The Silent War

By: Randa Hink

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In the early 1980s, a crisis spreads through hospital wards and city streets alike, unnamed at first, then feared, then ignored by those who can afford to look away.

Ava is a doctor who refuses to.

Working long shifts in an understaffed hospital, she bears witness to a growing tide of illness and loss as patients are abandoned by families, dismissed by institutions, and left to fight alone. Ava stays. Even when it costs her sleep, safety, and the fragile peace of her own life.

Sara is not part of that world at first. Drawn in by chance and circumstance, she slowly becomes part of Ava’s orbit—offering quiet support, sharp humor, and a steady presence when the weight becomes too much to carry alone.

As fear tightens its grip on the city, Ava and Sara build something fragile and fierce in the margins of grief: a love shaped by endurance, compassion, and the simple act of showing up. Together, they navigate strained families, political indifference, activist firestorms, and the relentless toll of a disease no one is prepared to face.

A quiet love story set against one of the loudest silences in modern history.

Different from all the others

This book is different from all the others, as it is more about the AIDS epidemic and those that fought and helped the sick instead of shunning them. I remember it well as I was 20 years old at that time. People feared blood transfusions in hospitals, and when my mom needed surgery she had her children who were O+ standing by in case she needed blood.

In this book the only Legends/Arrowverse characters are:
Ava as a doctor, Sara as a cop, Sara's sister Laurel is still an attorney, Leo is a cop and Sara's gay partner with AIDS, Michael as a volunteer, and Nate is a non gay AIDS patient. More about being there for each other instead of romance.

There is a very slow burn love story within. Sara was 28 when she met Ava. The story concludes when she is 58.

The hardest part of listening to this book was how the epidemic was handled.

The virtual voice was awful.