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Tuesday, October 27, 2020

#ATBR2020 Review: We Hear Voices by Evie Green

We Hear Voices 
by Evie Green

Thank you Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for this review copy.

Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: December 1, 2020
Kindle Edition
384 Pages
Standalone
Genres: Horror, Sci-Fi

An eerie debut about a little boy who recovers from a sickness and inherits an imaginary friend who makes him do violent things...

Kids have imaginary friends. Rachel knows this. So when her young son, Billy, miraculously recovers from a horrible flu that has proven fatal for many, she thinks nothing of Delfy, his new invisible friend. After all, her family is healthy and that's all that matters.

But soon Delfy is telling Billy what to do, and the boy is acting up and lashing out in ways he never has before. As Delfy's influence is growing stranger and more sinister by the day, and rising tensions threaten to tear Rachel's family apart, she clings to one purpose: to protect her children at any cost--even from themselves.

We Hear Voices is a mischievously gripping near-future horror novel that tests the fragility of family and the terrifying gray area between fear and love.

My Review:

Imagine you're in a pandemic... I know, I know... it's a stretch, but just try.  Now imagine you're a kid that caught whatever "flu" (J5X) is going around, gets REALLY sick but then starts to recover.  But he's also brought with him a new imaginary friend named Delfy.  Imaginary friends are harmless right? 😉 Spider bouquet anyone? 🕷♥

As an only child you would've thought I would've had an imaginary friend but I never did.   I would make up scenarios in my head all the time and hold conversations where I was the voice of everyone that wasn't there... but they were people I knew and never someone that didn't actually exist.  I have ALWAYS been fascinated with imaginary friends and then couple that with kids turned creepy AND add a pandemic to the mix?  I'm in! Yes, I'm that person who watched all the pandemic movies when all of *this* occurred but anywayssssssssssss......

I'm SUPER torn in how I feel about this novel.  The concept it fantastic and the synopsis hooked me straight away. I do feel that some parts of the book felt like we were being told, rather than shown, what was happening.  And this was usually in a cluster of sentences that basically told the reader what happened over a short period of time.  It just seemed off compared to the feel of the rest of the read.  (cluster of sentences... paragraph, whatever 🤣)  I had fun with how the characters ended up intersecting but that ending.... 

Ok, let me say that I love when books get wonky. And this absolutely gets wonky.  I'm undecided if I'm LOVING on it or just kinda MEH about it. Either way, I swiped to the left one last time on my e-copy with a head shake and a smile.  There's certainly some plots holes but as a debut, I'm pretty excited for the whole concept of this story.  I'm gonna keep an eye on Green... I'm excited to see what else she has for us in the future.

★★★

Jessica's Review:


This book is far too similar to what’s happening our world now with the pandemic, despite being set in the distant future. WE HEAR VOICES is the debut novel from Evie Green and I absolutely loved the concept and the overall pacing. There were just a couple things that are keeping me in the middle with this, but it’s really just more of a “me as a reader” type thing.

So, not only is there a pandemic raging, a little boy catches the virus and almost dies from it. Thankfully, he recovers, but with his recovery comes a new imaginary friend named Delfy. Imaginary friends are harmless, right? Well, not in this case. Delfy seems to be controlling his every move and some have horrible outcomes. Is this something that all survivors are experiencing? So many questions and you’re in for a crazy ride!

I think this is a solid debut for Evie Green and I’m looking forward to what she has for us next. This was a great concept and had plenty of creepy and unsettling moments throughout. There was just something that missed for me, and I can’t really place what. Again, probably a “me as a reader thing”, I know a lot of other readers that are raving about this! Highly recommend giving this one a read.

3 stars

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