Thank you Simon Maverick, #partner, for the ALC of Such Quiet Girls in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Simon Maverick Audio
Published: April 29, 2025
Summary:
Ten children, abducted in broad daylight—and buried alive.
Sage and her sister won’t make it home from school today. Neither will the other children on Bus 315. But that’s only the beginning of the nightmare.
New bus driver Jessa blames herself for what happened. She couldn’t protect the kids she was supposed to deliver to daycare, just like she couldn’t protect her own daughter three years ago. But this time, everything will be different. It has to be.
Trapped in a shipping container buried twenty feet underground, Jessa and the children do their best to stay calm. The kidnappers insist that if everyone behaves, they’ll be freed when the ransom is paid. But Sage isn’t sure they’ll last that long. Neither is Jessa. It’s dark and cramped, and with every passing minute it’s getting harder to breathe.
With time—and air—running thin, Jessa and the children must find a way to outsmart their captors, or face an unthinkable fate.
Such Quiet Girls was inspired by actual events.
My thoughts:
After listening to Ask for Andrea, I knew I’d be picking up another book by this author and soon. Little did I know it would be another incredible experience…despite it being such a stressful experience!
Based on true events – the Chowchilla kidnappings of 1976 – this book is such an emotional punch to the heart. There were so many instances where I was holding my breath, that’s how invested I was with what was going on. Told from multiple POVs, this story really got under my skin. Each character, from the bus driver, to one of the parents, to one of the children who was kidnapped, to one of the kidnappers, each has such a unique voice and all these voices are necessary to make this story as vibrant as it is. It’s not an easy story to read, and there’s a side story that winds in that is just as heartbreaking but also quite necessary to the overall plot.
I’m 2 for 2 with this author and cannot wait to pick up my next book by her.
Audio thoughts:
This full-cast narration really amped up the listening experience. Each narrator – Jennifer Jill Araya, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Caitlin Kelly and Helen Laser – had just the right amount of tension and emotion infused into their voices to make this one amazing audiobook!
Once I started listening to this, I could not stop. With the nonstop action, the tense plot and the suspenseful hooks throughout, I couldn’t stop until I knew what the resolution would be and that ending is more than satisfying. I loved it!!!
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