Kacey is new to the small town of Broken Falls. She moved there with a family she barely knows after living with her mother and her endless stream of boyfriends, getting fed up with their explosive relationship, and running away. Now, she has two best friends in Bailey and Jade, but they want to do things like sneak out at night when she would rather enjoy being with her fairly even tempered, loving family. Then Bailey doesn't make it home after a party and no one seems to know what happened to her. Kacey dives head first into her own investigation to find out what really happened to Bailey.
Little Monsters is a teen mystery thriller centered a disappearance. Of course, rumors swirl around what happened due to the bloody discovery at a historic crime site linked to an urban legend and the sordid reputation Bailey had. Bailey was blamed for a football star Cliff drinking, driving, and losing his scholarship because she was in the car with him. Never mind that he drank and drove of his own volition and had a way more promiscuous reputation than Bailey. The whole school turned against her after that and it's completely ridiculous. It shows how if you're a football star and a guy, you can basically do no wrong in people's eyes and if you're a girl, making out with one guy means you're a degenerate slut. This difference of perception and Kacey are what set this book apart from a lot of the other teen thrillers I've been reading lately.
Kacey isn't perfect, but she tries to be. When she lived with her mom, she was prone to fits of rage, blackouts, and physical fights with her mom. Now, she has an overly goody goody facade to hide who she used to be and consistently lies to people about her past. She kept feeling that she was evil or something was wrong with her for being so violent and angry. This rang true because girls are expected to express anger in much different ways than boys and then she went to the other extreme end of the spectrum to counteract it. Even though her father is distant, she's gotten to know her stepsiblings and stepmom much better and is starting to feel like she belongs. Bailey's disappearance and her own investigation land her in trouble over and over, almost like history is repeating itself. Kacey can't just let it go when the police seem to ignore things right in front of their faces. I felt for Kacey and her need for a fresh start. I understood her feelings of self loathing and need to conform to perfection.
Little Monsters is kind of like Sharp Objects for a teen audience. The mystery is well constructed and at the end, it's shown that seemingly insignificant details were much more important. I didn't see the ending coming and it blew my mind a little when everything was revealed. The story did have some flaws. I would have liked Kacey's temper and blackouts to be established earlier. It seemed to be shoehorned in when Thomas wanted us to suspect her. I also wish she didn't lie to the police so much since it only served to muddy the investigation instead of helping in any way. Other than that, the story was enjoyable and surprisingly dark. It replicated that feeling when your gut feels like it's falling and suddenly everything you know is wrong.
My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins
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