July 2009

As I flew back from San Diego earlier this week, I started reading THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE by Heather Gudenkauf, and from the first page this debut author grabbed me. Why? She dropped me right into the story in the Prologue, and from there the characters drew me through a plot that had me inside their lives and their heads bouncing from one perspective to the next.

Though I was jetlagged and worn out when I got home, I could not stop reading and I didn’t until I closed the book at 11:30 that night. So what is the story?

Seven-year-old Calli Clark is a little girl with a story locked inside her. She suffers from select mutism, which means that she has elected not to speak though she is able to. Her silence began when a tragedy struck her family in her toddler years. Her friend Petra Gregory understands Calli and often speaks for her --- and fights for her with others who elect to have less compassion for this obviously wounded child. Then one night both girls are found missing from their homes. And the search for them will bring together two families who both have secrets that haunt them --- and many truths will be told.

The chapters are told from various character perspectives, including Calli, Petra, their parents, Calli’s brother, a police officer who has a past with Calli’s mother, and another deputy. Each will leave you with a piece of the story that has told you just enough to get you to turn the page to see where it goes next. It’s the kind of storytelling that is tough to do as each character in each chapter needs to fit just right to keep it moving --- and thus it is even more admirable to see how Gudenkauf pulls it off in a debut. The power of her writing and the tension in the story is very reminiscent to me of another book that I found equally as compelling when I read it years ago, ME & EMMA by Elizabeth Flock. Oh, and THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE is a trade paperback original, making it a very affordable Bets On selection.