The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton

The emphasis for me and the most interesting part of the book, was the relationship between mother and daughter and the attitude towards the elephant in the room. The elephant being the child's deafness.

Yasmin seems to be envious of relationship Ruby has with her father, perhaps because he understands her silence. He also tries to help integrate his daughter without trying to usurp her own voice.

Ruby chooses not to use her speaking voice, but has rather cleverly found her written voice and a way to interact on social media, which gives her another kind of speaking voice.

Yasmin is adamant Ruby use her voice, to the point that she makes her daughter even more determined not to do so.Yasmin acts as if she is almost embarrassed by Ruby's deafness. She wants her to behave like other children. This battle between mother and daughter is evident throughout the story and also how much distance is between them because of it.

The complex relationship plays an integral role in the story, and is the one thing keeping the boat from sinking, as far as I am concerned. Aside from that and the big nod in the direction of how dangerous fracking is for our environment and us in general, the story struggles to retain any semblance of reality. In what world is someone going to become an instant ice trucker, and no her being a physicist does not count.

The narrator often changes in mid-chapter, which is often confusing and could be clearer. The plot is a little far-fetched, but the very realistic relationship issues between mother and daughter make up for what it is lacking.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley.