The Weight of Silence, by Heather Gudenkauf is a very invigorating read. It is very emotional and real, just the kind of book everybody wants to read. It is about two girls who go missing. Calli, a selective mute, and her best friend, and voice, Petra. Calli’s mother, Antonia, has tried to hold things together, with a seven-year-old selective mute, and husband that’s rarely there, and who is in a drunken stupor when he is.

This book is a very relative, real book. It explains the fears a mother has when losing her child. Explains the pain the child who is lost is going through. People can relate to the love Antonia is emanating throughout the book. Girls can relate to the fear of being lost. There is romance, excitement, fear, and revenge in this book.

You know a book is good when it makes you ask questions like “what if?” In The Weight of Silence it makes you ask the question “what if this happened to me?” What if my child was taken in the night? What if I was taken from m home and into the woods? It makes you think about life, and to appreciate the things that you take for granted. For her first book, Gudenkauf has created an interesting and stimulating book that will keep you at the edge of your seat.