Louder than Words by Laurie Plissner

ABOUT THE BOOK - Since the snowy night when her family's car slammed into a tree, killing her parents and little sister, Sasha has been unable to speak except through a computer with a robotic voice. Nothing is wrong with her body; that's healed. But, after four years, Sasha's memory, and her spirit, are still broken. Then one day, she's silently cussing out the heavy book she dropped at the library when a gorgeous, dark-haired boy, the kind of boy who considers Sasha a freak or at least invisible, "answers" Sasha's hidden thoughts -- out loud. Yes, Ben can read minds; it's no big deal. He's part of a family with a host of unusual, almost-but-not-quite-supernatural talents. Through Ben's love, Sasha makes greater progress than she has with a host of therapists and a prominent psychiatrist. With him to defend her, bullies keep the world from ever understanding Sasha, he pulls away. Determined to win him and prove her courage by facing her past, Sasha confronts her past -- only to learn that her family's death was no accident and that a similar fate may wait for her, in the unlikeliest of disguises.

First, I found the premise to be totally unique and I loved reading everything from Sasha's perspective.  She does have spunk, which comes through in her own mind, and occasionally though her voice box.  The voice box basically works like this: she has a keyboard that she types what she wants to say and then a microphone thing speaks it.  The only thing is, her's is set to the voice of  a male renowned scientist.  It's a bit off-putting.

Anyways, she doesn't remember anything of her life before the accident, and even though their is nothing wrong with her physically, she can't speak. She goes to a therapist to work on different issues but after four years, nothing has worked.  When a handsome boy helps save her from being accosted, she is stunned when he can read her mind.  She finally feels like someone can hear HER and not just her words.  Although she and Ben fall head over heels together, he decides she needs to find herself and her voice, he breaks up with her, but he's always waiting and watching.

Determined to get Ben back, Sasha immediately gets to work, even as she nurtures a broken heart.  With the help of her best friend Jules, they try to go back to that fateful winter day of the accident, only what they find out isn't what they expected at all.  It wasn't an accident at all, but can Sasha remember what happened before she's next?

I loved this book but I did have a few concerns with it.  It's geared toward young adults, but there is alot of heaving petting and sex talk in this book.  I would suggest a mature teen audience, like seventeen and up! Also, there is quite a bit of swearing and two scenes of bullies trying to have forced sexual favors.  I definitely wouldn't want my teenager to read this, and she's sixteen.  The other concern I had was the font.  Silly, I know.  But when Sasha is speaking through her voicebox, all the words are capitalized, which is very off-putting.  When she's writing, it's all bold and cursive and when she's talking to Ben in her head, it's italicized.  It's really hard to get used to all of the fonts and figuring how what's going on with the who and the what.  All in all, though, I enjoyed the premise and although I figured out who the killer was, I was surprised with the why. 

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.