As we shift gears into fall, some of us may be filling our new TBR (to-be-reads) lists geared toward the spookier and cooler months ahead. Let me add one more to consider adding. Kiersten White’s new young adult dark fantasy, The House of Quiet, delivers us a tale steeped in gothic vibes and a deeply emotional story of sisterhood and what it takes to survive. So, let’s talk about it.
The House of Quiet waits in the heart of a rotting bog, as dangerous as it is full of secrets. The building is whispered about in fearful tones as it is a “sanctuary” for children whose powers were awakened by the government’s “Procedure” and labeled too volatile for societal living. They are being treated. Healed. Controlled? And once they leave, they vanish and no one ever sees them again.
For Birdie, The House of Quiet is not a rumor or lore. It is the last place she left to search for her sister. Magpie disappeared after her “Procedure”, and Birdie refuses to accept she is simply gone. She has clawed her way through every locked door, heard every whispered lie, and has faced countless cold refusals. Birdie becomes so desperate, she barters and blackmails her way into The House of Quiet, becoming a servant there to continue her search for the truth. She intends to move unseen, like a shadow, until she uncovers what really happened to her sister. What she finds is nothing she could have ever imagined.
The halls of The House of Quiet shine with aristocratic teens, the heirs and scions of the wealthy classes, whose dangerous abilities make them worthy of admiration and also fear. Yet she finds herself drawn to them. The deeper Birdie digs, the more dangerous her position becomes. Every hallway brims with secrets. Every locked door hides something that is not supposed to be seen. The bog will keep its silence and The House of Quiet will never give back what it has taken. Birdie must do something drastic, sacrificing everything to get the answers she seeks, even if that means inciting a rebellion.
The House of Quiet explores the dark corners of adolescence, the liminal spaces where identity is still forming and power is still a temptation laced with threat. The novel is a slow-burning exploration of class, privilege, and survival in a dystopian society where your social standing determines everything you have, and what you do not.
The House itself is stifling, the tension built upon corridors heavy with rules, rituals, and hierarchies. Every conversation within it feels like a game with deadly stakes. Behind the mansions ornate façade lies a conspiracy that involves the youths in the home and, also, the society beyond the bog’s edges.
The teens that live in The House of Quiet are weaponized under the watchful eye of the government and their abilities are a source of power, and in turn, also a personal curse. White explores the cost of these gifts with nuance, resulting in a world that feels dystopian without being derivative. The locked-house structure is gothic and claustrophobic with broader implications of control, oppression, and exploitation.
Thematically, The House of Quiet is, you guessed it, quiet. It casts a lens on what it means to be silenced, to choose silence, and what it means to break it. Birdie’s journey is about finding her sister and, furthermore, finding her voice in a world designed to mute people like her. In contrast, her peers in the mansion, the young aristocrats, are silenced by expectation and tradition. White weaves the two together, highlighting Birdie’s rebellion with this complacency and complicity of the other teens. The result is a bleak meditation on privilege, choices, and the cost of speaking up.
White’s prose is sharp and evocative. She has a gift for atmosphere and the mansion itself becomes a main character in this story. What truly elevates The House of Quiet is Birdie’s relationship with Magpie. The missing sister looms over every page, her absence a driving force and also a painful wound. What happened to Magpie? Why will no one tell the truth? What is at the heart of all this secrecy? Well, dear reader, you’ll have to pick this up to find out. You can buy this book when it publishes from Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House September 09, 2025 wherever you buy your books. Thank you to Cassie at for sending me an ARC!
Kiersten White is the #1 New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning, and critically acclaimed author of many books for readers of all ages, including the And I Darken trilogy, the Sinister Summer series, the Camelot Rising trilogy, Star Wars: Padawan, Hide, Mister Magic, and Lucy Undying. She also has a very large tortoise named Kimberly, which isn’t relevant, but she wanted you to know.
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