Hiding in the Weave

De: William Bayer

Narrado por: Talmadge Ragan

New York Times best-selling crime fiction writer William Bayer breaks new ground with this novel, a coming-of-age/psychological mystery.

Hiding in the Weave, written from the perspective of 18-year-old Joel Barlev, a senior at Delamere, a school geared to talented young artists, plays off themes typically found in classic boarding-school novels - requited and unrequited romantic relationships, alienation, rebellion, sexuality, troubled home lives, moral dilemmas, epiphanies, and acquiring maturity.

But there is more here...much more....

"What cannot be spoken shall be danced. What cannot be danced shall be woven. And what cannot be woven shall be marked upon the flesh."

That's the strange mantra of Liv Anders, a gifted dancer and weaver at Delamere. Joel, an equally gifted ceramic artist, finds himself falling in love with her, intrigued by her ethereal beauty as well as by her casual comment regarding their different art forms: "You gouge your pots to show your pain to the world. I hide my pain in the weave."

It turns out there is something hidden in one of Liv's abstract weavings, and when tragedy strikes, Joel and his two best friends, Justin and Kate, feel compelled to uncover it. The novel follows the four from the start of their senior year at Delamere through graduation and a little beyond.

Hiding in the Weave is a novel for adults about the strivings of youth...love, passion, art, art-making, growing up, and letting go. It takes the traditional coming-of-age boarding-school novel into fascinating new territory.

©2013 William Bayer (P)2018 David N. Wilson

I hope real prep schools aren’t like this, but fantastic reading performance.

This story was a bit over the top. The level of dysfunction in this school was disheartening. The students, although unrealistically precocious artistically and intellectually, seemed emotionally to lag behind. It may be though that I’m just out of touch with current high schoolers. Also are schools like this really that awful? It was stated that the kids loved it but there was very little that happened in the story to justify that.
The story moved slowly for the first half if the book with too much real time description of Joel’s life. In the 2nd half of the book the story finally got moving and overall the second half was more engaging, I thought.
The reading by Talmadge Ragan was outstanding, however. Subtle changes in tone and timbre distinguished the characters from one another so it was easy to tell who was talking. Ragan puts lots of emotion into the dramatic scrnes and that really carried the book along. Great reader!