Book Review: The Silence Between Us by Allison Gervais

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Genre:YA Fiction/Contemporary Romance

Synopsis: Deaf teen Maya moves across the country and must attend a hearing school for the first time. As if that wasn’t hard enough, she also has to adjust to the hearing culture, which she finds frustrating—and also surprising when some classmates, including Beau Watson, take time to learn ASL. As Maya looks past graduation and focuses on her future dreams, nothing, not even an unexpected romance, will derail her pursuits. But when people in her life—deaf and hearing alike—ask her to question parts of her deaf identity, Maya stands proudly, never giving in to the idea that her deafness is a disadvantage. 

My Opinion:

Amazing. That is my opinion. I read this book in one evening, and even though it was a fairly slow moving story, I still couldn’t put it down. Maya was well written and an understandable character. Her emotions made sense, and even if I didn’t always like her, I always understood her. Because I am not deaf and don’t know anyone deaf, I can’t judge the authenticity of the story, but (to me) it seemed well researched.

The only thing that bothered me was the speed at which Beau and Nina learned ASL. ASL isn’t exactly a simple language, but Beau and Nina picked it up really fast. If they were really dedicated then it is not unbelievable. Just a little bit unrealistic.

If you like sweet, clean, contemporary romance, I strongly recommend this one. If you have read it, what did you think?