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Don't Tell a Soul

Kirsten Miller (Goodreads Author)

3.98 · Rating details · 66 ratings · 43 reviews

Stay up all night with this modern day Rebecca! Perfect for fans of Truly Devious—a haunting story about a new girl in an old town filled with dark secrets . . . that might just kill her.

People say the house is cursed.
It preys on the weakest, and young women are its favorite victims.
In Louth, they're called the Dead Girls.

All Bram wanted was to disappear—from her old life, ...more

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Kindle Edition, 384 pages

Expected publication: January 26th 2021 by Delacorte Press

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· 66 ratings · 43 reviews

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Dec 21, 2020 Chelsea Humphrey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: from-publisher, netgalley

"In the dark, it made no difference if my eyes were open or shut."

Do you enjoy YA novels that lean more toward the mature side of writing, ones that are dark and eerie yet beautifully written with a powerful message? Then Don't Tell a Soul is the gothic novel for you! There are subtle similarities between this book and Rebecca, but more so via appreciative retelling rather than anything malicious like outright plagiarism. The plot feels two-fold; there's a focus on the mystery behind her family' ...more

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Nov 06, 2020 Nilufer Ozmekik rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Ghosts lurking around the gothic mansion where three women from different eras had died because the place haunts the weakest young women by taking their souls.

And another troubled young girl named Bram, outcast, forced to leave NY because of accusations against her, estranged with her own mother who denies to believe her moves to uncle James’ eerie mansion located in Louth: a tiny town on the Hudson River to live with him temporarily!

But the permanent spiritual night time visitors of the house Ghosts lurking around the gothic mansion where three women from different eras had died because the place haunts the weakest young women by taking their souls.

And another troubled young girl named Bram, outcast, forced to leave NY because of accusations against her, estranged with her own mother who denies to believe her moves to uncle James’ eerie mansion located in Louth: a tiny town on the Hudson River to live with him temporarily!

But the permanent spiritual night time visitors of the house and local people are hostile to the outsiders don’t let her spend some quality time at her new place peacefully. Caretaker Miriam and her son Sam get worried about Bram who keeps seeing a girl in white dress stepping around the rooms, looking exactly like one of the girls rumored to be died at the mansion nearly 100 years ago.

And her uncle James still suffers from grief to lose his wife at the fire nearly destroyed the mansion. He still thinks his step daughter Lark who is institutionalized at the mental hospital may be the reason of the fire. But Bram thinks otherwise and as she starts to dig further, she realizes there’s something more threatening about this place! If she wants to survive, she’d better run without looking back!

This is smart, riveting, twisty, exciting, unputdownable gothic story! Bram is survivor, fighter, brave girl even though she suffers from so many tragic experiences. Most of the women characters including Lark, Maisie were troubled but strong, clever girls who are determined to survive against their dysfunctional families and the shittiest life hands they were dealt!

I couldn’t stop reading and the conclusion was more satisfying than I can imagine! This book is not only a horrifying, dark, gothic dark mansion story, it’s also about the young women who shouldn’t be afraid of standing for themselves. It’s truly inspiring and earned my five gazillion haunted, up all night, nightmarish, traumatic stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s / Delacorte Press for sharing this incredible digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts. ...more

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Nov 03, 2020 Sheena rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley, horror, young-adult

Bram moves to a creepy manor that is supposedly cursed. Not a new concept but still one of my favorites to read. This reminded me of a lot of Riley Sager’s Home Before Dark which I absolutely loved but I thought there were a little bit too many similarities. Comparing those similarities would be spoilers so I won’t go into those but if you’ve read both books you will know what I’m talking about.

I really liked that even though this is targeted as a young adult book, there are themes of female emp ...more

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Aug 24, 2020 Erin A. Craig rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Delicious and dark, this is a gothic haunting for the modern age. It sank its teeth deep. I will be haunted by the Dead Girls of Louth for a long time to come.

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Nov 07, 2020 Montzalee Wittmann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Don't Tell a Soul by Kirsten Miller is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. As I read this book I truly forgot I was reading and not actually experiencing this story! The author presented the world so complete that I felt, heard, and experienced everything that the main character was going through. Terrific job!
Wonderful, well developed characters and plenty of tension, plus unpredictable situations and possible outcomes kept me entranced!
Our gal is sent to live with h ...more

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Nov 12, 2020 Lady H rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2020

wow that was so freaking good omg???? i gotta get my thoughts together and write a proper review because i LOVED this

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Dec 17, 2020 Caitlyn DeRouin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-mystery-thriller

Trigger Warnings: Mentions of parental death, mentioned death of grandparents, death (by suicide, fire), mentions of suicide (drowning), mentions of mental illness (nondescript, a character was committed, another character went to rehab), house fire, underage drinking and drug use, mentions of alcoholism, drug addiction, overdose, attempted rape, neglectful parenting, mentions of physical abuse, mentions of pedophilia, murder

This book was absolutely wild. It starts off as a ghost story, but it's ...more

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Dec 31, 2020 Erin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: blog-books, ghost-stories, 2021-blog

3.5 stars, almost 4

Note: I was provided with a free ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

The creepy atmosphere Miller creates in this book harkens back to the gothic classics of du Marier and the Brontë sisters. Though the prose, voice, and style may feel a little old-fashioned, this story is wholly contemporary. Women aren't rivals. Instead, they are support networks, and they work tirelessly in a world where women's stories are d ...more

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Dec 28, 2020 Maria F. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A gothic mansion. A cold winter town. Mysterious deaths. A mystifying mural. And one girl on a mission to find the dark truth that could possibly kill her.
This book was so addicting, enthralling, heart-pounding and suspenseful. I found myself staying awake to finish- I could feel the tension through the pages and it was honestly brilliant.
This book follows our protagonist Bram- a “troubled” teenager who has been sent to live with her uncle after some unfortunate circumstances in her hometown
Onc ...more

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Jan 11, 2021 Katja (Life and Other Disasters) rated it liked it

*I was provided with an eARC by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!*

CW: parental death, sexual assault/rape, drug/substance abuse, mentions of suicide, mentions of non-descript mental illnesses, gaslighting, parental neglect

I’ve been slowly but surely drifting into a territory of picking up one book after another revolving around what sounded like haunted houses, but with a much more complex stories underneath. I am not quite sure what draws me to these kind of books, b *I was provided with an eARC by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!*

CW: parental death, sexual assault/rape, drug/substance abuse, mentions of suicide, mentions of non-descript mental illnesses, gaslighting, parental neglect

I’ve been slowly but surely drifting into a territory of picking up one book after another revolving around what sounded like haunted houses, but with a much more complex stories underneath. I am not quite sure what draws me to these kind of books, but Kirsten Miller managed to create a wonderfully creepy ambiance reminiscent of gothic classics. There’s an unease in the house and especially in the beginning, you have no idea what to expect from it. As often as the people of Louth keep saying that they don’t believe in ghosts, it still seems like something is off about the manor.

People say the house is cursed.
It preys on the weakest, and young women are its favorite victims.
In Louth, they’re called the Dead Girls.

When you first meet Bram, it becomes instantly apparent that something bad has happened to her. Even without knowing the details, you just know. That girl has built up a wall of defense a mile high and while that was completely understandable considering her history and upbringing, it still felt irritating during some earlier points in the story. The way she went from starting to like and warm up to people to completely distrusting them and looking for weapons to defend herself in case of an emergency could give you whiplash, although I again want to stress that it makes sense because of her past. But still, as long as you don’t know her, it makes it hard to warm up to her entirely sometimes. Her reasons for wanting to be in the manor so badly kind of eluded me at first, because I did not completely understand her obsession with what happened, but then this also gets explained and uncovered. I think one of the main objectives with the book is to just stick with it and things will eventually get resolved.

Aside from Bram, there was an assortment of interesting characters, all keeping you on your toes the entire time. I feel like we could have gotten to know a couple of them better, but with Lark’s wall up, you get most of your information through second-hand gossip and later confrontations. Trust is a scare commodity in Louth, especially with so many girls having vanished and/or died in the small community over the years. However, my initial feeling for most people was correct, which either made the novel predictable or my gut instinct is just rocking.

Overall, I enjoyed many of the twists and was far from guessing everything. I felt a certain distance to the characters and the story for a long time, but it did all come together in the end. Some might say it came together a bit too conveniently, but I didn’t mind that too much. Just be prepared for a story full of gaslighting and people blaming mental illness for all sorts of things, without anyone being diagnosed or actually having a mental illness in some cases. It can easily rub you the wrong way, but is a huge part of exposing who the good and bad guys are in this story. ...more

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Nov 14, 2020 Samantha Louise rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

As a Kirsten Miller fan, I was really excited to be approved by Netgalley for this eARC.

The story starts with Bram arriving in Louth, New York after a very long journey from Manhattan. She's come to stay with her uncle at a large manor house he's remodeling. There's a blizzard outside and she doesn't she feels like she's been forgotten. Eventually, she's picked up by a man her uncle hired to pick her up, which puts her on edge even though she's armed herself with a newly bought box cutter and be As a Kirsten Miller fan, I was really excited to be approved by Netgalley for this eARC.

The story starts with Bram arriving in Louth, New York after a very long journey from Manhattan. She's come to stay with her uncle at a large manor house he's remodeling. There's a blizzard outside and she doesn't she feels like she's been forgotten. Eventually, she's picked up by a man her uncle hired to pick her up, which puts her on edge even though she's armed herself with a newly bought box cutter and bear repellant. She states vaguely that she's come to Louth in search of answers, but it also is hinted at that something or someone has chased her away from New York and there's something or someone preventing her from returning.

I was hooked from the first chapter. I didn't know which characters to trust, and I didn't know how they were all tied into the mystery. I didn't know what the past and three dead girls had to do with the present. I didn't know (but had suspicions) about what had happened to Bram to make her distrust people so much, especially men. I didn't know why she was in Louth, and what had happened in NYC to force her there. I loved her resourcefulness, drive, and determination. I loved the sleepy, wintery, slightly gothic atmosphere. (view spoiler). And all of that kept me reading.

(view spoiler)

Don't Tell A Soul is one of those YA books that are YA because of the main character's age and less so because of the content: there was some dark, enraging stuff going on. I haven't read many mysteries or thrillers but this one has your typical trigger warnings: (view spoiler)

(view spoiler) Don't Tell A Soul is def a win for YA mystery. ...more

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Nov 29, 2020 Ashley Dang rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

*Trigger Warning: Attempted Sexual Assault, Drug Abuse, Lacing someone’s drink*

“Don’t trust what anyone tells you. A girl should always go with her gut.”

Nothing says a great read like a gothic story filled with mysterious, a haunted house, dead girls, and a troubled protagonists. Told as a modern day Rebecca retelling, it absolutely hits the mark for me! The story revolves around Bram, banished from Manhattan after an incident that “tarnished” her reputation, and has been moved to live with her *Trigger Warning: Attempted Sexual Assault, Drug Abuse, Lacing someone’s drink*

“Don’t trust what anyone tells you. A girl should always go with her gut.”

Nothing says a great read like a gothic story filled with mysterious, a haunted house, dead girls, and a troubled protagonists. Told as a modern day Rebecca retelling, it absolutely hits the mark for me! The story revolves around Bram, banished from Manhattan after an incident that “tarnished” her reputation, and has been moved to live with her uncle in the town of Louth in his mansion. The only catch? The house she’s staying at has a history of girls dying and being haunted. Bram has been haunted her entire life, after the incident in which she witnessed her father and aunt (Jame’s first wife) die, their dead bodies have been etched into her memory. She was the one who found the bodies when she was 12 years old and ever since then has been on a never ending journey between drugs and rehab to try and stop seeing the bodies. However, after getting out of rehab and enrolling into a new school, an incident occurs that has people not believing her side of the story no matter what she says. She finds the mystery of her uncle Jame’s tragedy, in which apparently his step daughter set fire to the mansions and his new wife(second wife) died in the fire. Something seems off about the story and Bram sets out to prove the truth, to prove Lark’s truth and ends up in a whole new dangerous mystery with more dead girls than she bargained for. Strange noises echo across the house at night and Bram keeps seeing a mysterious girl in white roaming and moving the furniture in her room. The town is completely hostile to Bram and her uncle is not who she remembered him being (she adored him as kid) and Bram only has her own wits to help her solve this mystery as she soon finds that her own life is on the line. This story was everything I could ever ask for! Bram was a great protagonists and stuck by her guts even though everything made her think she might be crazy. I do like a protagonists who appears to be an unreliable narrator but doesn’t waver from their stance. The mystery was intriguing and definitely a whirlwind. I would highly recommend this read for anyone looking for an interesting mystery or a gothic read by the fireplace!

*Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children's for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review* ...more

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Dec 14, 2020 Teri rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I’d recently watched the remake of Rebecca on Netflix when I read this book description. Ghosts, an old manor, a string of dead girls – what about this description doesn’t grab you?

I loved the setting of this story – a small town full of layers upon layers of secrets, an old mansion with disturbing rumors surrounding it, locals who don’t trust the newcomers and vice versa. It takes place during winter in the northeast, so the snowstorms and occasional loss of power just add to the atmosphere. Th ...more

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Nov 09, 2020 Alisha Carderella rated it really liked it · review of another edition

3.75⭐️

Bram tries to escape her old life in Manhattan, and the only one left for her to turn to is her Uncle James. James is not the same man she remembers from her childhood. After losing his second wife in a mysterious fire he’s now an unrecognizable wisp of a man. Moving into his creepy old manor might have been a bad idea. Especially since the locals aren’t very welcoming to Bram. “People say the house is cursed. It preys on the weakest, and young women are its favorite victims.”

I thought thi ...more

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Dec 28, 2020 Jenna rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. **I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Kirsten Miller presents a YA mystery thriller in Don't Tell a Soul. Readers follow Bram, a troubled girl going to live with her uncle in the country after something has happened to make her leave Manhattan. Bram soon follows that there are rumors about her uncle's manor being haunted, and begins to experience things that seem to be unexplainable. Of course, that just means Bram has to seek an ...more

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Dec 14, 2020 Saima rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2020, mystery-thriller, arcs

4.5/5 stars.

TW: drug abuse, attempted sexual assault, gaslighting.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a brilliant and eerie book, and I really enjoyed reading it! It was great YA gothic novel, full of spine-chilling parts and a nail-biting ending that had me on the edge of my seat.

The story followed Bram as she tries to uncover the mystery behind the manor she is staying at, though she may be in over her head. While the storyline is a c ...more

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Dec 24, 2020 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc

I had been looking forward to this “modern retelling of Rebecca” ever since I read its description and saw its cover. I’m a fan of “Rebecca,” the story more than the writing, and I thought that I would see the obvious parallels right away: a second wife living in the shadow of the first.

I would say that if you are looking for “Rebecca,” this isn’t it, but it doesn’t disappoint. What this is though, is a gothic story set in modern times, with a cold, wintery town and a creepy house. The story is ...more

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Jan 18, 2021 Auds rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I don`t usually like stories involving ghosts or apparitions. They just end up being too scary or
not scary at all. But this one sends a shiver to my spine not because I was scared but rather
ecstatic to have read this book.

It started when Bram moves to the town of Louth as she helps her uncle renovate his manor.
Louth is just a little town on the Hudson River. People here know each other and they don’t like
outsiders. It is either they don’t want you to be hurt or they don’t want you to know about ...more

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Nov 14, 2020 Jackie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reads, horror, mystery

I really wish I was able to enjoy this but unfortunately I just couldn’t.

“Don’t Tell a Soul” brings us to Louthe where Bram is escaping the missteps of her past while also looking for answers surrounding her fathers death and when she’s reunited with her uncle she quickly learns that small towns carry nothing but secrets and ghost stories.

I really wanted to like this book it has everything on the surface that I enjoy but I think it suffered in the overall execution.

Bram is an unlikely lead ha ...more

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Nov 20, 2020 Caity rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I really enjoyed the characters in this book. At the start of the book it is unclear who can be trusted and what secrets they are keeping. The setting of the small town and potentially cursed mansion works really well for the creepy secretive atmosphere of the story. It also served the theme of powerful wealthy men using their influence and money to get anything they want. The story takes place in the present day but the characters are also dealing with the influence of the home’s history and tr ...more

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Dec 28, 2020 Emily Radojits rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for this ARC!

Trigger Warnings: attempted rape and drug abuse

Bram moves from Manhattan, NY to escape her troubling past. She goes to live with her beloved Uncle in a small town in New York so she can get away from everything happening in Manhattan. Her uncle had bought and tried restoring an old house that was intended to be turned into an Inn at some point, but a fire broke out and killed her uncle's wife. Bram uncovers some unsettling things while living in ...more

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Oct 26, 2020 Kat rated it liked it · review of another edition

*Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.*

Bram is absolutely ready to disappear from life in Manhattan, where she lives with her Mom (who never wanted kids anyhow) and where she's trying to get past an unfortunate scandal (that totally wasn't her fault). When her Uncle James invites her to stay at his house in upstate New York, she jumps at the chance - except, it's more of a mansion than a house, which was supposed to be turned into an inn, and it's also ...more

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Dec 29, 2020 ElphaReads rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, reading-list-2020, politics-and-social-justice, ya

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

While there were a lot of aspects of this book that I thought I was going to like, overall DON'T TELL A SOUL had a number of unexplored paths and muddled outcomes. There were some really well done moments of horror and dread, with descriptions of unease and late night paranoia that I did like. I also liked that there was some examination of how so many ghost stories have women who are victimized, even through violence and death, ...more

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Jan 19, 2021 Azzurra Nox rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I’ll be honest, I was tempted to DNF this book because it was sort of slow moving and it wasn’t really compelling until 40% in the book and then BAM did the novel really shift its gears and started to become unputdownable! I love the book Rebecca and this book was advertised as a retelling of sorts loaded with snowy creepiness and mystery. I must say that I started to like the protagonist Bram way better once we got a chance to really know her better. I really couldn’t tell where the story was g ...more

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Nov 13, 2020 Andee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, nov-2020, clearurshit-2020, 2020

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

TW: Assault, drug addiction, villainization of drug addiction and mental illness

The reason this was not an entirely five star read for me was that at the exact moment I would have classed this as genuinely scary- the story took a turn. And this turn made me angrier than anything else. We want to change the "crazy girl" horror trope, and this story attempted ...more

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Jan 07, 2021 Ally rated it liked it · review of another edition

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Deliciously gothic and haunting, Don't Tell a Soul is a work of suspense and intrigue. It's always a great read when you don't know who to trust, maybe not even the narrator herself.

I loved the setting of this story. Creepy, wintery small towns give me weird vibes in real life, but this really was the perfect setting for Bram's story. The typical trope of a creepy old house is often overused in this genre ...more

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Dec 01, 2020 Maggie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Children's for an e-ARC of this book. As always, all opinions expressed are my own.
A short description with no spoilers: Don't Tell A Soul follows Bram as she goes to stay with her Uncle in his mansion in a small town called Louth. However, there is something strange about Louth and there is definitely something strange about the mansion. Bram also keeps hearing stories about the Dead Girls and the rumors and mysteries surrounding them. What sma ...more

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Jan 01, 2021 Jessica Julien rated it it was ok · review of another edition

When all is lost, Bram seeks refuge with the kind uncle who recently has lost just as much, but when Bram arrives at the mansion only to learn of the haunting deaths that linger. Desperate to prove the Dead Girls' story wrong and find their true killer, Bram dives headfirst into the frozen tales of deadly curses while trying to keep herself out of the ghostly grasps of the local lore.

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this novel completely...it wasn't that I didn't like it, but I definitely ...more

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Oct 20, 2020 Ab rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: creative-re-tellings, netgalley, dark, fantastically-fantastical, ya-ness

This was a fantastically thrilling book with Gothic elements and a hint of Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" at its core. I loved the ghostly elements, the mystery/thriller aspects, and the strength and comradery of the female characters. I also loved that the author took "Rebecca" and effectively flipped it about and delivered us something contemporary with a strong message and a darkly Gothic feel. I was so pulled into this book that I stayed up all night to finish it, and felt no disappointment w ...more

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