“The Colour of Your Voice” by Daniel Newwyn Book Review.

Title: The Colour of Your Voice
Author: Daniel Newwyn
Pages: 119

What happens when a call girl and a death row prisoner fall in love?

Violet Pham can see sounds. The brown chirps of the sparrows dance with the colors of their feathers. The green blobs from her mother weave into her squeaky berates.

She believes she was born to become a painter but after being labeled as a burden by everyone around her, she questions that belief. The colors around the sounds become a curse rather than a gift. With her future unsettled and her family mired in debt, there is only one solution: run away from everything.

That’s when she meets Turner Nguyen. He’s everything she wishes she could be—an iron will and a flint heart. There’s only one thing wrong with him. He’s at the center of gang wars, uses his fists to collect debts, and makes his money off the addiction of others.

Soon, the sound of his words paints Violet’s world with the ugly shade of disaster. Where will they go from here?

‘The Color of Your Voice’ is a tragic, depressing love story that speaks to the lows of human experience. It deals with themes of self-esteem, desperation, and salvation. If this is your cup of tea, then this book is for you.

Disclaimer: ‘The Color of Your Voice’ is a novella set in Vietnam, dealing with heavy themes such as prostitution, drug trafficking, and depression. The author in no way encourages or glorifies prostitution and drug trafficking.

The Colour of Your Voice is a short read but it stays with you. It is set in Vietnam. The story follows a young abused prostitute falling in love with a criminal Turner Nguyen. I loved the idea of the book. It feels as if the author is painting human thoughts in the book.

Violet knelt down to the ground as the sounds of Turner grew quieter and quieter. She clenched the painting in her hand, her hiccups mixed in tears, bitter. The ground beneath her drenched into a puddle.
The sky changed colour. The colour of the earth was as dark as his voice.

The readers can feel the pain of characters as we follow the story. The emotions have been expressed beautifully. The plot is interesting and the twists in the story keep the reader intrigues till the end! It contains themes like drug trafficking, depression and prostitution. This is an interesting take on “bad guy, good girl” trope.

The book is a short read but characters could have been built better.