Imagine that you are on your way to pick your kids up from school and you discover that their school bus has gone missing. You are told to go home and wait to get updates from the police. But when you get home you find a ransom note.

A school bus with 10 kids and the driver gets attacked and abducted. The kidnappers hides the bus, drives the kids to a quarry and put the kids and the bus driver into a shipping container underneath the ground. They are now buried alive.

In this heart pounding book we get the story from four different pov the bus driver, one of the girls on the bus, a mother of two of the girls and one of the kidnappers.

The book is inspired by a true story «The Chowchilla kidnapping» that happened in 1976.

I gave this book 4 stars and the only tea it wasn’t 5 stars for me is that it didn’t have that wow plot twist. Still a really great book that I enjoyed an absolutely recommend.

Thank you Noelle W Ihli and
Netgally for this opportunity to get this ARC.

Such quiet girls gets published at April 29 2025.

Noelle is great at writing thrillers. I became a fan of hers after reading ‘Ask for Andrea’ and a few other books. This one seemed different from her other since it was inspired by a true event. This is a good read and now I’m doing research on the actual events.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy.

“Such nice, quiet girls”

That sentence alone sent chills down my spine, such quiet girls is a chilling novel, with complex relationships between its characters that would leave a reader begging for more.

When Jesse, a school bus driver makes the biggest mistake of her life by taking a wrong turn, which led to her kidnap and ten other kids in the bus.

Jesse is a woman with her demons and all she wants to do is listen to the kidnappers and make sure the kids are safe, but what happens when one of the kids, Sage, the oldest, would do anything to make sure she is out, even if she means disobeying the rules that were laid down by kidnappers.

In this mind gripping novel, follow the relationship of sisterhood, past trauma and life and death, when there is only one person who can save the kids, a burden laid on a single person.

I enjoyed very bit of this novel and I will rate it 8/10, it was properly written with no grammatical errors, the description leads me into an entire world of fiction, and the mind - gripping mystery kept me at the edge of my toes, my heart skipped at every single page of the book.

Make sure to give it a read.

This was a page turner! I was on the edge of my seat, heart rate elevated, and couldn’t read fast enough! Noelle Ihli does it again with a book based on true events. It’s 4 POV’s and an intense story of a bus driver named Jessa with a bus load of kids, getting stopped and held at gunpoint, and ultimately kidnapping children. It was incredible. If stuff with kids is a trigger for you, that’s really the only trigger warning I would worry about! 5 Stars! Chefs Kiss!!

Such a nice thriller read.. I finished in one day. Noelle Ihli is a wonderful writer - the book flowed nicely, the characters had great backstories, and the storyline kept me interested till the very end. There were no major twists but I was eager to get to the end to see how everything turns out!

If you are a fan of thrillers, this is one you should check out!

Great writing that really let me see into the mindset of all the characters and their points of view. The tension really built and tiny details really involved the reader and gave the full picture of what it was like in the situation, physically, mentally and emotionally. The descriptions of the characters' background stories added depth and insight. I was cheering those kids on and hoping against hope that the ending was not going to be tragic. I'm keen to watch the documentary of the real life story that inspired this novel.

This book was so good! Noelle West Ihli knows how to craft a thriller that grabs you from the first page and never lets up. I’ve enjoyed her previous books, so I was really looking forward to this one—and it delivered in all the best ways.

The pacing was intense, the suspense was relentless, and the emotional pull was so strong. I loved that it was inspired by true events, yet Noelle made it entirely her own with a unique and gripping twist.

As a mom, it absolutely gutted me. As someone who’s claustrophobic, I was physically tense reading certain scenes. I found myself holding my breath, heart racing, completely immersed. This story had me flipping pages long after I should’ve been asleep.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced, high-stakes thriller that makes you feel every moment—this one is it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Noelle West Ihli, and Dynamite Books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was hooked almost immediately despite my fears regarding the subject of the story. Although it did cause some anxiety for me, it never reached a point where I had to stop reading. I absolutely could not put this book down.

I was so excited to get the ARC of this book as Noelle Ihli is one of my favorite authors. I have read all of her books except one, and it’s on my TBR!

Noelle does a great job making the reader feel exactly what the characters in the book are experiencing. I could feel the tension and fear of Jessa and the students as well as the absolute terror and helplessness Sheena was experiencing.

I think the fact that this book is inspired by a true story is also really cool. Definitely a bingeable read with multiple POVS and quick chapters.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

Such Quiet Girls is a fast-paced, gripping thriller that kept me hooked from start to finish. The suspense was intense, the characters were easy to root for, and the story felt emotionally real without being overdone. I couldn’t put it down and found myself thinking about it after I finished. Definitely worth the read if you like tightly written, high-stakes thrillers.

This was a good read! I enjoyed that it was based on a true story. The characters and multiple POVs were amazing and I loved how the author pulled everything all together in the end. Also I thought the setting was quite unique!!

So, I started reading it knowing nothing about it, and I couldn't stop! I would've finished it in one sitting, but work got in the way. Seriously, you should read it; it was such a quick and easy read.

By the way, I started another one of her books right after.

like every book this author writes, i was gripped from the very first word. the subject matter was hard to digest at first, being a mother to school age children, but i was able to immerse myself in each POV and find the story to be gripping. it showed so any different aspects - mother, child, kidnapper. the story unraveled in a way that had me crying at the end of the book.

Easy to read and great characters. Fell in love with sage! Great that you get to delve inside the minds of different characters in the book. Some characters were a little cliched but overall it was a great read, with a suspenseful end.

Noelle W. Ihli has gone i again! ANOTHER amazing unputdownable thriller book.
Ten children and a bus driver are kidnapped from the school bus and kept prisoner underground...
This book is tense, suspenseful, emotional and definitely unputdownable. Not to mention unforgettable, it's dark and unimaginablely any parents worst nightmare. this book will stay with me for a long, long time. I rated this book 5 stars.

<b>"I kept silent though, and for some reason that made him laugh, even though we were doing exactly what he told us to do.
“Such nice, quiet girls.”"</b>

A bus full of school children is kidnapped along with the bus driver in an attempt to ask for ransom. The kidnappers bury them all undergroundx kept in a container until they get the ransom they've asked for. The clock is ticking, and air is running out...

Based on a true story, too! I really liked the premise and love a good thriller, so I had to pick this one up.

The book is told through various POVs. You get a glimpse into the view of the kidnapper, the bus driver, one of the children, and one of the parents, so you get to experience everything from different perspectives. I wasn't able to really connect with any of the characters, though, which is a shame.

Unfortunately, I also think the book didn't work for me. I expected more terror, more thrill, but the whole time while I was reading it felt like not much was happening.
The event with the most action happened right at the start. It immediately sucked you into the story, but that made the rest fall a little flat. I think that might be because it's based on a true story. Maybe the author also wanted to keep it on the tame side, considering the book is mainly about young children.

3 stars overall. It was a good quick read, but I wouldn't recommend it to people looking for a good thriller. It works as a tamer thriller, I suppose.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A harrowing story about a kidnapping that keeps you on the edge of your seat reading and seeking answers.

Another incredibly written and fast paced thriller. I adore this authors work, and am yet to read one of hers I didn’t enjoy. This was no exception, I devoured it! Also loved that, while fiction, it’s loosely based around true events, which just makes the entire thing more terrifying and remarkable.

Thank you Netgalley and Noelle for the advanced copy, forever grateful to get to glimpse before it hit the shelves.

This was a great book. One woman's determination to help a kidnapped bus load of kids. A mothers love for her kids gives her the courage she needs to give the kidnappers what they want. It keeps you on your toes until the end!

Jessa scored a new job as a bus driver for an after-school program. She can’t believe her luck as she hasn’t had much of it recently. Jessa has been trying to get her life put back together and is trying to figure out how to restore her damaged relationship with her daughter. On what seems like a normal day, Jessa takes a detour, and the bus is boarded by two armed men.

Sage is frustrated that she must escort her little sister on the bus every day. She is old enough now that she should be trusted to go home after school and not attend an after-school program for young kids. When the bus passengers are kidnapped, Sage makes it her goal to pay attention and try to keep everyone safe. That is a lot of responsibility to put on a young girl’s shoulders!

The captures tell their abductees that they will be kept alive if the ransom is paid on time. Stowed in an underground shipping container, the kidnapped group soon realize their captors may be the least of their worries. Running out of air, will they be able to make it out alive?

This was an adrenaline packed read! I was hooked from the first page. The story is told from multiple points of view and each was compelling. We also get a few glimpses into the characters’ pasts which I always find helps them to be more relatable. Sage was my personal favorite. I found her to be so strong and brave and I really admired how she handled herself in tough situations. I just adore Noelle Ihli and her writing. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next :)

Thank you to Dynamite Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Really good book. Keeps you on your toes. This was my first by the author but will definitely read more of her work