Synopsis
Steffi doesn't talk, but she has so much to say.
Rhys can't hear, but he can listen.
Their love isn't a lightning strike, it's the rumbling roll of thunder.
Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life - she's been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy at school, sees her. He's deaf, and her knowledge of basic sign language means that she's assigned to look after him. To Rhys, it doesn't matter that Steffi doesn't talk, and as they find ways to communicate, Steffi finds that she does have a voice, and that she's falling in love with the one person who makes her feel brave enough to use it.
My Rating - ✭✭✭✭✭
So the plot in my opinion was actually great!
There wasn't anything dramatically different about the basic story line from a lot of other books, but I didn't think that there needed to be. The main premise of the book is that Steffi (the main character) struggles with extremely bad anxiety and therefore hardly speaks at all. Due to this she learned some sign language, so when a deaf boy called Rhys starts at her sixth form the school introduce the two of them in the hopes that they'll be able to communicate. From here of course romance ensues.
This isn't just a romance book.
Even though I really enjoyed the romance in this book and found it to be one of the best relationships I've read about in a long time, it tackled so many issues that I feel it would be disrespectful to call this a romance book. As someone who has anxiety I felt such a strong connection to Steffi and there were times when I just wished I could speak to her and tell her that everything was going to be ok. I knew how she felt and that really made me love this book. There are also issues around the deaf community in here and how they are treated by non deaf people. There's so many things about the plot that I loved that I wouldn't be able to list them all if I tried!
This book has some of the best characters I've ever seen!
The main thing I loved about all the characters in this book was that they all had flaws, but that in the end they eventually worked things out. As I've already said I related with the main character Steffi so much so of course I loved her. Rhys was a character I loved as well, I thought his personality really came through when reading, but I also loved how he helped Steffi. Now before you think this is a girl meets boy and is cured of her problems story it isn't. He doesn't make her anxiety go away but he certainly helps her to manage it. I thought that their relationship was perfect and I found myself rooting for them constantly.
The writing style is beautiful and captivating!
I loved reading this book and I just couldn't put it down. Part of that was to do with the writing. One of the things I loved was that we got to read the thoughts of Steffi. It really showed the thoughts that go through a persons head when they're struggling with anxiety. It showed how simple the thoughts might be, but how ultimately consuming they can also be. I personally felt that Sara Barnard's portrayal of anxiety was extremely accurate and I commend her for it. The writing just flowed beautifully and I couldn't stop reading it.
I LOVED THIS BOOK.
If you can't tell from the rest of this post then I completely loved this book. I gave it 5/5 stars on Goodreads and I already know that this is going to be a new favourite book. I felt so reassured when reading it that I wasn't the only person who had these ridiculous thoughts and feelings because of anxiety and I hope that it made other people feel like that as well.
Have you read this book? Do you plan to? Or do you have any recommendations for me?
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