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Reviewed by Foluso Falaye for Readers' Favorite
Raven Oak's Voices Carry mirrors the struggles of standing out and facing obstacles for refusing to accept a false identity. It depicts the challenges that a queer protagonist faced while growing up with her family and as a middle school teacher who did her best to impact her students' lives positively. Despite being a nonbinary person who was a supportive partner to her wife, Raven did not experience being accepted by her father. Thankfully, she gained a strong mindset after finding her voice and identity. Apart from her discriminative colleagues, Raven had to face some serious challenges in her teaching career, including serious health problems and stressful experiences with medical specialists. As she reflects on her tough battles and cherished moments, she shares deeply enlightening deductions that reflect the importance of growing and accepting yourself as you are.
Voices Carry is quite engaging since Raven Oak is generously vulnerable with her stories. Her personality shines through in the essays, from accounts about being neurodiverse to advocating for the rights of queer people and recollections about an abusive past. The book has a collection of richly explored themes, including education, health issues, homophobia, fat shaming, atheism, marriage, family, and lightly touched abuse themes. Voices Carry gave me such an enlightening experience that I found myself gasping aloud and rereading paragraphs to confirm what I read. Raven's pioneering story proves that we still have a long way to go in treating people with different ideologies kindly. When it comes to intriguing memoirs about the struggles of being queer and finding your voice, Voices Carry is clearly at the forefront.
