Review: The Weight of Silence

The Weight of Silence
by Heather Gudenkauf

Two girls go missing in the night. One is a selective mute; the other is her friend and her "voice". Can the team of investigators, parents and neighbors get to the truth before time runs out?

I can't think of what else to write for the summary. The premise is just that simple. But the chapters are not. The chapters chronicle the search for the girls over the course of one day but from many different people's points of view. Six in fact. And that's not all of the characters that people this novel either. It was confusing until I kept a running list so I would know who was who. In writing the chapters from different perspectives the author was able to show the reader the truth and the ways that the truth can be distorted. But in doing this she takes most of the suspense out of the story. We know from the beginning what happened to one of the girls and we know in part what happened to the other. The only suspense was in whether or not Calli, who hasn't spoken in 4 years and who is the only one who knows everything that's happened, will actually tell what happened. But even this was not hard to guess.

So the book was predictable and unsuspenseful. It also had lousy characterization. I found none of the characters to be original or believable. They lacked wisdom and depth. The whole book lacked wisdom and depth.

I didn't realise I felt so disappointed in The Weight of Silence until I wrote this review. There just was not anything about it to make it stand out and nothing to recommend it over other books. Move along. There's nothing to see here.

One Word Review:
Dud