The Words in My Hands By Asphyxia

In a futurized (but realistic) Australian society, most people are entirely dependent on "recon", which is essentially a meal delivery service, but has medicines in the food that cure cancer and other diseases. When the food cannot come due to massive oil and gas shortages and the economy falls apart, 16-year old deaf teen Piper is faced with figuring out how to survive. When getting her old bike repaired, she meets Marley, who introduces her to sign language, a deaf community she didn't know existed, and how to grow food. Communicating with others is difficult enough, never mind the constant headaches. Facing a corrupt government oppressing freedom of speech and a right to grow their own food? Now that's something else. But Piper is finding her own power.

I grabbed this book off of the shelf at the library because I have never seen anything like it nor read a book with so much art on it. Every page is watercolored with drawings on most of them. I would have read the book no matter what the topic was, just because of how impressive the art in the book is. That alone helped to entice turning the next page in the story, to see what the art on the next page looked like! It was cool to also have the art drawn be used in the plot of book. This would be a fantastic book for someone who enjoys more so comic books than ordinary reading, or a fellow artist. I wish I could draw like that! Art can have meaning that moves people. Being deaf didn’t make her any less able to inspire a revolution/movement.  It was helpful to have capital letters versus lowercase letters for differentiating between sign language and oral dialogue.

Example of art in the book

Without the art, I'm confident I still would have read the book and liked it. The story tackles social and environmental justice, political corruption, survival, implicit biases against the deaf and hard of hearing, and finding what you stand for in the world as a teenager. With each new obstacle in her way, Piper's development as a character grew, as she discovered herself and found her voice and confidence. Part of why Piper felt so real is because the author is also deaf and poured that cultural identity and experience into the pages. 

I didn't really like Marley as a character, it felt like he more so served as a prop to escalate Piper's character development and be an introduction to the community who would shape her and take up the rebellion. That didn't bother me a lot though because I was much more focused on the dynamic between Piper and her mother. This wasn't just your ordinary rebellious mother-daughter relationship. The book added another complicated layer of trust issues where her mother is the scientist behind recon, who's company is the one controlling the government and spreading propaganda about the dangers of "wild food". On top of that, there's the issue of wanting her daughter to be normal and against learning sign language to the point where Piper felt like she had to hide. It's one of the most dynamic, complicated parent-child relationships I've read.

I wouldn't label the book as a dystopian because the scenario is true in some places around the world and will be true for others that rely on unrenewable resources. As someone passionate about sustainability, I liked the focus on growing your own food. Growing your own produce and community gardens reduces carbon footprints, improves air quality and biodiversity. Composting your own backyard, growing your own food is one thing that everyday people can do to improve the environment- crisis or not. There are also some helpful diagrams drawn in the book for anyone interested. :)

I highly recommend this book!

Title: The Words in My Hands
Author: Asphyxia
Publisher: Annick Press
Pages: 388
Series: No
Rating: 5 Stars
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Author's cool website