Ghost Station by S. A. Barnes REVIEW

Summary:

Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of Eckhart-Reiser syndrome (ERS) - the most famous case of which resulted in the murders of twenty-nine people. It's personal to her, and when she's assigned to a small exploration crew who recently suffered the tragic death of a colleague, she wants to help. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that the crew is hiding something.

And Ophelia's crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the precious colonizers' 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 even 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 members aren't the only ones keeping secrets.

My Thoughts:

Ophelia is trying her best to make a living for herself after cutting all contact from the majority of her family, the only exception being her sister. Being the only survivor of an ERS attack, she feels extremely guilty and wants to help prevent it from happening to others. The crew she joins recently suffered the loss of their crewmate Ava, and Ophelia hopes to help them recover and make sure nothing out of the ordinary happens. But no one wants to open up to her, except maybe Liana, who hesitantly agrees to a therapy session with her. As the crew starts their mission on the planet, they discover bodies that were previously unreported, and weird things start to happen. Ophelia thinks she might be hallucinating things, and when the pilot dies, she's not entirely certain she wasn't responsible. But is this ERS, or is it something else?

I loved reading Dead Silence by this author, so I had to pick this one up as well. While it took a little time to get into the story, I soon found it difficult to put down. Most of the characters were very well developed, and the isolation the crew found themselves in was creepy. My favorite character had to be Liana, and I wish we got more of her. I liked that we slowly got to learn about everybody's backstory and secrets they were keeping. The ending seemed kind up abrupt though, and I wish we got a little more of Kate's perspective and secrets.

My Rating: 3 stars