Heather Gudenkauf grew up with a unique “unilateral hearing impairment”. It had lead her to find a retreat in the written word. The more she read, the more “voracious” of a reader she became, and “the seed of becoming a writer was planted.” She makes her debut as an author with her first novel, which is written in a time where worst nightmares quite often come true in the real world.

The Weight of Silence is an honest and emotional portrayal of when the worst nightmare of the parents of two young girls come true, when they go missing in the early morning.

Silence isn’t typically thought to be dangerous, but in this novel, the quiet is brought on by tragedy and often sparks anger and confusion throughout the characters life. In this captivating story Cali Clark is a seven-year-old selective mute who was drawn into silence at the age of four after witnessing a tragedy. Cali’s Best-friend in the story, Petra Gregory, is her voice and even without speech they can always communicate.

When Cali and Petra disappear, you are taken through the story in each of the characters eyes, each person with their extremely apparent and strong personalities. You watch as each character is forced into growing and changing throughout the novel.

The intense and heavy scenes in the book are accentuated by the over-powering realism involved. The story rotates seamlessly through the points of view of each character and each chapter, the questions that the reader is left with and the building suspense keep the novel fresh and quick paced. Still, there are breaks in the action when the characters reminisce and the emotions slip with little pause from despair, to love, and then shatter into reality again.

The tale begins when Cali and Petra disappear into the very early morning. Martin Gregory, (Petra’s father) discovers that she has gone missing and later finds out Cali Clark is gone as well. New characters are introduced as the discovery and search for the girls begins. Before Cali goes missing, we are introduced to her abusive, and for the most part absent father. After we are introduced to her strong willed mother, and her tender-hearted older brother, Ben. As each character is presented, their personalities strongly come through within their first actions. An investigation begins, and police begin to question the families in an attempt to find the girls. The perspectives flash between Cali, and all of the characters in search of her and Petra, the suspense rising with each chapter.

As the characters get closer to finding the girls, the direness of their situation increases, and light is shed on where Griff Clark, Cali’s abusive father, has really been throughout the story.

When Cali finally emerges, something so awful was still within that her voice that had been gone since she was four returned. She spoke only one word, and there was a shift in the focus of the story. No longer Cali, but Petra.

Petra had suffered much more than Cali had when they had disappeared, and when her father found her, he found his worst nightmare. But, she is alive. Ben was with her protecting her whilst drifting in and out of consciousness from his own injuries.

After all of the children are in the hospital and tended to, the story does not end. There are several more twists and revelations that answer questions that have been open ended almost the entire novel. Each one helps you understand each character even more, and determines your feeling towards them.

The end of the book has a very neat and concise manner of tying up all of the loose ends of the story for the reader. But is still very much is the voice of Cali, although a much more progressed Cali.

Over-all, this book is absolutely dripping with raw emotion, suspense, and absolutely captivating style. A “must read” by all means.