Where Silence Gathers
Imagine seeing your emotions and elements such as lies and truths in your life like humans invading your space, talking to you, reaching out to you every moment of your day. This concept, this bizarre notion had me grabbing this book off the libraries new section even before I read the first book in the series. Alex lives with her aunt and uncle after a car accident claimed the individuals in her family. Alex has been living with Revenge, her best friend who makes her feel safe and is someone she can depend on consistently. Stunned and alarmed, Alex discovers that Nate Foster is being released from prison today, his sentence too short for the lives he claimed. Alex was sure she knew his destiny upon his release but things get confusing when other emotions and elements start to enter her life. As some of them stand side-by-side, they don’t battle it out, they address the issues and let it lie, they know it is Alex’s life and she has to choose which ones to listen to. Alex has a hard decision to make and as they walk into her life some are persistent, some linger and some just want to be seen and then vanish. She must choose which ones to listen to, as it is her life. Alex’s behavior changes as she’s skipping school, brushing people off and her friends are being hurt by her actions. Revenge, her constant companion wanders away for a while and Alex is confused at his departure. He was her constant, someone she could rely on, she needs him but yet the things she hears now she wonders if he was she needed. Alex discovers other truths but the future she must decide.
There was a fascination with the emotions and elements as I first started to read the book but as I got into the story, they started to annoy me a bit. They were distracting as they popped in the scene and I didn’t feel any emotions reading about them. When Alex was talking with Revenge, I didn’t feel the emotions that go with revenge, such as hatred, retaliation spite, etc, I just felt like they were having an emotionless conversation and I wanted to feel something. The story was set, the tension was there, I just didn’t feel any emotion, but then again, perhaps I wasn’t supposed to. What I did get out of this story was an astonishing look at all of the emotions and elements that invade my thoughts when I least expect it. I’m a complex human being and no wonder I don’t know what I want sometimes. The idea that we also feel more than one emotion at a time was inside this story. This idea was significant for me as it helps describe why people are the way they are. Emotions come in clusters (anger, despair, and desperation), there are layers which are built upon one another. You never really feel one emotion at a time. So when someone says they are angry, there’s more to it besides the angry part of it. Another example is love, excited and anticipation. I guess I knew this but when the Emotions walked in together, it really hit home.
