Little Monsters by Kara Thomas

The perfect YA Contemporary Mystery/ Thriller read for the spooky month of October- ‘Little Monsters' follows the events in a small town, Broken Falls revolving around Kacey Young.

Kacey had a rough past. She lived with her mom along with her boyfriend in New York. After an incident, which was a long time coming, she had to go live in a small town broken falls with her dad and stepfamily.

It's hard to stand out as the new kid in a small town, so Kacey is grateful when Bailey and Jade take her under their wing. The inseparable duo became a trio, and they spend a great deal of time together. But it seems like Bailey and Jade don't share Kacey's satisfaction for quiet nights at home which are a huge change from the turmoil-filled days and nights living with her mother, and they try to convince, even blackmail Kacey into sneaking out of the house with them most weekend nights.

Well, one fine night... things start to go wrong for Kacey. She was forced to let her 13-year-old step-sister, Lauren, tag along with her and her friends when they were sneaking out... After a disturbing turn of events that night, Kacey starts to doubt the normalcy of things when Bailey and Jade start acting distant. And when they don’t invite her to the biggest party of the year, it doesn’t exactly feel like an accident. But Kacey will never be able to ask because Bailey never makes it home from that party. Suddenly, Broken Falls doesn’t seem so welcoming after all especially once everyone starts looking to the new girl for answers.

This book just keeps you guessing. The more complicated the mystery, the more invested you get in the plot, the characters, and especially the ending. It's really hard to refrain from trying to guess the twist. It’s like being transported into the story, alongside the main character, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. There was a constant air of mystery surrounding everything, which just makes us bury ourselves deep within the book world.

Little Monsters captures all of the emotions and intensity of teenage friendships, along with the mysteries and lies of small-town life, and the scars caused by family dysfunction and secrets. There are a lot of elements at play in this book, and Kara Thomas brought all of them together very deftly, making this a quick and utterly compelling read, even if it ultimately wasn't as surprising as I thought it might be.

This is a riveting tale of friendship, jealousy, obsession, fear, family, and the things that happen when no one is honest with their feelings and fears and we readers couldn't get enough of it.

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