Such Quiet Girls by Noelle West Ihli
This one surprised me in the best way. It’s tense and emotional without ever feeling over the top. The friendship dynamics were so raw and real, and I found myself genuinely invested in what would happen next. The pacing kept me hooked, and the ending totally delivered.
Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this gripping and emotional thriller!

I was so excited to receive an ARC for this because I have loved everything by this author!

The multi POV was unique and intriguing. You have the bus driver who covered up her past, 12 year old girl abducted with her sister and peers, the mother of the girls, and one of the abductors. Getting each of these views within the story kept the emotional aspect moving along well.

I found this both exciting and devastating, thrilling and terrifying, and filled with unique revelations.

Another amazing job, Noelle!

“ Ten children, abducted in broad daylight—and buried alive.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

Ms Jessa shouldn’t be driving that bus, or working with children at all, and neither should Sage. She is 12 now and doesn’t think she needs to be going to afterschool care. But they are all the younger ones have when their school bus is hijacked and they are buried alive.

This story follows Sage and Ms Jessa, trying to figure out how to get out of their potential grave. We also follow Sheena, the mother of Sage and Bonnie, and her determination to find her girls, while balancing the care of her father with Alzheimer’s.

This book is told in multiple POVs: Jessa, Sage, Sheena, and Ted, one of the kidnappers. The characters are all very different so the multiple POVs work without confusion. It is inspired by the Chowchilla school bus kidnapping in 1976 although a fictionalized version of it.

This one hits on a lot of our “worst fears.” Children being kidnapped, one of their teachers/carers not being who they say, being buried alive and more. You feel the claustrophobia from the kids in the shipping container. The toxic thinking that they just need to stay good and quiet like girls should and not make the men mad.

Thank you to NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars – Gripping and unforgettable

This book had me on edge from start to finish. The premise is terrifying—kids and a bus driver buried alive—and the tension never lets up. I loved how the story unfolded through different POVs, each one adding depth and urgency. It’s dark, emotional, and impossible to put down. One of the most intense thrillers I’ve read in a while!

My 6P review: Premise, Plot, People, Place, Prose/Pace, Praise

Ten children and their bus driver are abducted and forced into an underground shipping container. Trapped underground they need to remain calm. Meanwhile, a parent is sent a ransom note with orders to comply and not tell the police.

The plot had me wanting to read this book and the fact that it was inspired by true events made it even better.

While I was eagerly reading it, I felt it was a little repetitive and didn’t really explore the characters in any great depth. I was also feeling a little flat with the ending.

I would have liked to feel something, a sense of what it might have been like trapped in the underground in the dark. The writing style felt like it was merely telling me what was happening.

I then read about the real event and then thought this story was good. I did like Sage. I thought she was courageous and smart. The bus driver on the other hand was a wet mop and was useless.

I just really wanted to feel something with this story.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

100/150=0.667
3⭐️

I really enjoyed this book. It had a good mix of suspense and emotion without being over the top. Sage was a strong character—she went through a lot but still did everything she could to protect Bonnie and other the kids. She stayed brave even when things got tough.

The kids were also brave in their own way. You could tell they were scared, but they listened, trusted Sage and Miss Jessa and held it together when it mattered.

Miss Jessa was another solid character. She paid attention, didn’t ignore the warning signs, and showed support when it was needed. Her calm, steady presence made a difference.

Overall, it was a good read—fast-paced and well written, with characters you can respect for how they handled tough situations.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

If there was ever a time I wanted to wake my daughter from her sleep, just to hold her tight and tell her how much I love her, it would be right now as I’m finishing this book.

Such Quiet Girls is a fast paced, tear jerker, that makes you re-think ever allowing your children out of sight!

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Jessa (the bus driver) and 10 children are kidnapped by 2 young men looking for a quick pay out. After burying them alive in a shipping container underground, we see the story unfold from multiple perspectives.

Prepare yourself with tissues, and make sure you check any triggers before reading.

Thank you, Netgalley for the ARC!

-This story was so anxiety filled, page-turning and all of the above. I loved the way the author portrayed the realistic handling of situations, and not making everybody seem like superheroes.
-I loved the short chapters because the last 30% of this book i FLEW through. my anxiety was sky high😅
-this book also has 4 different POV’S with one of them being one of the kidnappers, the mother of 2 children buried, the bus driver, & one of the students. Getting to experience each one of their POV’s & how they were feeling was something i really enjoyed!!
-i definitely recommend picking this one up on April, 29th when it releases if you need a quick, anxiety filled page turner!🫣🤫

SYNOPSIS
-Inspired by the 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping, this story centers on a horrifying abduction.
-Ten kids and their new bus driver, Jessa, are taken in broad daylight and buried alive in a shipping container 20 feet underground.
-The kidnappers say they’ll be released once ransom is paid… but time (and air) is running out.
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MY THOUGHTS
-I love this author. I’ve read Run on Red, Gray After Dark, Room for Rent, None Left to Tell, and now Such Quiet Girls. Every book is either 4 or 5 stars for me—she’s consistent and knows how to keep a story moving.
-The writing is so easy to fly through. Ihli knows how to pull you in right from page one.
-I loved the multi-POV setup. You get insight from Jessa (the bus driver), Sheena (a mom), Sage (Sheena’s daughter), and even one of the kidnappers. It added so much tension and depth.
-The timeline stays linear.
-The chapters in the buried container felt so claustrophobic and intense. My heart was racing.
-Gripping, unsettling, and really well done.
-it’s a high-stakes survival story that’s also about love, bravery, and what people are willing to risk to protect each other.
-The “inspired by true events” angle made it even more chilling. Ihli did a good job making it her own & not just regurgitating what happened.
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TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Claustrophobic, fast-paced, and full of tension, a chilling survival story inspired by real events.
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THANKS: Thanks to Dynamite Books and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published on April 29, 2025.

Thank you Netgally for this arc of Such Quiet Girls! Noelle Ihli has a talent for taking true crime and writing a book loosely based on it that keeps you on the edge of your seat. This story of a kidnapping of students and a driver off a bus was suspenseful and hard to put down. Definitely recommend reading it!

This book had me at the edge of seat all throughout the book! I absolutely loved it. I liked the multiple POVs and I really liked Sage's POV. I haven't read any book with a young teen as the main POV. I loved how resilient she was! I teared up at times and was soo hooked I had to keep reading it!

From the very start of this book you are catapulted into intense and "white knuckle" action. It had my heart pounding from the very start.

Synopsis: Jessa recently accepted a position driving a bus that transports kids from school to an aftercare program. A few short weeks after she starts, the bus is detoured, resulting in the kidnapping of Jessa and the kids. They are transported to an underground shipping container in a quarry while their kidnappers await the ransom.

I loved that this story is told from multiple perspectives over the course of a couple of days. You get the perspectives of Jessa, Sage (the oldest child on the bus), Sage's Mom, Sheena, and one of the kidnappers, Ted. It makes for a very well rounded story.

Like most of her books, this one is fiction based on a factual event that took place in 1976. It was really hard to watch the events of this book unfold but it was also hard to look away from. I have a love-hate relationship with this book. I am not easily triggered. I like books that evoke strong emotional responses but crimes against children are really hard for me. Content related to claustrophobia is really hard for me. This book had both, making this an incredibly difficult read for me. The book was excellent. The writing was excellent. The plot and the characters were both very strong. I would have expected to fly through this one, but that didn't happen. This is one of those books that I had to take in small doses. It has all of my requirements for a 5 star read. It's extremely well written. The plot is engaging. The characters are relatable. The sequence of events were heart-pounding and intense. But the content is tough. As a mother, one of my biggest fears was my children being afraid and I couldn't be there to comfort them. This book is that fear so I kept having to put it down. Because of that, I went back and forth on how I wanted to rate this one but after much thought, I just couldn't deny that it deserved 5 stars even if it made me uncomfortable.

Noelle has an incredible talent for using real life events to tell a fictional story. Steady read that was easy to enjoy. I will read any book Noelle writes.

Phenomenal!!! Read this in less than a day! It's definitely a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review!!!

Such Quiet Girls had me on the edge of my seat the entire time! Who doesn't attach their hearts to a busload of innocent kids who are trapped in a hole? The character development was very effective because I HATED the antagonists of the story and rooted whole-heartedly for the heroine. The suspense was off the charts. This was my first book by the author, but definitely not the last! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Noelle W. Ihli, Dynamite Books, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is told from multiple POVs.

From the first page, I was hooked. This book will leave you on the edge of your seat and maybe a little claustrophobic.

Sage was such a strong character, not only did she take care of her sister, but everyone else that was on the bus, including Jessa, the bus driver.

I liked how, at the beginning of the chapters, it was included how long they had been buried. It allows the reader to see how long the story progressed, you aren't just sitting there reading and trying to guess.

What a captivating read, I was on the edge of my seat and invested from page one.

Noelle W. Ihli has a way of drawing readers in immediately and putting them right in the middle of what is happening. With different perspectives, I found myself relating to several different characters at different times even though some were experiencing this event in vastly different ways.

This was story of courage, resilience and determination. While I find some stories involving children to be traumatic or difficult to read, this book did a fantastic job of sharing the desperate situation, without being anxiety inducing.

I especially loved the way sisters Sage and Bonnie showed that as annoying as siblings may find each other at times, they truly will do whatever possible to help each other in times of need.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dynamite Books for providing me with a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Wow! One of my favorite thrillers I've read this year by far! I was glued to the pages and I could feel the emotions and see each scene. My nerves were up the roof on some parts because I wanted to see what was going to happen next. I'd love to see this on a screen. So good!

This is my first psychological thriller by Noelle, I have read her the first book of hers I read was None Left to Tell her historical fiction based off true familial events. This book did not disappoint, and I immediately downloaded Noelle's entire backlog. Run do not walk to get this book as soon as she posted a sneak peek of the cover, I knew I absolutely needed this book. If you are a parent, check your trigger warnings. They are located at the front of the book and be ready to go on a wild, emotional filled ride.

This book is told in MPOV's, we follow four compelling characters, Jessa- the bus driver, Sage and 11-year-old girl, Sheena who is Sage's mom, and lastly, we follow Ted who is a kidnapper and seems more uncertain of himself. I loved how we bounced from each point of view and were able to get the perspective of each of the characters. Sage is a spunky, coming into herself child and I loved her POV.

This book is based off a true story and is a nightmare for anyone who has children, my mommy heart hurt for not only the children but also for the parents. It is traumatizing when your child goes missing and all you hear is we don't know. The story is fast-paced, and the characters are well-developed and engaging. The way this book is atmospherically written, it takes the reader along with the characters and doesnt let you breathe until THE LAST PAGE. THIS BOOK NEEDS A WARNING, NOTHING WILL BE DONE TODAY EXCEPT THE READING OF WHAT FOLLOWS!!!!

Haunting, powerful, and absolutely unforgettable.

Such Quiet Girls pulled me in from the very first page and didn’t let go. The story centers around a group of young children and their bus driver, Ms. Jessa, who are kidnapped and buried alive in a bunker by two men seeking ransom—and from that terrifying premise unfolds a deeply emotional and gripping survival story.

What stood out to me the most was Sage. Her strength, resilience, and sheer will to survive were incredible. Even in the most terrifying moments, she never stopped fighting—for herself, for the others, for a way out. Watching her navigate the trauma and fear with such fierce determination made the story hit so much deeper.

I also loved the quiet depth of Ms. Jessa’s backstory and how it was woven into the heart of the story. Her personal struggles, grief, and strength added such emotional weight, and it was beautiful to see how those pieces of her past helped guide her as she fought to protect the children.

This book is more than just a thriller—it’s about bravery, survival, and the kind of strength that blooms in silence and darkness. It shook me, broke me, and left me feeling deeply moved.

If you’re looking for something raw, emotional, and full of heart—Such Quiet Girls is a must-read.