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Book Blurb:
Moving halfway across the country to Colorado right before senior year isn’t Maya’s idea of a good time. Leaving behind Pratt School for the Deaf where she’s been a student for years only to attend a hearing school is even worse. – Goodreads
Review:
In The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais, Maya’s mom has to move due to a job opportunity that she could not pass up. Her brother has breathing issues, which might make you wonder if she should have passed on it anyway. No judgment here. She’s a single mom doing the best she can for her two kids.
Colorado is so beautiful. Even with all of the beauty, who would want to move anywhere right before their senior year in high school?
Maya has not been deaf for her whole life but it is part of who she is now. She makes a few friends at her new school, Nina and Beau. Beau learns sign language so that he can communicate with Maya. He’s almost perfect and smart so we cannot blame Maya for developing feelings for him. She doesn’t want to date someone who is hearing. You can practically hear her say “Ew. Hearing people.”
I wish that her best friend from her former life had been in the book a little bit more. It would be nice to see hearing-impaired friends conquer the world in a PG female buddy comedy sort of way.
So Beau has connections to wealthy people. He finds information on a doctor in Colorado who does cochlear implants. Maya has made it pretty clear throughout the book that she is proud of being deaf. This is the version of herself that she wants to be. She absolutely does not want anything to do with cochlear implants – ever. Maya is insulted that Beau would even suggest that she should do the surgery.
Recommendation
If you are interested in reading an inclusive, PG-rated, YA romance then The Silence Between Us could be the book for you.
If you are the type of person who doesn’t make an effort to learn about anyone else or how they focus on their abilities instead of disabilities, then maybe do some research and come back to this book at some other time.
