i9I was not aware this book was a sequel when I first asked for it, but I am still interested in this book and series in general and have now added it to my TBR.

Ended up DNFing this book. Just couldn't get into the writing or the characters.

Thank you for approving me for the advance copy.

I looooved book one,and while this book wasn't bad, it just didn't have the same momentum and emotional sucker punch that the previous one had for me. I feel bad rating it three stars, because I really loved the first one, but sadly the sequel didn't hold up as well as book one.

Quiet no more is just as good as A Quiet You Carry, You'll learn about her Father's past and why the way he is, which still isn't a excuse. You think she would get some peace but her family trys to sway her to change her report. The ending is just wow and you'll be balling at the end of it.

Nikki Barthelmess doesn't disappoint in her follow up novel to her debut, THE QUIET YOU CARRY. Often times, readers are left wondering what happens to their beloved characters, and it's refreshing to have the opportunity to see what comes next for Victoria. I especially love that her recovery isn't depicted as a one-way journey upward--instead, Barthelmess takes us on an emotional journal of learning to love and forgive while trying to get a long in the world.

having read the first novel, I was already ready to dive into this sequel that is equally as captivating and moving-but it lacked something the first book had, something i can't necessarily pinpoint. nevertheless, I was moved by this story, and i cried several times whilst reading. my love for our main character was juts so strong, and this book contained to grow that love,

I would like to thank North Star Publishing and the netgalley website for allowing me to read this book which is the sequel to "The quiet you carry".

I love the cover of this book which is beautiful where we see Victoria Parker in profile.

Victoria is in her first year of college and is trying to move on with her life, having had a trauma in her past, a sexual assault by her father and having lived in foster care for almost six months. She's going to focus on her new life, her studies, her friends and will be part of an advocacy group for abuse survivors within the university. Except that everything changes when a very strange, mysterious woman shows up and claims to be her aunt, forcing her to lie about the abuse. Her father's trial is coming up and Victoria will have to decide if she will tell the truth or not during this trial.

A book read in one sitting, so much so that I was hooked on the story, so moving in certain passages, addictive, captivating, gripping, full of suspense and twists and turns with very endearing characters.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I remember how moving and complex The Quiet You Carry was and to get my hands on the sequel. I knew that I had to know what would happen next in Victoria's life. What she has to go through to try to move on with her life in college. Then when someone shows up and tells her to go against what she believes in. Those that were to stand with her turn on her. She is under a lot of pressure and doing her best to please one and all. It is a wonderful follow up to her story. The story was just details and complex enough to keep me turning the pages.

I loved the first book and had high expectations for the sequel. While I liked the sequel in general, I felt like it did not have the same impact like the previous book.

Victoria is back and the story continues where the previous one left off. Frankly, I still loved Victoria in the story and thought she was the highlight. You can still see her carry the baggage from what happened earlier, especially in terms of her father. Not to mention the new information that Audrey drops on her. Audrey is Victoria’s aunt and an interesting character who spiced the story. She reveals snippets of Victoria’s father which makes Victoria conflicted. While I do not justify the father’s actions and behavior, it was interesting to read what triggered him to act that way. Similarly, the supporting characters like Tiffany and Sarah also added well to the story-line.

Moreover, the author again covers some key issues like pedophilia, sexual abuse and assault. Also, I enjoyed the politics that take place in the club and the protests. There are so many layers to Victoria’s character as she tries to handle multiple things happening in her life. At times, you feel she is not ready to tackle so many things, but you still want to see how far she would go.

However, sometimes I really didn’t like Victoria’s behavior, particularly for the way she treated Kale. Moreover, the romance also sidetracked from the main focus of the story. I wished the author had focused only on Victoria as an individual without bringing a romantic angst angle into the mix. As I loved Kale, I was disappointed with how the story-line turned out.

Overall, though, this was a nice book and a decent continuation to the previous book.

I absolutely love this books. And I would truly recommend you read it. It has so much in it and it's so meaningful.

Life after surviving sexual assault. How do you do it? How do you pick up the pieces and get on with your life? Is that what you’re supposed to do? Can you? That is what Victoria strives to figure out after surviving sexual assault by her father and the hardship of foster care.

Victoria’s now in college, trying to get through her classes while inside her emotions are all messed-up. Her father’s sentencing looms ahead and she’s stuck in a love-and-hate tug of war for him, trying to grasp the right thing to do.

I empathized with Victoria over what she was undergoing and the author did a good job showing her doubts, confusion, her pain, her struggle not to let what happened to her drown her.

Right and wrong have always been pretty black and white for me. So I wanted Victoria to see her father for what he was, and I wanted her to make the right decisions but it’s hard to do that when you’ve been pushed into a certain mold.

What her so-called friend did was horrible and a breach of trust and friendship. I don’t condone that. Quiet No More is a book worth reading, providing awareness on what victims and survivors of abuse face from friends and family, strangers and society in general.

First of all, thanks to NetGalley and Flux/North Star Editions for approving my request and sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.


Real rating: 3,5 stars.

TRIGGER WARNING: post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual assault (past), incest (past).


This book is the sequel to "The Quiet You Carry", so references to the previous book will be inevitable.

I had literally devoured "The Quiet You Carry" in two days, but this sequel took me almost a month to finish it because something in it was blocking me - and I still don't understand exactly what it was.

We find Victoria trying to rebuild her life: after saving her stepsister Sarah and finally pressing charges against her father, Victoria is now in college. She lives alone - even though she sees Tiffany and Sarah once a week for family dinner - and is still in contact with Connie, her foster mother, with whom, after a stormy period, she has finally come to establish a relationship of mutual understanding. Her best friend Christina is away in college in Washington, while her boyfriend Kale is still in Silver Valley finishing high school.
That's why Victoria feels the need to make new friends and a group that tries to promote support for survivors of abuse by trying to eradicate rape culture seems right for her.

Here she befriends Jasmine, Lana and Trey in particular, but even that is not enough to distract her from what still fills up her mind every moment of the day and every nightmare at night: her impact statement as a victim about how the abuses by her father's hand have changed her - which she should turn over to the judge before the sentence is given.
But every time Victoria is about to start writing she finds herself stalled, torn between the anger she feels - especially when she thinks of Sarah - and the love she still feels for her father, because it's hard not to remember the happy moments during her growth.

Even more troubling in Victoria's life is the appearance of an aunt she didn't know she had - an aunt her father had never told her about who also brings a terrible family secret with her. And this secret will make it even more difficult for Victoria, who will find herself wondering if what she has discovered can be a mitigating circumstance. But can she ask for compassion and leniency for her abuser if that means hurting Sarah even more?
Victoria doesn't know what to do and feels like Kale will never really understand her - not like Trey does. The distance between her and Kale no longer seems to be just miles, but is also becoming emotional and although she has sworn to no longer keep secrets, it's proving difficult to speak about what's going on in her head.
And what makes Victoria regret having confided in someone is one of the people she thought she could trust, who uses her personal story as an example of how - in their opinion - survivors should not react.

With so many people wanting to impose their will on her, now is the time for Victoria to find her voice to tell her story in her own way.


I don't know what went wrong.

With the previous novel it had been easy to lose myself in the story, to feel Victoria's pain - here instead there were many moments where I felt emotionally detached, uninvolved.

It's something that fortunately I have never experienced and perhaps because of this - and because of my tendency to see things only in black or white - it was difficult to read about Victoria, who for three quarters of the book thinks about writing her statement, begins and then tears it up. Over and over, always with the same thoughts.
And I also feel bad about saying this because luckily I don't know what it means to feel split between hate and love at the same time for a parent. And Victoria doesn't just have that on her shoulders: in addition to wondering what the right decision is regarding her statement, she would also like not to give Sarah further sorrow with it. But to do this would mean giving Aunt Audrey a pain - and that now knowing her family history.

Undoubtedly, Victoria is subjected to multiple emotional blackmail, even when confiding in those she believes to be friends raises a fuss since they believe that with her decision she's betraying all the victims and survivors of abuse. And it's not easy for Victoria to see and feel herself being thrown to the wolves, with her story published and used as an example of what she shouldn't do when she's still confused about it. Each of the people in her life would like her to behave a certain way and they get angry when Victoria doesn't respond like a puppet.

Although understanding why her friend reacted that way, it was still something that horrified me - totally the opposite of showing support to the survivors and giving them the freedom, the time and the way to tell their story. Their truth.
I hated her friend for it, but in the end I liked the way Victoria reacted even less - and that's because I'm the black or white type of person and forgiveness is hardly a choice I would make.

In general, it was Victoria who made me angry in this book - and I repeat, I am ashamed to say this.
Even when I read the previous book I was of the opinion that Victoria shouldn't have gotten romantically involved with Kale - being only friends would have worked, but it was too early for a relationship and this is amply demonstrated here, although this is useful for understanding that survivors need time to heal and therapy. And really, Victoria should have gone to therapy long before the book was finished.
Victoria behaves really badly towards Kale: she pushes him away because she feels he can't understand her, but at the same time then she gets mad at him when he lives his life with his friends in Silver Valley. And it's not fair to Kale, who genuinely loves her, while it has always been clear to me that what Victoria felt in reality was more a need of security and stability than love. That's why I scrunched up my nose the first time I saw Trey appear, but luckily the same dynamic didn't happen again.

In general, a lot of things happen here too soon and too fast for Victoria to be able to deal with them without first starting to heal a little. Her participation in the SASAH (Students Against Sexual Assault and Harassment) is also perhaps precipitous because although the intent is noble, this distracts her from her problems to focus on helping others, but it is clear that in the end she is still overwhelmed by everything.

I definitely preferred the first book - here, between the somewhat repetitive scenes and Victoria's mental process, which is not easy to digest for those who are always clear about their positions (and especially for those who have never been there in the same shoes), there's that gets lost in terms of emotional involvement and attachment to the protagonist, but it certainly remains an important book for its themes within.

Because every survivor has the right to choose whether to tell their story or not and, above it all, to react as they see fit, without other people's expectations of behavior or emotional blackmail - you just need someone to listen when you decide to talk. Because, like Victoria realizes, it's not up to the survivors to solve other people's problems - not always, anyway.

How do you move on when the you know devil still contacts you?

Quiet no more is the second in the quiet you carry series. It continues where the first heart wrenching novel left off. The new story goes deeper into what it’s like to try and move on while still having to face your attacker.

Victoria is now a freshman in university and trying to help spread sexual assault awareness through a club on campus. However, as the sentencing in fathers case starts to draw near, she begins to feel pressure to help him instead of speak against him. As these pressures’ way down on her she also starts to drift away from her old friends. And if that’s not bad enough some other students aren’t too fond of the club she is involved with and want to bring them down. This stories about finding your own voice and speaking up for yourself when you’re on your own.

I love how raw and real this series is. Especially with how it brings awareness to some serious issues that exist in the world. You don’t have to be a survivor of sexual assault or abuse to really connect with the characters created her. These stories have brought raw emotion across and help other people understand how someone going through this situation feels.

I made a mistake requesting this book since I didn't see the second-in-a-series stuff from my phone. Having said that, I refuse to give a book a bad rating because of my own mistakes.

Title: Quiet No More
Author: Nikki Barthelmess
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.0 out of 5

College freshman Victoria Parker is trying to move on with her life after surviving sexual assault by her father and six months in foster care. She's focusing on the positives--attending college, living on her own, repairing old relationships and making new ones, and getting involved with an abuse survivors activist group on campus. But everything's thrown into disarray when a strange woman shows up, claiming to be Victoria's aunt and asking Victoria to lie about what happened to her. With her father's sentencing in a few months, she's nervous about having to share the truth of what happened with a judge. She's not even sure if she has the strength to go through with it. But when her fellow club members begin pressuring her to speak out, Victoria has to decide how to share her story while remaining true to herself.

Victoria has been through awful things but she’s trying to get her life back to normal. Unfortunately, specters from her past keep interfering and she has to figure out—again—how she will handle the ugly truth about what her father did to her. Her friends, new and old, all seem to have an opinion on what she should do, but when the truth comes out, Victoria must decide what is right for her.

I thought The Quiet You Carry, the book before this one, was very well-done and well-written. I have the same feelings about this book. This is about a tough topic, and the author handles it with respect and care.

Nikki Barthelmess lives in California. Quiet No More is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Flux in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 10/21.)

What I loved about this was that is showed how Victoria dealt with the after. It almost seemed like telling her truth was the easy part. It was everything that came after that was hard. It was continuing to do the right thing. It was allowing herself to feel how she felt. It was trying to move on. It didn't help that people like her long lost aunt were trying to pull her in other directions. It was a story of "what happens next' and worked well with the first book.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my heart strings. Quiet No More was so freaking good. I mean, I felt so many emotions while reading this book and I didn't expect any of that to happen. In it, you will meet Victoria Parker. After going through the horrible ordeal in the first book, she is now at college and trying to move on with her life. Especially since her gross dad is now behind bars.

Throughout the book, we get a deeper look into her father's life and what he went through growing up. Of course, after we get all this information I can see how it stuck with him and how he eventually did the same. Still grosses me out though.

Besides her own family trying to change her statement, the student body President is also gross and I hate what they did to Victoria and the Sexual Harrassment Club. The whole man-haters or woman-haters just pisses me off and ugh, I wanted to punch someone in this book.

The ending is what broke me. Oh, the tears man. The tears. They got me.

Thank you NetGalley for this review copy of Quiet No More by Nikki Barthelmess.

Quiet No More is the sequel to the contemporary YA novel The Quiet You Carry. The main character Victoria is now in college, has joined a campus advocacy group and is trying to maintain ties with her boyfriend, friends and family back home. Although she’s making forward strides in recovering from her assault she struggling with the impact statement needed for her abuser’s sentencing. To further complicate matters her father’s sister shows up to fill in some missing gaps in her family history.

A lot of teen books are angsty. A lot are angsty for no reason. This is not the latter. What I appreciated about this duology is that the author shows how abused children can struggle under expectations. Even Victoria’s well-meaning friends, family and members of the activist group have strong feelings about how she should handle her father.
She isn’t given the luxury of finding her own way or searching for the right words to use in her victim statement.
As fun as love triangles can be you can also see the sadder side through this book. As Victoria moves forward in Reno it’s difficult to stay connected to Kale back home and she begins to question their relationship.
We even have a “bad guy” as a rival group starts a men’s rights club and uses any means to denigrate Victoria and fellow activist’s hard work and cut off pathways to funding.

I recommend this duology to anyone that wants to read a non-typical young adult contemporary novel that speaks to being a survivor, activism and paving your own road.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I had read the first book, The Quiet You Carry through NetGalley as well. The story continues as Victoria Parker starts community college and joins a club, Students Against Sexual Assault (SASEH). She is getting settled in her new life but is trying to prepare a victim impact statement for the case against her father, who sexually assaulted her when she was 17. Victoria makes new friends through the club and finds courage to advocate for the abused while sharing her story with a select few. I felt the writing was a bit rushed, and perhaps frustrated as she struggles to come to terms with new information about her father, his past and family, and what it means for her future. The way in which new friends turned on her was startling, as I could see she was being victimized all over by her father and aunt to pressure her to change her story. Part of the grieving process is bargaining, and I feel that is what she was doing. While some of the sections were vague, the writing grew stronger as Victoria got her courage and strength back. There are trigger warnings needed for sexual assault/incest survivors.

Readers may expect Nikki Barthelmess’s Quiet No More [North Star Editions, October 13, 2020], the sequel to The Quiet You Carry, to continue following the tumultuous life of a young woman dealing with the trauma she experiences following the sexual abuse she experienced at the hands of her father. While Quiet No More does follow the events after the young woman’s father is convicted of his crimes, it is much more than what typical young adult novels focusing on tough experiences tend to be. Quiet No More is much more a novel depicting the inner struggles one must go through in order to heal from their past.

Quiet No More continues the story of college freshman, Victoria Parker, as she tries to navigate her new life in Reno after her father is convicted of sexual abuse against children in her home of Silver Valley. In order to try to control her whirlwind of a life, Victoria decides to join SASAH---Students Against Sexual Assault and Harassment, a club that focuses on helping sexual assault survivors. Shortly after beginning her freshman year and navigating her place amongst the other students in SASAH, Victoria finds herself in the middle of even more problems than she had before. An aunt Victoria never knew she has suddenly walks into her life and causes several problems for her, a student in charge of funding SASAH blackmails her into keeping a deep dark secret private, and some friends even betray her.

There are many reasons why this is a novel both adult and young adult readers should pick up, one of them being the way Victoria’s progression and healing from her trauma is portrayed. At the beginning of the novel, it is clear that Victoria has not had enough time to come to terms with her trauma and to begin healing from it. One of the ways Victoria is able to heal from the abuse she suffered at the hands of her own father is through the new friends she makes at SASAH. Even though some of these new friends end up having some conflicts with Victoria, the way she is able to connect with these new people on a different level is one of the ways she is able to change into a more confident and stronger woman by the book’s conclusion. Additionally, readers may find it comforting to know that there are other people in the world who have had to deal with many unfair circumstances. Another aspect of the novel that is enjoyable and readers could benefit from it is the way Barthelmess is able to portray the trauma recovery process. The recovery process is often described as somewhat of a “rollercoaster” and it definitely portrays this accurately through the conflicts Victoria finds within herself, her family, and her group of friends.

In addition to the different portrayals of recovery and struggle, the novel provides many different relationships between Victoria and the people around her. From betrayal to heartbreak, readers will be able to see and understand why Victoria feels the way she does about the trauma she faced in the previous novel. From beginning to end, readers are able to see Victoria’s transformation from a shell of a person into the woman she was always meant to become; a strong and resilient one.

While the majority of Quiet No More focuses on Victoria dealing with her trauma, there are several instances where her thought process leaves a lot to be desired. When it comes to the way Victoria reacts to difficulties that come into her life, it seems as if instead of trying to be strong she shuts down and blocks everyone out---including the reader. It would be helpful if readers were able to see Victoria actually sit with herself and work with her trauma more throughout the novel instead of at the conclusion. Then, readers would be able to connect to Victoria more and understand why she reacts to these situations the way she does, especially if they have not experienced trauma themselves.