ARC Review: Voiceless by E.G. Wilson

Voiceless by E.G. Wilson
Published: July 11, 2017
Publisher: Atthis Arts, LLC
Pages: 236 (Paperback)
Series: Voiceless Duology #1 
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Adelaide Te Ngawai was thirteen when Maunga Richards stole her voice.

Addy is plunged into silence when a high school bully inflicts her with an incurable disease that leaves her unable to speak, write, or create. Vox Pox—a man-made malady that’s been terrorizing the city for months. Resilient, Addy fights to survive. To not be silenced. But then her brother, Theo, is infected as well.

Desperate for any information that might help cure Theo, Addy follows Maunga into a newly developed virtual psychoreality simulator and discovers a conspiracy deeper than she’d ever imagined. How far will she go to save her brother?

This book was definitely unique and I was instantly intrigued by the idea that the main character had her voice stolen. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it and I ended up finishing it much faster than normal. 

The world that the author created was really interesting. It took me awhile to figure out that it wasn't set in a made up place, but in New Zealand. There were a lot of words that I didn't really understand and at first I thought they were made up because I know next to nothing about New Zealand. The setting definitely made the book stand out more. I also enjoyed the technology aspect of the world. I loved the idea of the virtual psychoreality simulator because it sounds so cool and something I would be interested in trying if I could. 

The majority of the book takes place within the virtual psychoreality simulator and while I think that whole idea was really cool, it also seemed to take up a lot more time than necessary. The beginning of Addy's journey through that virtual reality was a little bit confusing and the chapters involving the house was repetitive to the point where I wanted the book to move on, even though I was interested in the simulation.

Where the story fell flat, was with the characters and particularly with their motivations. The characters were for the most part, fairly well developed, but they were lacking a believable motivation for their actions. Yes, explanations are given, but they aren't really satisfying and it made the characters less real for me. The reason for the Vox Pox disease didn't really seem that clear to me and I was really hoping there would be something more to it, but ended up being a kind of disappointing ending to the plot. 

I'm on the fence about whether I'll continue with the next book. I really wanted to enjoy this book a lot more because the idea seemed so unique and interesting. Plus, I really liked the development that Addy goes through during the story, so if the next one sounds good I'll probably pick it up. 

*I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.