Contemporary young adult fiction The Quiet and the Loud by Helena Fox begins with a childhood memory of our protagonist, George. Her father wakes her in the middle of the night on a camping trip to go on an adventure. Then he abandons her in a dingy in the middle of a lake. Fast forward and George lives with her grandfather, her mother and Mel, her mum’s girlfriend in Sydney near the harbour.

Ugh. Words. If only I could paint what I mean or turn it into water – then I could move over the surface of the story as it spoke. I need to talk. I want to talk.

George is eighteen and working in Mel’s art store during a gap year. She carries a lot of responsibility for other people’s emotional lives and holds a lot in. George supports her very emotive and demanding best friend Tess who is about to have a baby as a single teen, deals with a constant stream of messages from her alcoholic father, falls in love with a girl called Calliope she meets when out paddling her kayak. On the water is where George finds peace.

I get off the bus and run. I run through the fuzz of car exhaust. Past traffic lights, and lights turning on in houses…run through heat thick wind, along the up down cracked pavement, Weaving past walkers carrying their groceries. I run and breathe. I breathe out the baby crying, and Tess’ darkroom dyes and me not calling Calliope, and Laz not coming by, and Tess crying, and my dad dying. I breathe out the feeling if my body. I move so quickly, feet hitting the pavement, I stop being human, I become the path to the water, the choppy waves, all the hooded boats. I become parks and trees, leaves and fences, bikes, and bins, and houses being knocked down or built, I become breath, and bone…over, and under and away. My mind opens, splays itself as I run.. this is all there is.

The Quiet and the Loud is a gradual unveiling of the characters as wildfires rage around Sydney. The story contains weighty themes include teen pregnancy, trauma, substance abuse, anxiety, and friendships but is buoyed by Fox’s lyrical and evocative writing.