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A review by mermaidmoonqueen
Voiceless by E.G. Wilson
2.0
I received a copy of the book from the publisher on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Voiceless is the debut novel of E.G. Wilson, and while it's not the strongest debut ever, I feel that it is a pretty respectable one, especially with such a unique premise. The main character, Addy's, voice was stolen when she was 13 by a school bully named Maunga. From there, we follow Addy as she struggles with what happens to her. At the age of sixteen, Addy tries this test, called VPR, which sends someone into this world that's a bit of the subconscious, a bit of another world. She goes there to confront Maunga about why, exactly, she stole her voice.
While I didn't feel that this book was fantastic and wonderful, I did enjoy it and was absorbed enough to finish in a couple days. I stayed up at night to finish it because it was an easy, fun read. It was definitely a book that I could see being a favorite of a middle-grade reader. There were quite a few things I also thought this book did well.
The setting in this book is really unique and prominent. Voiceless is set in a futuristic New Zealand, but the really interesting thing is that most of the characters are Maori, which is not a culture that you ever see in literature, much less YA literature, MUCH LESS YA fantasy literature. But the thing I also liked about this book was that it wasn't focused on the Maori culture- it was just seamlessly integrated into the story. You could tell from the names (first and last), the casual greetings put in, the casual tidbits of culture spread throughout the book. So that was really cool for me. It's also set in the future, so there a lot of cool technology that we get to experience as well. Overall, the setting was just really well done.
The plot of this book is already really unique and interesting. Maunga, the girl that steals Addy's voice, does so by injecting her with a man-made virius called Vox Pox. Little is known about Vox Pox, except that it steals your voice and your creativity. So dancers lose their ability, painters can't paint, etc. For Addy, she loses the ability to write. Everything she writes is basic. But this is just the set-up of the actual plot, which takes place in the VPR, where Addy goes on a journey to confront the person who did this to her in the first place and find out why.
Now, sadly, I have to talk about the weaknesses of this book, and I also think that there were quite a few weaknesses here. The first being the characters. A large part of the problem is with Addy. We follow Addy from ages 13 to 16, but this novel isn't long because it skips around. The problem with that is that we don't really see Addy struggling with the depression she says she gets after Vox Pox. We hear about it (it's never called depression though but like, why not?? What's with the dumb "black fog" imagery?? Just say depression, it literally doesn't matter) but honestly we never see Addy depressed. We see her pull away from friends and work really hard to be able to speak through writing but that's... really it. And to me, that's a big flaw. If you want to skip around in time, that's fine, but at least give us snapshots to the important things (like the depression you keep saying the main character has???)
Another thing is that the character's motivations are all really flimsy. Maunga's motivation to give Addy Vox Pox isn't revealed until the end and even then it's just kind of a set-up for a bigger, badder boss (who is, by the way, the most random of characters.) Except that bigger, badder boss's motivation is like... non-existent.The big boss is like "yeah, I made vox pox for science" but she never explains what she's trying to discover from Vox Pox or why she made it in the first place. So you just end up unsatisfied with the whole WHY of the novel, the mystery that keeps you reading.
And then there's Addy. Addy is a really flat character. The author tries to give her some dimension by having her battle depression, but because we don't see her going through it, she remains one dimensional. And it's really sad, because on the surface she does have what it takes to be a great protagonist, but because she has no depth she falls flat. She seems to be self-sacrificing, but I really don't understand WHY she has to be. And her reason for sacrificing herself is her brother, but we hardly see them having meaningful interactions at ALL throughout the whole book. So her motivations are just as flat as she is.
In the end, this story has an interesting plot that just can't carry it through all the flaws in the characters and in the motivations. There's not enough WHY to carry on through the HOW of this novel. I am hoping that the flaws in this book are resolved in the sequel however. I will be giving the sequel a read, but I'm hesitant to say I recommend this book or series because of the big weaknesses it displayed.
Voiceless is the debut novel of E.G. Wilson, and while it's not the strongest debut ever, I feel that it is a pretty respectable one, especially with such a unique premise. The main character, Addy's, voice was stolen when she was 13 by a school bully named Maunga. From there, we follow Addy as she struggles with what happens to her. At the age of sixteen, Addy tries this test, called VPR, which sends someone into this world that's a bit of the subconscious, a bit of another world. She goes there to confront Maunga about why, exactly, she stole her voice.
While I didn't feel that this book was fantastic and wonderful, I did enjoy it and was absorbed enough to finish in a couple days. I stayed up at night to finish it because it was an easy, fun read. It was definitely a book that I could see being a favorite of a middle-grade reader. There were quite a few things I also thought this book did well.
The setting in this book is really unique and prominent. Voiceless is set in a futuristic New Zealand, but the really interesting thing is that most of the characters are Maori, which is not a culture that you ever see in literature, much less YA literature, MUCH LESS YA fantasy literature. But the thing I also liked about this book was that it wasn't focused on the Maori culture- it was just seamlessly integrated into the story. You could tell from the names (first and last), the casual greetings put in, the casual tidbits of culture spread throughout the book. So that was really cool for me. It's also set in the future, so there a lot of cool technology that we get to experience as well. Overall, the setting was just really well done.
The plot of this book is already really unique and interesting. Maunga, the girl that steals Addy's voice, does so by injecting her with a man-made virius called Vox Pox. Little is known about Vox Pox, except that it steals your voice and your creativity. So dancers lose their ability, painters can't paint, etc. For Addy, she loses the ability to write. Everything she writes is basic. But this is just the set-up of the actual plot, which takes place in the VPR, where Addy goes on a journey to confront the person who did this to her in the first place and find out why.
Now, sadly, I have to talk about the weaknesses of this book, and I also think that there were quite a few weaknesses here. The first being the characters. A large part of the problem is with Addy. We follow Addy from ages 13 to 16, but this novel isn't long because it skips around. The problem with that is that we don't really see Addy struggling with the depression she says she gets after Vox Pox. We hear about it (it's never called depression though but like, why not?? What's with the dumb "black fog" imagery?? Just say depression, it literally doesn't matter) but honestly we never see Addy depressed. We see her pull away from friends and work really hard to be able to speak through writing but that's... really it. And to me, that's a big flaw. If you want to skip around in time, that's fine, but at least give us snapshots to the important things (like the depression you keep saying the main character has???)
Another thing is that the character's motivations are all really flimsy. Maunga's motivation to give Addy Vox Pox isn't revealed until the end and even then it's just kind of a set-up for a bigger, badder boss (who is, by the way, the most random of characters.) Except that bigger, badder boss's motivation is like... non-existent.
And then there's Addy. Addy is a really flat character. The author tries to give her some dimension by having her battle depression, but because we don't see her going through it, she remains one dimensional. And it's really sad, because on the surface she does have what it takes to be a great protagonist, but because she has no depth she falls flat. She seems to be self-sacrificing, but I really don't understand WHY she has to be. And her reason for sacrificing herself is her brother, but we hardly see them having meaningful interactions at ALL throughout the whole book. So her motivations are just as flat as she is.
In the end, this story has an interesting plot that just can't carry it through all the flaws in the characters and in the motivations. There's not enough WHY to carry on through the HOW of this novel. I am hoping that the flaws in this book are resolved in the sequel however. I will be giving the sequel a read, but I'm hesitant to say I recommend this book or series because of the big weaknesses it displayed.