The Voice inside My Head by S. J. Laidlaw (review)

With an alcoholic mother and an ineffectual father, siblings Pat and Luke have assumed fixed roles over the years: sister Pat is the responsible caregiver, and Luke the dependent little brother. It’s time for them to move on, though, and Pat takes an internship on an island off the coast of Honduras to study the sea life that she has always loved. When she is reported missing and presumed drowned, Luke doesn’t accept the official story. He goes to the island to investigate, and there he hears stories that don’t jibe with what he knows about his sister but do spur him to learn more about who she was becoming. While the mystery here is enough to keep the pages turning, it’s clumsily handled, with clichéd Central American island experiences (such as run-ins with drug dealers and voodoo hoaxes) providing the MacGuffins that delay the ultimate resolution; the emotional tenor of the book misses on multiple occasions, with secondary characters such as stoner Zach oddly comic amid the tragic story. Nonetheless, the pull of the setting, with its relaxed rules about underage drinking and hooking up as well as the lure of spending days swimming with benevolently beautiful wildlife, will appeal to armchair travelers. Additionally, Laidlaw goes some way to dispel stereotypes about native Hondurans, providing insight into their daily lives through Luke’s island love interest and her family’s unfavorable attitudes toward entitled and clueless tourists. Ultimately, even Pat’s sad story provides an affirmation that emerging out of an unhappy childhood to pursue one’s dreams is a journey worth taking.