📜Quick Summary: What started off as an ordinary day for many, ends in a gripping tale of survival for a select few. Jessa is driving the small school bus to Bright Beginnings, an after school care center, with ten children in tow. Jessa isn’t perfect, and she has a past, so she’s grateful that she landed this job when she did. As they drive towards the rec center, a detour sign throws them off their path and into the hands of two masked kidnappers. Held at gunpoint, Jessa has no choice but to exit the bus, and have the children follow her. As the ten kids and Jessa are led to an underground bunker, she realizes their fate… they are about to be buried alive.

❣️Initial Feels: My heart is racing at only a few chapters in and I feel like my heart is going to burst. As a mom to three young kids, I truly cannot fathom this situation!

👀Trigger Warnings: children kidnapping, buried alive, claustrophobia, domestic abuse

📖Read if you want: face paced chapters, changing POV, novel based off true life events

🙋🏼‍♀️Moving Character: Even though I devoured this book and felt a flicker of something for each character, for some reason it was hard to me to TRULY root for someone. Obviously I did NOT want anything to happen to any of the children, so I had to look up the ending to the story. If I have to give anyone props, it’s Sage. That young little girl tormented her body and mind to escape the pit, and truly almost sacrificed herself for the others. She was a true hero!

💡Final Sentiments: Knowing this is based off of true events in 1976, literally tears open my mommy heart. I cannot fathom what these young girls and parents went through. This novel was a thriller of a rollercoaster and moved fast despite it only being a short while. Sheena, a mother of the two girls that were kidnapped, was faced with such a difficult situation, it only adds to the suspense. That being said, I wish there was still more suspense to it. ( I know it’s based off a real event, so I feel awful even saying that, so I’m looking at it from purely a thriller standpoint.) One of the kidnappers started to feel empathy towards the end, and I appreciated that aspect, because as I said, as a mother, I couldn’t fathom this situation. A living nightmare. Overall, another hit out of the ballpark for Ihli, and I look forward to her next novel!

🌟Overall Rating: 4.5 stars

🔉Special thanks to Noelle Ihli, Dynamite Books, and NetGalley for this arc of Such Quiet Girls, out April 29, 2025!

Noelle ihli is one of my top 5 favorite authors that I've found this past year. Being able to read an ARC of Such Quiet Girls was an awesome experience, and I'm so grateful. I'd recommend this book to anyone! I love that many of her books are based on true stories, but with her twist. This story was based on Chowchilla 1976. I hadn't known much about it so I did some research afterwards.

I was so excited to receive this ARC by Noelle Ihli, and I was not disappointed in the least. A bus full of kids and their bus driver are abducted and put in a shipping container buried underground. Air is growing thin, and hopefully the ransom will be paid so they can be free. I actually love tight spaces, but this was extremely claustrophobic and horrific! The pacing was great with multiple POVs, and the ending had me teary! I love how Ihli can tap into our humanity and twist it so we as the reader feel for the people on the pages of her books. I literally felt anxiety and panic settling in while reading this and had to put it aside for a bit to regain my composure. I cannot recommend this book enough to thriller fans!!! Honestly, 6/5 stars!

Noelle has done it again. I love all of her books so much and this was no different. She did a fantastic job writing this story. It kept me on the edge of my seat and I could not stop reading. I had to know what was going to happen with the kids. Each of the points of view were written so well and it was a collision course for how all these characters stories were going to crash together. I felt haunted by the descriptions of the pit and it was terrifying. Noelle does such an amazing job of really putting you into her story and feeling the fear but also the strength of her characters. And as always, the author's note at the end adds in the realistic parts of her story. I highly recommend this one!

(4.5 stars, rounded up to 5)
Such Quiet Girls is a tense thriller based on the real-life Chowchilla kidnapping of 1976. In this story, 10 children and their bus driver are abducted and moved to an underground bunker. The mom of 2 of the children races against time to meet the ransom demands in order to save her daughters.

Oh my god. This book was so intense, and the author wasted NO time getting to the good stuff. I was hooked from the start. The story is told from multiple POVs: one of the kidnappers, the bus driver, one of the children, and her mom. Each POV was done well and contributed greatly to the story. The pasts of all the adults kept me guessing at their possible connections and motives throughout most of the book. I’ve read one other book by this author, and she is SO good at creating mystery and suspense. I was ANXIOUS the last 1/4 of the book. I didn’t look into the details of the events this was based off of for fear of potential spoilers, but I feel that the author did a great job of reimagining the story without being disrespectful to the real-life victims.

It’s definitely a little dark and emotional (this is the first thriller I’ve ever cried while reading), so check all content warnings if there’s stuff you don’t want to read. Overall, this was an amazing, bingeable read that I think any thriller or true crime fan would love.

CWs include, but not limited to: kidnapping, confinement, child abuse, gun violence, domestic violence, mild gore/injury detail.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wow this was such a fantastic story. It had me in its grips right from the start and it never let me go. It is truly impossible to put down. With shocking moments that I won't forget.

Thank you NetGalley for the early advanced copy!

I read this book in a day because I could not put it down.

Such Quiet Girls by Noelle Ihli is the story of a bus full of kids and their driver Jessa being hi jacked and kidnapped for ransom by 2 men. They are forced off the bus, into vans and driven to a quarry where they are forced into a 12’ deep hole and buried alive.
Giving off Chowchilla vibes, you can imagine the terror of these kids underground.

The characters spring to life in this one. You get in their heads, know their fears and I am so glad that there are multiple points of view to get a 360 degree view of the whole picture. The story takes place in just over 24 hours and is truly heart pounding. I couldn’t put the book down because I needed to know what was going to happen.

I loved Sage, the brave 6th grader who loves her hero Harriet the Spy and wants to mimic her clever ways; I loved Sheena the terrified mother who is single raising her two girls and taking care of her dad with Alz; I despised Ted who makes poor decisions but in the end made a very good one. I loved Jessa who dealt with more than her fair share in life and paid a very hefty price. Treating the kids like her own in that dark hole, she needed to feel redemption.

I watched a documentary about Chowchilla and was so interested to hear that story and while the kids and driver all survived, some didn’t have such a happy ending as the trauma followed them their entire lives.

I really hope the kids in the book went on to live happy lives and got trauma counseling.

When I first got wind Noelle Ihli was writing another book and It was based off this case, I was so excited and had no idea where she’d go with it. I was not let down except for the fact that I am mad I finished it so fast and it’s over. If Noelle reads this; I hope you write a quick little story about the characters after the fact like you did in Gray After Dark.

Highly recommend this one!

I don't know what else to say but wow. I could not put this book down! The story had me on the edge of my seat, needing to know what was going to happen next

When an elaborate kidnapping scheme cumulates in ten young Idaho schoolchildren (not just girls, despite the book's title) and their bus driver being buried alive in an underground shipping container, the stakes are high, because while the kidnappers wait for the ransom to be paid, the air is getting thin.

The claustrophobic setup (inspired by the 1976 Chowchilla, CA kidnapping of a school bus, but following that story only very loosely), the eerie cover, and author Noelle Ihli's track record of writing fast-paced thrillers as well as turning true events into gripping and tense fictional accounts, last done devastatingly in 2004's excellent "None Left to Tell", all made "Such Quiet Girls" an absolute must-read for me.

However, despite its sinister setup, the book lacked the requisite heart-stopping tension, dread, and urgency I had expected. I am putting this down mostly to the multiple points of view through which the story is told all feeling very boiler-plate. The narrators alternate between the bus driver with a tragic but predictable past, the plucky and smart oldest of the schoolchildren, the single mom of two of the kids, and even one of the kidnappers who might just have a conscience (which considerably lessened the feeling of looming threat for me). I also found the girls' mother mostly annoying for following her gut feeling instead of using common sense, and the Alzheimer storyline, while very well-written, didn't add anything to the plot and felt somewhat misplaced.

The story would have benefitted greatly from keeping the focus solely on the kidnapping victims and their admittedly horrible circumstances during their ordeal.

While this particular book fell short of my (admittedly high) expectations, I'd still highly recommend checking out the author's previous work. I'd also happily read any future books she comes out with.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dynamite Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"Such Quiet Girls" is slated to be released on April 29, 2025.

I just finished reading this book. The plot was absolutely fantastic! It was quite the page turner, and I could not put the book down once I began reading it. I can't wait for it to be released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

In keeping with Noelle W. Ihli's past books, reading this story will have you feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling and imagining what her characters are experiencing throughout the story. Her descriptive, well written style allows the reader to totally immerse themselves in her latest historical fiction, Such Quiet Girls. She is a highly talented author and continues to be one of my favorites by far!!

This book was fantastic! Kept me engaged and needing to know what happens next. It reads like a movie and I love books like that. It was anxiety inducing In parts. I have a child the age of the kids in the book so it was gut wrenching to think about. I stayed up way too late to finish this but so
Worth it.

Such Quiet Girls is a emotionally charged thriller that dives into a bus hijacking and a desperate fight for survival.
If you're a fan of emotionally intense thrillers that delve into human resilience under extreme circumstances, Such Quiet Girls is the book for you.
I really enjoyed reading this book

This book was amazingly written. I felt like I was watching a true crime documentary about the bus kidnapping that happened in California. Definitely a page turner book! Could not put it down!!

Read this book in one day! Wow! What an emotional ride. Even more crazy that it was loosely based on a true story. Loved the point of view from multiple characters. Noelle is incredible at weaving a story that pulls you in and tears at your heart!

Language ‼️ ⛔️

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. You made my month!

This was my first book by this author. This was a wild and heart-pounding story. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs

Inspired by actual events, The Chowchilla kidnapping in 1976, Such Quiet Girls depicts two men who hijack a school bus on the way to drop 10 children off at an after-school daycare. From there the men force the children into a bunker that is outfitted with only a few essentials while they make ransom demands. Little did they know one of the kids was not giving up and would fight to see daylight again.

I did enjoy this book, it was a very fast read and I absolutely love how Noelle can bring to life actual events I knew nothing about and have me on the edge of my seat. My favorite parts of the book were the Sage chapters. She seemed much older than her 12 years, but there were subtle reminders she was still a child. My least favorite was Sheena, while she had an important role, all the stuff with Grandpa just didn't seem to fit the story. I read the Author's note at the end of the book and I understand why he was included. Nevertheless, it's worth a read.

Huge thank you to NetGalley, Dynamite Books, and Noelle W. Ihli for the opportunity to read and enjoy this book prior to its release on April 29, 2025. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Such Quiet Girls by Noelle W. Ihli is a gripping and atmospheric thriller that pulls you in from the first page. The writing is sharp and immersive, with just the right balance of suspense and emotion. Ihli crafts complex, relatable characters and builds tension masterfully, keeping you guessing until the very end. It’s a chilling, beautifully written story about friendship, secrets, and survival that lingers long after you finish. Highly recommended for fans of psychological thrillers!

This book was a good story from Noelle Ihli. I loved the character development. The story was a little slow to get started, but the ending was excellent! I loved that all the kids were okay in the end!!

I've never been disappointed by a Noelle W. Ihli book. I adored this story and (most) of the characters. Ihli can craft a story that keeps me on my toes and keeps me thinking about the book long after I've read it.