Such Quiet Girls Quotes

“I accept my past, understand my present, and look forward to my future.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“suddenly thinking about how Harriet the Spy had said, “Life is very strange.” I didn’t really understand what that meant when I read it the first time. I did now, though.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“I’d barely let myself think about how many good things could still be ahead.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“I couldn’t bring myself to look forward to a future that was tied to that horrifying past.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“imagine what I wanted. Instead of thinking about what I didn’t want. Like, I was always thinking about how long it would be until I saw my daughter Sophie again. Or how much I missed her. But that just made me feel stuck and scared. So instead, the counselor told me to think about the two of us eating cereal together for breakfast, or running through the sprinklers on a hot summer day, or just saying goodnight at bedtime.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Which meant that I could dig into the wet wood way more easier than I’d been able”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Take care of your sister. Sisters are for life.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Karen peered at me with slitted green eyes purring softly, as if warning me not to remove her human pillow.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“There it was, right beneath his jaw. The carotid artery, I knew from watching Grey’s Anatomy.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Such nice, quiet girls.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“when there were enough bad things all around you, the only choice was to move to the least bad thing.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“They’ll be fine. They’ll bounce back. They’ll have a crazy story to tell when they’re older, I reminded myself for the hundredth time. Other people had it way worse. Their parents cared enough about them to send them to after-school care instead of leaving them to fend for themselves in a trailer park every day, like mine had. On good days, Mom left the double-wide’s door open so I could come inside and watch TV. On bad days, she locked it and refused to wake up. So yeah, I’d never been shoved into a dirty van, or kidnapped for ransom, or forced into a hole in the ground, but these kids would be down there for a couple days, max. I’d survived my shit, and so would they. And if I could, I’d trade my crappy memories of growing up for that experience in a heartbeat.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“They’ll be fine. They’ll bounce back. They’ll have a crazy story to tell when they’re older, I reminded myself for the hundredth time. Other people had it way worse. Their parents cared enough about them to send them to after-school care instead of leaving them to fend for themselves in a trailer park every day, like mine had. On good days, Mom left the double-wide’s door open so I could come inside and watch TV. On bad days, she locked it and refused to wake up.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“The irony of Alzheimer’s was that it affected his short-term memory the most. The things he wanted to forget were the ones with the deepest hooks.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Sometimes, the consequences of trying—of fighting—were just as bad as the thing you were trying to escape.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“poke the bear.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“This wasn’t one of those Lifetime episodes where some creep chained up his victims and made them eat dog food or garbage like that. This was a civil kidnapping.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Her panic was contagious, like yawns. Ben’s voice, then Rose’s, then Bonnie’s joined in, begging the men not to shut us in. I swallowed my screams back, afraid of what it would feel like to let the terror fully into my lungs.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“I thought I’d probably cry or pass out, too. However, it turned out, when there were enough bad things all around you, the only choice was to move to the least bad thing.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Kids know more than you give them credit for,” he said sadly. “After that, I promised I’d listen to the kids, take more time to listen to my gut.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“And a line from Harriet the Spy popped into my mind. Keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“One of them got out? One of them GOT OUT, and you let her go?” he roared. Andy ripped the gun from his waistband, sprinting past me in a stumbling mad-dash.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“But when he moved in with us, all that changed. He opened up and told stories I’d never heard before. “Before I forget, Sheen,” he’d always say.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Because even if we did manage to claw our way out of here, we weren’t free. We’d just come face to face with the men who’d put us down here in the first place.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“But all I could think about was how scary it was that Greasy Hair’s words were bad enough to change her mind about trying to get out of here.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“He was the one who’d told the kids, “You do what I tell you. Otherwise, we shoot your bus driver.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Everything is good,” I said, lowering my voice so the kids in the van couldn’t hear me.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Stand up and put your hands on the seat in front of you. If you do what we say, and keep your mouths fucking shut, nobody gets hurt.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“smashing”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls

“Would we ever be home for bedtime?”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Such Quiet Girls