A Book Review: Listening for Lucca by Suzanne Lafleur

Wow! I finished this book not so long ago, and wow it is a fantastic book! It had an element of fantasy to it, yet was realistic enough to seem like real life. Siena’s story seems like it could be easily real. **SPOILERS AHEAD**

The story is: Siena is not your everyday, normal 13-year-old. Ever since her two-year-old brother Lucca stopped talking for reasons no doctor can explain, she’s started a collection of old, abandoned things. Siena also has visions of the past and has been dreaming of a house by the sea—not daydreaming, but literal, when-she’s-asleep dreaming. When her family decides to move, they find an old house that strikingly resembles the one from Siena’s dream. When they get there, Siena discovers a pen marked with the initials SEA—and when she uses it to write in an old journal, the pen writes its own story, about a girl named Sarah who lived in the same house during World War II! As time goes on and Siena starts finding items from Sarah’s story, she discovers that, like Lucca, Sarah stopped talking. Did she ever talk again? Could she be the key to unlocking Lucca’s voice?

I think it was a great story and fantastic writing! I will note that it is a bit higher reading level than Love, Aubrey and Eight Keys (Suzanne Lafleur’s other books), and it has a couple of more mature concepts (the main character is a teenager, after all).

My favorite parts were: when Siena finds the clues from the past relating to Sarah, and of course, when Lucca starts to talk! When he does it is such amazing writing. You have come to love Siena and Lucca at this point, so when he says the first words you’ve heard him say, it’s first breathtaking, then you just want to grin and laugh. And it also adds to the mysterious element.

I have to say, the only thing at first I was unsure about was: There is some “ghost” sections in the story, in terms of, Siena, using her visions-of-the-past power, goes into Sarah’s body, back in time to the house when it was Sarah’s, and talks back in time to Sarah’s big brother Joshua. As I said, at first I was unsure about it—but it all merged together in the end and made the story even better, so no complaints!

Ending note: Amazing, amazing, amazing story. If you haven’t read it already (which I hope you have, if you’re reading this, because I just gave away part of the story) definitely go for it. I recommend this book to anybody ages 9 & up. It most definitely does not deserve five stars. It deserves ten. ;)