A Silent Voice, Vol. 1 & 2

[cornerofmadness]

A Silent Voice, Vol. 1 by Yoshitoki Oima

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've wanted to read this one for years but haven't mostly because I'm not one for contemporary fiction. However this one had themes I wanted to see how they handled them (deafness, school bullying) and the library had it so I picked it up.

Shoya and his two buddies are straight up little brats always in dangerous trouble. We first meet them as they're leaping off a high bridge into the river (technically we see Shoya first six years after the main action as this volume is done in a story frame style). He's bored and without direction. What little we see of his home life, his mother is always working (and making excuses for him, being very permissive of his behavior), dad's nowhere to be seen and his sister is only seen as a pair of legs in her room with a revolving cast of boyfriends. He's acting out to stave off boredom and he's self aware of that. He has no interest in school.

Enter Shoko a deaf girl who communicates with a tablet (paper tablet given this was written almost 15 years ago now) Shoya finds himself a new, easy target, especially since she just takes the abuse without complaint. Shoya is a nasty little brat but to be fair, so's the rest of the class. They egg him on. They take active part in the bullying. They do their own bullying. The teacher knows about it and turns a blind eye.

It escalates to a costly episode (literally given the expense of her hearing aids) where everyone leaves Shoya hanging. They make him the lone culprit in the bullying when a school higher up shows up to see what's been happening. He calls them out, including the teacher to no avail. Shoya is now isolated and abused himself. While it's hard to have too much sympathy for him, it wasn't fair for him alone to be punished and he knows it.

What happens afterward is done rather masterfully. We see glimpses of the next six years after Shoko has left the school. Shoya remains ostracized. We see his depression, isolation and the desire to strike out. We're primed to see a young man either kill himself or turn into a school shooter (well if we were in America we would be) He goes from resentful to blandly accepting of his fate.

And then Shoko reenters his life and there ends volume one. In many ways this is a hard point of view character to get behind because he's the author of his own misery. What makes him interesting is that he does understand why things are the way they are. Can he or will he change? Should he be forgiven? Will he continue to lash out? As someone who had been mercilessly bullied in high school, I find myself asking, what could those bullies do to earn my forgiveness (it's been nearly 40 years so I'm thinking the answer is nothing but then again they never tried) It'll be interesting to see what happens next.



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聲の形 2 [Koe no Katachi 2] by Yoshitoki Oima

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was exactly what I was hoping for. No easy answers. We finally get to see Shoya attempt to make up for his bullying but it isn't (nor should it be) easy. It's six years later. Shoya is still friendless (and content warning, suicidal planning and suicidal ideation is discussed) . There is a wonderful artistic choice in this. Shoya sees the students around him with Xs over their faces, showing his isolation.

His attempts to apologize to Shoko is thwarted by himself, by her mother and by her highly protective little sister (whom Shoya mistakes as a boy). No one even wants him to attempt to talk to her because of the damage he's done but we catch glimpses of who Shoya is growing into.

For one, he's not as dumb as he comes off in the first volume. He has taken on sign language in hopes of one day he might be able to talk to Shoko in her language. He accepts his isolation and anything her family can throw at him as his due. (and without spoilers, it's a lot, like prosecutable a lot)

Again, no easy answers here but an act of kindness on Shoya's part nets him a new friend, another isolated young man (who is frankly weird and distracting). I forgot to mention in my other review, the art in this is fantastic as well.



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