"It was pitch-black. Black above and below. The only way to know up from down was by the pinprick stars".

Speak Softly, She Can Hear by Pam Lewis

I am surprised to see low ratings for this one. I enjoyed it. thought this was interesting, nowhere near bad but I did like another book I read by this writer, "Perfect Family" a bit better.

I liked the whole family interaction in that book and with this one we have a kind of "woman on the run"..from herself as well as anyone else.But I still enjoyed the book. I really do enjoy this writer's style of writing.

I enjoyed reading it, would read it again and think many Mystery fans would like it. It has a female lead, filled with angst, shame and regret and it has a dark and moody quality that stays strong through the whole book. This one is for Winter reading.

I also adore the title although I thought it would be a bit creepier then it ultimately wound up being. The title ranks up there as one of the coolest.

If you choose to read "Speak Softly, She can hear" be prepared for some disturbing stuff and also be prepared to absolutely LOATH one of the male characters in this book. OK..I will shut up now before I give anything away!

I thought parts of it dragged a tiny bit but at the time I was craving an "out there" sort mystery and this book gave me that so 3.5 stars it is. ( )

Speak Softly, She Can Hear is one of those novels that is an unexpected surprise. I have a fondness for novels about girlfriends and sisters. When I purchased this novel last year, I was intrigued by the tale of two friends, a pact to lose their virginity and a handsome and fatally charming stranger. What I received was a story of one woman's resiliency.

Carole was the average girl. She felt she wasn't anything special, plain, slightly overweight, normal when she would rather be anything but. Actually, that's not entirely true. One of Carole's characteristics I really like was she was confident in herself yet that confidence didn't communicate with her classmates. Sadly, I think she was the odd girl in class. Nothing really wrong with her, yet the perfect target for bullies and snobby girls. I think her desire to be perfect was her biggest downfall. With each page, I felt more compassion for Carole. She was thrown into a situation by the one person she felt was her friend yet Naomi was just a troubled young girl.

I was extremely impressed with Ms. Lewis. This story was a relatively simple. One girl, one villain, one secret. It was intriguing, a page turner. I turned every single page because I needed to know how Carole would escape under the weight of guilt felt over Rita's death and under Eddie's thumb. She was a survivor, a fighter. A runner but she did what she had to for self preservation.

What drives me crazy about novels like this is that if only Carole has told the truth, none of this would happen. Then again, their wouldn't be a novel if she had. What I'm getting at is people are so afraid of the truth. In reality it is the lies and deception that harm us.

This novel is a must read. As a debut for Ms. Lewis, it is stellar. I'm looking forward to what else she brings us. ( )

Interesting, character driven story involving a fat, unhappy teenage girl whose first sexual experience turns into a humiliating tragedy. She gets involved with bad people, but succeeds in getting away from them, losing weight, and getting on with her life. Still, guarding her secret affects her whole life. ( )

I was in the mood for some lighter reading, so picked up this book which has been on the main display table of a bookstore I go to once a month or so for more than a year -- it sounded intriguing. But I have to say that,although it was badly written, somewhat predictable, and annoying in that some of the details of the 60s/70s time frame seemed to date from later years, it was a page turner in that I wanted to find out how the protagonist eventually got rid of her tormenters.

A tall chubby girl and a petite bird-framed girl are fast friends at an exclusive prep school in Manhattan. During their senior year, in 1965, they decide they just "must" lose their virginity before going off to college in the fall. One would think that they could have chosen wiser than the 26 year-old unemployed cad who vacations with them in Stowe, Vermont, to facilitate this deflowering. That this sketchy plan goes horribly awry, completely wrecking the lives of the chubby girl and her family, should come as no surprise.

This should make a great movie. ( )