The lovely faintingviolet read this recently, and her review prompted me to immediately request it from my library. I am an extroverted introvert (I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s true), and an INFJ on the Meyers Briggs scale, so when faintingviolet said that Debbie Tung’s Quiet Girl in a Noisy World hit all the right spots for her (an also INFJ and an introvert), I decided to give this a go.
I’m not usually one for graphic novels, but I’m trying new things this year, and Tung’s art is delightful. The watercolor quality of the sketches adds to the kind of quiet Tung wants to capture about her inner-self, and she cleverly enhances the dark or light of the pieces based on what the character’s going through in each vignette. When she’s in her innermost self, the pictures are heavily shaded with dark backgrounds, but not in an ominous way; more like a cozy-cave way—the inner-cave of Tung’s self. When Tung’s in social situations, she amps up the white space of the images which adds to the some of the anxiousness that Tung’s feeling. I didn’t realize this little distinction on first read, but as I flipped back through the vignettes it became clear that the types of shading she chooses really does enhance my emotions towards the scenario. It’s kind of brilliant.
I empathized with many of Tung’s scenarios, like being invited to too many events in a row and having to find clever ways to decline, or how happy she is to have time to herself. However, the book helped me to see that maybe I’m not as introverted as I’ve always thought. I am totally a book nerd who’s just as happy to be at home working on my own projects as I am out with people. But I do also really enjoy going out and being social, and I don’t get socially anxious on the level that Tung describes. So while I may not be a noisy girl in a noisy world, I’m not really the quiet girl, either. The distinction was helpful, though, to pinpoint more specifically where on the social scale I fall, and since several of my friends fall much more on-the-money to Tung’s version of introvert, I found her insights into how super-introverts prefer to be handled very helpful for my own friendships.
4 stars.
Bingo Square: Cannonballer Says
Bingo: on the diagonal – Reading the TBR, Illustrated, Own Voices, Not My Wheelhouse, Cannonballer Says