At just 168 pages, The Quietist is proof that brevity can be powerful. There isn’t a single wasted word—every page carries weight, and every scene feels essential. What impressed me most was how fully formed the three characters, Dr. Christopher Lansing, Catherine Stannard and Patrick Hawton are; they’re not just figures on a page but living, breathing people whose inner lives you can feel. Each of them reacts to grief and trauma in such different ways that their stories become a mirror for how grief, trauma and survival reshape us all—sometimes breaking us down, sometimes allowing unexpected strength to surface.
As I read, I found myself deeply moved by the way each character reflects on their life before and after the accident. Their thoughts reach across time—about the joy they once had, the regrets they carry, the futures they imagine, and the pasts they wish they could rewrite. It’s a haunting, beautiful meditation on loss and possibility, one that I’d recommend to anyone who appreciates character-driven fiction that goes straight to the heart.
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