Reviews - Such Quiet Girls

1.01k reviews for:

Such Quiet Girls

Noelle W. Ihli

3.91 AVERAGE

mari98's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Such Quiet Girls by Noelle W Ihli is a survival thriller about a school bus of children kidnapped and buried underground, where three women: a brave girl, a guilt-ridden driver, and a desperate mother, must fight in different ways to bring them home. I’m honestly still processing how powerful these women were written. This isn’t just a survival thriller, it’s a story about female strength in its different forms, and that’s what really stood out to me.

Sage, the twelve-year-old, absolutely blew me away. She might be the youngest, but her courage and quick thinking kept hope alive when the adults were losing it. There’s something so raw about the way she shoulders responsibility beyond her years.

Then there’s Jessa, the bus driver, who carries so much guilt but never lets it paralyze her. Her arc felt like redemption through action. She could have let shame consume her, but instead she fought for those kids. Her resilience made me think about how strength sometimes means facing your mistakes head-on instead of running from them.

And Sheena, the mother, brought another layer of female power: the fierce, protective love of a parent. She wasn’t trapped in the same physical way as Sage and Jessa, but her emotional fight was just as intense. The way she refused to give up on her daughter showed that sometimes the strongest weapon is love.

What I adored is how each of these women embodied strength differently: a child’s courage, a woman’s resilience, and a mother’s relentless love. Together, they created a web of survival that made the story so much more than just a thriller.

The ending felt a little too neat for me, like everything clicked into place too easily after all that tension. And a few of the side characters could have been fleshed out more. However, this book is a gripping testament to how women, even in the darkest situations, find ways to rise and for that, I'll definitely recommend it.