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The Weight of Silence

by Heather Gudenkauf (Goodreads Author)

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 17,913 ratings · 2,422 reviews

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 tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.

Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the bes...more

Paperback, 373 pages

Published July 28th 2009 by Mira (first published August 1st 2008)

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Dec 27, 2012 Florence MacIntosh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of suspense / mysteries with a preference for non-graphic content

Recommended to Florence by: Hooked by Title and Cover

Shelves: mystery, suspense, 2012, realistic-fiction, reviewed, debut

The Weight of Silence –I was drawn by the fabulous title. Keeping secrets is a coping skill we've all used, when taken to the extreme it can be deadly. Silence is this novel’s binding theme, hammered home by her choice to have the main character Calli a selective mute; a theme that lifts it above the slew of other child abduction stories currently on the market.
Calli and her best friend Petra go missing in the middle of the night. The suspicion is kidnapping, her alcoholic father the prime susp...more The Weight of Silence –I was drawn by the fabulous title. Keeping secrets is a coping skill we've all used, when taken to the extreme it can be deadly. Silence is this novel’s binding theme, hammered home by her choice to have the main character Calli a selective mute; a theme that lifts it above the slew of other child abduction stories currently on the market.
Calli and her best friend Petra go missing in the middle of the night. The suspicion is kidnapping, her alcoholic father the prime suspect; we follow the families in their search for the missing children. Gudenkauf adopts the current trend of telling a story through several points of view, a style she handles with refreshing cohesiveness. She builds strong, multi-faceted characters then ratchet’s the tension between them to high. Calli a surprisingly resilient little survivor; Ben struck a personal cord, the older protective brother every little girl wants - I lucked out and had one. It’s got a swift moving plot and thwarted love thrown in for good measure. Child abuse is an element, but the reader is spared the graphic details.
Negatives: Fairly predictable outcome and kinda clunky dialog. What bugged me most was the police investigation, incompetent to the point of silliness.(view spoiler)

3 ½ stars for a solid debut. This is finely crafted suspense, my preference over graphic thrillers and motivation to read more of her books. Kept me up half the night anyway. Footnote: As a child the author was hearing impaired, personal experience with the weight of silence. Explains the empathy breathed into Calli's character.

“I ate my words that day. Actually bit down, chewed them, swallowed them and felt them slide down my throat like glass until they were so broken and damaged that there was no possible way that the words could rearrange and repair themselves enough to be spoken”.(less)

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Dec 09, 2009 Eileen Granfors rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: families, medical-issues, women

From now on, I will write separate reviews for goodreads and facebook and then the one for Amazon can stand alone.

I liked "The Weight of Silence." Heather Gudenkauf uses multiple voices (Antonia, Louis, Martin, Ben) and then third person for the selective-mute, Calli.

Calli Clark witnessed a horrific event in her younger years and has not spoken since. She makes a friend at school, who rather than taunting Calli, begins to interpret for Calli. Calli's brother, Ben, is very tolerant (usually) of h...more

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Jan 16, 2010 Kristine rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who like family dramas with a bit of mystery

Recommended to Kristine by: Katherine Montanez

Shelves: read-in-2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I loved this story. I thought it was compelling and moving.

SPOILERS!
The story is about two girls who go missing from their own beds early one August morning. The race to find them before night falls is only intensified by the fact that one of the girls' father (a raging alcoholic) is also MIA and may have something to do with it. It reads as a thriller as it changes from one narrative voice to another and each person is experiencing the ordeal from a unique standpoint. When the girls are found...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Connie Beard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

What a great book. I was surprised that the chapters weren't numbered, but named for the character who was the focus of the chapter. I wondered what would make such a sweet, intelligent little girl stop talking. When the reason was revealed, it made complete sense to me. It didn't end as predictably as I thought it would.

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Apr 06, 2011 Lisa B rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone in a book group.

Shelves: fiction, sunday-brunch-group

"The Weight of Silence" chronicles a day in the lives of two families whose daughters go missing. The reader learns what transpires through the alternating perspective of six lives who are impacted by the events. Although a deceptively easy read, this book immediately grabs your attention and makes you long to know what happens next. I don't think there is much question about who committed the crimes but I think this book is more of a character study than a mystery. Speaking of... the characters...more

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May 08, 2013 Amy Hatvany rated it 4 of 5 stars

I tore through this book over two days...the author does a fantastic job with building suspense around the search for two missing little girls.

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Jan 22, 2013 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

The heroine is the utterly believable Calli Clark, a seven-year-old who has been shocked into silence by a tragedy that occurred prior to the start of the novel. The action of the story takes place on the night that Calli and her best friend, Petra, go missing. What everyone discovers that night will solve the mystery of Calli's silence and change all of their lives forever. A gripping, well-crafter thriller that will keep you guessing right until the end.

Review courtesy of the Book Lover's Cale...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Sacha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Child abduction is a parent's worst nightmare. We hear about it on television, we read about it on the internet. Writers love to turn the public's worst fears into gripping stories, and some attempts are more successful than others. "The Weight of Silence" is another of those success stories and turns out one of the more affecting tales of abduction by bridging it with the tragedy, dysfunction and abuse that oftentimes goes unnoticed by those on the outside.

The novel has an interesting cast of c...more Child abduction is a parent's worst nightmare. We hear about it on television, we read about it on the internet. Writers love to turn the public's worst fears into gripping stories, and some attempts are more successful than others. "The Weight of Silence" is another of those success stories and turns out one of the more affecting tales of abduction by bridging it with the tragedy, dysfunction and abuse that oftentimes goes unnoticed by those on the outside.

The novel has an interesting cast of characters, six of which voice the story with their first-person account of events (Antonia, Callie, Petra, Deputy Sheriff Louis, Ben, Martin). Seven-year old Calli Clark is the central character, her condition as a mute the running theme of the book. It begins on a sweltering August morning with her alcoholic father Griff already drunk and belligerent. Without warning, he drags her off into the woods behind their house, no one (including the reader) knowing where they are going, when they will return or what Griff, violent and unpredictable, will do to himself and/or his daughter. Petra Gregory, a good griend who serves as Calli's "voice", goes missing too. A manhunt ensues and characters involved in the search repeatedly veer into the past.

Through numerous flashbacks, the reader learns about Toni and Griff's imploding marriage, the physical and emotional abuse that Calli and her older brother Ben suffered, the complicated history between Toni and Sheriff Louis, and the guilt Martin feels from his faults as a husband and father. They also learn part of the reason for Calli's muteness through an event when she is only four years old; the revelation is withheld until the end when she divulges the words her father whispered into her ear that silenced her for three years. The plot and writing style is elegiac and suspenseful, though some readers may realize the culprit of Petra's assault long before that information is revealed (the book is a bit predictable on that front). What "The Weight of Silence" has going for it the most is author Heather Gudenkauf's ability to create complicated character histories and weave them together to form a well-paced story, one that readers will find themselves devouring within - if time and opportunity allow - just a few hours.

Pieces of an author can be found in all their stories if one knows where to look. I imagine Gudenkauf can relate to her protagonist, as she was born with profound unilateral hearing loss. Wearing hearing aids throughout much of her childhood, her impairment made it difficult for her to carry on conversations and form friendships (much like Calli, who used sign language to communicate - Heather may have done the same). She escaped into the world of books, hunkering down in an old toy chest and indulging in tales that took her worlds away from her awkward social life. Lucky for us readers, this condition is the reason Gudenkauf began writing, her love for literature and her weakened verbal skills giving rise to an aptitude with the written word.

Bottom line: I can appreciate books that take time to build interest in plot and characters, the story pouring over me as leisurely as a bottle of Heinz ketchup over a plate of fries. But I love it when a book hooks me with just a few pages and despite a busy day has me reading while I eat, while I cook, while I jog on the treadmill, and that has me staying up into the wee hours, my eyes burning from lack of sleep and my hands aching from holding the book. "The Weight of Silence" is a cane that yanks you off the stage of your reality and onto someone else's, forcing you to watch a show that is impossible not to applaud once the curtain closes on its final act. I hope it steals you away and brings you back breathless.(less)

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Apr 28, 2010 carissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction-serious, adult-fiction

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 tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.

Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her h...more

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Dec 21, 2009 Mallory rated it 3 of 5 stars

This one had 4 stars until the end, which totally ruined it. There were some good moments, but all things considered, this reads like it was the author's first book and she has some growing to do.

One thing I liked was that, though the author toys with the oh-so-trendy multiple narrator/first person writing in each chapter, the chapters from Calli, a select mute's, perspective were in third person past tense. An interesting choice which bodes well for future writing, but it didn't really play off...more This one had 4 stars until the end, which totally ruined it. There were some good moments, but all things considered, this reads like it was the author's first book and she has some growing to do.

One thing I liked was that, though the author toys with the oh-so-trendy multiple narrator/first person writing in each chapter, the chapters from Calli, a select mute's, perspective were in third person past tense. An interesting choice which bodes well for future writing, but it didn't really play off. Almost every chapter, even the third person Calli chapters, read exactly the same; it's not enough to just change the name on top of the chapter, there needs to be a change of voice.

Another thing I liked was that the plot, which pans out over roughly 24 hours, was riddled with flashbacks that let the history of the story unfold along the way. Again, nothing new to the world of fiction writing, but it worked in this instance. While this book is largely a thriller (Will they find the girls? Are the girls together? What happened? Who did it? etc.), it felt more like the weight of silence the title refers to is the weight of unspoken history, particularly among families. The secrets that are kept are (mostly) interesting, relevant, and the bulk of the story. You know from the prologue that at least Calli will be found, which gives you the luxury of watching the characters through the unfolding of the story instead of wondering/worrying about the fate of the missing children.

I didn't like that not enough time (in my opinion - especially considering the end) was given to Petra and her family, and I would've liked more from Louis besides the whole unrequited love bit. I also thought the epilogue was dreadful and there were a good amount of places where I encountered writing that was just plain uncomfortable. I don't know if Gudenkauf has written anything prior to/since this book's publication, but this novel indicates a young writer who has a lot of potential to grow into a good storyteller. Her craft needs some polishing and she could use with a better editor, but the meat of the story is solid and her ideas have a lot of potential and beg further exploration.

Long story short? Totally not crap, and possibly something I'll re-read if I'm really bored, but nothing earth-shattering or even really to be recommended.(less)

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Jul 28, 2011 Shannon (Savhage Temptrest) rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have to say "The Weight of Silence" by Heather Gudenkauf was an eye-opening, compelling story of two families who awoke to find their little girls missing without a trace.

It was an early morning day in a small town in Iowa, and everything was supposed to be just as any other day before. Only two little girls, who are best friends and neighbors, are missing from their beds and no one knows where they are or what could have happened. It's up to both families to work together with law enforcement...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This book was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I loved the bond between Calli, who was a selective mute, and Petra. It was a friendship during the time when you are young enough to see a person for who they are and judgement never comes in to place. It was a type of connection that lead Calli to finding Petra in the woods before it was too late. I was absorbed in the book from beginning to end and was shocked as to who was responsible for doing those horrible things to Petra. I hi...more

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Dec 01, 2012 ♪ Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 3-star

This was a selection from one of my book groups and I was half expecting not to like it. First, the story is told in alternating character voices, a format that’s used so often these days that I’m getting rather tired of it. Second, some of the GR reviews I read complained that there was too much melodrama, something I don’t have much patience with and routinely criticize. But I was pleasantly surprised. The format actually enhances the story and the author reveals the characters’ thoughts as in...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent, though at times a bit distressing. This book tells the harrowing tale of two girls who go missing just outside their home in the country,set in a southern USA state. The story twists and turns as we unravel the mystery of how they disappear, loved the way the author tells the story from each character's perspective, especially the missing girl as she is mute, but was not born mute, without giving too much away. This is a must read, quite emotional and deep at times (note: certainly wo...more

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Aug 18, 2009 Errin rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is one of the few books I gave 5 stars to. It was, in two words, absolutely beautiful. It's been a while since I can hardly make my eyes move across the page fast enough. Reading some of the reviews on here, I see not everyone thought it was as awesome as I did, but for some reason, this book really 'spoke' to me.

The characters Ben and Petra especially touched my heart.

"You ran upstairs to your room and wouldn't even look at me for the next ten days. But I knew you were sorry. I kept f...more

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Aug 02, 2009 Cici rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller-crime, mystery, tear-jerker

The writting style reminded me of Jodi Picoult, each chapter starts as a different character in the book.
The stories of each character is very interesting.. Calli is my favorite, a 7-year old year who goes mute at around 4-years old and she becomes friends with Petra, who is her voice.
The two little girls go missing and everyone is trying to find out what happened to them and where they are.
Ben, Calli's brother is my second favorite character and then I like the story of Calli's mother, Antonia....more

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May 16, 2013 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

For a debut novel, The Weight of Silence was very difficult to put down. There were days I couldn't wait to get home from work so I could see what happened next. I am not a parent, but through Ms. Gudenkauf's writing, I felt every emotion. I look forward to reading more stories from this fine author.

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Jun 21, 2012 Scoobyyatto rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. At times I got frustrated that she wouldn't talk, but the book explains it all in the end and it becomes clear. I had a feeling how part of the ending was going to come about, but not the entire thing.

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Apr 08, 2013 Cheryl Mastinsek rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book!!! Wish I could do it all over again!!

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Apr 12, 2013 Ingrid Verschelling rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

In stilte gehuld is het debuut van Heather Gudenkauf. Het gaat over de verdwijning van twee hartvriendinnetjes van zeven jaar. Het gebeurt op een vroege ochtend in augustus in Iowa. Twee families ontwaken met de ontdekking, dat hun dochter is verdwenen uit hun bed. Calli Clark is verdwenen in haar roze nachtjapon en op blote voeten. Ze lijdt aan selectief mutisme: sinds er iets ergs is gebeurd in het verleden, zegt ze sinds ze een peuter was geen woord meer.

Petra Gregory is ook verdwenen uit haa...more In stilte gehuld is het debuut van Heather Gudenkauf. Het gaat over de verdwijning van twee hartvriendinnetjes van zeven jaar. Het gebeurt op een vroege ochtend in augustus in Iowa. Twee families ontwaken met de ontdekking, dat hun dochter is verdwenen uit hun bed. Calli Clark is verdwenen in haar roze nachtjapon en op blote voeten. Ze lijdt aan selectief mutisme: sinds er iets ergs is gebeurd in het verleden, zegt ze sinds ze een peuter was geen woord meer.

Petra Gregory is ook verdwenen uit haar naburige slaapkamer en is in haar pyjamaatje gekleed. Zijn ze samen het bos ingelopen, waar ze wel vaker spelen? Antonia, Calli’s moeder, denkt dat ze zo weer thuis komen en maakt zich niet zo snel ongerust. Iedereen helpt zoeken, maar ook iedereen is verdacht. Ben, de broer van Calli, gaat ook zoeken in het bos. Zijn ze meegenomen door iemand?

Antonia heeft altijd geprobeerd om een zo goed mogelijke moeder te zijn, maar dat is moeilijk met een man, die agressief wordt als hij teveel drinkt. Hij mishandelt haar dan ook. Hij is veel van huis, want hij werkt in Alaska. Maar als hij thuis is, voelt Antonia zich ook vaak alleen en in de steek gelaten. Nu is ze bang, dat haar man misschien betrokken is bij de verdwijning van de kinderen. Ze heeft nooit besloten weg te gaan bij haar man. Zal dat haar nu berouwen?

Petra en Calli zijn hartsvriendinnen. Ze begrijpen elkaar zonder met elkaar te spreken. Petra vertelt anderen wat Calli wil. Martin, de vader van Petra, werkt op de universiteit. Pas op latere leeftijd heeft hij zijn jongere vrouw ontmoet. Hij zou bijna Petra ’s opa kunnen zijn. Hij is vastbesloten om zijn dochter te vinden. Hij gelooft vast, dat Calli ’s vader de dader is. Wat zal hij doen om zijn dochter te vinden?

Hulpsheriff Louis start het onderzoek, maar wordt al gauw bijgestaan door FBI- agent Fitzgerald. Louis en Antonia waren als kind en tiener goed bevriend en dat gegeven heeft veel invloed op de gebeurtenissen.

In stilte gehuld wordt geschreven in korte hoofdstukken. Elk hoofdstuk is geschreven vanuit een ander perspectief, vanuit Antonia, Martin, Calli, Petra, hulpsheriff Louis, en Ben, Calli’s broer. Zo volgen we de gebeurtenissen op de voet. Ook hun gevoelens worden goed weergegeven. Je deelt hun hoop, angst en hun verdriet. Ook hun herinneringen vinden er een plaats. De spanning wordt goed opgebouwd en uiteindelijk is het toch anders dan verwacht. De dynamica van de relaties is interessant. Niet de spanning van wie het nu gedaan heeft, vond ik het meest intrigerende, maar meer hoe ze omgaan met de ondragelijke situatie.

In In stilte gehuld heerst een bepaalde weemoedige sfeer. Ik vond het een meeslepend verhaal en waardeer het met vier sterren. (less)

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Mar 03, 2013 Eileen rated it 3 of 5 stars

A page turner. Just what I needed!

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Apr 16, 2013 Ashlyn Wright rated it 5 of 5 stars

The thrill of reading this amazingly written and planned out book by Heather Gudenkauf was wonderful. I never was able to put the book down, once you start it you have to finish it. It is like an addiction. I would definitely recommend this book because it really grabs your attention at the very beginning of the book. It keeps you wondering what is going to happen next. It plays with your mind a little bit, you will start leading yourself to something and then it goes the complete opposite and y...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Milissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

A little better than "just okay"...but it doesn't come together well enough for "liked it."

The plot was interesting enough to keep me reading. I really wanted to know...What happened that made Calli a selective mute? What happened in the woods? What impact would this have on the characters going forward? So the storyline was interesting...

but these things just didn't make sense:

1. The investigation process - everyone KNOWS time is of the essence in a missing child case...except the police. Weir...more A little better than "just okay"...but it doesn't come together well enough for "liked it."

The plot was interesting enough to keep me reading. I really wanted to know...What happened that made Calli a selective mute? What happened in the woods? What impact would this have on the characters going forward? So the storyline was interesting...

but these things just didn't make sense:

1. The investigation process - everyone KNOWS time is of the essence in a missing child case...except the police. Weird, right?!

2. The investigators' lack of anticipation and understanding of human nature/behavior - the police seem so surprised by everyone's behavior. People do what they can to protect their loved ones...and people are NOT happy if they think a loved one is in danger or hurt...especially if they suspect their loved one was hurt intentionally. The families (of the missing girls) seemed completely normal/believable. The police are constantly shocked by their reactions. That seemed weird to me.

3. I didn't understand Toni's choices. At some point, everyone makes poor choices in life...but Toni seems to be the queen of poor choices. What's interesting to me is her self-awareness. She realizes - in real time - that she is making poor choices and the lasting effects they will have on her children. She cares deeply for her children and is troubled by this. Even so, she never seems to find the motivation or strength or courage or determination to make a change. Things end okay for her, but not because she makes any effort to change things...it's all circumstance and happenstance. I didn't dislike this character. I do not think she was written as a "bad person." I just couldn't understand her...it's one thing when people make choices like that for themselves...but she continues to live this way after she has children AND sees the impact her choices have on them. She clearly loves her children and wants to be a good mom...so I don't get it. Especially since it seems the only thing stopping her from making a change is inertia. (Spoiler alert...I know Toni experiences a childhood trauma/loss and there are issues with addiction and abuse. I am not insensitive to this and I'm not trying to say it would be easy for Toni to change her situation. However, her story is written in a way that indicates to me she's had opportunities to make changes if she wanted to. She chooses to stay in the mess she created JUST BECAUSE she is aware her choices contributed to the mess.)(less)

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Mar 10, 2013 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

See this review on 1776books.net...
http://1776books.blogspot.com/2009/09...

"The Weight of Silence" has been one of the summer bestsellers this year, and for good reason. I found myself very quickly becoming lost in Gudenkauf's debut novel. At times absolutely heartbreaking, it will grab you from the beginning and not let go until Calli's epilogue.

The story begins one early morning as Calli, a first grader, is dragged into the woods by her alcoholic father. Calli is a selective mute, and the back...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Erica rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'm not even going to bother continuing this tripe. A super duper wonderful little girl is a selective mute, and one morning she and another super duper wonderful little girl go missing. There's not a single moment of suspense, since both super duper wonderful little girls are POV characters at different points of the book, so we know they're not dead or hurt, unless it turns out they're ghosts! Wouldn't put that past this writer.

So let's go through our stock character collection: We've got the...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Terra Newman rated it 3 of 5 stars

Two seven year old girls (one of them a selective mute) are found missing from their beds on an August morning in Iowa. The story of the day-long search is told in short chapters from five characters. I usually enjoy this style of writing, but in this case, it just didn't play well. If I didn't look at the top of each chapter, I'd have a hard time telling which character was narrating - it's not enough to simply tell us who is speaking, there has to be a "voice" change as well or the writing is...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Lily rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sorry, Gudenkauf, but Jodi Picoult already perfected the style of multiple first person narration years ago, and, unfortunately, you don't even come close.

I really wanted to like this book. It was right up my alley of the kind of books I like to read, and I was really interested in getting to know the characters of Petra and Calli. The reader can tell that Gudenkauf did her research on the specifics of police procedure for Missing Children cases. This part, at least, rings true. Gudenkauf, howe...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Fany rated it 2 of 5 stars

well , at the beginning i didnt like it very much , and in the middle i dont know , i just keep on reading just to end with the book , at the end it wasnt so bad , though is not a super novel, the critiques are overrated and the plot only wants to make u feel curious , it tells a lot of details , the writer wants to tell us a mistery novel, and sometimes results so ordinary, but its not so bad , though the epilogue was kind of odd didnt like the part when the girl says that her brother brought a...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Irene rated it 2 of 5 stars

Two seven-year-old neighbor girls are found missing from their beds on an Iowa August morning. The story of the day-long search is told in short chapters from the vantage of five characters. The plot is fairly straight forward. But, the momentum was impeded by the quick change of voice which felt more distracting than anything. I have seen this technique used quite a bit recently. At its best, it can give the reader insights into the rich emotional life of each character, building up empathy for...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Caroline rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 stars, rather than the four I've had to give it - but three wouldn't have been enough.

Heather Gudenkauf is compared with Jodi Picoult and Diane Chamberlain, and I can see the comparison, however she doesn't write as well as either of the others.

This book centres around two 7 year old girls who go missing from home early one morning, one of whom is selectively mute, and is written chapter by chapter by five of the main characters (both Picoult and Chamberlain also employ this method of writi...more

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