Goodnight Monsters is just… unexpectedly good! Psychological thriller with a little bit of a horror twist, this was hard to put down. My general sense of unease grew throughout the story, and the final twist was so good, I had suspicions, but the final reveal still felt incredibly satisfying. This is a really unique critique of suburbia and female expectations, if you like creepy, and weird, for sure read this.

Thank you to the author and She Writes Press for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

*Goodnight Monsters* by Suzanne Junered is a delightfully eerie and imaginative read that balances chills with charm. The storytelling feels fresh and engaging, with a tone that’s both playful and slightly unsettling in the best way. A fun, memorable book that lingers long after you’ve finished.

𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕 𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒅𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏...𝒊𝒇 𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅, 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆?

This is the kind of book that makes you pause mid-page to start keeping track of how many times you whispered, "What the actual f*ck?" Lia is a suburban housewife who discovers she is pregnant but keeps it a secret from her husband Evan while quietly unraveling. Instead of embracing the new life growing inside her, she surrounds herself with death by blackmailing her way into a job at a forensic anthropology center known as The Body Farm. There, her intrusive thoughts take on a sharper edge, and when someone she has fantasized about killing turns up as an actual body donation, the line between imagination and reality does not just blur, it dissolves.

This book read like a fever dream in the most unsettling way possible. I felt unmoored the entire time, constantly questioning what was real, what was imagined, and whether that distinction even mattered anymore. Lia is not a comfortable character to sit with, and I do not think she is meant to be. Her thoughts are invasive, disturbing, and at times almost suffocating, but they are written with such precision that I could not look away. The deeper I got, the more I felt like I was losing my footing right alongside her, which made the experience both gripping and deeply disorienting.

This is psychological horror that does not ask for permission to get dark, and it absolutely will not be for everyone. The subject matter is intense and may be triggering, especially in the way it explores motherhood, violence, and the parts of ourselves we try to keep buried. At the same time, there is something undeniably compelling about how far this story is willing to go. By the end, I had completely given up on figuring out what was real and was just trying to steady myself after absorbing everything. This is the kind of book that leaves you sitting there slack-jawed, a little shaken, desperately hoping that the character remained quietly confined to the pages of a fictional creation. So many thanks to Mindbuck Media for the early copy that will publish September 1, 2026.

Thank you NetGalley and She Writes Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars

This book took me on a rollercoaster of emotions with these characters. At first I sympathized with Lia, having never been a mother myself I don't know exactly how I would react but I can imagine being scared and angry especially living in a home that pushes her to be a traditional housewife. Then she starts imagining killing people and cheating on her husband, and her best friend encourages her to do so, and it just keeps getting crazier.

Overall I couldn't put this book down and finished it in about 48 hours, which for me is VERY quick. I loved the writing style, I loved the premise, I didn't love the ending as much as I wanted to but it did close out the story well. It looks like this is her debut novel as I can't find any other books under this author, and I would happily read more when they release.

Goodnight Monsters tells the story of Ophelia - Lia - after she finds out she is pregnant. She and her husband have been very much wanting this baby: they have been trying for a while and have been to a fertility clinic, but Lia's about to start a new job at a forensic anthropology center (the Body Farm) after two years of being a stay at home wife, and her feelings are complex: is it the right time for a baby, does she want her marriage, and her life, to change as much as it will when a baby enters the mix?

The plot kept me reading, and Lia's feelings about her pregnancy are very understandable and well-realised on the page, and I respect the author for allowing Lia to be honest about her ambivalence. She's not always a likeable character (not least because she keeps thinking about brutally murdering people) but she is compelling. I also found C (Lia's best friend) to be an interesting and similarly morally grey character, offering a different perspective on motherhood.

I think my only criticism is that I wanted more. I would have loved Lia's work at the Body Farm to be more deeply explained and explored, I would have loved a deeper exploration of some of the other themes raised in the book.

This is a great debut and a book I found difficult to put down.

Thank you so much for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
This book was an absolute wild ride. I had a hard time putting it down, even while it was actively unsettling me. Lia’s intrusive fantasies felt disturbingly real in a way that got under my skin. The book digs into that terrifying question of “What if your darkest thoughts didn’t stay thoughts?” and then follows the spiral as things begin slipping further and further out of control.

Without getting into spoilers, this gave me strong American Psycho vibes, but through a distinctly female lens. What really elevates it, though, is that it doesn’t treat mental illness as a gimmick. Lia is deeply unwell, and the story takes that seriously. She’s also one of the most effective unreliable narrators I’ve read in a long time. There’s a moment midway through the book where the floor completely drops out from under you and you realize you cannot trust anything she’s been telling you.

The atmosphere is tense, claustrophobic, and increasingly nightmarish as reality and fantasy start bleeding together. The setting of the Body Farm adds another layer of discomfort to everything, making the entire novel feel steeped in death and decay from the very beginning.

One of the most unsettling books I’ve read in a long time. Highly recommend if you like psychological horror that leaves you feeling deeply uncomfortable in the best way.

4/5

I was going to say that for 80% of this book, I had no idea what was going on or where the story was headed. Then I realized, who am I kidding, it was at least 90%. I mean this in the best way possible.
It started out……. normal. Lia and her husband Evan are happy together. Except that he wants kids and Lia just is not sure if that is a good idea. A positive pregnancy test has her questioning whether to share this news with Evan. She has two options, but she is torn, weighing the pros and cons.
Add in her new job at The Body Farm. A place where the effects of death are analyzed on donated bodies, and Lia becomes obsessed with, well, death. Things happen, lots of things, and I could never be sure if they were true or manifestations of Lia’s state of mind. No spoilers, but when everything was revealed, I gasped. Oh, and the ending. 😳

What a crazy ride this novel was. I loved the subtle (and not so subtle) clues that everything was not as it seemed. The main character was so frustrating to read, but this is a compliment. Almost every decision she made was the wrong choice, until the end when she finally lets others help her.
The twist in the epilogue was expected but made my stomach drop all the same. It called into question everything that happened in the novel, because how could it be happening again?

This was such a great read! If you enjoy literary horror, surreal nightmares, and stories that blur the line between fairy tale and psychological terror, Goodnight Monsters is a chilling and memorable read that sticks with you long after the final page!

I really appreciated this book and felt a huge connection to the characters!

I found this to be an entertaining read. Even if the twists are fairly predictable, you want to know how much further everything spirals out of control. I did find it a bit odd how "Stepford Wives" the setting is without addressing this, but perhaps that is what life is actually like in the american south.
The narrator gets more unreliable throughout the story, to the point where you can tell what she's refusing to realise and you try to read the gaps in her portrayal of events to see how far things have gone.

Whoa! Action, suspense, intrigue, and horror. This story has sharp fangs, and it bites. Oh, how I love an unreliable narrator, especially one so frustrating. It blurred the lines of truth which had me white knuckeling my kindle.

This was a real fun read. If you enjoy horror and nightmares you will love it. It was fairly predictable but that didn't stop my enjoyment. Goodnight Monsters was just what I wanted it to be.

Goodnight Monsters by Suzanne Junered is one of those books that creeps up on you, lingers in the back of your mind when you put it down, and makes you look just a little bit closer at the shadows in your bedroom before turning off the light. I’m giving this a solid 4 out of 5 stars. The atmosphere in this book is absolutely stellar. Junered does a fantastic job of building a slow, unsettling sense of dread right from the opening pages. It relies heavily on psychological tension rather than cheap jump scares, which I deeply appreciated. The pacing keeps you turning the pages, always feeling like the other shoe is about to drop, and the imagery is genuinely haunting If you love a dark, moody story that favors psychological chill over outright gore, you definitely need to add this to your TBR list. It’s an incredibly solid, spooky read.

This one is different and creepy. It’s very good literary horror. The atmosphere is great and while Lia isn’t likable, she’s interesting 4/5

Thank you to NetGalley and SheWritesPress for the digital ARC.

3,5/5 rounded up

Lia has just discovered she is pregnant, something she and her husband have been waiting for, but instead of happiness, she feels fear and uncertainty.

Also, she stars obsessing with death and fantasizing about killing people. Or are they not only fantasies?

This was a dark and entertaining read, a real page-turner where every character is kinda unsufferable, but in a good way. Lia is very hard to root to, but she is compelling and fascinating.

Thank you to Mindbuck Media and NetGalley for this eARC of Goodnight, Monsters. All thoughts and opinions of my own.

Lia is a stay-at-home wife obsessed with death, and her husband travels for work and is obsessed with having children. As she grapples with the idea of motherhood, she gets a job at the local Body Farm to assist with research. As the story continues, it's difficult to tell what is real and what isn't, as she is consumed by fantasies. An evocative, emotional book about trauma and the dangers of maternity, this is a great read.

I really enjoyed how Lia's relationships slowly fractured throughout this novella, and the slow sense of warping reality was really well done. I would like to know more about the boat - how did that come to be? Also, the ending! Eek! I found this overall well-written and well-executed.

Fans of books that deal with the horrors of childbearing, relationships unraveling, and unreliable narrators will love this. I absolutely, unequivocally, love the Brené Brown quote in the beginning of the book.

I loved how all the murders and moving from one scene to the other had a Dexter-like feeling. It is pretty dark, but also psychological and challenges woman's roles and expectations of them. It is well written, I never felt the need to roll my eyes.

A single thing bothered me, I kept expecting a bigger plot twist for the death of Lia's father, but it did not come, so I invented this one myself: he was in fact a child molester and a kid from the local farm killed him while he molested him in the barn. Lia was herself molested, so she blocked it!

Goodnight Monsters is an atmospheric horror novel that slowly builds an unsettling sense of dread. Rather than relying on constant scares, it focuses on creating an eerie mood and believable characters, which made the frightening moments even more effective. While the pacing was a little slow at times, the creepy atmosphere and satisfying conclusion made this a memorable read.

When I read the description and saw that the plot was based around The Body Farm, I knew it was something I wanted to check out and I am so glad I did. At some points the plot became very dark, but in my opinion in the best way! I am so glad I was approved for this ARC and I'd love to read more by Suzanne Junered!

Thank you Netgalley, for my arc copy! I am so glad I requested this one! Not only did this book have macabre work settings, but it also touched on mental health and how imperative it is to get help sooner than later 🖤
I really loved this book! Our MC's inner monologue was so interesting, I could not put this down. And that ending 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Please be aware that this book touches on some heavy things so check the content warning before your journey.

Goodnight Monsters by Suzanne Junered is a domestic horror novel told in the first person POV. Our main character is Lia, a Southern suburban housewife whose dream has always been to become a stay at home mom. However, once she finally becomes pregnant, she begins to question everything. As her pregnancy progresses, so do the monsters lurking within her, and reality becomes increasingly unsettling.

Goodnight Monsters had me hooked from the very first page. As someone who doesn't usually read horror, it was the perfect reintroduction to the genre. The story kept me uneasy from start to finish, blending psychological tension with eerie unpredictability. While a few twists were easy to anticipate, several completely caught me off guard.

Overall, I really enjoyed this!! I will likely read this author again in the future because… y’all… this was eerie lol I was genuinely unnerved!

Thank you to NetGalley, Mindbuck Media, and the author for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Mindbuck Media, Suzanne Juneread and NetGalley for this ARC.

Amazing debut novel for Suzanne Juneread. A psychological horror blending with surroundings decaying in death due to the Body Farm. It's like Bones met Dexter and they turned horror.

Lia becomes our unrelatable narrator, and we start wondering what might be real or not in her life. It all starts with her finding out she is pregnant. From there, her mental health plummets, even if she starts feeling more alive while surrounding herself with the bodies she's studying at her job.

Beware the trigger warnings before going in to read this, as there are mentions of cheating, gore, depression, disassociation, mental health issues.

I was not a fan of the cheating mindset these characters seemed to have, and a bit too many sex scenes that had nothing to do with the plot. Otherwise, it was an immersive read, keeping me hooked to see if my theory was correct. Suzanne peppered clues among the chapters, so it was easy to put it together.

Lia's struggle with her mental health and indecision of keeping her baby or not is so real. There are tons of women out there who went through this during their lives. It was a good telling of those struggles.

Can't wait to see what else Suzanne will show us in her next books.

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (3.5/5)

📖 Goodnight Monsters follows Lia, a suburban housewife who secretly finds herself pregnant while questioning if she even wants to become a mother. As she hides her pregnancy, she takes a job at a forensic anthropology center, better known as the Body Farm, where her already dark thoughts begin spiraling into something much more disturbing. Reality and fantasy start to blur after someone she’s imagined killing suddenly turns up dead… 👀🫣

Lia’s internal monologue was absolutely unhinged 😭💀 and that made her such an unreliable narrator. I genuinely never knew what was real and what was all in her head, which kept me completely hooked. I flew through this in one sitting because I had to know what was actually happening.

I loved watching everything slowly unravel as Lia’s mental state continued to spiral. The psychological aspect was definitely the strongest part of this book, and the Body Farm setting added such a creepy, unsettling atmosphere.

My biggest issue was the ending. 😅 It kind of left me sitting there like… wait… what? I finished the last page and was honestly still trying to piece together what actually happened. Maybe that’s the point, but it left me feeling more confused than satisfied.

Overall, if you enjoy unreliable narrators, messy psychological spirals, morally questionable characters, and books that make you question what’s real, I’d definitely recommend giving this one a try.

Wowza. Lia is a woman unlike most others. Her inner monologue is frightening. She works at a place called The Body Farm where they do testing on cadavers in different situations. Lia finds out she’s pregnant and struggles with the decision to keep it or not. Lia is a character I’ve never encountered!

4,5 Stars

Obsessed with death, a new mother-to-be is wrestling with her reality.
Working on a body farm, surrounded by death and unsatisfied with life, Lia is struggling with her marriage, relationship, work, and self. Trying to reinvent herself in a new relationship, unspoken fantasies start to bleed into reality. Who is the monster?

With subtle clues leading up to the ending, this is definitely worth a reread to see what else I might have missed. So many shocking moments.

Suzanne Junered’s Goodnight Monsters is a wild, unsettling ride through pregnancy, motherhood, murder, and the increasingly blurry line between fantasy and reality.

Lia has spent two years as a stay-at-home wife trying to get pregnant, so when she finally gets the positive test she’s been waiting for, she’s surprised to discover that she isn’t sure she wants to be a mother after all. She gives herself a deadline to decide while keeping the pregnancy secret—and takes a job at a forensic anthropology center known as The Body Farm. As she becomes immersed in the world of death, her fantasies about killing people become increasingly vivid. Then a young woman arrives at the Body Farm the morning after Lia fantasized about killing her. Was it coincidence, prophecy, or something much darker?

I was especially fascinated by the Body Farm setting since I’ve actually considered donating my own body to forensic research someday. But beneath the creepy setting and psychological horror, this novel asks some compelling questions about motherhood, identity, trauma, and the societal expectation that women should happily give up their identities in exchange for becoming mothers. Lia is a deeply complicated character, and watching her life spiral out of control makes for a genuinely entertaining and disturbing read.

You can read my full literary analysis on my website at: https://writeontheworld.com/2026/08/18/goodnight-monsters-by-suzanne-junered-is-a-wild-unsettling-ride-through-pregnancy-motherhood-and-murder/

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This book immediately caught my eye because of 1) the gorgeous cover and 2) it was described as being perfect for fans of The Push by Ashley Audrain (which I agree is true).

This follows Lia who discovers she is pregnant and decides to hide her pregnancy from everyone, including her husband. She is unsure if she is going to keep the baby, and she begins having vivid daydreams about watching people die. To satisfy these fantasies, she gets a job at the local Body Farm.

This book kept my attention the whole way through. I kept telling myself "one more chapter", and it would end up being ten more. I had no idea what was going to happen next. I highly recommend if you are looking for a dark psychological horror surrounding motherhood and childhood trauma.

Holy shit yall. This book was a mindfuck. I STILL have no idea what the hell went on in this book (in the best way!). Picture Maeve Fly, but make her a suburban trad wife with a pregnancy she isn’t too happy about, that works as an anthropologist on a BODY FARM. Lia’s intrusive thoughts had me cackling at some points in the beginning and eventually got darker and darker. I lowkey feel like I was being rage baited with Evan being such a misogynistic dick head 😂 This boom does such a fantastic job bringing attention to the very real struggles that women face every single day when it comes to pregnancy, motherhood, and beyond. There was so much psychological and emotional tension that o almost thought that I was the one spiraling. This is another book that I’ve read recently that felt like an absolute fever dream. I know for a fact that I’m going to be thinking about this one for a while.

Goodnight Monsters was a much more psychological and grounded horror story than I expected, and that’s ultimately why it worked so well for me. The book takes pregnancy, mental illness, intrusive thoughts, trauma, and the fear of losing control and turns them into something genuinely disturbing.

The book also highlights something that doesn’t get talked about enough: women can experience incredibly dark thoughts and emotions during pregnancy, and the expectation that pregnancy should automatically be a joyful experience can make it even harder to admit when something is wrong.

Lia’s struggle with whether she even wants the baby, her fear of telling people what she’s thinking, and the way her existing trauma and mental health struggles become magnified during pregnancy all give the horror a very real foundation.

There were definitely moments when I was confused about what was actually happening, and some of the plot developments required me to simply go along for the ride until the explanations came. But once everything came together, I appreciated how much the earlier confusion had been doing to put us inside Lia’s perspective.

If you’re looking for a psychological horror novel about pregnancy that stays grounded in reality, rather than relying entirely on supernatural explanations, Goodnight Monsters is worth checking out. It’s disturbing, cinematic, emotionally complicated, and surprisingly heartbreaking.

This book seriously has me questioning my own reality! I know I’ll be thinking about Lia for a long time. Some of the side characters felt a little underdeveloped, and I had a hard time connecting with them. However!!! Lia and her twisted fantasies had me completely hooked. I finished the entire book and I’m STILL questioning whether everything that happened actually happened. That’s how much this story got into my head!

If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers, you absolutely MUST read this!

I’ll definitely be recommending this one and look forward to reading more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and She Writes Press for providing me with a copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book was as addicting as watching a car crash or something really tragic happen and not being able to look away (I think the author used the same analogy). You just need to know what happens next. No matter how disturbing it might be.

And this book was very disturbing. A psychological horror at its best. I’ve even started questioning myself since I kinda liked it (a lot). (Am I going crazy? Why would I like something like this?) But then I remembered that the author introduced us to a pretty cool concept that had me hooked (if a little disgusted) from the first chapter: The Body Farm aka the place (at a university) where people (scientists) do research on bodies that are slowly decomposing. As someone who has been obsessed with anything that screams “thriller” or “mystery”, and lately even “horror”, for years (no matter how gruesome), this was a delight. (Is it weird that I would want to work there as well?)

Lia and Evan were the picture perfect married couple - for the first few pages anyway. (Or were they? Maybe they were. My mind is still reeling from the truth reveal at the end of the book.) But Lia, she was something else. I liked her “sarcasm” and that she had all these dark thoughts, and how she likes to imagine tragic death scenarios. She also got the cool job opportunity (in my opinion) and found her passion and even a friend or two. And then someone starts to recreate her fantasies.

What I liked the most about the book is that I’m still confused as to what was really going on the whole damn time. What was real and what she just imagined. It kept surprising me in different ways. Even when I knew where it was going or what will happen. There’s also a pretty interesting reveal and possibly an open ending so that makes me excited in a way, too.

What didn’t work for me was the cheating (or the possibility of cheating?). Apparently, that’s where I draw the line lol. Anyway it was a surprisingly good book. (Definitely not for people who get queasy at a mention of blood or death or themes of pregnancy and abortion or truly dark thoughts.)

I’d like to thank Mindbuck Media | She Writes Press publishing and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy. All opinions are my own.

Goodnight Monsters is a slow burn about the choices of the main character Lia and her choices, leading through into Batshit crazy psychological nightmare. The decent into Lia's psychosis kept me reading through, needing to see what the final pages held. Was it uncomfortable at times....yes, but this only added to the understanding of what was going on in Lia's mind.
This was a very different tone of horror for me but one I would definitely pick up again. Suzanne Junered writes her story like a not so welcome drug induced trip she wants everyone to be part of and I am all in for it

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──  

I was not expecting to have this much fun with a book. Goodnight Monsters follows Lia, a Southern housewife who discovers she's pregnant and promptly keeps it secret from her husband while blackmailing her way into a job at a forensic anthropology center known as The Body Farm. As she surrounds herself with death, something dark begins to surface, violent urges, fantasies about murder, and a reality that starts to blur uncomfortably with her imagination.

This is the book you pick up when you want a morally unhinged female protagonist done absolutely right. Lia gives serious female Dexter energy and I was completely along for the ride. The pacing is phenomenal! I flew through this because I genuinely could not stop. Every chapter left me needing one more.

Suzanne Junered makes Lia so funny and psychologically complicated that I somehow ended up rooting for a woman who absolutely should not be rooted for. The Southern gothic atmosphere also works really well here and makes everything feel just a little more unsettling.

Compulsively readable and deeply entertaining. This one is a must read.

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

If you like:

✔️ morally grey female protagonists
✔️ psychological horror
✔️ dark humor done well
✔️ Southern gothic vibes
✔️ forensic science
✔️ female Dexter energy

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Thank you to NetGalley, Suzanne Junered, and Mindbuck Media for gifting this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

This review is cross‑posted across multiple platforms.