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Jul 13, 2021forbesrachel rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Freya Tanangco prefers her solitude. As a paradexterous Filipino-Norwegian Canadian tied to her father's scandalous book, she values her quiet un-social life. Her primary links to the world are her Tarot readings through the online platform Oneira, and her loyal and fierce cousin Mary. With a chance meeting on the one, and with a push from the other, Freya has the chance to find other people with mental skills through a support group. And she needs it, for her prophetic dreams have started to appear while awake. Garner flips back and forth between Freya's youth in the 90's, and her current circumstances in 2015, deftly showing in parallel her gradual decline into her shell, and ascent out of it. Family, friends, and society at large are both the problem and the solution, and most are given some nuance, including the two potential love interests. While the story centres on Freya and her perspective, their are larger issues around the paradextrous and their treatment at play too. Like Garner notes, the real world is not like that of stories. People with powers are generally not revered, they are looked at with skepticism, fear, and hate, before, awareness, understanding, and acceptance set in. For the book's Canadian paradextrous, they are in the cusp between the two. It is a time where stories need to come out. But the author also asks readers to consider who owns the rights to one's story? Who has the right to tell it? Even if it's for the greater good, should an "author" make someone else a martyr? This theme pervades The Quiet Is Loud in several ways, and Freya's answers provide a satisfying, idealistic conclusion.