Title: The Weight of Silence
Author: Heather Gudenkauf
Genre/Pages: Fiction/373
Publication: Mira; July 28, 2009
Rating: 3.5 BOOKMARKS
Employing multiple narrators, Heather Gudenkauf weaves a suspenseful novel about two young girls who go missing from their beds early one summer morning.
In the pre-dawn hours of an August morning in Iowa, seven-year-old Calli Clark is violently dragged into the woods against her will. Her fear is palpable, but Calli can’t call out for help because she suffers from selective mutism. Nearby, Petra Gregory, Calli’s best friend and voice, is lured from her own bedroom after spying something from her window. Does she see her friend or is it someone more sinister?
As the novel progresses, the narrators shift with each new chapter. We take in the story through the eyes of Calli, her mother Antonia, her older brother Ben, Petra’s dad, and Deputy Sheriff Louis. Through each of their narratives, we get the backstory about Calli’s mutism, the family dynamics of the Clark household, life in the Gregory house, and Antonia’s relationship with Louis.
Gudenkauf gives Calli a voice as a narrator despite the fact that she doesn’t speak, while Petra, Calli’s mouthpiece in life, remains silent–her perspective of the story untold. Anxiety builds as the novel progresses and suspicion is cast on several characters. Compounding the fear is the local unsolved murder of another little girl who went missing from her bedroom. Will Calli and Petra meet the same end?
The Weight of Silence is such a page-turner–I read it in one night, staying up until the wee hours to finish it! The novel is rife with symbols–the woods, the yellow house, the music note chain–and themes of family, friendship, substance abuse, and loss. This book would be ideal for a book club selection and comes with discussion questions at the end of the novel.
Thanks to TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to review this book!
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