Welcome to our first virtual book club! Our first book is Whisper Me This by Kerry Anne King. I really enjoyed this book and it’s a quick read. It’s got secrets, suspense and the end gave me all the “girl power” feels.
The story follows Maisey, a single mother, as she gets called home to deal with a medical emergency with her parents. As her mom lays dying in the hospital, Maisey needs to make some tough decisions and care for her failing father. While she’s looking for some important paperwork, she stumbles across two birth certificates – hers and also one for her twin sister, who she didn’t know existed. So, Maisey starts investigating her mother’s past, uncovering secret after secret, while dealing with a controlling ex-husband and a hottie, emotionally damaged fire fighter.
The author, Kerry Ann King, is a licensed RN and mental health counselor and she likes to explore themes of grief, loss and transformation in her work. Whisper Me This hits on all of these themes and explores the cycle of abuse. The topics are heavy, but King writes in a readable, compassionate way.
Virtual Book Club: Whisper Me This (by Kerry Anne King)
Onto the discussion….
Warning: Spoilers if you haven’t read the book yet….
This book deals a lot with abuse. It hits it from every angle – Physical abuse, emotional abuse, from a parent, from a partner, from a father. One thing I really loved about this book was that it wasn’t a single viewpoint on this subject and it really showed the legacy of abuse from several compelling stories – Tony and his sisters, Maisey’s mom, her daughters, and even the neighbor next door and the false accusation of Maisey’s dad. It touches everyone. Because it’s told from Maisey‘s point of view, we’re in it with her. Her relationship with Greg is unfortunately probably pretty relatable to a lot of women and I liked how it showed how abuse can sneak up on you.
Is Maisey’s mom abusive? I kind of wrestled with this one and came away deciding that she was emotionally abusive. To me, convincing your daughter she’s crazy because she has memories of her twin definitely falls into that category. I was a bit judgy about Maisey’s mom. It’s great that she got out, but how do you not go back for one of your kids? Some of the reviews I saw online were more sympathetic to her, citing her own history of being abused and her fear of Boots coming back for her. What did you think? Was Maisey’s mom abusive? Drop me a comment and tell me what you think.
The other thing I really liked about the book was how the idea of the fallibility of memories was woven throughout the book. Sometimes, our memories don’t have the whole story, as was the case with Tony and his memories of the night his father died. Sometimes, something happens that makes us see our memories in a new light, as it did when Maisey began realizing how Greg had been quietly abusing her and Elle for years. Things you thought weren’t real can turn out to be true, like Maisey and Marley’s memories of the night they were separated. Did what we remember really happen the way we remember it? It’s interesting to think about.
“A familiar web of worry and indecision grounds me in my accustomed reality.” Yep. I feel that.
I did really enjoy this book, but there were a few things that bugged me. She found her sister in one Google search? And she just happened to be playing in a band in town? Really? That was way too easy. Also, as much as I wanted to like Elle, she kind of bugged me because she seemed too smart and precocious for a 12 year old.
What did you like about the book? What bugged you? Drop me a comment and tell me what you thought.