We are well into February now, so I thought we should start posting our questions for the February gathering! Hopefully, you did not forget . . . . . . we are discussing the book The Weight of Silence.
Remember, don't make your comment until you are done reading the book . . . otherwise you risk reading spoilers!
Happy Reading!
Overall, I liked the plot and storyline of this book. But I felt it lacked the build-up and suspense that I was hoping for, and I think it easily could have been written in.
ReplyDeleteI was hooked from the very beginning when the two girls disappeared. But I felt that gripping element faded quickly. And I didn't entirely believe the parents' reactions were true to life -- if my child disappeared, I doubt I would be as calm and collected as Antonia.
I also appreciated the writing from different viewpoints for each chapter, but I think it could have been much better developed. Each characted created their part of the story, but their language and vocabulary were the same, despite the fact that the characters varied so much in age, education, and background. Every once in a while, especially from Ben's perspective, there was a word that I would expect to hear a 12-year-old use, but otherwise I was disappointed by the lack of differentiation among characters.
I also felt that everything was revealed far too quickly -- Calli and Petra were found half-way through the book, and I kind of lost interest in discovering what happened, the suspense was gone. And when Antonia ran into the woods after Griff attacked her, it felt totally unrealistic and like "here we go again". Also, I think the fact that Lucky was the attacker was completely under-developed. Why did he attack her? What was his motive? Had he done this before? None of those questions were answered.
So long story short, I liked the premise, it was very interesting and would make an excellent movie, but the book was underwhelming.
1. Antonia, Louis, Martin, and Petra’s perspectives are told in the first person present tense point of view while Calli’s is told in third person past tense. This decision to write this way really frustrated me. Why do you think Gudenkauf decided to write the story this way? Did you like it?
ReplyDelete2. Do you think that if Antonia's mother had not told Antonia to "be a good wife" that Antonia would have made the same decisions regarding Griff?
3. Considering the (1) she is a mother and (2) that Louis is the Deputy Sheriff, what did you think about Louis' wife's reaction to his involvement in the search for the girls?
- Kristin