ay mi kokoro D: ( )

I thought that this book was very well done. I have had this book in my review pile for years now but for some reason never picked it up. I decided to finally give it a try and went into the story rather blindly since the only thing that I remembered about the book was that it was a YA story. It turns out that this is a story about dealing with mental illness, grief, romance, and even a bit of a mystery. I am glad that I finally read this emotional story.

This is a rather long book at 544 pages and it tells a big story. I started reading this book as I went to bed and planned to read one chapter before setting it aside to go to sleep. This book is not broken up into chapters like I am used to seeing. The book is broken up into two sections but there are breaks within each of the sections. The story is told as if it were a letter that Cassie is writing to the boy she hopes will give her a second chance.

There is a lot that happens in this book. A lot of those things don't occur until the second half of the story so it would be a bit of a spoiler to discuss those plot points in this review but I did appreciate the way that many later events were foreshadowed in the first part of the book. The first part of the book focuses almost entirely on the evolution of Cassie's mental illness. She describes when the voices start and exactly what they make her do. I felt her anguish and couldn't imagine living with that kind of pain. She has quite the journey as she receives treatment for her condition.

The book also follows Cassie as she deals with moving forward in her life with her illness. We do learn more about her past and the trauma that may have played a part in the development of her condition. We also get to see Cassie making friends and even getting to know the boy that she is writing the letter to. I loved getting to see Cassie having some fun and experiencing some of those typical teenage milestones. The relationship between Cassie and her father wasn't perfect, not at all, but it felt genuine. They both have a lot of pain, and more than a few issues, and don't always know the best way to interact with each other.

I would recommend this book to others. This was quite the emotional journey and I thought that the mental health aspect of the story was very well done. I wouldn't hesitate to read more of Nick Lake's work in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Bloomsbury USA Children's Books via NetGalley. ( )

FROM AMAZON: Cassie is writing a letter to the boy whose heart she broke. She's trying to explain why. Why she pushed him away. Why her father got so angry when he saw them together. Why she disappears some nights. Why she won't let herself remember what happened that long-ago night on the boardwalk. Why she fell apart so completely.
Desperate for his forgiveness, she's telling the whole story of the summer she nearly lost herself. She's hoping that love-love for your family, love for that person who makes your heart beat faster, and love for yourself-can save both of them after all.

"Whisper to Me" was a painfully touching read about a girl dealing with mental illness - Cass has a voice inside her head telling her to do things she normally wouldn't do, otherwise bad consequences will happen. I felt sorry for Cass. She was struggling with the death of her mother, had to face her father's constant anger and then the voice arrived telling her she deserved to be punished for what she did.

I loved the format of the book. Basically, it was a love letter in email format to the boy Cass met, and hurt, over summer. It was extremely moving how she poured her heart out to this boy, explaining why she behaved the way she did. Nothing was hidden from him. As the reader, I never learnt his name, which was disappointing. I was hoping that would have been revealed at the end of the book.

I also liked the secondary characters, Paris and Jules. Poor Paris, I felt so sorry for the life she had led which drove her into her chosen profession, and Jules was a supportive friend to her.

Unfortunately though, "Whisper to Me" was extremely long and quite slow in many parts. The author could have easily cut out a number of unnecessary scenes and I didn't find the romance all that believable. The boy and Cass only went out a few times but were supposed to be totally devoted to each other. Hmm. I also hated how Cass often treated him. True, the voice was messing with her and making her insecure, but the scene where she broke his heart was too glib for my liking.

As for the ending, there were so many questions left unanswered. The main one being whether or not the boy was going to meet Cass on Friday and give her a second chance. Sadly, I'll never know :( ( )

Cassie has been dealing with a lot the last couple of years. Her mother died, she doesn't have a good relationship with her father who is an ex-Navy SEAL, she has no friends. Now she hears voices. The day she makes a gruesome discovery on the beach is the same day she starts to hear a voice inside her head. If she doesn't obey it, it will punish her. The voice is constantly putting her down. She falls in love with one of the guys staying in the apartment above the garage for the summer, but she's too embarrassed to tell him about the voice. She doesn't want his pity. She can't explain where she goes every Thursday night, the night she sneaks off to the bowling alley for the voice support group. Things didn't end well between the two of them. But she wants another chance and this is her writing an e-mail trying to explain why she pushed him away.

I loved the writing and the fact that this book was a long e-mail. I liked Cassie. She felt real to me. She's just a young girl who's been through a lot and had no one to talk to. I liked her character growth. I did NOT like the asterisks. Every time someone swore these ******* things would appear. So annoying! ( )