Mini Review: They Fly Silent | Barb Lanell

With a southern gothic vibe and mystical undertones, They Fly Silent seemed like a book I would absolutely love. The book is very character-driven and I didn’t expect the context to be quite as heavy as it was. I expect the themes on mental health and healing from trauma will appeal to some readers.

In the late 1980s, Cassandra Cleo Collard has been accused of starting a fire and engaging in magic in front of her ex-husband’s girlfriend’s house. In the small town of Pine Log, Texas, this is a crime worse than murder practically, as fear of magic or satanism swirl. Cassandra has no memory of the incident, and a judge orders a psychiatric evaluation.

As Cassandra engages in therapy with Dr. Trish Telford, she begins to resurface memories from her past. Many of these circle around her family, including her relationships with her mother and the strange ritual that Cassandra now realizes she learned from her great-grandmother.

Through therapy, it becomes clear that Cassandra’s memory issues related to deep-rooted trauma from her childhood. On a journey of processing her trauma and healing, Cassandra faces troubling events from her past and finds more broken parts to herself than she realized.

I thought this would be stronger southern gothic and mystery vibes, but it is much more a raw portrayal of mental health. Cassandra is a very fragmented character and while I felt a lot for her, I also found her to be often tedious to read.

The memories around secret languages and mysterious power were the most interesting part, but ultimately I think they needed to be more prominent to lean into the genre.

The story itself is a bit meandering in the delivery. The magic was less witchcraft-y than I expected which was fine but dulled the impact of it. The message about mental health and the constraints on women in this town and time were interesting.

About the Book (Goodreads)

Cassandra Cleopatra Collard is a mentally unstable divorcee haunted by a family curse her eccentric grandmother warned her about as a small child. Her life gets more complicated when she’s arrested for a town fire and finds herself the topic of a local gossip column which ignites a stash of highly flammable family secrets generations old. To uncover the truth and clear her name, she agrees to twelve months of mental evaluation. Dr. Telford, a psychiatrist helps her examine her past and understand her frosty relationship with her mother, along with her dysfunctional Southern upbringing.

The past explodes into the present which sets off a series of events both harrowing, heartwarming and disturbing. Forced to rejoin a world she left behind, Cass is thrown into psychological turmoil where mayhem, madness and the mystical collide. Not only will she fight for her innocence, but her mind, her identity and the darkest secrets behind the pine curtain of her childhood.

This dark and mystical novel delivers a haunting prose of southern life with wisecracking, moving characters and the discovery of faith in unexpected places. It provides a raw and revealing portrait of mental illness, its creative genius, and its destructive tentacles.

They Fly Silent is a psychological page turner chock full of family secrets, generational curses, southern maladies and haunting redemption. A captivating debut with a beautiful reminder of hope, healing and letting go.

About the Author | Barb Lanell

Barb writes across genres, including psychological fiction, southern gothic, family sagas, and historical suspense. She is an avid mental health advocate, in addition to they study and practice of herbalism for health and well-being.