Alison Gervais

Digital audiobook narrated by Chloe Dolandis
3.5***

When her family moves several states away just before she’s to start her senior year of high school, Maya, who is deaf, is mainstreamed into a hearing high school. When student body president Beau Watson begins to learn sign language so he can converse with her, Maya is suspicious of his motives.

This is a lovely young-adult romance with the added inclusion of one partner with a significant disability. Maya is smart and tenacious, but she just can’t believe that a hearing person and a deaf person can form a true relationship. In many ways the relationship between Beau and Maya is a typical teen romance, with missteps followed by genuine gestures that show caring, alongside all the usual teen drama of a senior year in high school. And that, I think, is the beauty of the novel. Maya’s deafness may set her apart, but in all other respects she is a typical teenager with the same kinds of dreams and questions and aspirations and missteps as every other teenager.

I listened to the audiobook, wonderfully performed by Chloe Dolandis. The irony of my listening to a book about a deaf student was not lost on me.… (mer)

Oh, what a brilliant premise, what a fascinating topic, and what an ultimately mediocre book, I am sad to say.
 
Death was a character! There was another villain! And they both felt like caricatures and left more unresolved questions. I couldn't suspend disbelief because I was too busy saying "Really?" and pointing out holes.
 
I really disliked Hadley. She had parent problems, but I felt like these and the way that she just adopted Archer's family, though sweet, felt manipulative even to me. I wish she had had more of her own personality, or had maintained her old friendships, or had any attribute other than being a vessel for the story to happen.
 
I am extremely critical of books dealing with mental illness these days, having concluded that the simple addition of resources can go a far way. I felt like this treatment was very superficial, and like there was no real look into the deeper implications of Archer's mental health and bigger solutions. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love, everything's great again. Yay.
 
Though I really wish I could, I cannot honestly recommend this book.
 
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
 … (mer)