ABOUT THE BOOK
Skylar Brady has a plan for her life—until a car accident changes everything.
Skylar knows exactly what she wants, and getting in a car accident the summer before twelfth grade isn’t supposed to be part of the plan. Although she escapes mostly unharmed, the accident has stolen more than just her hearing from her: she’s also lost the close bond she used to have with her brother.
When her parents decide to take a house-sitting job halfway across the province, it’s just one more thing that isn’t going according to plan. As the summer progresses, Skylar begins to gain confidence in herself, but as she tries to mend her relationship with her brother, she stumbles upon another hidden trauma. Suddenly, she’s keeping as many secrets as she’s struggling to uncover and creating more problems than she could ever hope to solve.
Publisher: WhiteFire Publishing
Release Date: April 15, 2020
MY REVIEW
One moment has altered Skylar Brady’s plan for her life in so many ways. Now, dealing with her hearing loss, she must also navigate the changes within her family. A summer away from home gives her the perfect opportunity to grieve and accept and learn to move forward.
Olivia Smit’s Seeing Voices is a sweet, beautiful debut novel. It is easy to feel all the emotions alongside Skylar (though the experiences within her story are not always so easy) and cheer for her realistic growth through everything. I enjoyed this contemporary YA story from beginning to end—and I’m sure other readers of the genre will, too.
★★★★
I received a complimentary copy of this book and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GUEST POST FROM THE AUTHOR
Although Seeing Voices is not the first book I ever wrote, it is the first one that felt like it held a little piece of my heart. Skylar and her older brother, Mike, popped into my head one afternoon, both coping with the aftermath of a car accident in totally different ways. It took me ages to figure out what kind of story they belonged to, but right from the beginning I knew it would be a story about siblings and families, pain and guilt, and also (perhaps most importantly!) togetherness and love.
In so many ways, Seeing Voices was for me, before it was for readers. I wrote the rough draft when I was 18, fresh out of high school and still figuring out a few tricky situations within my own family. As I wrote about Skylar and Mike, I poured a lot of my own confusion and emotion into the pages, trying to make sense of my own feelings of responsibility, frustration, and ultimately, hope. Words from the book still float through my mind when I’m in certain situations, little reminders of lessons I learned once and need to hang onto with both hands.
I prayed my way through the writing process, trying (and failing) to find a story that fit with Skylar and Mike, who felt so much like real people. I prayed through querying, trusting that if God wanted this story out there in the world, He would find it a home … and if He wanted Skylar and Mike to be a story just for me, I would be okay with that, too. In so many ways this process has been a team effort, and I feel convinced that this isn’t my story, after all — it’s God’s, and I’m just doing my part to help tell it.
GIVEAWAY
To celebrate her tour, Olivia is giving away the grand prize package of coasters and a book sleeve. Enter below, and be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway.
I really like the cover, it sounds like an intriguing read.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review, this sounds like a good read!
ReplyDeleteGreat review, Hallie! Seeing Voices sounds like one not to miss. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDelete