Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2023
112 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
Lee Mandelo dives into the minds of wolves in Feed Them Silence, a novella of the near future.
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon's case, to be in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject's perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness. To see the world through animal eyes; smell the forest, thick with olfactory messages; even taste the blood and viscera of a fresh kill. And, above all, to feel the belonging of the pack.
Sean's tireless research gives her a chance to fulfill that dream, but pursuing it has a terrible cost. Her obsession with work endangers her fraying relationship with her wife. Her research methods threaten her mind and body. And the attention of her VC funders could destroy her subject, the beautiful wild wolf whose mental world she's invading.
"Mandelo delivers a powerful message about environmentalism and the limits of technology that doubles as a page-turning story about a collapsing marriage. Urgent, intimate, immediate, this is sure to wow." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Supported by Mandelo's characteristic, melancholic prose, this novella may not be for every reader, but it will appeal to those who appreciate delving into thorny ethical dilemmas and will make readers consider their own beliefs regarding ethics, research, technology, and relationships." - Library Journal
"Lee Mandelo's crisp, urgent novella, centered on a study that links the consciousness of a researcher to that of one of North America's last wild wolves, is a new leader of the pack." - Scientific American
"Feed Them Silence is a toxic love story with the world we're killing, delivered in Mandelo's visceral, melancholic prose. You'll want to put it down, but you won't." - Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches
"Holy hell, what a visceral and heart-clenching book. Feed Them Silence is a searing portrait of what it means to give up distance for the sake of understanding." - Sarah Gailey, bestselling author of Magic for Liars
This information about Feed Them Silence was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lee Mandelo is a writer, critic, and occasional editor whose fields of interest include speculative and queer fiction, especially when the two coincide. They have been a past nominee for various awards including the Nebula, Lambda, and Hugo; their work can be found in magazines such as Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, Clarkesworld, and Nightmare. Aside from a brief stint overseas learning to speak Scouse, Lee has spent their life ranging across Kentucky, currently living in Lexington and pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky.
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