Voices Carry: A Story of Teaching, Transitions, & Truths
**The Rules:**
1. Clone thyself
2. Learn teleportation. The sooner the better.
3. Trust no one.
These are the rules I learned as a middle school teacher, though it was the last one that drove me from the classroom forever. Like many educators, I couldn’t survive the politics. After thirteen years, I bailed. How did I, an abuse-surviving queer, end up teaching in the middle of the Bible Belt? Better yet, how did I survive?
**New Rule of Life:** Neither my silence nor my identity is for sale at any price.
My former vice principal said it best *(though I wasn’t supposed to see that email)* when he asked, “Why does she always have to write a damn novel?”
So here I am. Writing a *damn* novel. As to the why…because I believe in changing the world, one word at a time.
*Navigating discrimination, whether it’s from employers, medical professionals, colleagues, or family, is often fraught with uncertainty. Join Raven Oak on their journey of transition and self-discovery in a world built on silence.*
Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10
Originality: 9 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 9 out of 10
Overall: 8.50 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Oak, a self-described "former educator in the southern United States and a disabled queer," pens a rich memoir detailing her life from childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the hazards and triumphs she experienced in between.
Prose: Oak's prose illuminates her attention to detail and irrepressible sense of humor. She describes the challenges of teaching while enduring homophobic bosses and active shooter drills, her struggles to reach troubled students, and her reluctant, ultimate decision to leave the classroom behind.
Originality: Voices Carry is thoroughly engaging, and Oak is fearless as she details the struggles of navigating life with her disability (worsened by her battle with long COVID) and the trials of being a liberal queer in the American South. Her clever wit shines through, even in the chapter titles, resulting in a memoir that is as engaging as it is funny.
Character/Execution: Oak's characters are vibrant and relatable, and she brings her past to brilliant life for readers.
Date Submitted: October 02, 2024
