January 15, 2023
Set in Sydney, Australia, during the wildfires of 2019, this first-person novel focuses on 18-year-old Georgia, a young woman struggling to find her voice. Georgia is the "quiet" and her best friend, Tess, the "loud" of the title. Georgia routinely subsumes her needs to take care of Tess' anxiety. This dynamic becomes challenging when Tess' postpartum depression coincides with the reemergence of Georgia's estranged alcoholic father. He tells Georgia he is dying and begs for forgiveness and a visit--and for her to keep his diagnosis a secret from her mother. Readers come to understand the multiple layers of trauma her father's alcoholism laid on Georgia and her mother as flashbacks throughout the book reveal the depth of his disease and cruelty. However, by this point her mother has long since left her father and married a woman named Mel. Mel is an artist who introduces Georgia to the coping mechanisms of kayaking and painting. She is also the person who delivers the central lessons Georgia needs to learn: that she does not have to look after everyone or keep burdensome secrets. Laced throughout the book are engaging descriptions of Georgia's burgeoning romance with Sri Lankan Australian Calliope (main characters read White). A subplot concerning climate change activism feels a little like an afterthought, although descriptions of the choking smoke make the horror of the wildfires vivid. Heavy themes made bearable by lyrical and evocative writing. (author's note) (Fiction. 13-18)
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January 30, 2023
Fox (How It Feels to Float) delivers an immersive, Sydney, Australia–set accounting of a teen struggling to overcome past traumas while dealing with her loved ones’ varying conflicts. Whenever life begins to overwhelm 18-year-old George, she escapes to the peace and quiet of kayaking. But after she learns that her estranged father is dying of heart disease, she doesn’t believe kayaking will help with her headspace, especially when she recalls a haunting memory: her father abandoning a then 10-year-old George on a kayak one night in the middle of a lake. He requests that she visit him in Seattle, saying he wants to make amends, but also asks that she not reveal his diagnosis to her mother. Meanwhile, George is unsure how to help her friend Tess, who is dealing with postpartum depression, and George’s worries over Tess stall her budding romance with newcomer Calliope. Harrowing flashbacks told via George’s vulnerable voice detail past experiences featuring her father’s alcohol dependency, while visceral depictions of Australian wildfires add a palpable element of urgency that both mirrors and impacts George’s desperation to take control of her life. George and Tess are assumed white; Calliope is of Sri Lankan descent. Ages 14–up.
March 15, 2023
Grades 9-12 George's dad left her in the middle of a lake when she was nine. She keeps her memories of him, and the effects of his addiction on her family, deeply buried until he starts sending her repeated texts that they need to talk. Now 18, she has enough happening between her best friend Tess' pregnancy and her friend Laz's despair over the climate crisis. When George meets Calliope, a girl with whom she can be herself more than with anyone else, long-suppressed emotions resurface. As wildfires rage in Australia, Tess gives birth, and George finds out her father is dying, she confronts her trauma. This is a contemporary YA novel with a sensitive portrayal of complex PTSD. Flashbacks and lyrical descriptions of George's art add further dimension. George's complicated relationships with her father and Tess--for whom she has been swallowing her own pain for years--take center stage. This book will appeal to readers who enjoy realistic YA fiction that deals with issues of mental health.
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October 20, 2023
Gr 9 Up-After years of estrangement, 18-year-old Georgia's alcoholic father reaches out to tell her he's dying. George doesn't know what to do, so she does what she does best-buries it inside and doesn't share her indecision about visiting him in Seattle (George is a white Australian who lives in Sydney) with anyone else. Her friends are dealing with enough: Tess is pregnant and struggling with overwhelming anxiety, and Laz is a climate activist distraught by the 2019 wildfires. At home, George's life in an artistic family is a riot of color and noise, which she escapes by running and kayaking. One day while out on Sydney Harbour, she sees a beautiful girl cartwheeling in the water. An aspiring filmmaker of Sri Lankan heritage, Calliope is the first person to make George feel cared for instead of needed. As pressure to decide about her dad mounts and Tess struggles with post-partum depression, George retreats into herself. The novel intersperses George's poetry and flashbacks to her chaotic childhood amid the present-day time line. As in Fox's debut (How It Feels to Float), this work is lyrical and nuanced in its depiction of the silence and secrecy of families grappling with mental illness and addiction. Issues such as PTSD, anxiety, climate grief, and post-partum depression are explored with grace and complexity, and George's journey to speaking up for herself and deciding what she needs from the people in her life is rewarding. VERDICT A thoughtful novel with strikingly rich characterization, recommended for all collections.-Elizabeth Giles
Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 31, 2023
Helena Fox, author of award-winning debut How It Feels to Float, returns with another powerful, heart-tugging YA novel. Nine years after her dad disappeared under the lake, 18-year-old George is still haunted by the quietness of the water and the slow rocking of the waves as she was left to fend for herself. When George’s dad turns out to be alive and living in America and calls to tell her he is dying, George questions whether she can put the past behind her or if there is a way to live with it. In striking and intimate detail, Fox deftly illustrates the pressures weighing down on George’s mental health as she tries her best to not let anyone, including her family, know how much she is suffering. The story is set against the backdrop of the global climate crisis and the 2019–20 Australian bushfires, and the exterior turmoils are a brilliant reflection of the inner battles taking place inside George’s mind, bringing attention to the effects of domestic violence, complex PTSD, and anxiety in adolescents. Fox exquisitely encapsulates the complexity teens feel, the youthful belief that they can handle anything by themselves, and then the breathtaking relief of seeking help and learning that the support of others makes you stronger, never weaker. Ideal for readers aged 15 and above, The Quiet and the Loud is perfect for fans of Kathleen Glasgow and Rhiannon Wilde.