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Resilient Silence: A Deaf-Experience Suspense Novel
Sometimes our internal voice and our external voice responds differently to massive chaos with coping mechanisms in a complex, dangerous world. Resilient Silence is the divergent path between two brothers living in futuristic America.
Deaf from a childhood illness, Julius is confused and longs for acceptance and understanding from his mom, educators, and friends, especially from his estranged brother. Angry after a series of horrific events causing increased death and loss, border patrol private Jeremy wants life to be normal, the way it was before their father died.
Navigating extreme personal differences, they eventually converge to compete in the Bloomsday road race and learn the hidden strength of resilient silence that comes from being Deaf in a hearing world.
Deaf from a childhood illness, Julius is confused and longs for acceptance and understanding from his mom, educators, and friends, especially from his estranged brother. Angry after a series of horrific events causing increased death and loss, border patrol private Jeremy wants life to be normal, the way it was before their father died.
Navigating extreme personal differences, they eventually converge to compete in the Bloomsday road race and learn the hidden strength of resilient silence that comes from being Deaf in a hearing world.
298 pages, Paperback
Published February 16, 2021
About the author
Peter M. Quint
3 books5 followersPeter M. Quint is the author of two novels in the Resilient Silence Series. His books create an accessible pathway for people to examine the struggles, joys and triumphs experienced in the lives of Deaf people. These books also encourage introspection with exposure to characters who face life challenges as they demonstrate various levels of faith and anchors to something bigger than themselves. To guide readers into a more in-depth understanding of Deaf culture, Peter offers companion workbooks with each of his novels.
A teacher of the Deaf and American Sign Language for over 30 years, Peter has infused his novels with characters who exhibit the traits and values experienced in this rich field of experience. He also is a leader in the Christian Deaf community as the founder of Deaf Heartlight, a Christ-based recovery program for Deaf people as well as a founding member of Deaf House Fellowship in the Pacific Northwest region of America.
Peter actively supports Deaf artisans in his work by including illustrations created by a Deaf artist and is involved with the regional Deaf theater organization. Throughout his life, he has participated in Deaf sports, holding the American record for the Deaf in the track and field steeplechase event. He has been a high-level competitor in long distance running events, including a placing in the top 20 of the Bloomsday race in Spokane, Washington state, an event which is featured in his first novel.
Peter currently resides in Aubrey, Texas with his wife Pratibha and their Deaf dog Asha.
Visit peterquint.com. Connect on Facebook peter.quint and Instagram @pmquint5.
A teacher of the Deaf and American Sign Language for over 30 years, Peter has infused his novels with characters who exhibit the traits and values experienced in this rich field of experience. He also is a leader in the Christian Deaf community as the founder of Deaf Heartlight, a Christ-based recovery program for Deaf people as well as a founding member of Deaf House Fellowship in the Pacific Northwest region of America.
Peter actively supports Deaf artisans in his work by including illustrations created by a Deaf artist and is involved with the regional Deaf theater organization. Throughout his life, he has participated in Deaf sports, holding the American record for the Deaf in the track and field steeplechase event. He has been a high-level competitor in long distance running events, including a placing in the top 20 of the Bloomsday race in Spokane, Washington state, an event which is featured in his first novel.
Peter currently resides in Aubrey, Texas with his wife Pratibha and their Deaf dog Asha.
Visit peterquint.com. Connect on Facebook peter.quint and Instagram @pmquint5.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 13, 2025
0.5/5
(Assigned for class)
There's a lot of things to complain about regarding this book. The prose is clunky, the dialogue is Just Bad, the plots don't contribute to the narrative, the protagonist the audience is expected to root for is wildly unlikeable without any real reasons provided, and ultimately this book feels like right wing propaganda.
The protagonist, Jeremy, starts the book angry. We don't know why because he doesn't have a reason. Before the bombing, he's angry and nasty to his 2 year old brother, Julius, and honestly remains as such throughout the book. He's judgmental, so much so he adheres to phrenology in the year of our lord 2032, and horribly misogynistic.
My understanding of this book is that the author intends for this book to contribute to the Deaf narrative but ultimately this book falls short and assumes the reader to know less than nothing about Deaf people and culture. As a HoH person, I feel like I gained little to nothing reading this.
So what are the pros?
My copy of this book was the 2nd edition, which included the QR codes of the author signing. I honestly really enjoyed the immersion and forward thinking of this addition! It was handy to have that picture in my mind as the reader.
I can also appreciate this book as an Own Voices story. Deaf authors are integral to the Own Voices community and I will always try to applaud the art that comes from the Deaf community. Unfortunately this book just missed every single mark for me.
(Assigned for class)
There's a lot of things to complain about regarding this book. The prose is clunky, the dialogue is Just Bad, the plots don't contribute to the narrative, the protagonist the audience is expected to root for is wildly unlikeable without any real reasons provided, and ultimately this book feels like right wing propaganda.
The protagonist, Jeremy, starts the book angry. We don't know why because he doesn't have a reason. Before the bombing, he's angry and nasty to his 2 year old brother, Julius, and honestly remains as such throughout the book. He's judgmental, so much so he adheres to phrenology in the year of our lord 2032, and horribly misogynistic.
My understanding of this book is that the author intends for this book to contribute to the Deaf narrative but ultimately this book falls short and assumes the reader to know less than nothing about Deaf people and culture. As a HoH person, I feel like I gained little to nothing reading this.
So what are the pros?
My copy of this book was the 2nd edition, which included the QR codes of the author signing. I honestly really enjoyed the immersion and forward thinking of this addition! It was handy to have that picture in my mind as the reader.
I can also appreciate this book as an Own Voices story. Deaf authors are integral to the Own Voices community and I will always try to applaud the art that comes from the Deaf community. Unfortunately this book just missed every single mark for me.
April 12, 2026
my complaints about this book have 3 layers:
1) its just badly written. point blank. an editor wouldve helped to a degree but it wouldnt have saved anything. there are Some positives, but they arent enough to carry the book even slightly. the dialog is especially clunky but no part of this was unscathed
2) theres a fine line you have to walk when writing a purposfully unlikable character, and jeremy is like 5 miles over that line. he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and the most appealing thing to me about his chapters was just how utterly batshit they were.
3) THIS IS THIS BIG ONE and ultimately the crux of the vast majority of issues this book has. any research, if it was even done at all, is somehow even lighter than surface level. a freind put it aptly as: even though the book came out before this was a thing, its like all of the author's research came strictly from google AI summaries. while it was somewhat enjoyable on the basis of seeing what #bullshit would happen next, it was also honestly killing me. nothing in this required a large amount of research, so the fact that it failed in so many basic ways is spectacular.
an incomplete list of factual errors found in this book are:
- the US border patrol being apart of the military (it isnt)
- how the military works AT ALL (you cannot talk to COs how jeremy does, you cannot choose where you are assigned, you cannot KEEP YOUR MILITARY ISSUED WEAPON WHEN YOU ARE DISCHARGED, etc) (<70% of your time with jeremy is while hes "in the military", and i genuinely dont think almost anything about it is correct)
- acute exposure to mercuric chloride will not cause hearing loss
the positives for this book are Very few and far between but they do feel worthy of mentioning. julius' chapters have the most heart and i appreciate them far more than jeremy's. though i didnt use them, the qr codes to demonstrations of signs is unique to this book and i just generally think its a neat concept. this book also covers a lot of basics about the Deaf community, and i liked the opposing experiences of d/Deafness
feel free to ignore past this point i just have more points i want to get off my chest:
- who the fuck nukes seattle ?
- realistically a nuke wouldve killed almost every character in this book. unless quint knows something i dont and nuclear fallout respects city limits
- who the hell is the US at war with? over what? sure it names Several ("and all those island countries"?? girl what) countries, but apart from generally being countries the US has beef with anyways/in the past, what is uniting them now? are they even united? is this just the war on terror 2??
- why have border security measures apparently not changed at all despite there being attacks on US soil?? why are military bases not cracking down on security to prevent attacks to their staff?? why are the base attacks treated like a random happening when theyve happened more than once over the course of the book
- jeremy shouldve been dishonorably discharged like almost immediately
- speaking of jeremy, if he wanted to "fight the enemy" so badly, why did he join the border patrol instead of like. idk. the ARMY
- phrenology.... racism..... misogyny..... xenophobia... jeremy indulges in them all
- they shut down guantanamo bay so the only other place for this NATIONAL chemical terrorist to go is the (washington) state penitentiary ??????
1) its just badly written. point blank. an editor wouldve helped to a degree but it wouldnt have saved anything. there are Some positives, but they arent enough to carry the book even slightly. the dialog is especially clunky but no part of this was unscathed
2) theres a fine line you have to walk when writing a purposfully unlikable character, and jeremy is like 5 miles over that line. he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and the most appealing thing to me about his chapters was just how utterly batshit they were.
3) THIS IS THIS BIG ONE and ultimately the crux of the vast majority of issues this book has. any research, if it was even done at all, is somehow even lighter than surface level. a freind put it aptly as: even though the book came out before this was a thing, its like all of the author's research came strictly from google AI summaries. while it was somewhat enjoyable on the basis of seeing what #bullshit would happen next, it was also honestly killing me. nothing in this required a large amount of research, so the fact that it failed in so many basic ways is spectacular.
an incomplete list of factual errors found in this book are:
- the US border patrol being apart of the military (it isnt)
- how the military works AT ALL (you cannot talk to COs how jeremy does, you cannot choose where you are assigned, you cannot KEEP YOUR MILITARY ISSUED WEAPON WHEN YOU ARE DISCHARGED, etc) (<70% of your time with jeremy is while hes "in the military", and i genuinely dont think almost anything about it is correct)
- acute exposure to mercuric chloride will not cause hearing loss
the positives for this book are Very few and far between but they do feel worthy of mentioning. julius' chapters have the most heart and i appreciate them far more than jeremy's. though i didnt use them, the qr codes to demonstrations of signs is unique to this book and i just generally think its a neat concept. this book also covers a lot of basics about the Deaf community, and i liked the opposing experiences of d/Deafness
feel free to ignore past this point i just have more points i want to get off my chest:
- who the fuck nukes seattle ?
- realistically a nuke wouldve killed almost every character in this book. unless quint knows something i dont and nuclear fallout respects city limits
- who the hell is the US at war with? over what? sure it names Several ("and all those island countries"?? girl what) countries, but apart from generally being countries the US has beef with anyways/in the past, what is uniting them now? are they even united? is this just the war on terror 2??
- why have border security measures apparently not changed at all despite there being attacks on US soil?? why are military bases not cracking down on security to prevent attacks to their staff?? why are the base attacks treated like a random happening when theyve happened more than once over the course of the book
- jeremy shouldve been dishonorably discharged like almost immediately
- speaking of jeremy, if he wanted to "fight the enemy" so badly, why did he join the border patrol instead of like. idk. the ARMY
- phrenology.... racism..... misogyny..... xenophobia... jeremy indulges in them all
- they shut down guantanamo bay so the only other place for this NATIONAL chemical terrorist to go is the (washington) state penitentiary ??????
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 21, 2021
I really enjoyed the story of Julius (and Amy) as he grew up and embraced his deafness. As a member of the Deaf community, I could understand his pain (and his reaction to the unfairness in playing soccer with hearing kids and coaches) and felt he was definitely resilient in his ability to move on and eventually embrace running.
In contrast, Jeremy seemed to never let go of his anger upon his father's death and it just kept building during his time in the border guard and beyond. The irony of his deafness still brought out the worst in him. I really did not like or sympathize with his character. I could not understand how he found himself a nice girlfriend. She stuck with him even as he struggled to accept that he was deaf and encouraged him to start signing. Julius was incredibly patient with him (despite being so much younger) and eventually it paid off.
If you are studying ASL or the Deaf community, this book has many discussion points that could lead to much understanding. If you know little to nothing about the community and have no one to discuss this book with, many of the reasons for the behavior of the characters may be lost on you.
If you like running, you may resonate with the freedom and clarity that brings to Jeremy despite all of the difficulties he is handling in life.
In contrast, Jeremy seemed to never let go of his anger upon his father's death and it just kept building during his time in the border guard and beyond. The irony of his deafness still brought out the worst in him. I really did not like or sympathize with his character. I could not understand how he found himself a nice girlfriend. She stuck with him even as he struggled to accept that he was deaf and encouraged him to start signing. Julius was incredibly patient with him (despite being so much younger) and eventually it paid off.
If you are studying ASL or the Deaf community, this book has many discussion points that could lead to much understanding. If you know little to nothing about the community and have no one to discuss this book with, many of the reasons for the behavior of the characters may be lost on you.
If you like running, you may resonate with the freedom and clarity that brings to Jeremy despite all of the difficulties he is handling in life.
June 11, 2021
I was up far too late last night finishing this one because I had to know how it was going to end. I love that it’s an own voices story about the deaf experience, as many books I’ve read with deaf characters are written by an interpreter, a CODA, or someone who’s just interested. Definitely matters to have books written by Deaf authors!
I definitely recommend this one. It kept my attention from the start, and I completely devoured it. Of the two main characters (brothers) I definitely liked one more than the other, but really cared about both and wanted to where things were going for both.
From family relationships, to military/homeland security thoughts, to mental illness, to deaf experience, to faith... So many themes in this one. There's something that everyone will connect with, as well as aspects that will push your thinking and make you reflect on what you would do/how you would feel.
Definitely excited to see what this author comes out with next!
I definitely recommend this one. It kept my attention from the start, and I completely devoured it. Of the two main characters (brothers) I definitely liked one more than the other, but really cared about both and wanted to where things were going for both.
From family relationships, to military/homeland security thoughts, to mental illness, to deaf experience, to faith... So many themes in this one. There's something that everyone will connect with, as well as aspects that will push your thinking and make you reflect on what you would do/how you would feel.
Definitely excited to see what this author comes out with next!
July 11, 2021
Resilient Silence tells an incredible story of two brothers who struggle with similar pain and tragedy that causes them to face their weaknesses and rely on God‘s grace and the unconditional love of others. I found myself caught up in the energy and excitement of competition between these brothers and developed a better understanding for the deaf community that struggles to connect with a hearing culture that does not take time to truly listen to the heart of those who are different. I highly recommend Resilient Silence to anyone who loves adventure, intrigue, and a story the fills your heart with compassion and love. You won’t be able to put this book down.
Doug Wordell, RD
Doug Wordell, RD
June 17, 2021
This book is brilliantly written by a Deaf author Peter Quint. This book explains the struggles every Deaf child goes through growing up with Deaf, hearing culture, and language deprivation. This book also explains that sign language communication is crucial for language development in a Deaf child or a late deafened child (sibling). This book clearly explains the importance of accessibility, communication, and unconditional love among the family members. The book is highly recommended for anyone to read it!
July 7, 2021
A well-written book! I can relate to Jeremy and Julius’ life journey as they face many major decisions. Worth your time to read!
January 4, 2022
Heart-warming. As a Deaf person myself, definitely could resonate a lot with the story line.
January 22, 2024
Midway through the book I had to keep reading to find out what was going on with Jeremy. The story was interesting to read. The references to "faith" and "trust" were encouraging.
July 7, 2021
Must-read.. Deaf characters... emotional/suspense.. Loved it!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews