In a review of The Silent Land in The Independent, British writer and critic Roz Kaveney called Joyce's "near-perfect novella ... a tour de force".

[3] Writing in The Washington Post, he said Joyce's blending of "the bizarre and the personal" is reminiscent of the works of English novelist Ian McEwan and Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.

Barton felt that while Joyce's story tends to be a little "over the top" in places, and full of clichés and metaphors, it is told "with enough heartfelt panache to ensure its mystery".

In a review in The Times he stated that the book "lacks the depth" to be termed magic realism, and called it "cookie-cutter stuff with paint-by-numbers descriptions".

But Rudd added that where the book excels is in the way Joyce tells the story, and the suspense he creates, leaving the reader "relatively satisfied by the ending.