Most people know that person who is quiet and shy. Well I'm that person, I don't like confrontation of any kind. So when I read the manga series A Silent Voice it really hit home.The main girl Shoko Nishimiya is a kind, shy, independent girl. The main boy Shoya Ishida is weird, and quirky, but has a kind heart.  

The 1st book is about the main boy Shoya, he’s sitting in class. The teacher entered with a girl following close behind. He starts,  “Today class we have a new student.” Shoya looked up from playing with his pencil to see a girl. Her short cherry wood hair and big brown eyes staring at the class. She was holding a black notebook.The teacher tapped her shoulder and she began writing, Hello I’m Shoko Nishimiya” she turned the page and started again.what she wrote had me speechless “I’m deaf”. Everyone liked her and she made friends, then she starts getting bullied by Shoya and his friends.

Shoya and Shoko don't get along, he brakes 4 of her hearing aids and throws her book in the pond. In the end of the 1st book they get into a fight in the classroom they both hit and get hit. She gets removed from that school and she goes to a new school. That's when Shoya starts getting bullied for being a bully. He is hated by the whole school and he goes as far as contemplating suicide. Then it hits him he put an innocent girl through the same pain. He goes and finds her at her new school to apologize and give her book back wich he fished out of the pond. She runs from him because she is slightly scared but he catches up and just ask to be friends, after that the book is how they grow up and fall in love.

In the last book, they go to watch the fireworks with her mom and little sister Yuzuru. He doesn't wanna be left alone with her mom because she hates him for bullying her daughter in middle school, although the little sister who he became friends with is there. She leaves Shoya there with her mom and sister and goes home. Yuzuru forgot her camera so she asks him to run to there house to get it because she was going to use the photos for another photography award. so he runs to there house to grab it. He grabs the camera and looks over to see her standing on the balcony edge. He drops the camera and ran to grab her but just in time stopping her from falling. At this point she is hanging and he is holding her. He gets her back on the balcony but he falls and hits the ground. The next picture is her mom on the ground apologising to his aunt about what happened. She tells her it's ok with tear filled eyes, There at a hospital. The main girl is crying over a hospital bed. He wakes up and smiles at her.

The reason I feel like I relate to her is because, I know the feeling of being bullied and I know how it feels to feel useless. It's almost like being bullied into insanity. I am my biggest bully truthfully. What I understand now, thanks to this book is it’s ok not to feel super happy all the time, I don't need to keep a perfect image. I make mistakes and I feel bad sometimes and that's ok because that's what it means to be human. I use to think that it's not ok to be sad and I have to be happy. I’m not allowed to have feelings. I’m not fully over that yet. I still sometimes hear in the back of my mind saying, “You're not aloud to have a crush or you can't cry it's not like you”. I hate this little voice that tells me these things. I feel like if Shoko was real she would have that little voice too.

This opened my eyes and now I’m not afraid to dress how I want. I’m me and that's a good thing. I run my life and no one controls me, I have some self confidence now in myself and my writing. Though I’m still working on making it better, but that's not a bad thing try to improve yourself in way you think are beneficial. Don’t let someone tell you you need to change, make that decision on your own. I hope one day you can see too that you are worthy of yourself no matter if you've made mistakes in the past.