I find S.A. Barnes' writing style to be unique among horror, as her books seem to follow a similar sort of formulaic patterning to that of the romance genre - in that I know what to expect in terms of who dies first, who survives, and that the government/a horrifyingly powerful corporation is going to be a force of antagonism that acts as catalyst for the events of the book.

Both Dead Silence and Ghost Station feature a female lead who can't trust her own mind (Claire and Ophelia); a strong and quiet man on the team who becomes the female lead's love interest (Kane and Sevren), a misogynist who dies first and is quasi redeemed in his loss (Voller and Suresh); a squishy young female character who does a vital job and dies second and whose death is most upsetting (Lourdes and Liana); and at least one other character who is vital to plot development and with knowledge of the female main character's past or excess knowledge in general who dies in an unnecessarily horrible way (Nysus and Birch/Kate).

I really enjoyed how Claire was characterized in this book. She cannot and does not trust her own mind, but her having to live with that makes her more prepared than anyone else to survive the inhospitable environment of the Aurora. I kind of liked that the questions the book posits for us are never answered. Though, after talking it through with Kane, Claire and readers are ready to accept and understand that Claire would only have left Kane and Nysus behind if she was leaving to get help and wasn't sure that the escape pod would keep her alive, the inconsistencies of memory mean that she can never know for sure. Similarly, we never know if Claire is insane, or if she really can see ghosts. I know my opinion leans more towards ghosts, but I think it's neat that that part of the plot is not laid out as irrefutable truth for Claire or the reader.

Claire being employed by the same company that raised her after she was orphaned in an incident caused by their negligence and catalyzed by her ability to see ghosts/inability to differentiate between who is and isn't dead, worked as a fantastic foundation for an added layer of horror. The banality of it all, in which the company's bottom line is worth more than human lives and the revelation of corporate greed and envy being at the root of mass death rooted the more fantastical elements of the novel into the present for me as a reader in 2025.