Book Review - Hannah's Voice by Robb Grindstaff

Book Summary:

When six-year-old Hannah's brutal honesty is mistaken for lying, she stops speaking. Her family, her community, and eventually, the entire nation struggle to find meaning in her silence.

School officials suspect abuse. Church members are divided—either she has a message from God or is possessed by a demon. Social workers interrupt an exorcism to wrest Hannah away from her momma, who has a tenuous grip on sanity. Hidden in protective foster care for twelve years, she loses all contact with her mother and remains mute by choice.

When Hannah leaves foster care at age eighteen to search for Momma, a national debate rages over her silence. A religious movement awaits her prophecy and celebrates her return. An anarchist group, Voices for the Voiceless, cites Hannah as its inspiration. The nation comes unhinged and the conflict spills into the streets when presidential candidates chime in with their opinions on Hannah—patriotic visionary or dangerous radical. A remnant still believes she is evil and seeks to dispatch her from this world.

Hannah stands at the intersection of anarchists and fundamentalists, between power politics and an FBI investigation. All she wants is to find her momma, a little peace and quiet, and maybe some pancakes. 

One word would put an end to the chaos if Hannah can only find her voice.

Short Excerpt: 
I hopped off her lap and ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth again, and brushed the devil out of them this time. 

I crawled back into her lap, curled my lips up to show her how white and shiny they were, and exhaled my minty fresh breath for her to smell. 

Her blue eyes sparkled behind her glasses like the biggest jewels in a treasure chest. "Oh lovely, what lovely teeth you have. You have your father's teeth." 

I didn't have my father's teeth. His were still in his mouth, his lips closed tight over them. I'd kissed him goodnight last year at the church. Momma said he was going to sleep and would wake up with Jesus and the angels.
 
I didn't even have all of my own teeth. The two top front ones were gone, along with one on the bottom, so brushing the few I had left didn't take long. But I scrubbed them three times a day to make sure they were shiny and clean when I kissed Momma goodnight. 

Follow Robb Grindstaff - Website, Facebook, Twitter: @RobbWriter or On Evolved Publishing 

My thoughts: 
Hannah isn't your average six year old, she can read and spell ahead of her class. Hannah also doesn't like to be asked three or four times the same question but her mom will ask her over and over again even though she has answered already. When there is an accident at school Hannah is asked what she knows and tells the school what she remembers but there is another girl that says Hannah was involved. As Hannah was asked many times the same questions she decides to stop talking. From there things spiral, the school thinks she is being mistreated at home, the church divides and thinks she is either taken my a devil or has a message from God. 

The whole story is told from Hannah's point of view and when she stops talking we hear her inner voice. She really is a smart little girl but makes a big mistake to stop talking. I really liked Hannah's character.  Hannah lives in a foster home for 10 years before she is moved into another home and really all Hannah has been praying for is her Momma and some of her pancakes.  This story really makes you think about how people jump to conclusions and how real this story line could be. There is a lot of religious aspects in this novel and how Hannah's vision from God had turned her mute. 

I give this book a 4 out of 5. 


~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn on behalf of RABT Blog Tours. I received the above book for review purpose. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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