Such Quiet Girls by Noelle W. Ihli

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Such Quiet Girls Review ⭐⭐½ — Kidnapped Kids, Slow Burns, and a Plot That Needed a Trim ✂️

🚨 Trigger Warnings (Read First!)

  • Child endangerment

  • Kidnapping

  • Violence & gun threats

  • Domestic abuse

  • Death (past & present)

  • Trauma involving children

  • Mild language

⚠️ Spoiler Warning

This is a FULL SPOILER REVIEW, including the ending. You’ve been warned. No turning back now 😈

📚 Overview: What This Book Is About

Such Quiet Girls by Noelle Ihli is a thriller inspired by the real-life 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping, where a group of children were abducted and buried alive, but all managed to escape safely.

In this fictional version, 10 kids and their bus driver are kidnapped in broad daylight and trapped underground in a makeshift bunker. What follows is a multi-POV survival story about fear, resilience, and the absolute chaos of parenting in crisis mode 😅

Sounds intense, right? It is… but also… not quite as gripping as it could’ve been.

🧠 My Thoughts (Let’s Be Honest…)

Okay, here’s the thing… I wanted to love this more.

👉 The real-life story this is based on? Honestly more compelling than this version.
👉 The premise? Amazing.
👉 The execution? Kinda… stretched thin.

This book is 352 pages of what feels like 200 pages of actual story. It’s not bad—it definitely kept my interest—but it felt like it was padded out to hit full-length novel status.

Also… I have to say it:

🙄 Sage does NOT sound like a real 12-year-old.
Some of her dialogue pulled me right out of the story. It felt way too polished, way too insightful, and just… off.

And the pacing?
🐢 Slow. Very slow.

Which is wild considering the plot is literally kids buried alive. You’d think the tension would be through the roof the whole time—but instead, it drags in places where it really shouldn’t.

📖 Plot Summary (Full Spoilers)

🚐 The Setup

Jessa Landon is a daycare bus driver with a past she’s trying to outrun. After killing her abusive husband (honestly… valid 😬), she serves time and struggles to rebuild her life and reconnect with her daughter.

One day, while driving 10 kids—including sisters Sage and Bonnie—she’s rerouted and ambushed by two kidnappers: Ted and Andy.

They force everyone into a van and take them to a quarry where—

😳 They are buried alive inside a shipping container bunker.

⛏️ Underground Survival

Inside the bunker:

  • Limited food and water

  • Air pumped in through a hose

  • No idea if they’re ever getting out

Jessa’s instinct is to keep everyone quiet and compliant (trauma response), but Sage is like “absolutely not.”

Sage:

  • Observes everything

  • Starts forming an escape plan

  • Basically becomes the group’s tiny survival leader

She eventually:

  • Climbs up using mattresses and carved footholds

  • Breaks through the bunker ceiling

  • Escapes… but the shaft collapses behind her 😬

So now:
👉 She’s out
👉 Everyone else is still trapped and running out of time

💰 The Ransom Plot

Meanwhile, Sage and Bonnie’s mom, Sheena:

  • Receives ransom demands

  • Is told not to contact police

  • Has to pull off a complicated money drop

She gets clever though 👀
👉 Slips a tracking device into a watch hidden with the ransom money

🏃‍♀️ The Final Stretch

Sage:

  • Escapes the quarry

  • Gets chased and SHOT AT by Andy (because of course he’s unhinged)

  • Runs into a nearby elder care facility

Plot twist:
👉 Her grandfather is there
👉 He’s a former cop
👉 He helps stop Andy (icon behavior honestly 👏)

At the same time:

  • Sheena finally calls the police

  • Tracks the kidnappers’ location

  • Everything converges at the quarry

🚓 The Ending

  • Ted realizes the kids will die and starts digging them out

  • Police arrive and rescue everyone just in time

  • Andy is arrested

  • Ted is arrested

  • All the kids survive 🙌

Aftermath:

  • Families reunite

  • Jessa begins reconnecting with her daughter

  • Grandpa may get treatment for Alzheimer’s

  • Everyone lives… but barely

😬 What Didn’t Work for Me

  • Pacing issues — too slow for such a high-stakes premise

  • Dialogue problems — especially Sage (sorry girl 😅)

  • Felt padded — this could’ve been tighter and stronger

  • Predictability — we all knew the kids were getting out

👍 What Worked

  • The premise is genuinely terrifying

  • Some tense moments do land

  • Easy to skim (and yes, I absolutely did 😌)

  • Multiple POVs keep it from getting boring

⭐ Final Rating: 2.5 Stars

Look—this isn’t a terrible book. It’s just one of those where you keep thinking:

👉 “This could’ve been so much better.”

If you’re a fast reader or a professional skimmer, you might actually enjoy this more than I did.

📚 If You Liked This, Try These Instead

If you want similar vibes but (in my opinion) stronger execution:

💬 Final Thoughts

This one had all the ingredients for a five-star, heart-pounding thriller… and somehow ended up being just okay.

Not bad. Not amazing. Just… there.

But hey—if nothing else, it might send you down a rabbit hole reading about the real 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping, which is honestly the more gripping story 😬

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