Whisper
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
I'd love a cup of coffee. . . . I wish she didn't hide how pretty she is. . . . I hope she didn't find out what Ben said about her. . . . I wish I knew how many calories were in a bite of muffin. . . .
Joy is used to Hearing Whispers. She's used to walking down the street and instantly knowing people's deepest, darkest desires. She uses this talent for good—to make people happy and give them what they want. But for her older sister, Jessica, the family gift is a curse, and she uses it to make people's lives—especially Joy's—miserable. Still, when Joy Hears Jessica Whisper I want to kill my Hearing dead, and kill me too if that's what it takes, she knows she has to save her sister, even if it means deserting her friends, stealing a car, and running away with a boy she barely knows—a boy who may have a dark secret of his own.
Whisper is an exhilarating debut novel from talented newcomer Phoebe Kitanidis.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Like a paranormal version of The Breakfast Club, Kitanidis's first novel is a fairy tale in which the pretty, popular girl is rescued from delusion by the misfits she's been trying to avoid. Joy Stefani has a gift: she can "Hear" the wishes of others. It's a trait shared by her mother and her older sister, Jessica, but that's all the sisters have in common. Jessica (or, as Joy refers to her, "Icka") is destructive and full of rage, whereas Joy moves easily through the world. But everything changes after Joy's 15th birthday, when the wistful, superficial wishes she has heard during childhood suddenly turn deeper, darker, and hurtful. Only Jessica seems to understand what is different and she's gone missing. Joy's narrative voice is appealing, but this is an unsubtle, schematic fable in which adults and peers alike are revealed to be hypocrites and any form of ambiguity or compromise must be a lie. Joy's mother and sister are archetypes and opposites, and even when their poles are reversed, they remain just as extreme. Ages 12 up.
