Story: 4.25⭐️
Audio: 4.25⭐️
A lovely little follow-up, “The Quiet House” picks up a year after the preceding book. Blue is finally moving in, which should be a cause for celebration but Blue’s boxes aren’t even in the house yet before they’re tested. For different reasons, both Blue and Levi struggle to believe the other truly wants them for the long term, and have basically been hiding pieces of themselves to avoid conflict.
When Blue’s absentee father shows up, his extreme shadiness makes even amiable Levi distrustful and when Blue wants to jump at his father’s offer to spend a weekend at a notoriously haunted home, they end up arguing…and exposing some of the hidden insecurities in their relationship. Being more honest, sharing and COMPLETELY trusting each other is the main theme for the story with the wild ghostly shenanigans in the haunted mansion making it imperative they face their issues.
As much as they love each other and are capable of seeing the best in their partners, they absolutely SUCK at seeing the good in themselves, fueling their monster truck size self-doubt and insecurity-and since Blue’s insecurity has a literal translation of housing insecurity, he feels almost duty-bound to be on his best behavior. So be prepared for much “I’m not good enough” hand wringing, but even with all the possibilities for a huge angst-fest, this is pretty much it; a good tradeoff imo.
I actually enjoyed the different supernatural elements Morton used, and appreciated her explanation for certain “deviations” from the ability to see ghosts. In the first book, there are inklings that Levi can almost see ghosts, and a tip Blue gave him in the first book, gets used in this one, which I felt was a nice callback. Although, it DID almost hit kitchen sink levels with the different ghosts and magics all in this relatively short book. I felt like the big baddies could have been explored further, maybe thwarted for now as the history itself was pretty interesting and they are very, very powerful.
However, getting to spend more time with Tom, exploring Blue’s increasing powers and examining the crux of Levi’s feelings of inadequacy with the supernatural elements dialed up to 11 and everybody’s sass game on point was a real treat.
Leslie does a good job with the voices, per usual. There were just a few more production issues than I expected like changes in audio levels during scenes and dialogue and a few misplaced character voices.