Title: Requiem

Author: John Palisano

Release date: May 13th, 2025

*Huge thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for a digital ARC of this one!*

Space horror. Science fiction themes merged with terrifying elements. When done well, it’s a subgenre that easily whisks away the reader and keeps them hooked no matter one. And one big key to that is the total isolation aspect. On solid ground, here on earth, if something horrible happens, a character can run away or get in a car and drive as far away as possible.

But in space…

Well, you’re stuck. Sure, maybe you have an escape pod, but then what? Or maybe there’s a rescue ship coming? Well, that ship isn’t just around the block and you’ve certainly not used Uber to call it.

It’s that claustrophobic aspect of going where so few humans have gone before that always draws me in and makes for an unsettling read.

Now, with Palisano at the helm, I knew I’d be getting a lush, but ultimately unnerving experience. If you’ve not read any of John’s work before, you absolutely need to get on that. I suggest you start with his novella ‘Glass House’ which is haunting and heartbreaking, or dive into his dust-filled western ‘Dust of the Dead.’ Really, you can’t go wrong with John’s work, which made this one so enticing to me because – and as I just said – it’s in space.

What I liked: Set in the future, Ava is a space ship captain who has recently returned to earth, dealing with with PTSD from her last mission. She’s been assured she’ll not return to space for some time, but that’s thrown out the window when a huge corporation contacts her – and a group of scientists and a musician – for an important job. A moon-sized cemetery known as Eden has experienced some significant malfunctions and they need to head up, repair it and make sure it never happens again.

From here, John gives us a haunting look at isolation, madness, connecting with the dead and loss. It’s billed as a gothic story, but that is buried beneath the sheen of the sci-fi/horror surface. It’s only revealed as the story goes along and we see the true reality of what’s happening on Eden and how those who are managing to survive deal with it.

The story ebbs and flows, we get some jolting, intense moments bookended by some slow, visceral revelations and it’s within that scope that the mastery of what Palisano has done truly can be appreciated. It’s subtle, at times tough to put your finger on, but its there, pulsing throughout the whispered textures of each chapter.

The ending wraps things up ‘nicely’ and once you get there, you’ll know what I mean, and I appreciated the tongue-in-cheek-ness of the ‘epilogue’ portion.

What I didn’t like: The story is solid, the writing is solid and the characters are great, but – as with many sci-fi/horror novels – if you go in thinking that this won’t have a lot of familiar plot points and story aspects, you’ll be sorely frustrated. John doesn’t reinvent the plot here, but I also don’t believe that was ever his intention.

Why you should buy this: Palisano is one of the nicest guys in the horror world but also one of the most criminally under read writers out there. ‘Requiem’ just might be the book that finally tips those scales and gets his books all over IG and Tik Tok – at least I hope so – because what he’s done here is a powerful, philosophical look at death, what happens after and how the human race continues to push forward with technological elements without considering the long-term ramifications.

This was really well done.