Writing a protagonist who can't talk out loud is quite a challenge. I talk constantly as I'm both an extrovert and a public speaker for my day job, but I have had several bouts of severe laryngitis and have been under severe no speaking orders from the doctor. People react differently when you can't talk. Nowadays, we all have a convenient mobile device on hand to help, but that isn't always the case in the fantasy books we read.
In Speechless in Achten Tan my main character Mila can't talk because magic took her voice. Her magic power is connected to her ability to speak, so she's pretty desperate to regain her ability to speak.
I've always loved V.E. Schwab's writing and the evocative ways she weaves words. In this book we follow Olivia Prior a mute girl who grew up in Merilance School for Girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into madness. The book starts with us seeing firsthand how the other girls torment her due to her lack of speech, and others in position to help, like the nuns, don't bother learning her sign language. Since Olivia lives a pretty terrifying life as a homeless orphan, who sees ghouls, this additional barrier to communication is one more insurmountable obstacle in her already hard life. No wonder she's willing to put up with a lot to find a home.
The Number 1 Sunday Times-bestselling novel, from the author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and A Darker Shade of Magic.
A darkly magical and thrilling tale of a young woman caught between the world and its shadows, who must embrace her legacy to stop the approaching darkness. The Secret Garden meets Crimson Peak, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman, Holly Black and Susan Cooper.
Fourteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had…
I picked up this book because I wanted to read another book about a witch who couldn't talk. Luckily, it's nothing like mine, phew.
Raina is a young woman who was born without the ability to speak. She lives in a country where magical ability is commonplace and marked on their skin. To substitute her lack of voice she communicates with sign language and can also weave spells that way. I didn't sense that Raina's lack of voice held her back very much. I think she had more trouble with jumping to conclusions and being too stubborn for her own good.
This was a great adventure with breakneck pace and some really high stakes.
Every harvest moon, the Witch Collector rides into our valley and leads one of us to the home of the immortal Frost King, to remain forever.
Today is that day—Collecting Day.
But he will not come for me. I, Raina Bloodgood, have lived in this village for twenty-four years, and for all that time he has passed me by.
His mistake.
Raina Bloodgood has one desire: kill the Frost King and the Witch Collector who stole her sister. On Collecting Day, she means to exact murderous revenge, but a more sinister threat sets fire to her world. Rising from the…
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
This is actually a humorous fantasy book, but I only discovered the fantasy elements about halfway through. It's also M/M romance. The MC lost his voice as a baby when his father cut his vocal cords. Pretty gruesome. He usually communicates with his phone, nonverbal cues, and lots of body language.
Third time’s the charm, right? At least that’s what I tell myself when I witness the same hot guy commit mass murder three times in a few days. I’m either the luckiest mute boy ever or possibly the unluckiest. Who knows, maybe him kidnapping me will turn into the greatest love story ever told? Hey, it could happen! You never know how these things will turn out. I happen to believe in love and soulmates, and if nothing else, Arlington Fox doesn’t treat my disability like a nuisance. It’s not everyday you find someone who just gets you, and…
This character is another fantasy character in a pre-technology world. Robbed of her voice and home, Talin Kanami knows firsthand the brutality of the Federation.
I read this quite a while back, but as far as I understand, the MC is selectively mute because of trauma after losing her home and becoming a fugitive. She communicates with sign language.
Praise for the instant New York Times bestseller Skyhunter “Riveting.” —POPSUGAR “Action-packed.” —BuzzFeed “Fresh.” —Los Angeles Times “Exhilarating…a rollercoaster of a reading experience.” —The Nerd Daily
A Quiet Place meets Attack on Titan in this unputdownable, adrenaline-laced novel.
Strikers are loyal. With unparalleled, deadly fighting skills. With a willingness to do anything—including sacrifice their own lives—to defend Mara, the world’s last free nation. But to the very people she protects, Talin is seen as an outcast first and a Striker second.
No matter what others think, Talin lets nothing distract her from keeping the evil Federation and its army of…
The Guardian of the Palace is the first novel in a modern fantasy series set in a New York City where magic is real—but hidden, suppressed, and dangerous when exposed.
When an ancient magic begins to leak into the world, a small group of unlikely allies is forced to act…
This retelling of a fairytale about the six swans is the one situation where the character cannot talk by choice. Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters must refrain from talking to save her family as her father has been bewitched, and her brothers bound by a spell that only Sorcha can lift. This unique situation may remind you of The Little Mermaid where the character voluntarily gave up their voice for love. And I think this is what makes this such a powerful story.
Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum, faces the difficult task of having to save her family from its enemies, who have bewitched her father and six older brothers while forcing her to choose between the life she has always known and a special love.
Eighteen-year-old Mila hasn't spoken in the five years since she became an Onra, a first-level Everfall witch. After failing the test to reclaim her voice and control her magic, her mentor sends Mila to Achten Tan—City of Dust—a dangerous desert town, built inside ancient bones.
To reclaim her power, Mila must steal a magical staff capable of releasing it, from the sky-high lair of the Bone Master, Chief Opu Haku. Her only resources are the magical luminous elixirs of the cursed caverns where she grew up, and a band of unlikely allies; a quirky inventor, a giant-ant rider, a healer, a librarian's assistant, a Tar-tule rider, and the chief's playboy son. If Mila fails she will never speak again and her bones may be added to the wasteland.
All Elizabeth Bennet wants for her father to bring back from Lambton is a cutting of Pemberley’s famous roses. Little did she know that her humble request would lead to her father’s imprisonment, putting both her father’s life and her childhood home of Longbourn at risk.
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
