I am so excited to get a chance to be a part of this book tour hosted by TBRandBeyondTours . Make sure you check out the rest of the posts that are a part of this tour by looking at the schedule for the tour found here. 

Author Information

Tom Ryan is the award winning author of several acclaimed books for young readers. He has been nominated for multiple awards, and was the winner of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Best YA Crime Book. Two of his books were Junior Library Guild selections, and three of his young adult novels, Way to Go, Tag Along, and Keep This to Yourself, were chosen for the ALA Rainbow List, in 2013, 2014 and 2020. He was a 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction.

Tom, his husband and their dog currently divide their time between Ottawa and Nova Scotia.

You can find Tom Ryan at:

Website ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~Goodreads ~ Facebook

Book Description

EVERY MISSING PERSON HAS A STORY.

In her small town, seventeen-year-old Delia “Dee” Skinner is known as the girl who wasn’t taken. Ten years ago she witnessed the abduction of her best friend, Sibby. And though she told the police everything she remembered, it wasn’t enough. Sibby was never seen again.

At night, Dee deals with her guilt by becoming someone else: the Seeker, the voice behind the popular true crime podcast Radio Silent, which features missing persons cases and works with online sleuths to solve them. Nobody knows Dee’s the Seeker, and she plans to keep it that way.

When another little girl in town goes missing, and the case is linked to Sibby’s disappearance, Dee has a chance to get answers with the help of her virtual detectives and the intriguing new girl at school. But how much of her own story is she willing to reveal in order to uncover the truth?

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads ~ Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Book Depository ~Indigo

Giveaway Information

Finished copy of I Hope You’re Listening. This giveaway is US only and ends on October 20^th. You can enter by clicking here.

Review

Thoughts and Themes: This is a story that hooks you in right from the first few pages in which you meet young Sibby and Dee playing in the forest. From those first few pages you want to know what really happened that day, and want to know if this book is going to reveal that to you.

I wanted to know if the new missing person case had anything to do with the past and what really was going on in this small town. I really enjoyed the short snippets that we get of podcast episodes and really want to listen to this book on audio now because I feel that would really add to the atmosphere in this story.

I really enjoyed how quickly the pace picked up towards the end of the book and how quickly things changed for everyone. I don’t want to give you any spoilers though so I can’t tell you much about what happened except that this book wrapped up nicely. I thought the characters developed nicely throughout the story and really liked seeing how different events affected them and changed them.

Characters: You get three main characters through this story, Dee, Burke, and Sarah. Dee is the main character of the story whose best friend went missing 10 years ago and things have never been the same for her since then. That case is now resurfacing as a little girl has gone missing from the home that Dee lived in when Sibby went missing. I really like how she develops throughout the story from the start where she is closed off and secretive about her feelings to when she shares things with Sarah.

Burke is Dee’s best friend who is the only one who knows that Dee is behind the podcast, Radio Silence. I love how supportive he is of Dee’s podcast even if it isn’t something that he is interested in, and love how supportive he is of the relationship between Sarah and Dee.

Sarah is the new girl in town who knows nothing about what happened 10 years ago and has no clue why the media suddenly has interest in Dee. I really like how Sarah seems to come in and save the day when Dee needs her and is patient with her. I like that she never demands answers from her and gives her time to want to reveal any information to her.

Writing Style: This story is told through the perspective of Dee and through transcripts from her podcast, Radio Silence. I really enjoyed the way that the podcast was included in the story and how we got to read through some of the episodes. I thought it was a good way to see a different part of Dee’s personality and see the change in her.

I also liked how this story told both the present and the past through flashbacks from Dee as she explained things to others. I thought that the flashbacks were included at just the right moments and also thought that they were able to make you feel like you had gone back in time to those moments. I liked the way that you could tell that it was a younger Dee remember those moments and you could feel the way that she felt throughout those times.