Although I found it a little slow at times, it was definitely an enjoyable read and a twist that I didn't see coming. Well worth your time!

Whew! What a frightening novel. I think it has the potential of happening in real life. The plot is not at all far-fetched. The characters are well-developed and true to actually teen behaviors. When high school senior Bailey goes missing, new student Kacey seems a likely suspect. But Kacey's step-brother is acting strangely, and Bailey was last seen with football star Cliff. Is Bailey dead? If so, who is guilty? I am thankful to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to be an early reader in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Evil teenage girls...yes, that's the topic here. It will appeal to some of my students. We will see.

I have such a fascination with evil teenage girls - how dangerous it can be to be one, getting caught up in obsession, secrets, jealousy, and that deep desire to fit in. The realization of what being one can hold..how easy it can be to be underestimated. To learn how to get what you want. Manipulation. How complex and intense a friendship between teenage girls can be. Just what that can lead to. It can be a nasty thing being a teenage girl.

So of course Little Monsters intrigued the hell out of me. A psychological thriller about appearances versus reality and the power of manipulation amongst teenage girls? Yes, please. Just what the doctor ordered.

Seventeen year old Kacey is the new girl in small town Broken Falls. After a fight with her unstable mom, she’s sent to live with the dad she’s never met and his family: stepmom Ashley, stepbrother Andrew (17), and half-sister Lauren (13). Kacey leans heavily on her new friends: Bailey and Jade. She just wants to fit in and they do everything together. So when they don’t invite her to the biggest party of the year, Kacey is super confused. Did she do something wrong? It only gets weirder when Kacey gets word that Bailey never made it home. Where could Bailey have gone? Does someone know more than they’re letting on?

In a small town like Broken Falls, everyone knows everyone. So it doesn’t take long for suspicions to be pointed at the person they know least of all: Kacey. And she begins to realize trust isn’t something that should just be given.
There are several red herrings throughout. I did eventually guess whodunnit, but not before having a few other solid suspects in mind. This one definitely had a few twists throughout. The small town setting is interesting and written really well. I enjoyed the local legend of the Red Woman tied with the “haunted” barn. It all truly adds to the atmosphere.

The display of friendship between teenage girls feels so accurate in how complicated it all can be. Obsession, jealousy, manipulation, and secrets all coming into play. I liked the different dynamics that came into play regarding the relationships Kacey had with each of her family members. The characters are believable. It is also worth noting that there is zero romance.

I would’ve liked a chapter from another POV. We get Kacey the entire book and a few chapters from Bailey through journal entries. But a POV showing the mystery play out could’ve been nice.

The way the story starts, it is hard to tell where it will go. After finishing, I want to go back and read it all again knowing what is to come. This was definitely a solid YA psychological thriller.

As soon as I started this book, I knew it was going to be one of "those", a book with teens doing horrible things to one another out of jealousy and obsession. A book that tries to explore the human psyche but mostly makes you wonder if the average adult really thinks that poorly of modern teens. At least this one isn't overly gruesome. And the pseudo-supernatural elements were a nice touch, but mostly I found it vaguely depressing and generally forgettable.

I admit I mostly read adult psychological thrillers, but reading a YA version of one of my favorite genres was a nice change of scenery. Because there is no doubt I very much enjoyed reading Little Monsters and I found myself literally flying through the pages. The first thing that stands out is the writing style, which is very engaging and draws you right in. I only had to read a few pages to find out I would probably going to love the story and these feelings didn’t change until the very end. The plot is quite interesting and packed with plot twists and intrigue that will make you wonder what is really going on. Little Monsters is high school drama and teenage manipulation at its best! Things change direction so many times that you start wondering what truly happened and the paranormal horror (AKA the red woman) twist is a nice touch. Broken Falls is a town with a history an you are quickly trapped in its web of lies and secrets… And Little Monsters is without doubt an excellent psychological thriller. The only thing that made me lower the rating slightly was the fact that I didn’t particularly like the main characters and some of the drama started to annoy me. This might just have been me and my allergy for high school cliches and drama though! Because there’s no doubt that Little Monsters was a highly enjoyable and positively twisty read.

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas starts with the story of Kacey, Bailey and Jade. The three are friends. Kacey is the new girl in town and the other two girls took her in and welcomed her into their circle. The story begins at an odd evening that I wasn’t quite sure what to think about until I got to the end of the book. However, right from the start, I was hooked to the story. There was something unsettling about the events taking place. I didn’t know who to trust and just kept feeling that something sinister was going on. This made it very hard to put down the book until I got to the end.

The missing girl is at the center of the story. An investigation is ongoing and its hard to guess exactly what happened to Bailey. The evidence seems a bit all over(random) hence making everyone a suspect. In addition, there is a diary by Bailey. This diary holds what seems to be the most important clues of the mystery. It surprised me because I assumed that it would just be musings of a teenage girl. However, through the pages, shocking secrets are revealed.

This is a book about secrets and obsession. It is compared to Pretty Little Liars and it is easy to see why. Readers get totally immersed into the world of teenage girls and their secret lives. There are usual issues with school, boys and parents. There are also forbidden parties and girls sneaking out of home in the middle of the night. However, with these teens, the lies are bigger. There is a lot of scheming behind the scenes.

An interesting setting is one of the key aspects that makes me enjoy a book. In this case, it was brilliant. The story is set in the kind of town shrouded in secrets and best of all, urban legends. There are people who believe that there is a lady haunting an old barn. This isn’t a supernatural story but I liked the urban legend and how it added to the mystery of the story.

This ended up being a quick, fun read. There are sessions of the book that felt a bit slow since nothing much was happening but the writing kept me going. Kara has a way of pulling you into the story and making you feel like you are part of it. I wasn’t able to totally guess the ending so that is something else that I liked. If you enjoy YA mysteries then this is definitely a book for you.

FULL REVIEW WHICH WILL BE UP ON MY BLOG ON JULY 17:

“Little Monsters” is narrated by seventeen-year old Kacey Young. She transferred from the city to a small town in Wisconsin on her junior year in high school. She had since then been close with Bailey and Jade. In the beginning of the book, Kacey’s two friends are picking her up for their usual end-of-the-week night escapades. This time they are planning to perform a seancé in an abandoned barn where a ghost called the Red Woman is said to be lurking around. Just when they are about to sneak out though, Kacey’s sweet younger half-sister Lauren saw them and tagged along. After that night of botched seancé, Kacey thought that everything is still okay among the three of them. To her surprise though the two girls decided to ditch her for a party they all agreed on going to. And worse, Bailey went missing after she left that party and everyone in town starts eyeing Kacey for answers.

The book got me hooked a few pages in. It started with a paranormal vibe stemming from a small-town ghost story. I honestly got the chills in some parts that I did a quick check if I am reading a paranormal YA book. I thought that it’s interesting to have something spooky as a springboard for a mystery thriller. The idea is to have the creeps for the spirits of the dead wear off slowly and replace it with a shattering disbelief on how living little girls can become monsters. The appeal of the theory did not translate well in this book though. The transition from paranormal to mystery thriller is rather clunky.

I partially blame it on the choice of Kacey as a narrator. Do not get me wrong, I like her character just fine. I can relate to how easily she accepted the first offer of friendship that came her way as a transferee student. I can imagine how hard she had tried to reinvent her reputation in her new family and new school. I am beside her when all of those efforts seem pointless because after Bailey’s disappearance, everyone, even people who matter to her, starts becoming a stranger in her eyes. In the end, she will always feel that she’s an outsider. Kacey’s situations are worthy of sympathy from the reader but my problem with her is in the context of the book she is in. She does not possess the shade and nuance that is essential in being the main source of narration of a mystery thriller. Although she was called in the police station a number of times for questioning, she lacks the sinister of being a full-blown suspect. As for the paranormal stuff going on in the book, she does not believe any of it in the first place so eventually the reader will also not take it seriously.

The book’s soft jabs at being suspenseful are interspersed with hit punches in the form of Bailey’s journal entries. Through her writings scattered in-between some chapters, we discover bit by bit this obssession building up inside her. Her character is wrought with intriguing psyche that will send the littlest hair of the reader stand on its end. I would love more of these ominous feels from the book but they were few and far between. When the final reveal came, I did not feel anything. It sort of just passed by me and I thought the book did not quite earn that dark ending. (I love dark endings, BTW!) I guess what the reader eventually needs is more vantage points for all those monstrous things that happened to seep through. Maybe something that will flesh out the other characters as well. I would have liked to know more about Jade who obviously has the least dimension among the three friends. And Lauren’s view on things would be quite valuable too because of her naivety. Plus she seems to really believe in ghosts and evil spirits.

“Little Monsters” is not entirely bad. I enjoyed a few things but also found a few things lacking. The characters are believable but some could use more spotlight. When measured up with the recent popular works of mystery thrillers, the book came a bit underwhelming. Okay just for context, this opinion is coming from someone who was amazed by “Gone Girl” and “The Girl on the Train”. Although the target readers/main characters for those are adults, I see no reason why I cannot compare it with something for young adults. Without the scrutiny of that comparison however, I think this book decently showcased how people are effortlessly manipulated and threatened because of our fear of being friendless and alone. Read this if you seek a chilling thrill on the lengths that young girls will agree to do just to gain approval from their peers.

I read and thoroughly enjoyed The Darkest Corners last year so I knew I wanted to read this one no matter what. And wow! I was completely blown away by this one! Little Monsters completely hooked me right from the start. I did not want to put this book down at all so I read it over the course of two days. The first chapter reminded me a little bit of my group of friends in high school. There is an abandoned farm outside of our small town that we liked to go drive by and dare people to walk up to at night. One night we did this, things definitely did not go well and we never went back again. And the book takes place in Wisconsin, my neighboring state, so it was very easy to connect with the midwestern vibes. So needless to say I connected with Kacey almost instantly. I totally felt for her having such a rough background before she moved in with the father she never knew and his family. Her new family dynamic and new friends made it look as though things were looking up for her. I loved her relationship with her siblings (both step and half) and even with her step-mom. But when things with her best friends start to go a little iffy, things go south quickly. There were so many incredible twists and turns to this story and I did not see any of them coming. Just when I thought I had things figured out… BOOM! That is my absolute favorite part about mysteries and thrillers! I have to say that this is one of the best thrillers I have ever read! Even before finishing eARC copy, I preordered the book because I just have to be able to read this one again with a finished copy. So if you’re looking for a fantastic psychological thriller to give you all the thrills and chills, I highly recommend you check out Little Monsters! You will not be disappointed.

This fast-paced YA mystery will captivate readers. In the middle of a winter storm, a young woman, Bailey, goes missing. As the clues pile up, suspicion seems to fall on one of her best friends, Kacey, who is a relatively new transplant to the town, moving in with her father's family after one too many incidents with her mother. Interspersed with Kacey's point of view are entries from Bailey's journal, showing that she may not have been the person Kacey thought she knew.

There are so many elements that come together really perfectly to create a story in Little Monsters that is enticing. The setting was perfect- living in Wisconsin, I was able to picture the bleakness and slight danger of a small, rural Wisconsin town in the immediate aftermath of a snowstorm. Kacey, who is a little cagey about the details of her history with her estranged mother, is a character that you're not totally sure you can rely on. When the story reaches its final moments and the chips fall into place, I was so impressed with the story Kara Thomas had woven.

Another amazing pulse pounding thriller by Kara Thomas will leave readers at the edge of their seats. Broken Falls is a town used to secrets and mysteries. Kacey moves to Broken Falls to start her life over with her estranged father and his family after having a falling out with her mother. She quickly becomes friends with two girls, Bailey and Jade, and the trio becomes close until things start unraveling. Friendships of three can become messy when lies, jealousy, and hatred are thrown in the mix. Add in small town drama, superstitions, and family loyalties and danger isn't far behind. Readers will be drawn into this gripping story and will be disappointed to see the end. Definitely recommend!

The Darkest Corners was one of my favorite reads last year, so I was excited to get the e-galley to read. I wasn’t disappointed. This is a great look at how manipulative people can be and really twisted in their need to keep up appearances.

The story is told by Kacey, but there are excerpts from Bailey’s diary, which are key to unlocking what happened to her. I liked Kacey, although I did not totally trust her as a narrator. She had a difficult childhood with her mom, but she is doing better now that she lives with her dad and his family. Kacey even admits to having done some violent things in her past which makes you wonder if she did something but is not admitting it. I started feeling very sorry for Kacey by the end of the book, she kept wanting to help find out what happened to Bailey but kept getting herself in deeper and almost accused of the crime herself.

Bailey and Jade were interesting characters. Bailey is only in the story for the first couple of chapters before she disappears. Jade is there throughout. I started out kind of liking both girls, they were just typical small town bored teenagers out to entertain themselves. I liked that Bailey friended Kacey from the start and Jade although more aloof than Bailey at least tried to be friends to both girls. It isn’t until the end that you realize how manipulative and nasty these two girls were.

Kacey’s family was a nice group, although her father was rather distant with her. I think he just didn’t know how to interact with her, never having had contact with her before her coming to live with them. Her stepmom was pretty awesome and not at all what you usually see in these situations. Her stepbrother Andrew was also super nice and supportive of Kacey. He is the one that I suspected the most through out the book, because he was almost too nice. Her little half-sister Lauren was a lost little lamb throughout the book that I felt sorry for.

The end of the book, when what happened to Bailey was revealed was not exactly a surprise but was disturbing none of the less. Kara Thomas does a great job of twisting the story in unforeseen ways and always delivers a page turning psychological thriller.

Bless this scary ass book and how it made my time at the gym fly.

Let me preface this by saying I've read many books that compared themselves to PLL, and it all ended badly. I have been burned so badly before that I almost didn't request this book just because of the PLL reference. That would have been so sad though because it's so good, you guys!
Dark? Sure, it's dark. Aren't all missing persons cases inherently dark? Every bit of grit and 'darkness' was 100% necessary. No gratuitous violence or gore here. Sometimes, little monsters live inside those we hold nearest and dearest. This is one such tale.
Getting into the story for me was slow going at first. I didn't care for the main character, Kasey, all that much, but she does make a fantastic narrator. Once I got into the main story, I was all in, constantly trying to predict the end and 100% certain that I had it figured out...when I totally didn't. The ending was particularly brilliant. Had me kicking myself for hours. How did I not see that coming?!? While deemed a 'twist', it is completely foreseeable if you are more astute than I was.
One of my favorite things about Little Monsters is that this author did not rely on any tropes, folks! No teen romance to speak of. No shying away from real issues. No "oh my", old ladies covering their mouths in shock scenes. It was just good storytelling by a master mystery author. I'm definitely looking up her other works now.

Kara Thomas does it again! Another fantastic mystery that holds you in its grips right until the very end.

Superficial me was sold by the cover of this and read nothing more of the synopsis than, 'For fans of Pretty Little Liars'. Those two things were enough to intrigue me and I am so glad this book lived up to my early excitement!

Kacey is the new girl in town with a mysterious past. Her new step-family are wholly accepting of their newest addition and so are her new friendship group - Bailey and Jade. But when Bailey disappears one night, fingers start to point and a few of them are turned her way.

I adore books that encroach on the dark, secret lives of teenage girls and this book did so in an exciting yet unpredictable way. From sneaking out at midnight to parties, to holding seances in haunted and remote buildings - this book was a series of exhilarating scenes tied together with the dark undertone of both the reader and the characters second-guessing everyone's motives. No emotion was spared and I spent much of my time reading this breathless with either suspense or terror.

There were so many layers to this dark and disturbing thriller and my mind was constantly attempting to assume and presume where the plot would take the reader. I did ultimately guess who the perpetrator was... but not before also guessing every other character the book alongside them!

I felt this book was a bit slower than her previous novel, but I can't deny it packed a punch especially at the end.

I think the story really took off once we started to get Bailey's POV. Kacey just couldn't carry it for me, but when Bailey jumped in I was hooked. She brought a whole other creepy thriller vibe that I had been waiting for and man was it amazing.

There were a couple of things that bothered me besides the pacing. One thing was that the author only touched on Kacey's past. The author would mention this big dark past, but then just skirt around the details. I wish she would have just gone there because it would have given me a reason to feel something for Kacey. It almost felt like the author didn't know what kind of background to give her character so she just gave a semi vague violent one. I have all kinds of questions about her past and I am bummed I won't get them answered. I am also bummed that Kacey went back to her moms after a supposedly horrible childhood. That part really bothered me.

Another thing that bothered me was the whole Andrew and Kacey relationship. It again felt like the author wasn't sure if she wanted to go there like the whole background info situation so she just left it up in the air. We get just enough to make us what more and then she takes it all away. I'm not saying I would have wanted them to be together, but I would have liked a more concrete ending for them.

I loved the twist though. When I finally figured it out I was like WHAT! I realized what was happening two pages before the author spilled the beans and I thought it was fantastic. It was a believable ending that had me in awe of the authors masterminding. Plus the words that Lauren spoke gave me chills.

All in all I loved this I just wish the author would have gone where she was going fully with all of her characters.

Didn't love this, but didn't hate it either. In fact, I think it started out really strong and then started to lose some steam towards the end. Regardless - Thomas delivers an adequate mystery/thriller, one that will allow teens to become easily engrossed and appreciative of the twist. Definitely worthy of a purchase, especially for collections looking to bulk up in genre fiction.

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas
Kacey is a character you can relate to, Broken Falls, WI is a town most of us grew up in, and the story of the Red Woman is every small town's token lore--it's a story chalk full of connections and suspense for the reader. YA readers will love nodding their head every time the author comments on life in a small town & the mystery and mayhem that descends on Broken Falls will NOT allow you to put this one down! A must purchase for YA collections where readers of April Henry, Ashley Elston, and Sara Shepard are frequent patrons. A perfect book club choice for rural public libraries looking to increase circulation & dissect a sensational mystery.

Meg Oppelt, School Librarian & professional reader