I absolutely loved this book. It had me gripped from start to finish. It was a beautiful love story with such a deep connection between our two main characters.

I adored our main characters and how they grew throughout the book. The theme of grief was so easy to resonate with as well.

Finally, the uniqueness of this novel was beautiful. It was refreshing to gain such a valuable insight into deaf culture and the issues that still surround it today.

Overall, one of the best romances I've read all year. I would highly recommend.

||4.25🌟||

I would read it again. I would absolutely read it again. If only just feel a pinch of what I felt reading those last chapters, I would absolutely fucking read it again.

This book had layers! Layers of beauty, emotion, grief, love, art, silence, and language. It had me constantly choked up and inspired, sometimes at the same time. I was highlighting lines, rereading passages, just sitting with my heart full.

It’s a gorgeous portrayal of yearning, of a deeper connection, of love in many forms. The way Irish Sign Language and Korean Sign Language are woven into the story.. the way culture is portrayed not just through words, but through food, gestures, silence, it’s stunning. Quietly radical and incredibly moving.

Both main characters had such emotional depth, it felt like they were reaching out of the page and touching something raw in me. Their experiences, their communication, their pain and joy. it all became personal. Their depth was my undoing.

The pacing? Absolutely perfect. Even in its slowest moments, the story stayed strong. I was completely hooked, laughing, swooning, cheesing like an idiot, desperate to know what would happen next. There were no dull moments, only rich ones.

Simon Doyle was clearly exploring a different kind of communication, a communication in silence, in presence, in love. And he portrayed it with such care and tenderness that I was left in awe. The strength and clarity of connection between people who face communication barriers, it was breathtaking.

This book wasn’t just good. It was good GOOD. Truly special. I already want to read it again.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

What a terribly sweet story. The novel opens with the death of Owen’s grandfather, so grief plays a large role in the story. Owen deals with so many big, complicated feelings that they feel overwhelming. They are all handed with compassion and his journey toward healing is every bit as moving as the romance that develops between Owen and Jun-ho. Doyle knows how to capture teenage angst and the pangs of first love which is apparent in the tenderness he imbues in Owen and Jun’s relationship.

Ryan, Owen’s best friend, is a scene-stealing character. His presence often injected humor into the story and the way Doyle writes about his friendship with Owen is wonderful. I’m not an expert on the Deaf community, but I do think representation is very important, and I think that this aspect of Jun-ho’s character was handled with sensitivity. I think The Sound of You makes very good points about allyship and recognizing that not everyone experiences the world in the same way.

Thank you SD Press and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I absolutely loved this story! Owen has just lost someone he loved dearly. And he’s struggling to navigate the world without them. Then he bumps into Jun-Ho, and though he doesn’t speak to Owen on their first encounter, Owen can’t get him out of his head. To his surprise and delight they run into each other the next day, it’s then that Owen learns Jun is Deaf. He grew up in Korea and recently moved to Ireland with his mom who’s Irish. Jun knows ISL and KSL and he can also read lips. Which is lucky for Owen. But he decides he’s going to learn ISL and it helps but he also learns that he can communicate with Jun even without it. The two get each other and the more time they spend together the more Owen falls for him. But does Jun like guys? And Jun’s got some complicated family dynamics. Will the two fall for each other? Or will life get in the way? I loved the depiction of communication and sound in this story! And how hearing can happen in different forms and can be unique to us all! I enjoyed the slow burn romance between Owen and Jun and absolutely adored their friends and families! Especially Ryan and Ella! I also loved the exploration of grief and how Owen depicted it with his art! Simon Doyle’s The Sound Of You is a beautifully told story of love, grief, and deep understanding and communication! Funny, queer, heartwarming, and will have you feeling all the feels! Also had me crying at times! Highly recommend!!

Thank you so much NetGalley, SD Press, Simon Doyle for the ARC!

The sound of you was just so amazing! It was such a sweet story with so much heart and sappy little moments between Owen and Jun-ho. They were just so perfect and the fact that they both helped each other with difficult part of their lives was just such a great thing.

I haven’t read my books with deaf representation, but I think that Simon did an amazing job and handling that well and showing how Owen and Jun-ho’s budding relationship works. I will say though the fact that Owen learned ISL to speak with Jun-ho just made me kick my feet and giggle! I mean come on talk about romantic! 🥰

I really loved the fact that Owen fought to Jun-ho, when his father came and wanted to take him away. It just showed how much Owen cared for him and what he was willing to do. But the exhibit turned into more than just that, it really helped others take on a new perspective. That alone was my favourite part of the whole book and just a great way to lead towards the ending.

Overall, 10/10 and would def read this again.

I loved "The Sound of You" on so many levels. I did not want to stop reading it!
The story gives us a beautiful picture of grief, personal growth as a teenager, embracing cultural differences and bridging communication between deaf and hearing people.

My personal highlight was the exhibition they did at the end, which really showed how deaf people aren't as different to hearing people as many think. This is also supported by how effortlessly Jun and Owen communicate throughout the book. At the beginning it's a little difficult, but Owen adapts and with time it becomes second nature.

I would recommend everyone to read this book!

This is an honest review in exchange for an e-ARC. Thank you to SD Press, Simon Doyle and NetGalley for the e-ARC

Whoa ! This was amazing I loved Owen and Jun so much.
Owens story was so sad . He's grandad seemed so sweet .

I loved his friend and their banter .

Jun was so cute and the sign language part was interesting.
It was a joy to read .

Thank you to NetGalley and SD Press for a complimentary copy of The Sound of You by Simon Doyle.

This was a delightful read! The Sound of You has lots of good messaging surrounding grief of a loved one and finding yourself in the world. I thought the author had written both of these subjects beautifully. It shows that moving on doesn’t mean forgetting and that silence can truly be the loudest as we speak with more than just our words.

I loved all of the characters in The Sound of You, the main relationship between Owen and Jun was very wholesome, I found so many of their interactions to be so cute that I couldn’t help but coo and laugh with them. Another aspect that I really enjoyed about this book was the found family, the friendships and relationships in this book were lovely. It was nice to see that all of them cared and loved one another, it was even nicer to see them all come together! I’m very pleased with the friendships/relationships, I’m happy that the characters are happy, I’m glad many of them have found their special person in the world!

Overall this was a lovely book with great messaging! The Sound of You has a good mix of fluff and angst moments that I enjoyed. The relationships both romantic and platonic are solid in here! I’ll definitely be reading this authors other books Snow Boys and Runaway Train soon! As a side note the mention of Ao3 caught me off guard but it was so funny!

A sweet story, very emotional and beautiful.

It touches upon some heavy topics, and it makes you reflect a lot on your own experiences, and you just don’t notice how quickly you become so invested in the story.

The main characters are just so sweet, and the whole cast of others is so great as well. The found family, the friendships, parents-children relationships, it was very interesting to see them all.

Overall, a great read, would definitely recommend 🤍

The Sound of You is a queer YA romance that intimately explores themes of grief, disability, culture, art, and unconditional love and acceptance, as the profound first-love shared between MCs Owen and Jun has ripple-effects that positively impact the very heart of the community that surrounds them.

This was a truly heartfelt reading experience and I appreciated the way Doyle handled the story, emotionally and tonally speaking. It managed to walk a steadfast line between too emotionally exhausting and too sweet and fluffy, which isn’t always the case when dealing with YA stories of similar themes.

The growing romance between artistic, grief-stricken Owen and half-Korean Jun, a deaf boy with his own familial and cultural challenges, was very heartwarming and tender in its rendering. But beyond their smile-inducing first-love romance, it was in the ensemble cast of characters and the emotionally engaging themes they represented that this story truly shined.

For me, the opening of the story was my absolute favourite part, as we followed Owen in the days and weeks after the loss of his beloved grandfather. The way his grief was handled was very moving and so intensely relatable in its telling, that I hold huge respect for what Doyle managed to capture in those quieter, more contemplative scenes, which served to endeared me deeply to MC Owen very early in the piece.

However, I was just as engaged with the rest of the story, too, especially once the boys became friends and their romantic feelings began to take flight, fully enjoying the larger arc involving Owen’s artistic expression and the eventual explorations of human communication and unique methods of connectivity we use in a shared diverse world.

As my second time reading a story by Irish author Simon Doyle, I can confidently say that I’ve enjoyed his characters, his themes, and his style of storytelling very much, at least from what I’ve seen and experienced thus far. I’m definitely keen to now backtrack so I can fill in missing gaps in his backlog, but I’m also super eager to see what he does next on his writing journey.

The Sound of You was a real pleasure to read.


***A special thanks to the publishers (via Netgalley) for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very romantic book. The prose was gorgeous and I highlighted several passages simply because they are incredibly beautiful.

I loved the grief journey. Owen’s loss of his grandfather shadowed everything he did, and I really felt for him. The art project he did was so incredibly emotional and stunning, I wanted to hug him.

The romance with Jun was so intimate and stunning, I loved how they communicated with each other and that epic grand gesture of love and friendship at the end had tears rolling down my cheeks.

Very sweet and lovely,

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

If you want a tender love story with so much depth and heart, this is definitely the book for you. I thought this book was beautifully written, and I appreciated how well it tackled the topic of grief and love. It was also enlightening to read a book with a main character who is deaf. Jun-ho and Owen have my entire heart, and I think their love story is so intricate and developed. I wanted to keep reading about them forever. This novel is so much more than just a love story, though. It is about navigating grief and discovering who you are and how to be in times of loss and hardship. Discovering more about yourself is always something I enjoy reading about.

Overall, 5 stars!

I have enjoyed reading all of Simon Doyle’s books. His latest one is an endearing love story between two teenage boys: one Irish (Owen) and the other half-Korean, half-Irish (Jun). Jun is also deaf. In addition to Owen and Jun there are many supporting roles, including Owen’s grandfather who dies right at the start of the book; we see Owen struggle with his grief over this loss.

The burgeoning relationship between Owen and Jun is delight to observe, despite the challenges of Jun’s lack of hearing (which he makes up for in other ways) and the cultural differences between Ireland and Korea, including Jun’s difficult Korean father.

This was a rewarding read. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.