Book review: The color of your voice by Daniel Newwyn

I was gifted a free copy of this novella in exchange for an honest review.I love how the story proceeds with both current events and flashbacks intertwined, which makes the reader intrigued and eager to see the development to grasp why the current events are taking place. This made the story flow fast and easy, I finished in one quick sitting. The title is also very intriguing and relates to the story perfectly.

The story is very heavy and perceives strong mentions of depression, rape, prostitution, drugs etc. Yet, it still reads light at parts mostly due to violets innocence and light spirit.

There are some SPOILERS below!
The story shows life through hardships of a sex-worker and a thug, this is the first time I read a book where the MC is prostitute. Its interesting to see a bit of her background story on how she proceeds into this life, however I wish there had been more details about her condition, which I later researched it as Synesthesia, actually this book was the first time I heard of it. I think the story missed giving some more insights on what each color meant, such as “The water flowing from the tap was peach orange”, why this color? I kept hoping for secret meanings for each color to develop throughout the story. I also loved how the author related her condition to being the drive to an splendid artistic talent.

One of the key things that made me not give this book a 4, was the romance build-up. It felt a bit forced, specially because I can’t imagine Violet ever loving someone who she saw beat up her mother close to death many times. Their relationship lacked romance, although it is understandable since both have never experienced love before, however it felt insta-lovish.

The ending surprised me and yet didn’t, I knew the story was doing to deal with heavy themes and depression, but I always hope for a happy ending. But after reading it I saw that the ending was perfect for this story, the author was able to give us reunion, revelation, closure and acceptance.