Member Review
Review by
Alice B, Reviewer
First of all, thanks to NetGalley and Flux/North Star Editions for approving my request and sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.
4,5 stars.
The moment I read the plot I knew it would have been heartbreaking.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: sexual abuse, incest, pedophilia, domestic violence, self-harm, attempted suicide, eating disorders.
The plot should give you away was wrong with the Parkers, but if you need help you can read the warnings - some of those things are mentioned later, others are more graphic and detailed.
The story begins with Victoria locked out of her house at 3 AM, while a deputy takes her father's statement and a woman with CPS tells her to grab a few of her things and follow her because Victoria can't stay there anymore - her father and her stepmother told the police she's dangerous.
Victoria is shocked, confused and lost - surely there was a misunderstanding, it can't be possible that her father declared she's disturbed and that she needs help because she made sexual advances on him.
Victoria sleeps on a couch and the next morning she's assigned to another social worker, one that makes her leave Reno to move to Silver Valley because no one else wants her based on what it's told about her behavior.
Victoria finds herself in a life she doesn't recognize, away from everything that's familiar with her and without her freedom and the chance to say goodbye to her stepsister Sarah. She's now forced to live with Connie - a woman who searches her bag for drugs everytime Victoria comes and goes from her house and Victoria has to ask permission to even go to the bathroom - Connie's daughter and two other foster girls.
Victoria's pleas to her social worker Mindy - so busy with work she always checks her phone while speaking - to talk with Sarah go unheard: according to Mindy, her stepmother Tiffany believes her dad and Sarah said she doesn't know what to think.
But if Victoria decides to talk, to give her side of the story... but Victoria can't.
Now Victoria wants to go back to Reno and not give up on college, even if she doesn't to how or if she can pay for it.
Now she has endure Connie's many rules, aided by her foster sisters Jamie e Lizzie.
Now she has to graduate without getting in trouble and keep everyone at arm's lenght - but she's new in town and everyone is curious, so it's hard to resist Christina and Kale's friendly attempts to know her.
This book is raw and it hurts.
We learn Victoria's story along the chapters - we read about her relationship with her mother and the one between her parents and their fights, we read about the promise Victoria has to made to her mother's deathbed to always take care of her father.
Due to that promise, Victoria forces herself to not think about that night - but her thoughts always go there. She loses herself inside her own head, her memories, her nightmares, always stating it's her fault.
Hers is a long journey to awareness: how her father wasn't the only one at fault, how her mother and Tiffany were victims too, how what happened to her could be happening now to Sarah.
This book is like a kick to the stomach.
"The Quiet You Carry" is about foster kids and everything related: a few families only foster because of the check, sometimes only the little ones get adopted because teens are labeled as difficult or found at fault because of their parents and there aren't enough social workers to care about them all properly.
"The Quiet You Carry" is about what a family shouldn't be, silence, lies and manipulation, the way the victim feels guilty, responsabilities, domestic violence and abuse and the fear that follows - because some things are unforgivable.
"The Quiet You Carry" is Victoria's story, a girl who wants normalcy and a future where she can look back and say it's over - it was only temporary.
It's Victoria's story, where she realizes the mother she loved made a terrible mistake and how much wrong is what her father did to her - and now, if she wants to save Sarah, she has to admit to herself and the ones around her what she went through.
I liked Christina and Kale.
I was a bit skeptical at his "I think you're great" when he barely knew her since Victoria was doing her best to avoid everyone. It didn't feel exactly... rushed, per se - just a touch too soon. I had a small problem with all his future college dreams involving the both of them together since Victoria clearly wasn't ready for that commitment, but in the end I'm glad he understood.
I even re-evalute Connie: no matter the flaws, given what I perceived between the lines maybe she's a better mother than Victoria's was.
"The Quiet You Carry" is a book that made me angry, almost made me cry on more than one occasion and I'll end up buying a physical copy of it anyway.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.
4,5 stars.
The moment I read the plot I knew it would have been heartbreaking.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: sexual abuse, incest, pedophilia, domestic violence, self-harm, attempted suicide, eating disorders.
The plot should give you away was wrong with the Parkers, but if you need help you can read the warnings - some of those things are mentioned later, others are more graphic and detailed.
The story begins with Victoria locked out of her house at 3 AM, while a deputy takes her father's statement and a woman with CPS tells her to grab a few of her things and follow her because Victoria can't stay there anymore - her father and her stepmother told the police she's dangerous.
Victoria is shocked, confused and lost - surely there was a misunderstanding, it can't be possible that her father declared she's disturbed and that she needs help because she made sexual advances on him.
Victoria sleeps on a couch and the next morning she's assigned to another social worker, one that makes her leave Reno to move to Silver Valley because no one else wants her based on what it's told about her behavior.
Victoria finds herself in a life she doesn't recognize, away from everything that's familiar with her and without her freedom and the chance to say goodbye to her stepsister Sarah. She's now forced to live with Connie - a woman who searches her bag for drugs everytime Victoria comes and goes from her house and Victoria has to ask permission to even go to the bathroom - Connie's daughter and two other foster girls.
Victoria's pleas to her social worker Mindy - so busy with work she always checks her phone while speaking - to talk with Sarah go unheard: according to Mindy, her stepmother Tiffany believes her dad and Sarah said she doesn't know what to think.
But if Victoria decides to talk, to give her side of the story... but Victoria can't.
Now Victoria wants to go back to Reno and not give up on college, even if she doesn't to how or if she can pay for it.
Now she has endure Connie's many rules, aided by her foster sisters Jamie e Lizzie.
Now she has to graduate without getting in trouble and keep everyone at arm's lenght - but she's new in town and everyone is curious, so it's hard to resist Christina and Kale's friendly attempts to know her.
This book is raw and it hurts.
We learn Victoria's story along the chapters - we read about her relationship with her mother and the one between her parents and their fights, we read about the promise Victoria has to made to her mother's deathbed to always take care of her father.
Due to that promise, Victoria forces herself to not think about that night - but her thoughts always go there. She loses herself inside her own head, her memories, her nightmares, always stating it's her fault.
Hers is a long journey to awareness: how her father wasn't the only one at fault, how her mother and Tiffany were victims too, how what happened to her could be happening now to Sarah.
This book is like a kick to the stomach.
"The Quiet You Carry" is about foster kids and everything related: a few families only foster because of the check, sometimes only the little ones get adopted because teens are labeled as difficult or found at fault because of their parents and there aren't enough social workers to care about them all properly.
"The Quiet You Carry" is about what a family shouldn't be, silence, lies and manipulation, the way the victim feels guilty, responsabilities, domestic violence and abuse and the fear that follows - because some things are unforgivable.
"The Quiet You Carry" is Victoria's story, a girl who wants normalcy and a future where she can look back and say it's over - it was only temporary.
It's Victoria's story, where she realizes the mother she loved made a terrible mistake and how much wrong is what her father did to her - and now, if she wants to save Sarah, she has to admit to herself and the ones around her what she went through.
I liked Christina and Kale.
I was a bit skeptical at his "I think you're great" when he barely knew her since Victoria was doing her best to avoid everyone. It didn't feel exactly... rushed, per se - just a touch too soon. I had a small problem with all his future college dreams involving the both of them together since Victoria clearly wasn't ready for that commitment, but in the end I'm glad he understood.
I even re-evalute Connie: no matter the flaws, given what I perceived between the lines maybe she's a better mother than Victoria's was.
"The Quiet You Carry" is a book that made me angry, almost made me cry on more than one occasion and I'll end up buying a physical copy of it anyway.
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