This book ended up being my favorite of the year so far. One of my all time favorites now. I thought that I would like it, as I adore Kiersten and the books I have read by her have been good. But did not realize that I would love this book with all my heart. Sigh. But I did. And I am so happy about it. This book was everything.
Five stars, of course. My only complaint is that this should have been much longer. I wanted to stay in this world forever. And the characters were way too precious. The story terrorized me. And I loved every moment of it. The writing was stunning. At first I was a little unsure about the style, but I grew to love it all very much.
This book tells the story of Birdie. It starts when she is ten, and her baby sister, Magpie, is six. Their family is poor, and so Birdie needs to go away for work so they can earn enough money for Magpie to have the Procedure. But this means that Birdie will be gone for six years. Which was all kinds of heartbreaking to read about, how long she had to be apart from her sister. Oh. Birdie is now sixteen years old. She has spent the past years working as a maid, and done a good job of it too. She learned her sister had the Procedure. She rushed back home. But her sister was not there. And so she has spent the next six months trying to track her down, to get her back. Which was not easy. But she has learned she is at the House of Quiet. Birdie gets a job as a maid.
Which is where this book starts. I shall try not to say too much about everything. And yet that is all I want to do, write down it all. Birdie starts working at the House of Quiet. She arrives with two other maids her same age. Minnow and Rabbit. Birdie and Minnow are both normal, but Rabbit had the procedure done. But too late, so her powers are not working as they should. I liked getting to know these girls along with Birdie. Rabbit was kind, but not smart. Minnow was too smart for her own good. And had many secrets.
I loved figuring them all out. And this house had all the secrets. And it killed me to learn them all. It was such a creepy story. And I just could not stop reading it. I was worried at all times for what was going to happen to them all. And I loved every moment of it. Birdie does not find her sister at the house. And she is heartbroken. And unsure if she should leave or not. But she decides to stay, once she gets to know the other people in this house. They were all special. And she grew to love them all. Which I loved the most.
I am going to write too much about this book. And yet not nearly enough either. Birdie spends the book looking for her sister. Searching everywhere for Magpie. And I loved that so much, how much she loved her sister. The House of Quiet sits alone on a bog. Which was so creepy. There was no help to be found. And these kids needed help. Because weird things were happening in this house. And where did all the previous children go? Oh, how I loved figuring this all out. So many twists. So much horror. Fully perfect.
There is so much to learn about this book. To figure out how this world works. When we finally learn what the Procedure is. And what is does. It was so exciting. This is kind of a book about superheroes, in a way. Children can have powers. But if that child is too old, they die. The poor people saves their whole life to have a child have this Procedure. As it helps them after, giving them a better life. But I'm not sure it was better for the child. There is so much to know. So many secrets. And, honestly, all of it horrifying and evil.
The different powers were amazing to read about, though. And so much fun. Even though some of them were scary and powerful. And dangerous to the child as well. We get to know Nimbus, whose power we do not know, as he is gone from his mind. Then there is Dawn, who can control the emotions of everyone around her. And Lake, who keeps seeing the future and the past at all times, it seems like. My heart hurt for this little girl the most. She was awesome, though. River was mysterious at first, but I loved her power.
We got to know Forest a lot. He did not talk. And there was a big reason for that. I'm not going to spoil it, but I felt like his power was the most important of them all. But also the scariest. But so awesome as well, to be honest. It hurt my heart that this precious boy did not talk, though. And yet he and Birdie still found a connection. And that made my heart so happy. Sigh. Shipped them the most. I just loved all of the kids in this house. They were not many. But they were all so very precious and I adored getting to know them all.
Of course, there were characters that I did not like at all. Like the Cook. She could be caring and kind, but not often. Most of the time she was just drunk and bad at her job. Learning about all she had done, well. I did not like her. Then there was the mysterious House Wife. She was fully creepy. It takes a while before we get to know more about her. She was so scary. Yet her story was all kinds of exciting. I loved that. She was a mystery. Just as this house was a mystery. And learning all its secrets was the worst. And the best.
There are only small glimpses at the world building in this book. Considering the entire book takes place inside the house. But what we learned about this world was awesome. It takes place in the future, I think. The world is not doing well. There is a big divide between the poor and the rich, like always. Everyone is named based on how wealthy they are and where they live. That was so interesting to me and I loved this detail. Wanted to know more about the world. It seemed amazing. And all kinds of evil and heartbreaking.
One of my favorite parts of this book was the romance. Sigh. It was so perfect to me. Birdie and Forest fit together so well. Even though he did not talk. Even though he had some secrets. They were just the most adorable together. I loved their greenhouse meetings. The sweetest. I loved how he was always near her. Sigh. And it made me happy that this dark book had a sweet romance as well. And the romance between Minnow and River as well. They were so cute and also fun together and I adored their special connection.
Small mention about the ending. Maybe a little spoilery. Maybe not. I so loved the ending the very most. It felt a little easy at one part, but I would not have wanted it any other way. It ended just the way I wanted it to. Of course, the ending is a little open. There is still so much that could be done. And I want it all. I want to know what happens next so very much. Fingers crossed Kiersten writes the epilogue one day, like she told me. I would treasure it. But yes. I loved the ending. It was so exciting and dark and scary but hopeful.
The House of Quiet was everything that I wanted. I honestly loved every part of it. Which is such a rare and precious thing when reading books. I could not stop reading it once I started. And now I cannot stop thinking about it. It reminded me of many other things, but in such a good way. This just made me love it more. This book gave me all kinds of terror. Yet it made me so happy too. I loved these characters very much. This story was simply the best. And it is a book that I will read again. You need to give it a try too.
