and pay attention. That’s my favourite kind of odd. It’s eerie and full of suspense to really draw you in to the Doctor’s adventure…
This was the first book I have read featuring the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor.t. At time time of writing this review only three episodes of the Twelfth Doctor, not including his regeneration, have aired on television. This means I can’t say how well Richards has portrayed the Doctor in his book accurately, but from the episodes I have seen Richards seemed to have no issues with writing for the Twelfth Doctor, rather in fact he had it down to a fine art. The characterisation in the book was brilliant and really quite enjoyable. The relationship between the Doctor and Clara is witty and entertaining with lots of humour to make reading this fun!
The villain deceived me in this book, it took some serious working out. A really manipulative character, literally, with unique characters that make the book exciting. I loved the title of the book too, very clever and apt. How exactly does a shadow puppet show work without puppets or strings? You’re just going to have to read to find out.
I find that the greatest thing that an author can do in a Doctor Who book is keep you guessing on tenterhooks until the end of the book! In some Doctor Who books it can be really frustrating when everything is revealed way too early and then the Doctor and his respective companion(s) are just taken on a wild goose chase trying to play catch the baddie.
Thank you Richards, for this was a great one.
Please remember to like my review if you enjoyed it! If you like this review, I will try to ensure I review more books of a similar genre (which would be lots of fun!) Let me know what you thought about the book in the comments too if you read it as well!
If you want to get a copy of Silhouette, you can do so from your local bookshop if you live in the UK, as no doubt it will be in there. Please support your local booksellers, bookshops on the high street are in decline and as a child they’re such magical places. If you don’t have access to a local bookshop, the book is available at Amazon UK, Waterstones or Barnes and Noble.
Happy reading,
Anna xx
Books and Bookends 