The Weight of Silence by Heather GudenkaufMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I could not put this book down! I read it over two days and was just captivated by the characters and also by the description of the woods where most of the action takes place. They were magical & romantic at times, and scary & forboding at others and also hold meaning to each of the characters.
The main character of the story is Calli, a child who has selective mutism (meaning there is no medical reason she cannot speak, but she doesn't speak) as a result of experiencing a family trauma. Over the course of two days while she is missing, her history begins to unravel through the perspectives of the other characters in the book (her mother, her brother, her best friend, her best friend's father, and the town's deputy sheriff). As the story unfolds, we begin to understand what life is like for little Calli, and we learn what has lead to her mutism.
I started to love her little friend Petra who was outgoing and spunky and stood up for Calli against the kids who made fun of her and the adults who grew frustrated with her. Her brother was also a favorite character: kind-hearted and protective of her and really seemed to understand her.
Calli's father is an abusive alcoholic and while you never really like him, I felt like that realities of living with an alcoholic were portrayed accurately, and without bias. It seems like sometimes an author can either really play up the pity card of the horrible disease of alcoholism or can really make you judgmental against the alcoholic and I didn't feel like this author did either...it was presented as a very matter-of-fact, unfortunate presence in these people's lives.
Each character in this novel seems to have their weaknesses, doubts, obstacles, and trials & it was interesting to watch how each reacted to them. The novel reveals the experiences, situations, and decisions that led them to this point in the story.
My take-aways from this novel are:
(1) to remember that you do not know what other people are dealing with in their lives (alcoholism, abuse, bad marriages, childhood issues) or where they are coming from, so don't judge them, but help when you think you can (like little Petra speaking for Calli and Louis looking out for Toni).
(2) to value the true friends that you have in life because they are such a blessing & you will be there for each other through thick and thin. Calli & Petra were there for each other in each one's moment of need; Louis was there for Toni.
(3) Finally, no one is perfect, we all have things that feel like we could have done better, which may be true, but you can't undo the past...you can only do better today and tomorrow. So let go of it, learn from it and put your best foot forward. It seemed like Toni was very hard on herself for the parenting decisions she made, but to me the real questions should be not if she did everything right, but did she do everything she could given the circumstances & is she striving to be better in the future?
In reading some of the other reviews, I see that others were critical of the literary value of this book. They are correct...the writing style is not all that sophisticated, there aren't many examples of literary tools in use here...so if you're looking for something that can be evaluated for a literature class, you'll be disappointed; however, if you're looking for something that keeps your attention and helps you pass some time, this is a good way to do it.
I did feel like there were a few times that you could tell the author threw in some red herrings. To me, a good suspenseful book is one in which you continue believing that it could be anyone until the end. But I felt like the way she threw in a few of them, you could tell that's what she was trying to and it didn't succeed in creating the suspense I wanted.
I do agree with other readers that one of the weaknesses of this book is that it is told by different points of view (which is fine if you can do it well) but the voices aren't distinct enough to support that style of writing. Calli's voice is different because it is always told third-person, past-tense, while everyone else's is first-person, present-tense. And Ben's voice is different because it is written like a teenage boy. But the rest of the voices were too similar.
In hindsight, I do wonder about the odds of the circumstances...it seems like a stretch that two girls would go missing at the same time, the same day, in the same woods and have two entirely different, horrible stories.
But even given all that, it kept me turning pages. I would definitely recommend it for people looking for a book that will keep their attention and entertain them.
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