The Weight of Silence

A brief portion from the description on the back of the book:

“It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn’s shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.

Seven-year-old Callie Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.

Petra Gregory is Callie’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Callie has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered.

Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.”

The book was a good read, but given my friend’s enthusiastic proclamation of her absolute love for it, I found it rather anti-climactic. While not necessarily predictable, the story of exactly what happened to the girls just seemed sort of thrown together amidst the many, many other details that wove all of the characters together. I also felt like Petra seemed more like an empty shell of a character, in desperate need of more careful development.

The story is told, chapter-by-chapter, in turns by six of the characters in the book in no particular order. The voices include: Calli (the only voice read in the 3rd person), Petra, Antonia (Callie’s mother), Ben (Callie’s brother), Martin (Petra’s father) and Deputy Sheriff Louis (Antonia’s childhood best friend and obviously, the Sheriff).

I did not mind this method of storytelling in one of my favorite books – Sight Hound by Pam Houston – but in TWofS there was a touch too much repetition across characters, especially during parts meant to build suspense. I almost felt as if the writer was intentionally (and irritatingly) drawing everything out for just a few more pages by repeating the same scenarios from varying points of view. Had any of those points of view really differed or offered some additional insight into the situation it might have been okay, but that was absolutely not the case.

I found myself most drawn to Ben’s chapters. Although his character was only twelve-years-old, he seemed to be wise beyond his chronological years. He loved his sister fiercely and – despite his boyhood pride – would easily have done anything for her. His descriptions of their relationship and past interactions were so vivid and touching that I felt he was real. He was the only character that lifted right off the page – the only character I truly liked and/or cared about in the end.

For me, the epilogue saved the book. Actually the last couple of paragraphs are what saved the book for me. In other words, the ending is pretty great.

As an endnote I must say that one of the things that bothered me the most was that the alternative of Callie communicating via writing was never addressed. Since my niece has been very capable of writing since she was about 5-years-old, I find the ignorance of writing as a mode of communication for a 7-year-old a bit unbelievable. Oh well, it is fiction after all, right?

Bottom line: easy read, decent plot, poor character development, minor profanity, very minimal description of graphic violence.