My Sister's Voice by Mary Carter

A proudly deaf artist in Philadelphia, Lacey Gears is in a relationship with a wonderful man and rarely thinks about her childhood in a home for disabled orphans. That is, until Lacey receives a letter that begins, 'You have a sister. A twin to be exact'. Learning that her identical, hearing twin, Monica, experienced the normal childhood she was denied resurrects all of Lacey's grief, and she angrily sets out to find Monica and her parents. But the truth is far from simple. And for every one of Lacey's questions that's answered, others are raised, more baffling and profound. "My Sister's Voice" is a beautifully written novel about sisterhood, love, and the stories we cling to until real life comes crashing in.

"You have a sister. A twin to be exact." These words changed Lacey's life.

Lacey and Monica are identical twins. Lacey is deaf while Monica is not. They were separated by their parents at a very young age. Lacey was raised in a home for disabled children while Monica was raised by their parents. When they are 28 years old, Lacey receives an anonymous note in her mailbox and after that all the mysteries start to unravel. Who is this twin sister? Why did their parents keep her and not Lacey? Can they really get over the damage that was done years ago?

My Sister's Voice started off strong. I was pulled in immediately by the mystery of the situation. As the story went on and the characters were developed, though, my interest wavered. The characters weren't developed well. They all seemed very immature and unrealistic as did the story line. I couldn't believe that all of these people, and there were quite a few of them, would react the way they did to something so life changing.

There were times where issues were easily explained away. Something you would think would be very important to these characters lives and to the story would just be swept under the rug. While on the other hand there were unnecessary explanations and rants of things that were so minute that it took away from the story line.

The ending was a very big disappointment. We spend the entire book getting to the explanation of it all and the actual climax was incredibly anticlimactic. Lacey and Monica's lives are turned upside down by all these revelations and it was wrapped up in a perfect little package and ended abruptly. It felt like more of a rough draft, a very rough draft at that, than a published work of literature. I was disappointed.

I did find the aspects of deaf culture fascinating. I loved that they were explored, sometimes in great depth. It was very interesting to read about. Most people make a lot of assumptions about deaf people and this sheds a new light on them, their language and their culture.

Even with all those things it wasn't a terrible book. There were times where I really did enjoy it, especially once I got over the immaturity of the main characters.

2 out of 5 stars

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