by Jordan (link)
Genre cest, drama/angst
Pairings Taylor/OFC, Zaylor
Length 15 chapters
Status Unfinished
Silence debuted during the resurgence of Zaylor popularity in the spring of 2012, and the premise immediately grabbed me for its uniqueness–it’s set in 2000 and Zac appears largely just in flashbacks, with the story narrated soley by Taylor.
The story begins right in the middle of things–or rather, right after. Taylor sits in the waiting room of the hopsital, trying to understand what has happened. Only at the very end of the chapter do we understand, after a brief history of their relationship, that Zac has been hit by a bus while trying to save Taylor from the same fate. From there, the scenes are short and frequently interrupted by flashbacks that fill in the gaps in their relationship, since one half of it is totally absent from the action.
The past and present of Silence are an interesting contrast, each feeding off the other. Jordan handles the conflict between Taylor’s rebelliousness and Zac’s unpopularity well, a conflict that is rather central to the plot. Zac does seem a little young for his age, but some confusing and muddled references to their age difference seem to have been removed in some editing since my initial reading of this story.
With those references gone, the only thing left to muddle the plot is Taylor’s downward spiral, which does drag on just a little bit. Zac’s recovery is always in question, made even worse by Taylor’s mental state making it difficult for him to comprehend what’s happening. Both of them have only just begun to recover at the point when Jordan discontinued the story. This was, apparently, only meant to be the halfway point of Silence, although to me, the ending seemed much closer than that. Either way, at least that non-ending gives the reader time to exhale after a back and forth angst-fest to rival the best.
Review by Bethany (website)