Your Voice Is All I Hear

If you are, particularly, any kind of creative person, this story will lead you in as any good book does as it gently removes your heart from your chest, carefully mangles and reshapes it as you watch, and then, at the end, puts it back. That bit of duct tape will be fiiiine.

You know as it happens that your heart will never be quite the same. Nope.

This is "young adult" at the level where anyone pulled in will be rewarded (mangling is a reward, it IS). I recommend it particularly to those who want to understand mental illness right up close and personal.

There is a romance. It is, in fact, at the core of our main character's character. It's why this story works. And, like it or not, it ends exactly where it needs to.

April Wesley is not looking forward to a new year of high school. Her best friend Kris is going to a new private school while she's stuck at her same old public school. She would make new friends but whenever she tries to she says the wrong thing or just sputters along saying "Ummm." Then new students arrive to her class and amazingly the new cute guy, Jonah, wants to sit by her and talk to her. He even shuts down the popular girl of this high school in favor of April. He's amused by April's less than graceful responses to his questions and they bond over their mutual love for art/music and missing their best friends. They become close quickly, but then things start to change with Jonah. He acts erratic and unintentionally hurts April show more emotionally. There is something wrong and April only wants to protect him to her own detriment.

I feel like sometimes mental illness in movies can be portrayed in a way where you don't really get to know the illness or what the person is dealing with but how everyone else's reactions to that person. There is no real way that we can understand what is happening to that person, however Scheier is able to do that remarkably in Your Voice is All I Hear without even having the person who was mentally ill have a POV.



I just skimmed read portions of the book again to write an accurate review since I read it months ago. It wasn't until the end that I remembered my own connection to schizophrenia, something I haven't experienced personally with a family member but still it's strange to think someone in my family slowly deteriorated with this illness and no one could help her at the time. To have voices in your head screaming and taunting and terrifying you without escape... what a horrible thing to have to live with.

April is extremely loyally and protective of Jonah. Before, Jonah could be intense but loving. He loved his little sister Katie and she adores him. He teased April and their conversations were always fun to read especially since it took awhile for April to get comfortable with him and stop saying the "wrong" thing. April starts losing who Jonah was and can't cope with what to do. I really got the sense of how April quickly lost herself while she was trying not to lose the Jonah she fell in love with. There is this weight on her and sense of responsibility not to turn her back on Jonah. I loved her loyalty because it's never okay to let someone go for something they can't control. There was points that I felt April should step back because he was consuming her and when you let something so dark consume you it doesn't help the person you are trying to save.

Your Voice is All I Hear, delves deep into what it means to love a person with schizophrenia, what it feels like to have a mental illness, and how people perceive being mentally ill is like. When you aren't facing this kind of illness or love someone with it you can never imagine what those people are going through. Scheier got me to sit down and care about these characters and realize struggles that millions of people have to face everyday. show less

Your Voice Is All I Hear is a powerful and thought-provoking young adult novel about the rarely discussed mental illness schizophrenia. Leah Scheier provides a gritty and insightful look into the devastating effect this disorder has on not only the patient, but also their family and friends. This unflinchingly honest depiction of the progression of symptoms and treatment is poignant and oftentimes, heartbreaking. It is a truly captivating novel that is impossible to put down and I highly recommend it to readers of all ages.

Socially awkward April Wesley is dreading the beginning of the school year now that her best (and sadly, only) friend, Kristin, has transferred to a private school. She is surprised but delighted when handsome, new show more student Jonah Golden befriends her on the first day of school. Despite a few uncomfortable interactions with Jonah, the two become inseparable almost immediately and their friendship soon turns romantic. April notices, but easily ignores or explains away, Jonah's increasingly troubling behavior since his initial symptoms are somewhat vague and non-threatening. Unfortunately it is only a matter of time before Jonah descends into full blown psychosis and paranoia and his parents have no choice but to sign him into a psychiatric hospital for treatment. April stands by Jonah and dedicates herself to aiding him during his recovery but learning the full extent of his illness causes her to doubt their entire relationship.

April is such a lonely character that is easy to understand how easily she fell for Jonah. She is shy and finds it impossible to talk to people she does not know very well. She definitely struggles with her first few conversations with Jonah, but they click with one another pretty much right from the start. April is uneasy with his mood swings but since he recovers from them so quickly, she overlooks them.She is also very easily swayed and she is a little too compliant although her loyalty to Jonah is commendable. She never wavers from her commitment to him but April willingly remains in the dark about his condition until one of her teachers challenges her to begin some long overdue research into schizophrenia.

Jonah is a sweet, sensitive young man in the beginning but there are hints early on that something is not quite right. While he is fairly open and honest with April, there are some aspects of his past that are clearly off limits. His tenderness with his younger sister is touching as is his devotion to April. Despite his reluctance to talk about his early symptoms, he is aware on some level that something is drastically wrong. Unfortunately, he is embarrassed to admit some of what he is experiencing and as his condition worsens, Jonah tries to cope with his problems on his own.

Your Voice Is All I Hear is an extremely emotional story that is incredibly compelling. The storyline is well-written with an outstanding cast of fully developed, sympathetic characters. Leah Scheier's research is phenomenal and she creatively works factual information about schizophrenia into the storyline in such a way that readers cannot help but experience the terrifying effects of this condition. The skillful use of foreshadowing makes it impossible to put down this engaging story and the novel thunders to a heartrending, but entirely realistic, conclusion. show less

I received an ARC of this book from Sourcebooks Fire via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I'd like to start off by giving a round of applause to Scheier for skillfully handling the topic of mental illnesses and writing about it. This is one of the best books about mental illness that I've read in a long time.

And the title. Can we just talk about the title? It fits the book so perfectly, it's like the missing piece of the puzzle for this amazing book. I love it when the title of a book complements the story perfectly. A round of applause to Scheier for that, too.

This story was heartbreakingly realistic, which is one of the main reasons I loved it. There are no clichés - no love triangles, no cheating, no drama show more (well aside from typical high school drama). The story wasn't even mainly centered on Jonah and Leah's relationship! It was centered on Leah's hope and Jonah's mental illness, making for a very realistic story.

I cried at some points of the story and felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest at other times. This book was a roller coaster of emotions. A heartbreaking story of loss, hope, and love, this book will leave you craving more.

Don't miss the release date, September 1, 2015 so that you can grab your own copy of the book! show less

I received this eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was a little hesitant to read this book about schizophrenia so soon after reading and not liking another book with the same mental illness - Where the Moon Isn't by Nathan Filer. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could not put this one down. I love th eway this was written. There were no cliches and definitely no sugar coating of the illness. So many times I've read books involving mental illness where the author tries to make it this huge thing that ends up being unrealistic. This book felt so real and the characters were real and relatable. If you are looking for a realistic, heart ripping story about mental illness then this is the book for you.

“No one believes me when I tell them that Jonah was the best boyfriend in the world. They think I’m painting too rosy of a picture, considering what happened later. They insist that there must have been some signs, something wrong, some clue where this was headed. They want to hear symptoms. But I can only tell them how I felt with him.”

April just lost her only friend, Kristin, when she transferred to a private school. That’s a big deal for April who is a social disaster and always relied on Kris for social situations. Enter: Jonah, the new guy who breaks through the social barriers and has the gall to sit next to April instead of the campus princess. April’s character go though a major growth as she learns to survive high show more school without her best friend, fall in love, and ultimately face Jonah’s illness head-on.

Jonah’s character has a pain filled and semi-mysterious past, which comes out very slowly and I still think it was completely fleshed out enough. He’s an artist, a painter, which can kind of hide part of his condition as being a temperamental artist with a tragic past.

Kristin is April’s best friend and social compass. She’s important to the story as Jonah starts pulling away and April pulls away with him. Kristin doesn’t take up very much air time in the book, but she does have a major roll in showcasing how April is effected by Jonah.

Katie is Jonah’s little sister. She’s the single best side character in the book! There’s not very much of it, but the brother/sister interaction is cute and Katie also adds another factor to Jonah’s condition.

April doesn’t come off as a dumb bystander that couldn’t see the changes in her boyfriend: she does, but she wants to ignore the symptoms and refuses to believe that there’s anything wrong with Jonah. It was a good balance to the story and to the character. Jonah’s schizophrenia isn’t a typical teenage schizophrenia (teens are more likely to see hallucinations than have delusions), but it was well played out.

There’s a family! April has a mom who puts her foot down (even if she’s a bit strange), and Jonah has a loving mother and little sister; even though there’s a rift between him and his father. It’s nice having a mother that actually sees a problem with their daughter spending every weekend at mental ward and not just a free-spirit do-what-you-want parent. Jonah’s mother is typical, too (if not a bit hysterical, maybe the schiz is from her side of the family?).

The romance between the characters is hard to describe. On one hand it’s very sweet but as Jonah’s condition worsens he tended to get a little pushy. It’s really April’s dedication to Jonah and his trust in April that lets their relationship shine.

Overall, Your Voice Is All I Hear is a great book for teens to learn more about mental illnesses’ (not just schizophrenia) impact on family, friends, and communities. show less

I have to say, I enjoy this book very much. Both of the main characters have their own personal issues, but their circumstances allow them to come together in a very special way. I’ve always been fascinated with anything that have something to do with psychology or mental issues, and so you can understand how this book affected me.

April, the female protagonist, is a very brave girl in her very own unique way, in my opinion. The part where she gave the speech about Jonah touched me the most. She completely walked out of her shell and face the world, the people who once tormented her life. Her courage inspired me.

The book is a perfect mix of heart-twisting and young girl realistic life.. The ending is…well, I truly didn’t expect show more that to come. Still, the message behind it is beautiful. What it means to lose something. I absolutely adore Your Voice Is All I Hear. show less