The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet

Publisher's Summary

Sometimes staying silent is the biggest lie of all.

Sophomore Jolia does the one thing no one expects from the girl who has perfected the art of keeping quiet. She joins the speech team. Jolia can't confess the real reason - not to her best friend, her new teammates, or even to crush - worthy rival Sam who offers to coach her in secret. Keeping quiet might be the easy way out, but when what Jolia doesn't say starts to hurt those around her, it might just cost her a best friend, her spot on the team, and even Sam. But she isn't the only one with a secret.

It's going to take words - her words - to make things right. If only Jolia can find them.

©2014 Charity Tahmaseb (P)2014 Charity Tahmaseb

facing your fears and learning more than expected

AudioBook Review: Stars: Overall 4 Narration 4 Story 4

Jolia is a sophomore in high school: for much of her life she’s avoided speaking because of an insecurity about her looks. While intelligent, possessed of a great sense of humor and a vast list of interests, she’s typical of many of her age: worried about the thoughts of others allowing it to affect her in ways that impact her friendships, her openness and her confidence. When a failing grade presents and option to join the Speech and Debate team, Jolia’s worst fears are coming to life: speaking in public, Even more troubling, she can’t share the reasons for this change to anyone: not her friends, not even the object of her crush, Sam, a member of another school’s team.

The ‘saying nothing’ holds strongly through Jolia’s life: she doesn’t want to cause waves, so she usually remains quiet and watchful. The push to join the Speech and Debate team to improve her failing grade in speech class, becomes the path Jolia will travel to find her voice and solidify her own sense of self.

Solid prose and a strong arc for the story trajectory solidly support the engaging and well written point of view for Jolia: her rich internal life, her thought processes and observations on the various students, their relationships, behaviors and interactions Jolia’s friends are all presented, both pre- and post- Speech team, and the solid feel of being in the mix of Jolia during her day. A few twists and big reveals turn out to be so much less important than Jolia feared early on, and she does discover that silence is golden, but that the choice to provide support through silence, or simply avoiding issues by not speaking are two very different things, and she learns to speak up and out based on those differences.

Narration for this story is provided by Ashley Klanac and her voice for Jolia is solid and completely engaging. While she manages to insert the tones, emotional overlay and small variations to immediacy or hesitancy that were fully indicated by the text and situation. Each new character introduced was placed with care, their voices noticeably different without running into issues with over-emoting or sounding just ‘too’ caricature, despite some particularly clownish behaviors.

A lovely story that tackles the issue of facing your fears and learning more than expected along the way. A touch of a sweetly developed romance, plenty of interactions and social commentary and a well-defined growth arc for the main character, this is a story to please many and will speak to teens and tweens alike.

I received an AudioBook copy of the title via AudioBook Blast for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

YA friendship and developing self confidence

Any additional comments?

A beautiful young adult novel about friendship and developing self confidence.

Jolia's self confidence plummeted when she got braces and was bullied at school. Now that her braces are off, she is still doesn't believe in herself and has a phobia of public speaking. This is causing her to fail the oral presentation section of her classes. The best way for her to pick up her grades is to join the Speech Club.

I found Jolia very relatable, as I also had braces at her age, was bullied and was quite shy. The narrator was well spoken and easy to listen to.

I recieved this book free in exchange for an honest review.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

pretty good

This had many of the elements of contemporary YA literature that I dislike: the pretty girl who doesn't know she's pretty, the boy who solves her problems and gives her her confidence back, all the girls outside the main character's circle were horrible, etc. (Well, so was her best friend. That girl should have taken long walk off a very short pier. She was horrible, but forgiven without even apologizing and I was angered by it more than the other mean girls.)

Despite having plenty of elements I disliked, it was also smart and witty, had a clean narrative voice and relatable high school experience. All of which I enjoyed. Additionally, Ashley Klanac did a good job with the audiobook narration. So, end the end I enjoyed listening to The Fie Art of Keeping Quiet, even if I sneered at certain bits of it.

Note: I won a copy of this, but I chose to read and review it.

Fantastic YA!

The Art of Keeping Quiet is a young adult contemporary novel with a ton of heart! Confession time, I have both generalized and social anxiety and I had to take a speech class in college. Every week I'd basically want to curl up and die, it even felt like I was pretty close to a heart attack a few times. The only thing that saved me from freezing up was the overwhelming need to get back to my seat and away from the video camera. So while the situation is a bit different from mine, the entire premise (forgive my pun) spoke to me. I hadn't even started yet, and I already felt like I simple 'got' Jolia
.
We are treated to a story that is not only well written, but very relatable and full of characters worth rooting for. Jolia is a girl with many passions like writing and playing the violin, but speaking is not one of them. On the outside she's become soft spoken, ruled by fear, and a bit of doormat...but on the inside she's full of fire. She has comebacks she never has the courage to say, she wants to speak up when her friend takes advantage, and she wants desperately to pass speech class...but her voice and her confidence seems to desert her. Her story isn't just about learning to speak up and move forward with confidence it's also about bullying, friendships, and honesty. It's nice to see a YA contemporary that just speaks to you on a normal level; where it's easy to see the past you dealing with the same obstacles. And then there is Sam! He's such a sweet and awesome guy, he has his own issues of course but he's genuinely there for Jolia even when he doesn't need to be. It goes without saying that everyone needs that one person who pushes them to become better and achieve their goals, and Sam is that person for Jolia.

It's not really a secret that I'm a tad picky with my narrators, I tend to listen to a sample three or so times before committing to a review or purchasing. I mean I have to listen to it for hours. I didn't even listen to the full sample before I knew I had to listen to this one. While she may not be the best narrator out there, Ashley Klanac's reading of The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet is excellent. She has a voice that's easy to listen to and easy to enjoy, and to top it off she adds some real individuality to each voice she does.
In short The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet was an excellent read. In between all the fantasy and science fiction it's nice to unwind with a light YA contemporary, and just let yourself get swept up in a good story.

Very engaging, surprisingly entertaining listen

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book. It's a YA book about a girl who doesn't like pubic speaking having to join a speech club to save her grade. Sounds boring right?. But, it so wasn't. I listened to the sample and that sold me on giving it a try. It was a well written, well performed, wonderful little story. I'm so glad I took a chance on this book. The characters were relatable as was her fear of public speaking. This has got to be one of the most dreaded requirements for many students in high school and college. Reasons my be different, but the distaste for it is the same.
At times I didn't understand why Jolia went to such lengths for her friend. And, I didn't understand why she just didn't tell Sam what was going on so he wouldn't wonder and risk losing him. But, it wasn't a distraction. The things we do for our friends.
The speech tournaments were quite interesting. And, I just loved Sam's character. What a sweetie! Overall, just a wonderful listen.
The narrator, Ashley Klanac did a great job. She is also new to me. Her characters were well performed, believable and she just pulled you into the story.
This book was an ARC from the author. And, I'm so glad I agreed to give this one a try. I normally don't care for YA. Kid-lit, yes. But YA, no. But, this was great. I look forward to more from this author. YA at its best.

Superb story for teenagers

A charming young adult novel about friendship, bullying, developing self-confidence and finding your voice. Jolia who is fearful of public speaking is forced to join the speech team in order to get the grade she requires. The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet is a well written, heart warming story with some sweet, first love romance that many teenagers will be able to relate to. Well paced, with some great humor and thoughtful, realistic observations on growing up.
The narration by Ashley Klanac was very well done. Voices used for the different characters were easily distinguishable and her pace and intonation excellent.
A solid 4 star listen!
This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com.

Great narration to a great story!!!

What does Ashley Klanac bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She does a great job with narration. I am a huge fan.

Any additional comments?

Great for the age group intended to be targeted to and well written. I loved this book because I use to compete in speech tournaments. The writer obviously has competed also or has great knowledge of the completive speech world. It is a really good story about overcoming confidence issues and concurring fear.
This audio book was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com"

Speech Team Reality TV

What did you love best about The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet?

The story was well paced, thoughtful and made me laugh in several spots. It reminded me of high school and all the drama involved. It was a unique perspective of someone who has a phobia about public speaking being on the high school speech team. After reading, I need to revisit several novels mentioned in the story, just to re-experience them. :) The story had some minor movement issues in the flow, as perhaps it needed to be fleshed out a bit more, especially at the end, but overall it was a sweet, funny read. I'm looking forward to other titles by the author.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jolea (sp?) is a great character! She had some moments that I wanted to shake her, but that was perhaps coming from an older person who has a bit more experience in life.

What does Ashley Klanac bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Ms. Klanac was spot on in her performance! Both her male & female voices were distinct from each other and well done. :) She will be a performer to keep an eye on!

Any additional comments?

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com.

Important YA Message

Enjoyable YA story about the problems all teenagers face~low self esteem, bullies, young love etc. Jolia's problems began with braces and were eventually resolved with the help of Sam. Loved the characters and believe this would be a wonderful story for high school students to read and discuss as all young people go through some insecurities as they mature. Very interesting listen and great narration.

Audiobook provided for an honest review....

Amazing!

I loved this story and the meaning behind it. So many people can relate to this book. It's the first I have read from this author and I can't wait to see what else she puts out in the world for us readers or listeners to enjoy.

A wonderful coming of age story

I received this audio book for free in exchange for an honest review. 

What a lovely coming of age book this was, I'm so glad I clicked the button to read this and not skip over it! 

Jolia is a young girl that used to have braces, she doesn't have them anymore but that doesn't stop her from being so paranoid about her "donkey teeth" and the whispers and laughing behind her back.

She is so timid that she stops talking, not completely but to stand in front of her class and talk publicly is her worst nightmare! 

She is failing in her speech classes because of this, so her teacher gets the bright idea to put her slap bang into a speech team! 

The thing is Jolia is so embarrassed about failing her class that she cannot tell anyone, not even her best friend why, so she goes with it and steps in front of the audience!!

This was such a nice story, I really felt for Jolia, and a lot of the characters were very relatable, I mean didn't everyone have a friend that used to drop you as soon as a boy came on the scene? 

Narration for the characters were spot on, I was never wondering who was talking or correcting words or phrases in my head while I was listening to the story.

A solid 4☆ listen!