Not a week goes by without somebody on /r/whatsthatbook looking for a book

about somebody who is nonverbal due to selective mutism and/or trauma.

I had no idea there were so many of these books out there, but for some reason these posters always insist on framing it as "she's not really mute" or "she's just pretending" or "she's choosing not to speak" or, at any rate, that somehow the character can speak even though they very blatantly cannot.

This is starting to give me hives, guys.