Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - The Silence Between Us

Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais

11 reviews

geckotigerwolf's review

hopeful informative lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I'm not great at writing reviews but I wanted to write a couple of things I really liked.

I really liked that the sign language (ASL not BSL as this is set in America) was glossed instead of written in English. I also liked that when she's lipreading "you... sentences... like this" to represent that she's not catching every word and is extrapolating from the ones she does catch. These are two really strong stylistic choices that I think really help you immerse yourself in Maya's worldview.

One part did feel a bit icky. Early in the book, Maya is (understandably) upset when a deaf girl with a cochlear implant insists she's not deaf, as if it's shameful or a dirty word. But then Maya does the same thing later in the book with the word disabled. The author says in a note at the end that many of the Deaf community don't consider themselves disabled which would be fine if the next sentence wasn't "There is NOTHING wrong with having difficulty hearing." Of course there isn't but there's nothing wrong with being disabled either! As a character it's probably internalised ableism on Maya's part but when the rest of the book is so careful to challenge any prejudices against the Deaf community it felt odd to have this unchallenged.

Anyway, thankfully that was more or less a throwaway line. I really did enjoy this book quite a lot. The characters were great (Melissa in particular, though Maya was also great), I really enjoyed the way language was expressed on the page, and watching the characters get to know each other and learn more about each other and the unique challenges they all faced.

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paperquilt's review

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4.0

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asen123's review

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emotional lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I love thé characters especially the dynamic between Maya and Beau. I love how healthy and sweet their relationship is, and it’s just so ahhhh. Her relationship with her brother is also so cute and wholesome. I read this book so quickly. I couldn’t stop reading. I also love the representation and how the author writes what they are signing in proper ASL grammar. It added realism and was a great touch. Overall such a sweet book and beautifully written characters as well.

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mengzhenreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I love the idea of this book, and think it’s great to see more underrepresented groups in YA getting more representation, but honestly from an enjoyment perspective this book was okay. I think the conflict and idea of the separation of the deaf and hearing worlds is great, but the actual writing and plot was boring, with no real stakes or tension. Anytime something went wrong, instead of having the characters reflect and grow more from that challenge, it seemed to me like it was just a bunch of scenarios that gave the opportunity for the author to talk about the deaf community without any growth for the actual characters of the story. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I did learn a lot about ASL and the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, it wasn’t very engaging as a plot, especially since none of the characters changed or grew much from beginning to end. Overall, not a bad book, certainly an important topic, but basic nevertheless.

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