I'm currently in the process of reading A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard and I felt compelled to write a post. Not a review as such, as I'm still yet to finish the book, but an appreciation for the awareness the themes of the novel raises.
The story follows a girl names Steffi, a selective mute who also suffers from severe social anxiety. For one, I find that mental illnesses are not often represented in literature so it was a breath of fresh air to a) find that a teen novel actually identifies with issues so many people face on a daily basis, and b) actually relate to a character on a different kind of level. So many of us are subject to random bouts of anxiety and so far, this novel has done a perfect job of demonstrating that despite there sometimes being triggers, sometimes the likes of panic attacks and feeling anxious can be brought on at random. I applaud Barnard for her representation of mental illnesses in a way that so many people can identify with. In the novel, Steffi is undergoing her first year of sixth form and in order to obtain her parent's blessing to apply for university, she must prove herself and attempt to gain some confidence in her first year. When she meets Rhys, a deaf boy she learns to sign to, she is welcomed into a world of a new way of communication where not speaking seems normal. I love this book for the demonstration of everyday struggles and for the awareness is raises for those who are hard of hearing or find it difficult to communicate. In the beginning, Barnard dedicates the novel to 'the quiet ones', and so I urge you to read it, whether you can identify with the characters or know someone that will. This novel will open your eyes up to so many things that seem to come easy to so many people in a way that makes it all seem ordinary and normal. #AQuietKindOfThunder
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