The Silence Between Us

Alison Gervais’s The Silence Between Us, first published in 2019, is a realistic young adult romance novel that follows 17-year-old Maya through her first year as the only Deaf student at her new high school. Maya does not feel that hearing students will understand her or treat her respectfully, and she is initially skeptical about the idea of making friends at her new school. Even so, Maya does make friends—and one of them, Beau, becomes her first real boyfriend. Because Gervais is Hard-of-Hearing and has worked as a Deaf Services Specialist, she is able to offer readers authentic insights into Maya’s world. Gervais was awarded the 2020 Schneider Family Book Award for this novel’s representation of disability. Gervais is also the author of the novel In 27 Days, a supernatural young adult romance that first became a viral sensation on Wattpad and was subsequently published in traditional form in 2012.

This study guide refers to the 2019 BLINK paperback edition of The Silence Between Us.

Content Warning: The source text and this study guide contain references to the death of a family member and depict a medical crisis suffered by a child.

A note on the language in this study guide: Although individuals have their own preferences when it comes to the language used to identify and discuss disabilities and differences, the majority preference of the Deaf community (See: Background) is what is called “identity-first” language rather than “person-first” language. Identity-first language uses phrases like “a Deaf person” and “the Deaf community” rather than “a person with Deafness” or “the community of people with Deafness.” This guide follows this preference. Because the Deaf community in general does not see Deafness as an “impairment,” the term “hearing impaired” will not be used as a synonym for Deafness. “Deaf” will be capitalized when it refers to the cultural community and to people who identify with this community. It will be lowercase when it refers to a medical status or to a person with this medical status who does not identify with the community: “Akim is a Deaf person who advocates teaching sign language in public schools,” versus “Joan experienced what it is like to be a Deaf person after a high fever temporarily damaged her inner ears.”

Plot Summary

After her family moves from New Jersey to Colorado, 17-year-old Maya Harris, who is Deaf, begins attending a hearing high school for the first time. Sure that she will encounter prejudice and exclusion at Engelmann High School, Maya reacts defensively to the people that she meets on her first day: her educational interpreter, Kathleen; a peer mentor, Nina Torres; and the student body president, Beau Watson. This first day is a rough one. One of Maya’s teachers shouts at her as if this will allow her to hear him, and she often has trouble following the conversations going on around her. Although Kathleen, Beau, and Nina all do their best to make Maya feel welcome at Engelmann, Maya’s fear causes her to be defensive and skeptical about their motives. At lunch, when Beau inadvertently offends her by expressing surprise that she can speak, she reacts angrily and ends up finishing lunch alone at her locker.

After school, she complains to her mother about the insensitivity she encountered all day, and her mother suggests that she teach the hearing students around her more about how to interact with Deaf people. Maya’s younger brother, Connor, expresses support for her. Connor, who has cystic fibrosis, gives an enthusiastic description of his first day at his own new school. When Maya compares her own negative attitude to Connor’s much more positive one, she decides that she needs to follow his example and try harder to be open minded. That night, Maya calls her best friend Melissa for support and advice. Melissa is also Deaf, and the two previously attended a school for Deaf students together in New Jersey. Despite Melissa’s encouragement, however, Maya is still sure that Engelmann will be a disaster, because she believes that hearing students will never really be able to understand and appreciate her.

Maya is surprised when Beau apologizes to her in sign language the next day. She thaws toward the good-looking young man somewhat. Unfortunately, the progress Beau has made with Maya is erased later in the day when he jumps in to admonish other students for excluding Maya from a discussion; Maya angrily tells him that she can take care of herself.

Two weeks later, Maya meets with her guidance counselor to discuss her college plans. Maya wants to go to Cartwright University, a nearby and extremely competitive college, to study respiratory therapy. Her counselor is encouraging and tells Maya she has a good chance of being admitted. After this appointment, Maya runs into Beau, and he chats with her in sign language. Maya is impressed with what he has learned. When he asks her whether she will come to the school’s club fair at the end of the week, she tells him “maybe.” That night, Melissa tells her on the phone that if Beau is willing to learn sign language, it should not matter to Maya that he is hearing and she is not.

Maya does end up going to the club fair; she takes Connor along and is pleased that neither Nina nor Beau makes a big deal about Connor’s supplemental oxygen equipment. Her mother is overjoyed that Maya seems to be making friends. Over the next few weeks, Maya accepts an invitation to work on a midterm presentation with Nina at Nina’s house and then attends the school’s homecoming dance. Maya learns that Beau’s father puts a lot of pressure on him to do well. She begins to see Beau in a new way—not as an arrogant “golden boy” but as a kindhearted young man desperately trying to please his father. When she later learns that Beau lost his mother at a young age, her understanding of him grows even deeper.

Maya gives a history presentation about the 1988 Deaf President Now protests at Gallaudet University—in which students at the 124-year-old university for the Deaf successfully demanded the appointment of the university’s first Deaf president. Nina is her partner for the presentation, but at the last minute, Nina has to drop out, and Beau takes her place. During their preparations at Beau’s house, Maya realizes that she has developed romantic feelings for Beau. She also, unbeknownst to Beau, catches a glimpse of a terrible scar on his right leg. She is puzzled by his interactions with his father; she cannot decide if Beau is intimidated by his father or if he is simply embarrassed to be seen with her. Their presentation goes well despite a rude interruption from Jackson. Maya skillfully turns the interruption into a teaching opportunity, and by the end of the presentation she has increased her classmates’ respect for her and for the Deaf community more generally.

A week later, Maya’s mother takes her to meet with a local group of Deaf teenagers. Maya’s excitement is soured, however, when she realizes that she does not have as much in common with the teens as she expected to: They all have a cochlear implant (CI) and do not seem to really identify with the Deaf community. Maya’s mother lets her know that cochlear implants are an option if Maya wants them, but Maya emphatically refuses to entertain the idea. From Maya’s perspective, cochlear implants would destroy her Deaf identity.

When Maya’s mother goes on a weekend business trip two weeks later, Connor’s lung collapses in the middle of the night. At the hospital, Maya is panicked and terrified; she needs to call Beau as an interpreter because the hospital’s remote interpreter technology is not working. Beau is a great comfort to Maya, and before he leaves for home Maya hugs him in gratitude. Once she is back home again, however, she feels awkward about the hug. She decides that her world and Beau’s are too different and she distances herself from him for a few days.

Maya is accepted to Cartwright. Swept up in happiness, she also accepts a date with Beau. Beau takes her to a Christmas market in a small mountain town nearby and shares with her the things he used to love to do with his mother during the holidays each year. A few days later, Beau receives his acceptance letter from Yale. At a celebratory party at his house, Beau explains to Maya that he is willing to go to Yale, as his father wants him to, but he does not want to be a doctor. He is afraid to disappoint his father by admitting that he really wants to study literature. Maya learns that Beau’s mother died in a car accident when she was driving Beau to soccer and that Beau feels responsible for her death. Maya tries to get Beau to see that his mother’s death is not his fault.

Worried about the financial stress her mother is under, Maya applies for a job at a local coffee shop. She gets an interview, but it is later canceled; Maya suspects that after they learned she is Deaf, they decided against interviewing her. Beau is angry about the canceled interview and wants Maya to respond in some way to this discrimination. He brings up cochlear implants, and since Maya’s doctor and mother have also been talking about implants, Maya is doubly frustrated. She wonders how she can have a successful relationship with Beau if he is going to keep getting worked up this way every time she faces some kind of discrimination.

Maya receives more bad news when she meets with the disability services office at Cartwright: there is a waitlist for interpreters, and she may have to delay her enrollment. She starts to wonder if she is not meant to become a respiratory therapist, after all. She struggles to explain to Beau and Nina why the potential delay is so upsetting to her. On her birthday, Nina and Beau come over to her house with pizza, gifts, and balloons, and Maya’s mood is temporarily boosted. Beau, however, makes the mistake of trying to give her information about cochlear implants, which infuriates Maya. She does not want him to pity her or try to fix her problems for her, and she is insulted that he seems unable to believe that she is happy being Deaf. After a few days, Maya and Beau are able to talk about the CI argument. Beau finally understands that he does not need to rescue Maya from anything and that she will never want to change herself so that she can hear. They make up and resume their relationship.

A year later, Maya, Nina, Melissa, and Beau are reunited during the spring break of their first year of college. Maya and Nina have been able to see one another often, as Maya has been at Cartwright and Nina has been at UC Boulder, but it has been a while since they have seen Beau, since he has been studying literature at Yale. Nina and Beau have arranged for a visit from Melissa to surprise Maya as a belated 19th birthday gift. Maya is overjoyed to see all of them, especially Melissa. She has had a successful first year at Cartwright and has just begun an internship at a local clinic. She and Beau have been maintaining their relationship long distance, and Maya has concluded that it does not matter whether the people she loves are hearing or Deaf.