When that bad thing happens with Devory, Gittel has no idea what to do. She is mostly happy within her community, following her traditions. Gittel loves her family, we see plenty of positive and happy interactions between herself and her parents. In fact, there’s barely even a hint of a romance in this book. She’s not the type of girl who gets into swoonworthy romances. She’s not the type of girl who needs to fight and survive. More than that, this book is about day to day life and how trauma can eat away at you, regardless of the subculture you belong to.Īs a character, Gittel is not one who will be among your Katniss Everdeens, and that’s fine. It’s also about her community and their traditions - one of the reasons she does not come forward and report what happened is because she does not want to bring shame on her family or ruin her marriage prospects by speaking ill of another Jew.

Gittel never says anything about it, and so the book is about how she grapples with the silence. Essentially, in Hush, Gittel witnesses the molestation of her best friend Devory by one of Devory’s family members. Hush is a first person story that alternates between the year 20.

Her community is very tightly-knit and traditional. Gittel is a Chassidic, or Orthodox Jew who lives in Borough Park, Brooklyn within a community of other Chassidic Jews. I think that if you like hard hitting contemporary books set in unique subcultures, you should pick up a copy of Hush, it’s usually on sale on Kindle, as of typing this review it’s currently $4.61 and well worth your dollars. I find that sad because Hush is a moving story about shining the light on sexual abuse within a community that would rather sweep it under the rug. It’s taken me over three years and some pretty crappy books to finally make my way to it. Y’all, I have had Hush by Eishes Chayil (a pseudonym) to read since May 2010. Guys, it’s time for yet another WHY DID I LET THIS BOOK LANGUISH FOR SO LONG review. I feel like whenever I review an older book from my pile, I always start it off apologizing for taking FOREVER to read the book and write the review.