A review by mostlyshanti
The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet by Charity Tahmaseb
4.0
The characters in this book were adorable, I loved their evolution, and the themes this story dealt with was awesome. The only thing that I found that it was a little bit ridiculous, especially towards the end
I really loved Jolia as a character. She is totally an introvert, and I saw a lot of myself in her- likes reading check, plays in an orchestra, check, likes knitting, check. Her friendships were also believeable, though her friend Caro was a bit annoying. She is very shy and definitely lets herself get pushed around. I did wonder why she never practiced violin… but anyway, that was alright. Her relationships with the speech team members and Romero really defined her, and I loved how she developed and got more courage as the book progressed. Her reason for being quiet- buck teeth- was kind of dumb, but that’s okay because I loved seeing her journey. In fact, seeing how she began to embrace speech made me want to join (Just sayin’) I loved that she learnt how to face up to her fears. We see this in the scene with the rink rats. Her relationship with Romero was superbly written, and I especially enjoyed the ending, because that is so true to how high school is. As she became more brave, Jolia was more interesting, and I just loved her for her reality.
So this book is a retelling/ has clear parallels to Romeo and Juliet. It was sort of stupid- speech team rivalry isn’t as big of a deal as sports teams even- but I was able to take it seriously because the characters di too. So there was a bit of a love story, but it was in the background mostly. The plot sort of fluctuates (like a sine wave) with the rhythm of the tournaments and the time in between. It kept moving, and I was always interested, so that’s good. Charity Tahmaseb (who has an awesome last name) has this grounded, precise prose, and I could be immersed in Jolia’s reality without ever being bogged down in the details. There was humor- boy I liked Jeremy- and it was entertaining, mostly because Jolia’s story was so appealing.
Like most ‘teenager books’ this novel focussed a lot on themes ofcourage, discovering what you believe in and who you truly are. That’s average, but it was done pretty well, so I don’t mind. I liked how Jolia- and even Tory, Ryan, Sam’s and Caro’s journeys were told as they learnt not to take each other at face value. This book really promoted the idea that everyone has a story, and you just have to find the courage to tell that story. These themes lent a depth to the story that prevents it from being totally light.
In conclusion, if you want to support an awesome indie author, love well written characters and an engaging plot and don’t mind a bit of melodrama (of the excessive high school variety) then this book is for you.
Spoiler
Look, they got suspended for hacking? After doing it all year? Really? And the climax was just that Jolia had her script stolen. And what was with the fake girlfriend? Honestly that made no sense.I really loved Jolia as a character. She is totally an introvert, and I saw a lot of myself in her- likes reading check, plays in an orchestra, check, likes knitting, check. Her friendships were also believeable, though her friend Caro was a bit annoying. She is very shy and definitely lets herself get pushed around. I did wonder why she never practiced violin… but anyway, that was alright. Her relationships with the speech team members and Romero really defined her, and I loved how she developed and got more courage as the book progressed. Her reason for being quiet- buck teeth- was kind of dumb, but that’s okay because I loved seeing her journey. In fact, seeing how she began to embrace speech made me want to join (Just sayin’) I loved that she learnt how to face up to her fears. We see this in the scene with the rink rats. Her relationship with Romero was superbly written, and I especially enjoyed the ending, because that is so true to how high school is. As she became more brave, Jolia was more interesting, and I just loved her for her reality.
So this book is a retelling/ has clear parallels to Romeo and Juliet. It was sort of stupid- speech team rivalry isn’t as big of a deal as sports teams even- but I was able to take it seriously because the characters di too. So there was a bit of a love story, but it was in the background mostly. The plot sort of fluctuates (like a sine wave) with the rhythm of the tournaments and the time in between. It kept moving, and I was always interested, so that’s good. Charity Tahmaseb (who has an awesome last name) has this grounded, precise prose, and I could be immersed in Jolia’s reality without ever being bogged down in the details. There was humor- boy I liked Jeremy- and it was entertaining, mostly because Jolia’s story was so appealing.
Like most ‘teenager books’ this novel focussed a lot on themes ofcourage, discovering what you believe in and who you truly are. That’s average, but it was done pretty well, so I don’t mind. I liked how Jolia- and even Tory, Ryan, Sam’s and Caro’s journeys were told as they learnt not to take each other at face value. This book really promoted the idea that everyone has a story, and you just have to find the courage to tell that story. These themes lent a depth to the story that prevents it from being totally light.
In conclusion, if you want to support an awesome indie author, love well written characters and an engaging plot and don’t mind a bit of melodrama (of the excessive high school variety) then this book is for you.