by Kiersten White
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pub Date: September 9, 2025
Genre: YA, Horror, Fantasy, Gothic
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads Bookshop Amazon
To save her sister, she must enter the House.
In the middle of a deadly bog sits the House of Quiet. It’s a place for children whose Procedure triggered powers too terrible to be lived with—their last hope for treatment. No one knows how they’re healed or where they go afterward.
Birdie has begged, bargained, and blackmailed her way inside as a maid, determined to find her missing sister, Magpie. But what she discovers is more mysteries. Instead of the destitute children who undergo the Procedure in hopes of social advancement, the house brims with aristocratic teens wielding strange powers they never should have been burdened with.
Though Birdie wants to ignore them, she can’t help being drawn to stoic and silent Forest, charmed by clever River, and concerned for the youngest residents. And with fellow maid Minnow keeping tabs on everything Birdie does, danger is everywhere.
In her desperate search for Magpie, Birdie unearths terrifying threats and devastating truths, forcing her to confront just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save her own sister. Because in the House of Quiet, if you find what’s lurking beneath . . . you lose everything.
Unravel the mystery. Ignite the rebellion.
It's a little hard to get into at the beginning. Its a little slow but mainly its heavy on giving you a lot at once and it makes you go hold on, while you break down the book. North and South. A house where rich kids go. Surrounded by a deadly bog.
It's a LOT.
BUT, once you push through a few chapters, the book starts to shine and you're slowly being dragged into this Gothic world that'll leave you with thrills and wanting to turn the pages probably faster that humanly possible.
Birdie is looking for her sister Magpie. So, she became a maid and is hoping to find her in this house. She meets cook, the other workers, the house wife and quickly falls into a routine. When no one is around she spends time trying to find her sister. A few days go by and she starts to feel like maybe her sister might have been here at one point, gotten helped and returned home and she's actually their with her parents right now.
What became a simple search for her sister turned into more than she initially bargained for. A need to get into a secret room, get the truth of her sister and everything going on her, those with unnatural abilities and so much more.
I LOVE LOVE anything by Kiersten. An absolute favorite for life.
And if you love gothic
reads, then check out her Dracula retteling, Love Undying is an A++ read!
