Publishers Weekly
04/17/2023
Eighteen-year-old, white-coded Mia Clementine must navigate sudden natural disaster to atone for past mistakes in Crossland’s enlightening debut. Following a public scandal involving her mother’s affair with her town’s pastor, Mia has spent the past five months running away from her strict evangelical Christian upbringing. She’s also been avoiding her sweet, accommodating white-coded ex-boyfriend, Alfie Thanasis. But after she runs into him at a coffee shop and flees, Mia yearns to make amends. She reaches out to him via phone call, and the two teens are tentatively reconnecting when a massive earthquake hits, separating them once again. As Mia sets out onto San Francisco’s devastated streets to find Alfie, she encounters strangers along the way who dispense advice that forces her to confront her isolating behaviors. Alternating chapters featuring Alfie’s second-person perspective as he lovingly recounts his and Mia’s relationship, while Mia’s reflective yet stubborn first-person voice drives the present-day timeline. The novel’s drawn-out pacing diminishes suspense, and Mia’s slim characterization makes some revelations feel unearned. Even so, the fully realized, intersectionally diverse supporting cast and fervent discussions about religion imbue this surreal-feeling character study with intensity. Ages 12–up. Agent: Mollie Glick, CAA. (June)
Booklist
"Emotions enhanced by terror run high, leading to a draining, heartbreaking conclusion. Readers will undoubtedly love or hate the ending, indicating the depth and power of the narrative and the characters."
New York Times bestselling author of A Cuban Laura Taylor Namey
The Quiet Part Out Loud brilliantly navigates an emotional journey through the stages of love and forgiveness, heartbreak and hope. The kind of book that lingers beyond its pages. Moving and powerful.
New York Times bestselling author Laura Taylor Namey
The kind of book that lingers beyond its pages. Moving and powerful.”
Kirkus Reviews
2023-03-29
Just as former teen lovers reconnect, a natural disaster rips them apart.
Five months after torching her relationship with Alfie Thanasis; running away from her parents, who divorced following a scandal; and giving up her spot at Sarah Lawrence College, 18-year-old Mia Clementine is crashing in her best friend Simi’s college dorm room in San Francisco and looking for a job. She runs into Alfie in a coffee shop with another girl and flees—but later phones him only to have the call disconnect as a massive earthquake rolls through the city. Mia, initially joined by Simi, embarks on an epic quest through the rubble to find Alfie. As Mia meets people who influence both her physical and spiritual journeys, the trip starts to take on a mythic dimension, while, in alternating chapters, Alfie unspools the tangled story of their relationship. Although religious faith is an important part of the story, both Mia’s parents’ Evangelical Christianity and Alfie’s parents’ Greek Orthodoxy are treated one-dimensionally. It’s initially hard to invest in Mia despite Simi’s and Alfie’s affection for her, so her gradual transformation into a more evolved and aware person isn’t as believable and doesn’t have the emotional impact it should. The tear-jerker ending adds to the overall sense that this is a book to elicit emotion rather than evoke it. Mia and Alfie are White; Simi is a Punjabi Sikh American, and supporting characters reflect the diversity of the setting.
A teen melodrama without sufficient depth. (Fiction. 12-16)