![\"Cover](\"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/cover-for-your-voice-is-all-i-hear-300x450.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/div>I did not notice this until I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but now I see it everywhere.\u00a0 The majority of representations I see of people with my experiences have been murderers in horror films or criminals in the newspaper (whose diagnoses are often more theoretical than actual\u2014the general public hurrying to explain violent acts as caused by underlying mental illnesses).\u00a0 This is why I was so excited about Your Voice is All I Hear<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Leah Scheier, a love story between two teenagers \u2014 one of whom has schizophrenia.\u00a0 I wanted to read something where schizophrenia was a part of life \u2014 a challenge, yes, but one that was humanized and incorporated into a larger story.\u00a0 I wanted to read a book in which schizophrenia was part of a whole and complicated character, not the sum total of their being. Your Voice is All I Hear <\/em>is certainly well-written and compelling, and I appreciate Scheier\u2019s efforts to portray a teen with schizophrenia in a positive and sympathetic light.\u00a0 After finishing the novel, however, I do not know if these efforts were completely successful.<\/p>\nScheier\u2019s novel tells the story of April, a creative Grade 10 girl, whose life changes when she meets Jonah.\u00a0 She is an awkward loner (following in the footsteps of many teen protagonists) and Jonah is the mysterious, handsome new kid.\u00a0 They form a connection right away, beginning an intense relationship that drives both of their artistic interests.\u00a0 Jonah is a gifted painter while April is a pianist and songwriter, and together they plan to audition for a prestigious art school.\u00a0 However, Jonah soon begins to display distressed, paranoid behaviour: hearing things that no one else can hear, suspecting teachers of being spies, worrying that someone is trying to control his thoughts.\u00a0 While at first April tries to hide Jonah\u2019s behaviour from others \u2014 protecting him, she thinks \u2014 an altercation with the police leads to Jonah\u2019s hospitalization in the psychiatric ward.\u00a0 After this traumatic incident, the story focuses on April\u2019s attempts to support Jonah through his diagnosis with schizophrenia, all while facing resistance and fear from her friends and family.\u00a0 I won\u2019t reveal the ending, although there are no shocking twists or surprises \u2014 just a grim and realistic journey through the mental health system, with all of its frustrations and tragedies. There is hope at the end, but it feels like a distant hope, shimmering and unreachable on some far-off horizon.<\/p>\n
I admire Leah Scheier for writing a book like this for teenagers, as schizophrenia often manifests for the first time in adolescence. Your Voice is All I Hear<\/em> would certainly familiarize readers with common symptoms, while normalizing schizophrenia as an illness like any other \u2014 not <\/em>a mark of someone being \u201cevil\u201d or \u201ccrazy.\u201d\u00a0 Jonah\u2019s experiences were very similar to mine, which made this book a difficult read at times, but speaks to the depth of research conducted by the author.\u00a0 This medical accuracy is to be expected from Scheier, who is also a pediatrician, and who closes her novel by recommending advocacy and support organizations for individuals with schizophrenia.<\/p>\n However, it is obvious that this book\u2019s target audience is not teenagers (or adults) with schizophrenia themselves.\u00a0 The focus is almost entirely on the pain that Jonah\u2019s diagnosis causes April. <\/em>\u00a0For a reader who has lived through Jonah\u2019s experience, I do not know how much this book would offer.\u00a0 At the end of the novel, April is a changed person who has found the strength to pursue her musical dreams. It\u2019s great to see a female character develop more resilience and confidence, but in this case, it almost feels like Jonah\u2019s illness is a tool for April\u2019s self-actualization.\u00a0 I am certain it was not the author\u2019s intent, but too many novels use characters with various medical conditions to teach the \u201cnormal\u201d protagonist something about their own lives.\u00a0 This is a well-worn trope, and while April\u2019s story certainly deserves to be told, this kind of story has been told before.\u00a0 Perhaps if the book had alternated between April\u2019s and Jonah\u2019s point-of view, readers would have had a more balanced understanding.\u00a0 As the story is narrated solely by April, however, the reader is never able to know what is going on in Jonah\u2019s head.\u00a0 This reinforces the common perception of the individual with schizophrenia as someone removed from the general population \u2014 unknowable, and unknown.<\/p>\n Another issue I had was with the relationship between Jonah and April itself.\u00a0 They fall in love almost immediately, and no time is taken to explore why or what they mean to each other.\u00a0 Even their first dates are narrated in the past tense.\u00a0 We read that they were \u201cbest friends by the end of the first week\u201d and \u201clistened to music, studied for tests, watched movies on his laptop\u201d but we don\u2019t get to see any of these encounters firsthand.\u00a0 When Jonah began to have symptoms of psychosis, there was less at stake for me because I didn\u2019t feel like I really knew him.\u00a0 It would have made for a longer novel, but without this deeper character development, the reader only gets to know Jonah in the hospital, where he is hostile and suspicious.\u00a0 While his behaviour is completely realistic, it doesn\u2019t make him easy to root for, and lessens the impact of April\u2019s efforts to save their relationship.\u00a0 Because the reader does not know Jonah in the way April claims to, he is reduced to just <\/em>a person with schizophrenia. All we see are his symptoms, when he is obviously much more than that; we all are.<\/p>\n I was glad to have read this novel, and I\u2019m grateful it exists.\u00a0 It means that people are talking about conditions that have been stigmatized and feared for too long.\u00a0 I might recommend it as an educational text for readers who want to learn more about mental illness, but not for people living with schizophrenia, or anyone looking for a star-crossed romance (which is me, always). Your Voice is All I Hear <\/em>is not a love story, because love is not its focus.\u00a0 It is a story about schizophrenia, and the far-reaching effects it has on both Jonah and the people who love him.\u00a0 It is a hard story to read, without any easy answers or happy endings \u2014 and I wanted a happy ending so badly.\u00a0 I wanted a happy ending because I want to believe these endings are possible, regardless of the medications you take or the voices you hear.\u00a0 I’m not trying to suggest that every novel has to be all calm seas and happiness; that is obviously not the story that Scheier was trying to tell. \u00a0It just feels like characters with schizophrenia have had so few happy endings in literature and film and television.\u00a0 Surely, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that someone with a mental illness could save the day, and get the girl.\u00a0 Surely, more astonishing things have happened in this mad, mad world.<\/p>\n Schizophrenia may not be \u201csexy,\u201d but it is a part of life \u2014 part of a larger story.\u00a0 I thought this book would tell that story, but it did not. I will keep waiting for the novel that portrays schizophrenia as just one facet of a colourful, complicated person, and gives characters like Jonah the opportunity to have their own voices heard. I will keep waiting for our happy ending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your Voice is All I Hear<\/em> will familiarize readers with common symptoms, while normalizing schizophrenia as an illness like any other; however, it is obvious that this book\u2019s target audience is not those with schizophrenia themselves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":2767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_generate-full-width-content":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[241],"genre":[5],"age_category":[8],"disability":[18,242],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7263,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766\/revisions\/7263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2766"},{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=2766"},{"taxonomy":"age_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age_category?post=2766"},{"taxonomy":"disability","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disability?post=2766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}