Quiet Girl in a Noisy World by Debbie Tung

After reading and loving everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too, I decided to read another graphic novel next. I found Quiet Girl in a Noisy World through one of those Amazon recommendations that appear when you add items to your cart (I fell prey to those all the time). As an introvert, I was instantly intrigued by the title and cover image, so I decided to give it a try.

The novel is about the coming of age of the author and artist, Debbie Tung. It follows her from college to marriage to career as she tries to manage social situations and handle the anxiety that comes from having an introverted personality. Rather than tell one detailed story, the narrative hops around from moment to moment, showing her struggle to be at peace with herself and to feel comfortable in the world around her. Initially, she struggles a lot with feelings of inadequacy and depression. She feels awkward when interacting with others and is usually pretty quiet in public places. This leads to people asking her if anything is wrong, which only serves to add to her negative feelings. It's a vicious (and very real) cycle. As the novel goes on, Tung starts to learn more about her personality and feel comfortable in her own skin.

For introverted readers, this is a satisfying reading experience. It validates their feelings and encourages self-acceptance. For extroverted readers, this is like a guide for how to understand introverts. So much of this novel rang true to me that the title might as well have been "Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: The Kristina Story." Nearly every page showed something I have felt, said, or done during my life. It was really nice to see that there are other people in the world who feel like I do about things.

The illustrations are all black and white and are very cute. You can't help but root for the cartoon version of Tung, as she loafs around the house in sweatpants with a mug of tea.I even thought the font choices looked friendly and comforting. It was a visual treat to flip through the pages.

I would highly recommend Quiet Girl in a Noisy World to anyone. You will either be comforted by it or learn from it (or maybe both). It also takes less than an hour to read, so there are literally no downsides to picking it up. It's a nice, artistic, and realistic reading experience that I am so happy I got to have. This is joining Susan Cain's Quiet for me as one of my favorite books about introverts.

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Total Books Read in 2018: 41