The book Silence by Natasha Preston is a 3 part book series. It’s about 2 people narrating the book Oakley and Cole. Both of them narrate in this book but Cole doesn’t tell his side till about halfway through and switch back and forth. They are best friends but Cole is two years older and they have been friends since Oakley was born. They live next door to each other and their moms are best friends. They are normal teenagers besides Oakley doesn’t talk and hasn’t since she was five and nobody knows why. Besides one person. Oakley and Cole both like each other but they don’t want to tell each other in fear that the other doesn’t feel the same way. They also have their own little language since Oakley doesn’t talk. They end up going on holiday (vacation) to Italy for two weeks with both of their families. Oakley always hints that something happened to her. When she thinks about it she always brings up her dad but doesn’t say what actually happened.
Oakley and Cole get even closer when they are in Italy and their siblings are kind of suspecting something is happening with them. But neither of them say anything cause they don’t really know themselves. While in Italy they go scuba diving because Cole wanted to and have a spa day because Oakley wanted to. They spend all their time with each other and hid their relationship from their parents. When the two weeks are up both are dreading going back to England because they know that what happened can’t stay that way. Because they can’t let their parents know about their relationship cause of the way they treat Oakley.
They end up dating but don’t tell their family till after Italy when Oakley turns 16. When they finally do tell their family, Oakley’s dad is really mad and everyone else is fine with it. Oakley and Cole get mad that there moms and sibling wanted them together but, they treat Oakley like she’s broken just cause she doesn’t talk. Oakley is 16 and they feel like they should stop treating her like she is a kid when she’s 16 and nothing really wrong with her. They end up leaving the house and stay at a hotel for the night without telling anyone. They end up telling Jasper Oakleys brother where they are at. He brings pizza and they talk about what happened. The next day they go back to the house and everything changes. Like them not staying at each others houses like they used to and having the doors open.
As the days go on they still feel the same about each other and continue to go on as before just things are different because they are dating now. There parents support them and are finally happy for them both. Oakley’s dad ends up coming up to her and saying he wants their relationship back like before what happened and says they should do something together again. They end up setting up a camping trip and Cole is kind of mad that he cant go with but, its with just Oakley and her dad. When they leave Cole then narrates this part and gets a call from Oakley and Oakley never calls him. He gets super worried and Oakley is saying she needs help and is crying and Cole runs to find her. As he gets to her she ends up telling him what happened and why she didn’t talk. It was because she was raped while her dad watched and told her to keep quiet or it would “kill her mother” Cole is very mad and wants to kill her dad and Frank. They end up going to the police station and tell them what has happened and they arrest her dad. When they get home everyone is at the Oakley’s house and they can’t believe what happened and they don’t want to believe it until Oakley tells them it’s true.
After a few days Oakley, Jasper and there mom decide that it’s better if they leave England. This means that Oakley and Cole have to break up and she tells him that he shouldn’t throw his life away for someone broken like her. This then leads into the next book Broken Silence. I overall like this book because it talks about how someone kept a secret about something that would hurt other people. It talks about how a family think somethings wrong but someone else sees something totally different and didn’t want to change someone just because they wanted to.
““Most people have heard the phrase, ‘Silence is golden’; many would agree with it: people with screaming children running wild around the house or working in a noisy office. For me, however, it meant something entirely different. Silence consumed my whole life; it suppressed things I could never express. My silence was responsible for my family’s happiness. Silence was my prison.”
Natasha Preston
This is one of my favorite quotes because, it shows the harsh reality Oakley had to go through everyday. She never got to act like a real kid and grow up talking and making friends. She got bullied because she didn’t talk and had to put up with it because of what her dad did and she’ll never get to re-do the childhood that she missed out on.
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