Monday, January 31, 2011

The Weight Of Silence

by Heather Gudenkauf

On a quiet morning two little girls - one a mute and the other her best friend - go missing in the woods.

Over the course of the coming hours, their families will face fear, history, relationships, unanswered questions and new revelations as they search for the girls and deal with the outcomes of the morning.

Well-written and descriptive, the author tells the story through the characters of Callie, a 7-year-old who has, for reasons that will be revealed, not spoken in years; her mother Antonia; her older brother Ben; Deputy Louis, who searches for Callie while confronting his complicated feelings for Antonia and the crumple of his own marriage, and Martin Gregory, the father of her best friend Petra, also missing.

Like many books in which I become immersed, I found myself wanting to jump into the book at certain times- to shake the mother, for never leaving her awful abusive husband, to protect the children from their dad, to force the deputy's wife to leave him alone so he can find the girls, to beg Callie to talk and beg those around her to understand why she can't, and force them to ask themselves why.

It's a fascinating book that will pull you in quickly and surprise you along the way.

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