Perfect Little Monsters is a fast-paced, easy read but don't let that fool you. . . because it has the wildest twists and turns! This was a fast-paced, heart-pounding YA thriller that had me furiously flipping the page. Reminded me of pretty little liars or You with the school setting. A great book!

“Someone has murdered the queen bee of Sierton High School. All the dead girl’s friends are suspects. And each one has a reason for wanting her to die.”

Wow this was such a good and twisty debut young adult thriller! Such an engaging read! Gives Mean Girls with murder vibes!

It was very well written with an intriguing plot and excellent pacing! Tons of suspense and tension- I did not want to put it down! And I really liked the dual timeline.

This one also has a lot of depth to it as well as it touches on some serious topics around bullying and suicide- really shines a light on the cruelty of bullying and the dark impact it can have.

I still can’t believe this was the author’s debut! Cannot wait to read her future works. Highly recommend reading this one!!🖤

These books are meant to keep us up reading— and for this story, I can confirm this is so true!

Dawn transfers schools in her senior year, which is tough — but she’s able to fit in fairly well among the cheerleaders.

Until their captain dies, and now they have a murder investigation on their hands.

Dawn wants to solve the murder so no one innocent goes to prison - but maybe these cheerleaders aren’t so innocent after all…

This book is like a psychological thriller meets Mean Girls, and it’s done perfectly.

I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll say this: I had no idea what was coming. And now that the book is closed, I can’t stop thinking about what happened!

Seriously, my mind is that Charlie Day meme right now with the board and the string. In the best way possible!

My advice is if you like a thriller, and you want a book that’s extremely well written and will keep you utterly hooked, pick this up and just let our author guide you down a very, very surprising path.

I see this author becoming a staple in the genre, folks. I give my highest recommendation!

Of course, check tws ❤️

What a fun addictive twisty thriller! Excellent for a debut. I'm all here for the Mean Girls vibes and fast-paced short chapters. Highly recommend to thriller fans!

This is a lovely little thriller. It is gorgeously twisted and I devoured it in a day when I was supposed to be doing something else!

This gave me a little teenage angst even though I am now an old crone. I guess we never forget. I love the twists and the mystery in this one. It was weird and I like weird.

Perfect Little Monsters is the perfect YA suspense thriller! It's fast-paced and heart-pounding, packed with jaw-dropping twists! There are trigger warnings in this book, one primarily being suicide. We follow two timelines, one being Hannah's and the other, Dawn's. Dawn has relocated from California to Wisconsin and is now a senior at Sierton High. She, like most other teenagers, just wants to fit in. She joins the cheerleading team and starts to make friends, however, she quickly sees her friends' true colors.
Dawn, on the other hand, although she tried to make friends at Sierton High, she was not as lucky. Instead, she was terribly bullied, leading to her multiple suicide attempts.
The twists and revelations in this book were so insane and mind-blowing, and it all started unraveling after the death of one of the students (and most cruel and unkind member of the cheerleading squad). This book is a page-turner for sure, and one that will definitely leave you on the edge of your seat! 4.5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and Cindy R.X. He for such a compelling ARC!

I did not see that ending coming, 5 🌟 for completely making me flip my lid. Ugh, high school can be so challenging. This follows a 2 part story involving Dawn the MC and then a side story of Hannah, the way those 2 story lines ultimately come together *chefs kiss* 🤌🏼
Basic plot, when the “popular” kids have a party and one of them turns up dead, who’s to blame? It had to be someone at the party, but they are all best friends, or are they? This book takes you through the unraveling of everyone in the “squad” revealing that everyone there had a reason to want the Queen Bee dead.

TRIGGER WARNING
Bullying. Harassment. Suicide.

If I read this book through the bullying lens, I definitely would have a different viewpoint. I did not read it through that lens.

I read it through the “I’m reading mean girls in a book” lens. If you’re around my age and know means girls, you’ll know exactly what I mean when you read it. IYKYK. Literally.

The characters are very comparable. Mean girl cheerleaders jock goth weirdo geek high school was a huge theme throughout the book. The setting was basically nonexistent but that didn’t matter. The characters could’ve been in a white walled warehouse Bruce almighty the entire time and it wouldn’t make a difference.

Cindy hit the nail on the head. I couldn’t stop reading. I read it in two settings and I love those kinds of thrillers. I seriously could not figure out what was going to happen. The multiple narrators was a great way to write the stories. Looking back I should’ve known, but you’ll never see it coming. Definitely recommend!

This was your typical YA mystery/thriller book. I thought it was just okay. I was hooked the whole time I was reading it. However, these characters were not relatable to me.

This was a great young adult thriller for high school aged students. The twist at the end was unexpected and the plot kept me wanting to read. There are a lot of things within the book that teenagers deal with friendships (good or bad), suicide, bullying, drugs/alcohol use, etc. Overall, I really enjoyed this thriller!

3.5 stars. This was a really quick read for me and I have to agree with the other reviews that compare it to Mean Girls. I did enjoy that part of it and it did keep me interested throughout. I didn't love the way mental illness was portrayed in the end and, as with most thrillers, the ending felt very far-fetched. Definitely check trigger warnings on this one!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my review.

Ella was the most popular (and hated) girl in school, so when she turns up murdered, there are too many suspects to count. Unfortunately for Dawn, being the new girl puts her in suspect spot number one. She puts on her own investigative hat to find out who the killer is.

PERFECT LITTLE MONSTERS by Cindy R. X. He is a bingeable YA thriller that will have you screaming at the meanness of the popular kids and rooting for the outcasts!

This isn’t the strongest book I’ve read - some of the characterization fell flat and the pacing never really took a moment to breathe. It was overall lacking a bit of substance…

BUT, with that being said, this was a very quick read and, being a debut, I’m very intrigued to see what Cindy may be cooking up next!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: May 7

tw: suicide, suicidal thoughts, eating disorder, murder, bullying, fatphobia, mental health

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc. I've been in a really bad reading slump but I was still able to read this, which is a special kind of compliment. This book kept my attention and was easy to read. I will definitely recommend it to patrons.

This high school psychological YA thriller went one way and then did a sharp turn. The narrative is clever and the characters intrigued me to the end. I didn’t fully see the major twists coming; I wondered about one of them about 1/2 way through but convinced myself I was wrong.

I saw a couple other reviews complain about how the mental health issues were handled at the end. Mental health issues are absolutely no joke, however I look at it as this is not a work of non-fiction.

I don’t typically read YA but if the author writes another, I’ll definitely check it out.

Note: Bullying and attempted suicide trigger warnings, please read with care.

Upcoming release date of May 7, 2024. Thank you very much to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the early e-book.

This was a really enjoyable book. Sometimes the writing threw me out of the story as the language wasn't language that I'd expect a teen to use but an older person. The writing at other times seemed dry and stiff somehow. However, the story was great. I truly enjoyed it and didn't see the ending coming at all, which is always fun and the reason for the 4 stars. Without the excellent surprise ending, I probably would have given this book 3 stars, but the ending is really, really good. I would definitely recommend this book to teen students who enjoy murder mysteries like I do. They absolutely would enjoy this book, especially fans of Danielle Vega's Merciless series, which gives the same very mean girls vibe. Absolutely enjoyed this book!

Cindy R.X. He’s debut novel hits the mark with what teens rave about in their favorite mystery thrillers: real issues, twisted characters, revenge, and some surprises. He grapples with the complex issues of teen-on-teen bullying, controlling, and shaming and their complicated intersection with suicide by developing characters who are iconic stereotypes but just realistic enough to be believable. This was a fast-paced, multi-perspective read. I am looking forward to discussing it with the high school students I recommended it to who have already added it to their TBR list.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire, Netgalley, and the author for early access to this twisty and twisted mystery.

(Posted on Goodreads and will post on Amazon on publication)

I love the Mean Girls revenge vibes. I loved the pacing and felt like this was a real page turner. I did catch on early to who the culprit was (but my deduction skills were in my favour). One thing they took me some time to adjust was the transitions between Hannah and Dawn and trying to recall the storylines from both.
This book is heavy on bullying, mental health, suicide and parent death. Please check the TWs.
This was a good YA murder mystery to read and I would recommend it.

Cindy R X He's debut PERFECT LITTLE MONSTERS makes my skin crawl, in the best way possible. PERFECT LITTLE MONSTERS is a dual POV YA contemporary thriller/mystery, the main storyline following the death of a high school bully Ella. Dawn, the new girl at school, takes it upon herself to solve the mystery and figure out who might have killed the school's most hate-able queen bee. The narrative cuts back to a time when Ella bullied a girl so badly she attempts to commit suicide several times. The prose is tight, the structure is cinematic, and the book is unputdownable.

I came in fully expecting to know the twist and was delightfully surprised.

"You're beautiful on the surface, but you're monsters inside." In middle school I was a big fan of Christopher Pike's horror novels. This story gave me Christopher Pike writes Mean Girls vibes! If you want Mean Girls with a darkly ever after, this is it.
I sped through this book without even realizing it. Every time I finished a chapter I thought, one more won't and hurt and next thing I knew I was more than halfway through the book. The story moves fast, alternating between Dawn and Hannah's point of view as cheerleaders at Sierton High School, which is ruled by Queen Bee Ella and her squad, Lucy and Naomi. Everyone hates Ella, and many want her dead, but who hates enough to kill her?