Two years ago Aaron's life as he knew it ended when he and his best friend Juliet stopped to give directions to the men in the beat-up van that hailed them. Now Juliet is in the cemetery and most days Aaron wishes he was too. Instead he lives in state of near constant terror unable to look at his scarred face in the mirror or even shower his burned and scarred body without flashing back on the horrifying events of that day. His sleep is full of nightmares and even the slightest touch of his loving mother sends him into a downward spiral toward terror that only heavy doses of tranquilizers and anti-anxiety meds have seemed to make a dent in.
And yet when Aaron's mother pushes him to take a computer course at a community college, Aaron is forced to interact with Spencer, a deaf boy with issues of his own. Yet, somehow these two misfits find a way closer to normalcy through each other.
This story has its flaws and parts are just not credible (and for that I'm deducting a star) but somehow that soon doesn't matter as much as these two wounded souls charm their way into your heart. And it's not just the two protagonists. I love the relationship Aaron has with his mother. I love his two brothers I love Spenser's father. I've always had a thing for characters willing to let their vulnerability show and these characters are all vulnerable and endearing.
For a story that relies so much on psychology and the practice of psychiatry I felt that the details in this area were particularly weak but I really wanted to suspend disbelief, accept the inaccuracies and just move on to what has to be one of the most heart-rending stories I've read in a decade.
If you can manage to maintain that willing suspension of disbelief, this may well be one of those books that you love and read again and again. Perhaps its all those plaintive Simon & Garfunkel songs I was exposed to in my youth along with movies like Brian's Song or even books like Love Story, Death Be Not Proud and Thursday's Child, but I do love a good three hankie story and this is one of the best I've seen in yonks. Plus it has the added attraction of having a hopeful ending and a sequel that I can't wait to read, Spencer.
On an afternote... I listened to the audio-book version of this narrated by Tyler Stevens rather than reading the text version. Stevens did a great job with the narration and the voices of the main characters are easily distinguished and fit well with my conception of the characters. One strange thing I noted though was in an early sex scene between the deaf Spencer and a delivery man. Somehow hearing the inner monologue of a deaf man and his concerns in an audio format, while it sounds a bit twisted, actually made the eroticism of the scene really work well. It made for one of the hottest sex scenes I've encountered in a book this year.
And yet when Aaron's mother pushes him to take a computer course at a community college, Aaron is forced to interact with Spencer, a deaf boy with issues of his own. Yet, somehow these two misfits find a way closer to normalcy through each other.
This story has its flaws and parts are just not credible (and for that I'm deducting a star) but somehow that soon doesn't matter as much as these two wounded souls charm their way into your heart. And it's not just the two protagonists. I love the relationship Aaron has with his mother. I love his two brothers I love Spenser's father. I've always had a thing for characters willing to let their vulnerability show and these characters are all vulnerable and endearing.
For a story that relies so much on psychology and the practice of psychiatry I felt that the details in this area were particularly weak but I really wanted to suspend disbelief, accept the inaccuracies and just move on to what has to be one of the most heart-rending stories I've read in a decade.
If you can manage to maintain that willing suspension of disbelief, this may well be one of those books that you love and read again and again. Perhaps its all those plaintive Simon & Garfunkel songs I was exposed to in my youth along with movies like Brian's Song or even books like Love Story, Death Be Not Proud and Thursday's Child, but I do love a good three hankie story and this is one of the best I've seen in yonks. Plus it has the added attraction of having a hopeful ending and a sequel that I can't wait to read, Spencer.
On an afternote... I listened to the audio-book version of this narrated by Tyler Stevens rather than reading the text version. Stevens did a great job with the narration and the voices of the main characters are easily distinguished and fit well with my conception of the characters. One strange thing I noted though was in an early sex scene between the deaf Spencer and a delivery man. Somehow hearing the inner monologue of a deaf man and his concerns in an audio format, while it sounds a bit twisted, actually made the eroticism of the scene really work well. It made for one of the hottest sex scenes I've encountered in a book this year.
