Your Voice is All I Hear - Leah Scheier
- Ali Mark
- Dec 4, 2015
- 2 min read
Girl Meets Boy. April falls in love with Jonah, only to find out that Jonah is sick with an incurable, but (potentially) treatable disease. April takes on everyone's worry and doubt and stands by Jonah as he goes through treatment, following every wish, command, and demand he has for her.
Goodreads readers ranked this book a 4.08 and I'd recommend it if you're into:
mental health exploration (disease; psych ward story)
suspenseful story lines
some factual story lines
good exploration of the characters
descriptive writing
An excellent book, answering and guiding question-and-answer type scenarios, from the -mental health- questions to the -emotional stability- questions, from the perspective of each character. An excellent overview of another taboo-mental-health-dilemma in a teenage boy who was perfect to all.
Pros: the author researched and educated herself on mental health facilities, as well as mental health at it's most basic understanding; characters were well defined, including secondary characters who weren't primary features in the story line, but were well enough discussed that an introduction and exploration of who they were/are was helpful; the author writes in a way that you can understand all components of the main characters, April, Jonah, Mrs. Golden, and Katie; the implementation of religion was an interesting thought process, which leads me to believe that the author is Jewish - which gives some cultural insight to April and her family.
Cons: the relationship between Jonah and April and their fathers wasn't expressed clearly, and we don't really understand a lot of the teen angst that is discussed or experienced, which really holds a larger key point in the book than I think the author gave it credit for; the cover photo doesn't match the description of April - which may not affect the typical reader, but I think we can carry so much from a cover's imagery, and this was just poorly done - especially since the book wasn't so much about April, but Jonah if we have to put a face on the mental illness; the implementation of the Jewish faith wasn't throughout the entire book, and really took over the story line in the ending chapters, which felt too forced.
If you need a book that only makes you want to keep reading, and makes you worry and hurt for the characters involved, with a little suspense, curiosity, and denial - you've met your match.
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