Little Monsters by Kara Thomas Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Jade was the best friend, and I was the extra friend. There are things you tell your best friend that you don’t tell the extra friend.”- Little Monsters, Kara Thomas

Kacey is the new girl in Broken Falls. When she moved in with her father, she stepped into a brand-new life. A life with a stepbrother, a stepmother, and strangest of all, an adoring younger half sister.

Kacey’s new life is eerily charming compared with the wild highs and lows of the old one she lived with her volatile mother. And everyone is so nice in Broken Falls—she’s even been welcomed into a tight new circle of friends. Bailey and Jade invite her to do everything with them.

Which is why it’s so odd when they 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.

Kacey is about to learn some very important lessons: Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes when you’re the new girl, you shouldn’t trust anyone.

At this point, I wouldn't blame you if you thought I was some sort of masochist. Especially if you noticed how much I bitch about YA mystery novels and yet I continue reading them. 95% of the time, I don't have an answer for you. And then, I read a book like Little Monsters, and I do.

This is a damn good YA mystery novel. It's smart, it keeps you on your toes, it actually pulls the rug out from under you. It is everything books like A Good Idea wish to be. Don't be fooled by the summary- it was the reason I dodged this book since it came out. I was tempted on Thomas' debut, especially since it had such an enigmatic, cover, but got really burned out on YA thrillers around the same time it starting appearing on the shelves everywhere. I should have given it a chance.

Little Monsters actually came so, so close to being the kind of book I hate. The revenge thriller, with the obvious good guy and obnoxiously obvious bad guy. I brought up A Good Idea earlier because I thought that that was where this book was going. Bailey's ex hook-up was the kind of douche ex with connections that's appeared as the culprit in dozens of other YA books, usually caught by the heroine and not the police, somehow, who are all either corrupt or stupid. Not in this book. I kept telling myself, he was too obvious, he wouldn't have actually done it, and he didn't do it. In fact, I ended up actually liking that part, because it showed that Thomas wasn't so attached to Kacey she was going to make her some genius protege detective, and also that the cops, trained crime fighters, were in fact smart enough to rule out almost immediately a false lead. It made this novel come across as more believable than your typical YA mystery novel.

I think my favorite thing about this novel, though, was the fact that it reminded me of an episode of some ID channel show. I could see it on Murder Among Friends, especially. It had plenty of twists and turns, and at the same time was formulaic enough to make it easy to read and to make me want to read more. I wanted to find out what was going to happen next, but at the same time I was savvy enough in the genre to know that the real killer isn't going to be revealed until the end. And when the killers were revealed, I was surprised at one, and even though I pretty much figured out who the other one was, I was still pleasantly surprised she made that decision. I like authors who take risks, and this one pays off. As a YA mystery novel, this book is one of the best of the genre, no questions asked. 

Is there some weak points in this book? Sure. The family dynamics weren't great, and if Thomas hadn't been such a great mystery writer I would have taken more off because of this. Her attempts at family drama felt rather melodramatic, though I did like the positive portrayal of stepmothers. I wished Kacey's father had a bigger role in the story, then she could go into all kinds of interesting ideas about fatherhood and the whole disappeared dad thing, or maybe the mothers keeping fathers away from children thing. But at the same time, maybe Thomas did right to quit while she was ahead in the familial relationship department, and I did like some of the decisions she made on the part of the parents. It was a believable family dynamic as a whole.

So yes, I really, really liked this book. I want to pick up Darkest Corners maybe sometime next month, because I really want to read more by Kara Thomas. Hopefully, I will like it just as much. It's not everyday a good thriller writer stumbles onto my lap just like that, and I think she has the potential to be another favorite author.

8.5 out of 10