Review: Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher
It's nice, every so often, to read a teen book that makes you reminisce about the life you used to lead as a teenager - and god does that feel like long ago. Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher is one of these books, sucking you back into the nobody-understands-me phase in a flash. But the beautiful thing about Annabel Pitcher's book is that it's anything but the stereotypical teen novel about a girl who just wants to fit in. It's about a girl who doesn't want to fit in, a girl who wants to find herself, find it who she is, a girl who doesn't want the world to know.
The book follows Tess. At school, she blends into the background, she's slightly chubby, wears silver Doc Martens and dyes her hair. She's bullied and picked on a lot, but she has a good friend Isabel who writes fantasy in the ilk of Tolkien. The book opens with her discovery that her father isn't actually her father; she finds a draft on his blog explaining how disconnected he was from Tess, how he was disgusted by her at first and because of her upset at his comments, during a local Pantomime performance of Peter Pan, she vows not to speak anymore. Accompanied by her invisible friend and goldfish torch, Mr Goldfish, Tess sets about trying to discover who her real father is. The narrative really is heartbreaking. You want to simultaneously help Tess and give her a hug and tell her to talk to her family. The reader becomes the only person Tess can talk to (other than Mr Goldfish) and you do form an attachment to the book and the character because she's investing so much of her time in you.
If I had to describe this book, I would say it's comforting. It's a fresh cup of tea brought in by your mum on a morning when you really don't want to get out of bed. It's a companion for teens in both senses of the word: a friend and a comforting book. I'd highly recommend reading regardless of your age - the book will speak to you because you remember what it was like to stick out like a sore thumb and want to be invisible and seen at the same time. This book is everything you were and the fact that Annabel has managed to capture that is a testament to her writing ability. A truly comforting read.