The Sound of You by Simon Doyle is a gentle and moving story about loss, healing, and finding connection in unexpected ways. Owen, a boy struggling with grief, meets Jun, who is Deaf and communicates without words. Their friendship grows slowly but deeply, showing how silence can speak louder than words.

The book is full of quiet moments that feel very real and heartfelt. Doyle’s writing is clear and thoughtful, making it easy to understand the pain and hope the characters experience. If you enjoy stories about friendship, love, and learning to be heard, this tender romance will stay with you long after you finish.

This was a really cute and emotional story about grief, love, disability and acceptance. The pacing was really good and I enjoyed the writing very much. The characters were so likeable, but there wasn't that much character development.
I will definitely recommend this book!

I received an e-ARC and am giving my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Doyle for this opportunity!!

It’s no secret that ‘This Isn’t a Vampire Story’ was an arguably life changing read for me, so I was ecstatic for this novel. I’m hard of hearing, should have been using a hearing aide since I was a child but it never happened. A queer love story with a deaf love interest is something I’ve always loved the idea of, and have read at least one other that was a manga. This completely exceeded expectations.

I know ASL, not ISL, so can’t personally speak to the accuracy of the signs but they seemed to be correct based off what I do know. The ways that Owen immediately jumped into researching ISL, going to a class all for a boy he’d barely met in passing a couple of times? It was so sweet and caring, despite having just lost his grandfather and feeling a bit lost in life. He still went out of his way to learn how to communicate with Jun, even if it took a while.

Speaking of Jun, I adored how he was written. The nuances of his family dynamics, how rough it is and how he felt the need to isolate himself from Owen. The pressure that asian families put on their children was incredibly written. Owen feeling so certain he can change Jun’s father’s mind, not having grown up with a parental figure like him, while Jun has grown up with him and knows how impossible that would be and struggling to convey that.

I adored Ryan. Loved how his and Owen’s friendship was able to continue on as normal even though Owen once held feelings for him. Their friendship still being just as silly, jokes of them being boyfriends, with no awkwardness. It was so endearing and sweet, each scene Ryan was in made me smile.


This was a beautifully sweet book, with incredible commentary on the social divides with hearing and the d/Deaf, as well as differences with asian family expectations. It helped me to feel more connected to the literary world, seeing someone on page similar to me. This was truly lovely.

Everything about this story is so unbelievably beautiful… I am in love with the way Simon Doyle writes. He tells us a story of grief and memory, of fear and courage, of learning to listen to yourself, of community and found family, of love and connection… this book touched me deeply.

Owen has lost someone very precious and he and his family are learning to navigate that when he meets Jun who is Deaf and new to Dublin but building a community… it’s honestly so bright, they way first love blooms, how they step forward and withdraw and step forward bravely again. I adored all of the other characters too.. Ryan and Mia and Ella and Pauline and Sean and Eileen and Mick and Owen’s Mom and Callum and even Tommy.

Taking us on a journey ranging from funny to poignant to touching to triumph, Simon Doyle writes a tale of loss, love and overcoming forces that could keep them apart in a truly moving way. This is probably the first YA I’ve read and I found it to unbelievably well developed tacking mature coming of age themes and topics which even adults grapple hard with in such a sensitive manner.

Highly recommend reading!

The Sound of You absolutely stole my heart. This is the kind of book that creeps up on you softly, then hits you with all the feels when you least expect it. Owen Kelly is such a relatable, raw character — dealing with grief, loneliness, and the sense of not being seen. I connected with him instantly.

But then comes Jun-ho Lee — quiet, observant, and Deaf — and everything changes. Their connection is so tender and meaningful, built on gestures, glances, and trust. I loved how their relationship blossomed in the quiet, in the spaces where words sometimes fall short. The representation here is powerful and so needed.

This story isn’t just a romance — it’s about identity, communication, and learning how to be heard in a world that often ignores the quiet voices. It's slow-burn, it's queer, it's emotional, and it's just real. Think Heartstopper meets I’ll Give You the Sun with a dash of The Perks of Being a Wallflower — yes, it's that good.

If you're looking for a book that will make you cry, smile, and maybe believe in a quiet kind of miracle, The Sound of You is it.

I could not put this book down! Seriously, I only got 3 hours of sleep last night because I stayed up to finish it. Sorry not sorry for my irresponsible reading choices.

These characters were just too cute. I literally had no choice but to keep reading in order to find out how everything turns out with them.

Doyle handles Jun's marginalization well. I was surprised to see no evidence on his socials that he has any intimate knowledge of life being deaf or as a person of color in a predominantly white culture so perhaps someone close to him does have that experience or he did his research well and respectfully.

My only complaint is that I'm concerned this book is going to become extremely underrated. And that's because I'm not sure the trope marketing does it any justice (obviously that's more a statement of the marketing choices and the publishing/marketing industry in general than any of the writing). Obviously trope marketing works, so if its bringing more readership to the book, I probably SHOULDN'T complain, but while its totally accurate to describe the book as "friends to lovers", "found family", "safe with me", etc. I also feel like that overly simplifies the book and undermines the brilliance of the prose.

While the prose in this book is simple and still distinctly YA, it also does this brilliant thing I've seen from a fair number of Irish Literary (capitol L) writers like Claire Keegan and Salley Rooney where it takes a really simple and straightforward narrative such as: "Character goes into the kitchen, gets a glass, fills it with water from the tap, stares at the motes floating in the cloudy water, sets the glass down, notices a chip in the countertop, walks out of the kitchen" (except you know, in real sentences) and in between each line of the simple and straightforward narrative voice, there is nothing but subtext! Its just jam packed in there. Like you can feel Owen's grief without mention of his emotions, his body posture, his tone of voice. and all those other overdone recommendations for "showing not telling". You can feel it in the way everything he does seems tiring and meaningless without that having to be spelled out for you. And later, you see the change from the tiring and meaningless to the bordering obsessive and infatuated without that having to be explicitly spelled out either.

I don't mean to imply that only Irish writers do this, but based on my own reading experiences it does seem to be a feature of some of the Irish literary canon. And I feel like the incredible heart and emotion in this book needs more advertising air time. I wouldn't call this a cute, queer lighthearted romp. HeartWARMING? Absolutely! But every bit as deserving of a place in literature that covers serious topics such as grief and belonging.

I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone that I can convince to read it and I will definitely be buying a copy to join the rest of my personal collection of queer books and be revisiting it again and again.

The Sound of You by Simon Doyle is a heartwarming, wholesome, and beautifully told story. It centers on two main characters: Owen, a sixteen-year-old aspiring artist grappling with the recent loss of his grandfather, and Jun-ho, a kind, deaf and mute boy who has just moved to Ireland with his mother.

Their paths cross by chance — but that moment of serendipity becomes something deeply meaningful for both of them, arriving at a time when they each need it most.

This is a tender, moving story about grief, love, and acceptance. Simon Doyle draws you into their world from the very first encounter, and I was completely immersed in their journey as it unfolded.

It was an easy five-star read for me. If you’re drawn to heartfelt connections and queer love stories, this is one you won’t want to miss.

The Sound of You by Simon Doyle
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (4.5 out of 5 stars)

This one quietly crept into my heart.

The Sound of You is a beautifully written YA queer romance that takes you through grief, healing, and unexpected connection. We follow sixteen-year-old Owen, who’s still reeling from the loss of his grandfather — the one person who really understood him. Life feels a bit muted for Owen… until a random encounter with Jun-ho, a Deaf, Korean-Irish student, shifts everything.

What I loved most? It’s not loud or dramatic. There’s no over-the-top spice, and the drama is minimal — but that’s exactly why it works. It’s gentle, emotional, and real. Watching Owen slowly learn ISL (Irish Sign Language) and step into Jun’s world felt so natural. Their connection builds through quiet moments, glances, and little gestures — and it felt authentic.

This isn’t just a love story. It’s a story about learning to listen, even when there are no words. About processing grief, discovering joy again, and learning to connect in new ways. Some parts made me smile like an idiot. Others? Hit right in the feels.

And yes, I actually laughed out loud more than once. The humor is soft and sweet, and the writing just flows — like you’re slipping into someone else’s memories.

Final thoughts:
If you’re looking for something heartwarming, inclusive, and refreshingly low on the drama — The Sound of You is a wonderful choice. A sweet slow-burn romance with a whole lot of depth. 4.5 stars from me, and definitely one I’d recommend to anyone who wants a story that speaks through silence.

I tried a genre i dont normally read, and sadly it didn't work out. It was well written, but not adult enough for my taste ( not a criticism in it self) I therefore didn't finish it

Thank you to NetGalley and SD Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

This was just too precious! The story picks up so fast and we're quickly introduced to our protagonist, his best friend, and his grieving family after the loss of his grandfather.
These characters felt real and heartfelt, and I really believed in their struggles at school or with their relationships. I was so happy for our boys falling love that I was smiling for multiple chapters at a time, and didn't want their story to end.
It was also great to see how a few frequently asked questions were answered through the book, my pet peeve one being "why don't all deaf people use the same sign language?"

An absolute must-read!!

I started this book in the evening after finishing another book. I read the first chapter—and it made me so sad I had to put the book down for a full 24 hours before I could pick it back up again. And I live for the emotional pain, hurt/comfort trope!!

That being said, once I picked it back up the next day, I didn't want to stop reading! Straight from the start, I absolutely adored Owen and Ryan's friendship—Owen is mourning the loss of a family member, and I adored how Ryan was there for him. This continues throughout the book, even as life moves on for both of them, with school work and friends and dating, and I was so happy Owen had Ryan in his life! There are other friends throughout the story too, whom I absolutely adored, but Ryan stood out, being the oldest friend and also the first one that we meet early on in this story!

Whilst trying to cope with his grief through art, Owen meets Jun-ho, a half Irish half Korean boy, in the park. He quickly discovers Jun is Deaf, and a big focus of the story is the two of them communicating in ways that most people wouldn't even think about: body language, texts, lip reading, and of course through sign language, which Owen starts to learn. It was such a beautiful story line; I especially loved a moment where Owen noted that they'd had a whole conversation without speaking or signing, and that communication was flowing more naturally between them now than when they first met 🥰

The romance plot line was exquisite—there's so much yearning, so many beautiful moments, talk of butterflies and feeling content just sitting and holding each other and trading kisses and agghshjd it was just such a gorgeous portrayal of young love!! 💖 I felt absolutely giddy reading their story and remembering that feeling of first falling for someone as a teenager, and I was awe-struck and teary-eyed reading about what they'd do to stay together, even when things try to keep them apart (I won't spoil the story, but things got really tense there for a while and I was legit scared of how few pages there were left to reach a resolution!!!).

The last thing I want to draw attention to is the use of art throughout this story. I loved how it was always there, in the background or right front and centre. I could feel Owen's feelings through his drawings and the way he used art to express his grief and his love and, most of all, his desire to help Jun with his family issues. It was a beautiful reminder that so much of life is art and expression, and I loved that! 💖

To sum up, The Sound of You is a beautiful YA story, with themes of friendship and love, grief and communication, artistic expression and determination, and I one hundred percent recommend this book, without reservation, to absolutely everyone!! Doyle's writing is beautiful and funny, with banter and heartfelt moments, and characters that feel real and relatable, in a setting where it's easy to imagine the events unfolding, and I've adored every minute I've gotten to spend in this world!

Without a doubt, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 from me, and I can't wait to own and reread this book!


I want to thank the author, Simon Doyle, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I absolutely loved this story, and I can't wait to read anything else you might write in the future! 😁

This was such a great book! Owen is struggling after a great loss, until one day he meets a quiet boy in the park, Jun. After realizing that Jun is deaf and communicates through sign language, Owen is determined to learn to speak to him.

Jun has his own personal struggles in his father, who lives in South Korea. His father is determined to fix Jun, despite what the boy wants for himself.

Can the boys work together to convince Jun’s father that he isn’t someone that needs to be fixed? Will the boys be able to stay together?

This book was a pure delight, beautifully written, with some absolutely amazing characters. Both boy have some amazing growth during this story. If you enjoy YA and MM stories, you should definitely give this one a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher/author for this copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

If you want a tender love story with so much depth and heart, this is definitely the book for you. I thought this book was beautifully written, and I appreciated how well it tackled the topic of grief and love. It was also enlightening to read a book with a main character who is deaf. Jun-ho and Owen have my entire heart, and I think their love story is so intricate and developed. I wanted to keep reading about them forever. This novel is so much more than just a love story, though. It is about navigating grief and discovering who you are and how to be in times of loss and hardship. Discovering more about yourself is always something I enjoy reading about.

Overall, 5 stars!

I have enjoyed reading all of Simon Doyle’s books. His latest one is an endearing love story between two teenage boys: one Irish (Owen) and the other half-Korean, half-Irish (Jun). Jun is also deaf. In addition to Owen and Jun there are many supporting roles, including Owen’s grandfather who dies right at the start of the book; we see Owen struggle with his grief over this loss.

The burgeoning relationship between Owen and Jun is delight to observe, despite the challenges of Jun’s lack of hearing (which he makes up for in other ways) and the cultural differences between Ireland and Korea, including Jun’s difficult Korean father.

This was a rewarding read. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

The Sound of You is a queer YA romance that intimately explores themes of grief, disability, culture, art, and unconditional love and acceptance, as the profound first-love shared between MCs Owen and Jun has ripple-effects that positively impact the very heart of the community that surrounds them.

This was a truly heartfelt reading experience and I appreciated the way Doyle handled the story, emotionally and tonally speaking. It managed to walk a steadfast line between too emotionally exhausting and too sweet and fluffy, which isn’t always the case when dealing with YA stories of similar themes.

The growing romance between artistic, grief-stricken Owen and half-Korean Jun, a deaf boy with his own familial and cultural challenges, was very heartwarming and tender in its rendering. But beyond their smile-inducing first-love romance, it was in the ensemble cast of characters and the emotionally engaging themes they represented that this story truly shined.

For me, the opening of the story was my absolute favourite part, as we followed Owen in the days and weeks after the loss of his beloved grandfather. The way his grief was handled was very moving and so intensely relatable in its telling, that I hold huge respect for what Doyle managed to capture in those quieter, more contemplative scenes, which served to endeared me deeply to MC Owen very early in the piece.

However, I was just as engaged with the rest of the story, too, especially once the boys became friends and their romantic feelings began to take flight, fully enjoying the larger arc involving Owen’s artistic expression and the eventual explorations of human communication and unique methods of connectivity we use in a shared diverse world.

As my second time reading a story by Irish author Simon Doyle, I can confidently say that I’ve enjoyed his characters, his themes, and his style of storytelling very much, at least from what I’ve seen and experienced thus far. I’m definitely keen to now backtrack so I can fill in missing gaps in his backlog, but I’m also super eager to see what he does next on his writing journey.

The Sound of You was a real pleasure to read.


***A special thanks to the publishers (via Netgalley) for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very romantic book. The prose was gorgeous and I highlighted several passages simply because they are incredibly beautiful.

I loved the grief journey. Owen’s loss of his grandfather shadowed everything he did, and I really felt for him. The art project he did was so incredibly emotional and stunning, I wanted to hug him.

The romance with Jun was so intimate and stunning, I loved how they communicated with each other and that epic grand gesture of love and friendship at the end had tears rolling down my cheeks.

Very sweet and lovely,

A sweet story, very emotional and beautiful.

It touches upon some heavy topics, and it makes you reflect a lot on your own experiences, and you just don’t notice how quickly you become so invested in the story.

The main characters are just so sweet, and the whole cast of others is so great as well. The found family, the friendships, parents-children relationships, it was very interesting to see them all.

Overall, a great read, would definitely recommend 🤍

Thank you to NetGalley and SD Press for a complimentary copy of The Sound of You by Simon Doyle.

This was a delightful read! The Sound of You has lots of good messaging surrounding grief of a loved one and finding yourself in the world. I thought the author had written both of these subjects beautifully. It shows that moving on doesn’t mean forgetting and that silence can truly be the loudest as we speak with more than just our words.

I loved all of the characters in The Sound of You, the main relationship between Owen and Jun was very wholesome, I found so many of their interactions to be so cute that I couldn’t help but coo and laugh with them. Another aspect that I really enjoyed about this book was the found family, the friendships and relationships in this book were lovely. It was nice to see that all of them cared and loved one another, it was even nicer to see them all come together! I’m very pleased with the friendships/relationships, I’m happy that the characters are happy, I’m glad many of them have found their special person in the world!

Overall this was a lovely book with great messaging! The Sound of You has a good mix of fluff and angst moments that I enjoyed. The relationships both romantic and platonic are solid in here! I’ll definitely be reading this authors other books Snow Boys and Runaway Train soon! As a side note the mention of Ao3 caught me off guard but it was so funny!

Whoa ! This was amazing I loved Owen and Jun so much.
Owens story was so sad . He's grandad seemed so sweet .

I loved his friend and their banter .

Jun was so cute and the sign language part was interesting.
It was a joy to read .

We’re very lucky to have such amazing authors who are writing intelligent LGBTQ+ YA at the moment, particularly in the MM genre. In the US there are people like Alex Sanchez and Brent Hartinger who write realistic gay male characters, never afraid to show us as flawed individuals. And in the UK we have people like William Hussey who write deep, emotionally rich stories of loss and belonging. And let’s not forgot the brilliant Simon James Green, whose light hearted youthful style captures the comedic awkwardness of growing up, as well as the struggles of living under Section 28. Amazingly intelligent authors who try to “write up” to their audiences and never talk down. So I thought I’d try this book, my first book by Irish author Simon Doyle, to see how he compares to some of the other YA writers out there.

The book opens shortly after the death of Owen’s grandfather. We follow Owen in the weeks after the funeral as he deals with the grief and the absence of his grandfather. Whilst out sketching one day he meets Jun-Ho, a South Korean kid who just happens to be deaf and who sparks Owen’s interest and slowly begins to draw him out of his grief.

The first thing I noticed when reading the start of this book was how clear the authors voice was. He seemed to have a beautifully descriptive style that managed to push the plot forward, avoiding its use as narrative padding. These descriptions captured each scene perfectly, creating a mood that reflected Owen’s view of the world. There was a real melancholy to the writing as we followed Owen through his daily routine in the wake of his grandfathers death. It showed how he struggled with the feelings of loss and the all consuming sadness that accompanies the grief of losing someone so close. Perceiving the world at a distance, almost detached. But when Jun-Ho enters his life, things started to shift for him. And at the same time, things also started to shift for me with this book, but not necessarily in the same way.

As an exploration of grief this book really hit its mark. Not just when dealing with the loss but also in showing how a person can feel separated from everyone. Their interaction with friends and family and the difficulty they have in returning to a normal life. However as a romance I struggled to feel the connection between the two male leads. I couldn’t feel the attraction between the two boys, despite the author insisting it was there. He really tries to write a romantic connection between the two of them but I just couldn’t feel it. In fact I felt more of a connection between Owen and his best friend Ryan than I did with Owen and Jun. Owen’s relationship with Ryan just dominated the page whenever the two of them were together. And that was such a shame as the book changed its main focus onto Owen’s growing feelings for Jun, making this more of a teen romance than a study of grief.

I also felt the quality of the writing started to slip a little too. Some of the writing just didn’t seem quite right, somewhat cringy in places. Like when Owen was biting his lip trying to stop himself from smiling the author wrote “…I was neither a cat nor from Cheshire.” Then we had phrases like “… every drop of blood I owned”. Some of the writing just didn’t feel right… a little too juvenile (does a person actually ‘own’ their blood?) Now I could be wrong, maybe the author intended his writing to sound like that, after all he is writing from a 16 year old’s point of view. But after such a strong start these types of phrases really stood out to me.

I think your enjoyment of this book will very much depend on how much Owen and Jun’s relationship resonates with you, and whether you buy in to it or not. For me I could not find the connection, so I did not find all those chapters of Owen swooning over Jun that engaging. I found them dull, actually. However the parts which dealt with Owen and his family’s grieving, and how they attempted to move on, were really interesting. Indeed all the family storylines were engaging. I particularly liked Owens growing relationship with Mick and how author dealt with Owen’s Mum trying to move on from Tommy’s death. In someways this would have been a stronger book without the romance, if Owen and Jun were just friends.

It is such a shame I didn’t gel with this book the way I’d hoped, but that’s mainly down to the main relationship. I’m sorry Jun and Owen but you lost me at “hello”. But that’s not to say others won’t like it, particularly if the main characters work for you, and you’re in the mood for some moody teenage pining. I’ll definitely check out more of this authors work, especially if they’re more like the first part of this book.