A novel about silence, connection, and the courage to be known.

Noah doesn't speak at school.

Not because he doesn't have something to say—but because the words get stuck when it matters most. With selective mutism and anxiety wrapped tightly around his voice, Noah has learned how to stay small, stay safe, stay unseen. He pours his thoughts into poems no one reads... until one night, he stumbles across a quiet blog by a girl named Mae.

Mae writes about grief and growing and finding your voice when it feels like the world forgot you. Her honesty hits something deep in Noah—and for the first time, he writes back. Not with his name. Not with a comment. Just a poem.

What begins as a silent exchange becomes a lifeline.

As words pass between them—anonymous, vulnerable, true—Noah and Mae begin to build something sacred. A connection. A kind of trust. And maybe, just maybe, a way back to themselves.

Told in prose, letters, and fragments, This Is How I Say It is a soft, emotionally powerful story about being heard without raising your voice—and how sometimes, the quietest connections echo the loudest.