Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis

Published April 27, 2010 by Balzer + Bray
ISBN 978-0-0617-9925-9
281 pages
Series? Yes

Rating: PG-13
BUY / Nook / Kindle

I’d love a cup of coffee. I wish she knew how pretty she was. I wish I could drop this kid in the dryer sometimes. I just want her to be happy. 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 a frightening whisper from Jessica's own mind, 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.

Cover. The cover is weird and I did not understand the point before or after reading the book. It seems to me that the girls head is floating in space with these weird smoke stuff that forces half of her face off of the frame. I don't get the smoke. It reminds me of cigarettes and although there are some smoking and drug use I don't really see why it was put on the cover the way it is.


Plot. The summary that is given does not really describe the book that well to me. The first two-thirds of the novel is almost a completely different novel than the last third and even though it is the last that is described in the summary I found myself liking the first portion better. Joy can hear people's desires. In the beginning it is only the surface ones that she hears and she can't stop herself from giving in to the desires of the people around her. I absolutely loved the first half. There was so much promise and I really wanted to learn more about the Whispers and how they work. Joy seemed to knowledgeable about them and because her sister was so rude to everyone I found the fact the Joy always went to her mother less strange than I would have under other circumstances. Yet very suddenly everyone changes personality and we are given flashbacks to convince us that they have always been that way. Her friends up until now had been portrayed as an average group of friends are suddenly the popular crowd. The A-List of the entire school and yet they are only in their freshmen year. While I loved the beginning I found that the end of the book just did not keep my attention and I became so very annoyed with how the book ended. It had so much potential and I feel as if I have been let down. Yet I don't regret picking up this book because the premise was so interesting and the author has such promise that I might even read the second book in the series. If there actually is one because to be honest while so many sites said that this was the first book I could not find anything about a second one.


Characters. I didn't have a favorite character because I did not really like any of them. Joy was shunned by her entire family and than they all had the gall to act like it was her fault for not knowing things. I especially despised how whenever the dad talked to her he would only talk about his work and never even tried to get to know Joy. I could not like Joy because of her lobotomy half-way through. I could not like Jessica because she was barely actually in the book. I think that she had a total of three actual scenes that were in the present and the rest were in flashbacks. The book was supposed to be about Joy saving Jessica or Icka as she is called but she is barely in it and Joy only finds out that Icka is missing after a little over 200 pages in. That left 40 pages for Joy to think about doing something, 30 pages for her to do something, and 10 pages for the resolution. So not enough.


Recommend? Yes