Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis

Can you imagine what it's like to hear what other people are thinking and not be able to shut it out? In Joy's family it is not unusual to do just that. They call them Whispers. When Joy hears a wish from those around her she tries to give them exactly what they want. Her sister, on the other hand, goes out of her way to make things worse for people. If Joy sees her talent as a gift, her sister sees it as a curse. So, as you can imagine, they are not close, culminating in a terrible argument on Joy's birthday.

But when Joy overhears her sister Whisper I want to kill my Hearing dead, and kill me too if that's what it takes, she knows she has to find her, chasing after her in a stolen car with a boy she's really just met..

This is unlike anything else in the urban fantasy genre, looking at what it would be like to actually know what people are thinking all around you, knowing what they want, and how to deal with it. Joy has to find out the importance of family and her place in the world in this unusual debut novel.

Oh, and if you are in the Bay Area and want to meet Phoebe and hear her read from Whisper she'll be at Kepler's on June 16th at 7. And there will be cake!