The Weight of Silence

by Heather Gudenkauf

Two little girls disappear from their homes on a hot August morning. Calli Clark and Petra Gregory are best friends, so their families assume that they disappeared together. Did they?

Most of this novel is concerned with the search for the girls and the backgrounds of the main characters. The story is told with various points of view:

• Antonia “Toni” Clark: Calli’s mother and the beleaguered wife of Griff Clark.

• Ben Clark: Call’s twelve-year-old brother. He is Calli’s friend and protector.

• Martin Gregory: the sophisticated college professor and father of Petra.

• Deputy Sheriff Louis: Loras “Lou” Louis is the deputy sheriff in town and the childhood sweetheart of Toni.

• Calli Clark: the selectively mute seven-year-old. Only her point of view is told using third person narration.

The story itself moves a little too slowly for me. The source of Calli’s muteness is really obvious to the reader; it’s hard to believe that her family doesn’t understand why she isn’t speaking.

Could have been better.

11/24/09