The Quiet Girl by S.F. KosaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
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This book was a part of the Big Library Read, which is a free, global, digital book club! I joined the discussion boards after I finished reading the ebook. It was such a great read! It was June 28 - July 12 (15 days), 2021.
My Kindle Notes & Highlights on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/notes/54865507-the-quiet-girl/40758404-denise-figueroa?ref=h_cr
The Quiet Girl by S.F. Kosa Spotify Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Rh36KjyZCMWst0BCj0c30?si=5f9a600b81a24db0
Chapter Two
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Led Zeppelin
Chapter Three
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And did it matter, really? She was here, and she was alive, and she had a place to stay, and she wasn’t hungry, and nobody was hurting her, and she even had a job. That was more than a lot of people had.
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The work absorbed her, and she got lost in watching her own hands moving like bees over honeysuckle, almost as if they were someone else’s and she was an observer, safe and swaddled behind her eyes.
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Suddenly, the blank spaces in her memory weren’t a source of comfort. They were dark alleys where anything could happen.
Chapter Four
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She tittered as she caught a few words—lonely, running, hiding…
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He went quiet again just as the singer belted out, “Layla!”
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and Esteban began to sing along with it. “Like a fool, I fell in love with you,”
Wednesday, August 5
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It was Mina’s idea—I’m learning to be content with my thoughts, she told me. I shouldn’t be diving into that virtual world for entertainment and stimulation and comfort and outrage every time I’m left alone—and you shouldn’t either. She always seemed so healthy. Like she’d figured it all out.
Chapter Seven
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It had all made sense to that girl, and Maggie could remember the safety that came with such certainty.
Chapter Nine
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A Taylor Swift song played as he drove up the highway, headed back to the Cape.
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Chapter Ten
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While Ivy infused honey with rose water and rinsed the fresh figs, humming the tune for “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,”
Friday, August 7
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Untangling history from fiction is twisting me up.
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And now I know Mina kept a boatload of them, maybe because her mother trained her to do exactly that, but the pain it must have caused her… it bleeds from those pages.
Chapter Eleven
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She didn’t fight when the ambulance came. She let Lori hold her hand. She nodded when Lori told her she was brave, when she said it was the beginning of her journey out of the darkness.
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Maggie wasn’t fooled, though. She was too tired to argue or fight or to say a single word, but she knew the truth. She knew where the darkness lay. And no amount of talking could light that space.
Chapter Twelve
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It had been brewing inside her for weeks, months, through wakeful, solitary nights and long, monotonous days.
Sunday, August 9
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“You have the cake carrier,” I say. “And you moved her car, right? You dumped it in Beech Forest. You knew people might think it was a suicide. You killed her. You fucking killed her.” It’s the first time I say it aloud, and those words hit me like a heavy dose of poison, turning everything black. “You killed my wife.”
Sunday, August 9
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I smile at him. “Perfect. Scott will call the police, but I want to get you some medical attention as quickly as possible. We’ll sort everything out.” He looks at me in disbelief. “You’re really going to help me.” “I don’t have much choice in the matter. I need to do what’s right.” I reach his side. I’m a few inches taller, but I offer my hand and swing his arm over my shoulder. “And I think this’ll be faster than an ambulance.” “You could shoot me,” he mumbles. “I know.” I pivot us and support his weight until we’re in the entryway, between the open basement doorway and the back door. “But that would be foolish.” He looks up at me. “When I win, we play a different game,” I explain. Then I shove him down the basement stairs.
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I knew Alex was playing this nice guy just so Scott and him can get out of there safely. But I absolutely loved when he said what Phillip’s been saying to Mina all those years. It was such a solid clap back!
Chapter Seventeen
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She packed up the cake, wiped everything down a second time, not a crumb left to signal she’d been there, and left the house.
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I’m surprised Kosa didn’t mention anything about being a good girl who cleans everything spotlessly like her mother taught her.
Sunday, August 9
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I will live the rest of my life with a fragile hope that she already knew and that maybe, somewhere, she’s a little more at peace in the knowledge that I finished what she started. But right now, that hope isn’t enough. I slide down the wall. My head falls into my hands. And I start to sob.
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I started to get tears in my eyes as I read this passage. It’s so sad.
Epilogue
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She’d read a lot of stuff about forgiveness. She and Lori had discussed it at length. But what she’d come to, after all those months, was that it wasn’t her job to offer these people who had hurt her any kind of comfort. Instead, it was up to her to get to her own kind of peace. A peace that involved justice. It flew in the face of everything she’d been taught growing up—turn the other cheek and forgive and forgive and forgive until there was nothing left of you but a shell—but perhaps that was why an alternative was so easy to embrace.
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But at that moment, it was just her, here on the beach, at the edge of the world and the rest of her life. She spread her arms and turned her face to the starry sky. She was weightless as a ribbon in the breeze, carried up and out over the ocean, dancing with the waves.
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She kept her feet anchored in the sand, but nothing was holding her down anymore except her own desire to be exactly where she was.
Thursday, September 10
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In Mina’s
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will, she gave control of her entire estate to me, and it turns out I have a say about whether The Quiet Girl will actually be published. Sure, it’ll be under her pseudonym, but I have a feeling someone’s going to leak the truth. They are, after all, in the business of selling books.
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It’s so meta how “The Quiet Girl” is like a book in a book.
These are my overall thoughts while I was reading the book.
I wonder if Kosa’s novel is based on a personal fantasy of hers. Maybe she wants to be selling a lot of books and do book signings like they’re doing for the Big Library Read. And maybe she also wants to write romance novels, but I’m just guessing.
I think that this beginning of the book is meta because Kosa is putting in multiple genres of books.
I also wonder why the character of Layla is in this plot line. Will she be involved with the Mina storyline somehow?
I still wonder if Layla has memories of being Mina somehow and why she doesn’t have good memories.
Is a fugue a real medical condition in real life or did Kosa come up with it for their novel?
I wonder how Mina could ever write so many romance novels knowing now what she’s been through. Wouldn’t she be reminded? Now that I think about this, she has blocked off those memories and though she hasn’t fully forgotten, she probably followed her passions to be happier in life. But then I wonder again, what triggered her disappearance (I mean Layla/Maggie)?
Mina writes smut, I wonder why she chose that specific genre considering her horrific past.
I find The Quiet Girl to be inspiring to me because I’ve always wanted to write a story about my life, but changing the names of the innocent. Maybe I’ll do it someday...
Reading Group Guide
When we first meet Alex, he is heading to apologize to his wife after an argument. Why did you initially believe Mina wasn’t responding to Alex’s texts? What did you make of their relationship from this initial scene? How would you describe Alex?
Provincetown is Mina’s writer’s hideaway—a perfect escape. If you could choose any place in the world for your own retreat, where would it be? Why do you think Mina is drawn to Provincetown?
Describe Layla. What was your initial reaction to Layla and her spotty memory? If you were Esteban, would you have taken the girl in?
What do you make of Rose and Scott? How can you describe their overall relationship with Mina?
We learn a lot about Mina through her husband, her parents, and her manuscript. How would you describe her? What can you infer about her personality?
If you were to write a novel about your own life, what kind of story would it be? How much would you change or embellish?
Do you think writing the novel set Mina’s revenge in motion? Or did Mina’s plan inspire the novel?
Why do you think Stefan helps Mina? Do you find him trustworthy? How would you describe his character?
Why do you think Mina decides to write her story? Imagine what that process would feel like for her. If you were in her shoes, how would you decide to finally express yourself?
What ultimately drives Mina to confront her past? What role does Alex and their marriage play in this story?
1. Initially, I believed Mina wasn’t responding to Alex’s texts because she was mad at him. From this initial scene, I thought their relationship was on the rocks. I would describe Alex as determined and very passionate.
2. If I could choose any place in the world for my own retreat, it would be in New York! I think Mina is drawn to Provincetown because of the environment.
3. Layla is a lost soul taking it day by day. My initial reaction to Layla and her spotty memory was confusion and intrigue as to why her memory was so spotty. If I were Esteban, I wouldn’t have taken the girl in.
4. Rose and Scott are not the best parents by no means, but Rose is the real devil. Their overall relationship with Mina is an overprotective one.
5. I would describe Mina as a troubled soul who was wrongfully abused and almost brought justice. Her personality is lively and adventurous.
6. I love this question! I absolutely want to write a story about my own life! It would be a story similar to this one. I would change and embellish a lot to protect the innocent.
7. I think Mina’s plan inspired the novel because it was so real that I wouldn’t blame her if she thought about this plan for years.
8. I think Stefan helps Mina because he has a connection with her. I do find him trustworthy. I would describe his character as a good samaritan and a very caring person towards others.
9. I think Mina decides to write her story because she feels very strongly about not wanting to be the quiet girl her mother always taught her to be. If I were in her shoes, I would decide to finally express myself through many different types of mediums. I would try to outline my ideas and thoughts then start writing my story.
10. What ultimately drives Mina to confront her past is all the pain and multiple episodes of fugues. Also, she probably got sick of not remembering a lot. Alex and their marriage plays a large role in this story because Alex brought up children and that probably triggered Mina to think about her son that she was forced to give away.
There was a letter from the author on the Big Library Read website and I really liked what she said. I thought I could post it here, so I won’t forget what she said.
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| 7/10/2021 |
