What I Didn't Say

What I Didn't Say by Keary Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

YA romance can be hit or miss. In this case, I'd call it a base hit. It's a romance with a few moral messages, bordering on being preachy about some social issues.

Jake, the main protagonist, is the proverbial big fish in a small pond. He's popular, a high school jock, handsome and an all around good guy. He goes to a party one night, gets tipsy, gets in a truck with his two best friends who are also tipsy (one of the friends is driving), and ends up in an accident. His injuries necessitate the total removal of his vocal cords, rendering him mute. This is the story of how the event completely changes not just his life circumstances, but him as a person.

Jake is a likable character. He's a good kid from a good family. He takes responsibility for his actions while still moving through the stages of grief over the loss of his voice. He's also a typical teenage boy, so there is a fair amount of angst and immaturity going on. But this doesn't overpower him as a character; rather, it just rounds him out. He loves deeply and is loyal, even to the friends that carry the actual blame for the accident. I think Taylor was smart to allow Jake to wallow in self-pity for awhile, rather than making him more like a Superman who could rise above the emotional fallout. She could easily have erred with Jake's character by weighting him either heavily on the "able to cope" side or on the "can't cope or function" scale. Instead, she balanced him in the middle quite nicely.

Jake is in love with Sam, a longtime friend who has her own issues. These are revealed slowly and compassionately. Sam is also a well-rounded character that I liked immediately. Again, Taylor balanced the scales with Sam's distrust of people and yet her cautious willingness to love.

The secondary characters were not overly developed and there was even one that I felt was unnecessary. Overall they did add to the story and enhanced the main characters. Again, this story was chock full of teenaged angst. Having said that, it wasn't over the top.

The story is character driven; the plot is really just the framework for the way the characters grow and change. The exploration of muteness as a disability is refreshing. It was nice to see this showcased as it played out in real life. The idea of one's voice being stolen was fascinating as we watched Jake re-learn how to communicate. We are privy to his thoughts, so seeing the contrast between his internal and external dialogue was really interesting.

There is the usual distrust of parents and those in authority. Fortunately in this case Jake's parents are painted as loving, caring heads of a big family. Sam's parents are the stock good mom/deadbeat dad. Her dad may have been a bit exaggerated in terms of motives, but was not completely over the top or unrealistic. The main antagonist is also somewhat of a cardboard character. I didn't like her at all and I wasn't supposed to like her at all. This wasn't a story about a bad girl/slut being misunderstood. She was just mean.

The story does get a little preachy when it comes to drinking and driving. Because it's set on an island where the high school is quite small, the actions they take are relatively believable. At least, they're believable up to a point. Taylor frames it out realistically - people commit to a good idea. But most lose interest and generally revert to the behavior that caused the tragedy, and that's pretty standard for the majority. It plays out like a New Year's resolution that is forgotten over the course of the year.

Amid YA romance, this book falls in the above average category for me. It wasn't outstanding, but it was enjoyable and good. There was a fair amount of good tension created by the stupid decisions of teenagers. But it wasn't outrageous. It felt like just enough of all the good things I expected.

The book on audio is narrated by Matthew Dunehoo. He was ok; he didn't differentiate between the voices, really, but he did give them a lot of expression. I wouldn't call him a voice actor. He was more of a narrator - but a very good one. He grew on me.

All in all, I'd recommend this book. I liked it a lot; it wasn't the best book of its genre, but it was definitely better than most. The premise alone gives it points in its favor. Put that with likable characters and you get a good story with a happy ending. It was good storytelling.

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