Whisper by Chris Struyk-Bonn (review)

Despite being shunned for her physical differences (congenital issues including a cleft palate), Whisper appreciates her life amid a small, loving group of other rejected folks living in the forest. That’s lost to her, though, when her mother dies and her cruel father comes for her from his village, insisting she now take over running the household. When Whisper is sent to earn money for her father in the city, a polluted, harsh world that is even less familiar than the small village of her family, she is overwhelmed by the horrors that confront her, but she also glimpses her first hints that there are kindnesses possible among strangers as well. In the next months, her musical talent is noticed, she is reunited with some of her forest friends, and she learns that not everyone responds to physical disfigurement with superstitious, nightmarish rejection. This is a complex novel, and Whisper’s trajectory from forest to village to city is intense and often anguishing; readers will likely be so sympathetic to the protagonist that they will be more than willing to endure her painful life lessons right along with her. The innate musical talent is more romantic than plausible, but Whisper is clearly brimming with passions that could, perhaps, lead to her being able to write extraordinary pieces with no training or musical context. Offer this to character-driven dystopia fans who will likely relish this glimpse into a multi-layered society that as well-developed and plausible as it is troubling.