Review Detail

THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD is an emotional YA contemporary about grief, family, and first love. Mia and Alfie broke up a few months ago after Mia's world imploded. In her struggles, she knows that she pushed him away, even though he was the one who said the words. Across the country in San Francisco, they happen across each other in a coffee shop before Mia flees and a devastating earthquake strikes - right after Mia had been given a heartfelt letter from him and reached out to him over the phone.

With all the things left unsaid, Mia treks across the city in the aftermath to try to find Alfie, while both reflect on their relationship, how it started, and what happened that led them to the present.

What I loved: This was quite an emotional read, right from the start with the depth of feelings Mia and Alfie have for each other, even in the wake of their failed relationship. The earthquake really compounds this, as the people around them are suffering in the wake of it, not only because of the damage to buildings but also because of the way people are behaving. For instance, early in her journey with her best friend to find Alfie, she comes across a young girl whose father is being beaten by a man who wanted to steal his car. Grief and panic around the disaster and devastation is present throughout the story.

Much of the story in both Mia and Alfie's alternating perspectives is reflecting on their relationship, starting from the beginning. The reader watches them reflect on how they fell in love and how their feelings grew as well as how things changed and how that led to its downfall. Mia in particular experienced a lot of shifts in her personal beliefs around religion, love, and family due to events at the time. Her life was thrown off-kilter and she struggled with how to come out the other side, something she has made a lot of progress on but is still managing when the book begins.

Themes around young love, loss, complicated family, organized religion, friendship, natural disasters, and humanity were really thought-provoking, and this was a compelling read as a result. From the start, the tone of the sections in Mia and Alfie's perspectives felt quite unique and they had their own voices, which added to the complexity of the story. This did not feel like a simple or light-hearted story, as it deals with deep emotions and plot around the earthquake but also personal devastations.

Final verdict: THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD is an emotional YA contemporary about complicated family, disaster, and first love. Recommend for fans of YOU'VE REACHED SAM and BREATHLESS.