The Weight of Silence

Heather Gudenkauf

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn’s shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.
Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by a tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Petra Gregory is Calli’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra or Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered.
Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

REVIEW: I was given a copy of this book a couple of months ago and have had it sitting on my night stand just waiting to be read. I finally picked it up a couple of weeks and immediately wished that I had read it sooner.

The book is told from the perspective of 5 different characters, Callie, her brother Ben, her mother Antonia, her mother’s childhood best friend Deputy Sheriff Louis, and Callie’s best friends father Martin, and it takes place over a 48 hour time period.

I enjoyed this book a lot. One of the things that I liked is that there was just enough back story to understand the dynamics of the characters, and also those events that shaped more than one of the characters were told from both perspectives.

There was one thing that really bugged me and that was Antonia, her character drove me nuts the entire time that I read the book. She was one of those people that helped to create the problem and then refused to see her role in the problem, until it was too late, and even then she didn’t want accept her part in the event.

When I looked up the book I was surprised to find that this was the author’s first book, I normally don’t like first books, however this author did a great job. I can say that this is one book that is one that everyone should read.

I give this book a 4.75 out of 5

You can purchase this book here, here and here.