The Silence That Binds Us Review

Book Title: The Silence that Binds Us by Joanna Ho

Genre: YA, realistic fiction

Published Year: 2022

Kindle Unlimited: no :(

Series: no, stand-alone

*some spoilers ahead*

The Silence That Binds Us, written by Joanna Ho, tells the story of Maybelline Chen, a half Chinese and half Taiwanese, American girl, who decides to speak out against the racism in her community, following the loss of her brother Danny to suicide.

This book is an absolute emotional rollercoaster! It takes you on a journey through the main characters’ grief and loss, anger, her will to stand up, struggles with family relations, insecurities, wavering beliefs, all the way to her celebration and joy. This book really went deep into racism and the background of historically oppressed or minority groups. It had this raw honesty to it and didn’t glaze over the ugly truths of the effects of racism.

It was powerful seeing May decide to take a stand and speak out, challenging her parents’ silence and complacency. She was determined, even when not everyone was willing to support her decision.

One of my favorite parts was May’s moving and inspiring poems. I can’t say I’m that much of a writer or poet, but I loved seeing how the main character used the power of words to take back the narrative.

I loved the community that built up following May’s decision to speak out. It may have taken a while for people to join in and come together, but her friends were loyal through it all and I loved how supportive they were, especially Tiya. Another thing I liked was seeing May and Marc’s relationship play out, it was sweet and didn’t happen too fast, yet it didn’t overtake the plot and shift the book’s focus away. But even though romance was not the central focus of the plot, I still would have liked to see more of May and Marc at the end. It felt like there was still room to explore their relationship, but the book ended before there was a chance for it to happen.

The structuring and pacing of this book were some things that I thought could have been done better. The middle and middle to end parts of the book were the best parts, but once it got into the ending, it seemed too rushed. The two biggest struggles I had with this book were where the McIntyre family was involved. 1) It felt like Josh was portrayed as the villain here when he really wasn’t. I don’t think May recognized how hard it is to speak out, let alone speak out against your own family. Even when Josh did speak out, May didn’t acknowledge it nearly enough. Throughout the entire book, May kept ignoring him or brushing him off, and near the end of the book, May didn’t even bother to reconcile with him, even after she was given multiple opportunities! 2) My biggest problem with the book: Nate McIntyre at the ending. May comes home to find Nate McIntyre at her dining table talking and laughing with her parents. He caused so many problems for her and her family, admitted that people who were important to May (herself included) were just a blip on his radar, said himself he wouldn’t really have listened to her and her friends if his son was not also involved, but had the audacity to claim, “Why does it have to be one story over another?", when he can just wave his hand and have his story published to the community. Yet he still claimed he was trying to understand and change. The whole thing with McIntyre felt wrong and too soon.

I admit there were some things that I struggled with in this book, but I do think The Silence That Binds Us is a YA must-read, especially because of its ability to make you empathize with different communities and cultures, yet in an engaging manner. This book made me connect emotionally to the characters and made me care about them and their mission to take back the narrative. So, overall, I loved not only reading this book, but also the message behind it.

Rating: 4/5

Review Updated: 5/25/2023

Book Information:

The Silence That Binds Us