Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis delivers a powerful psychological thriller, deftly exploring the dark places in the earth and the human mind, where what is real and imaginary isn’t so easily distinguishable.
Neely’s monsters don’t always follow her rules, so when the little girl under her bed, the man in her closet, and the disembodied voice that shadows her every move become louder, she knows she’s in trouble.
With a history of mental illness in her family, and the suicide of her older brother heavy on her mind, Neely takes a job as a tour guide in the one place her monsters can’t follow—the caverns. There she can find peace. There she can pretend to be normal. There . . . she meets Mila.
Mila is everything Neely isn’t—beautiful, strong, and confident. As the two become closer, Neely’s innocent crush grows into something more. When a midnight staff party exposes Neely to drugs, she follows Mila’s lead . . . only to have her hallucinations escalate.
When Mila is found brutally murdered in the caverns, Neely has to admit that her memories of that night are vague at best. With her monsters now out in the open, and her grip on reality slipping, Neely must figure out who killed Mila . . . and face the possibility that it might have been her.
Reviews
★ “Via a horror-tinged psychological thriller, McGinnis uses the lens of a whip-smart teen from a family with a history of mental illness to sensitively explore relevant themes. Striking a careful balance of dry humor and occasionally harrowing depictions of Neely’s mental health challenges, McGinnis delivers a compassionate and gripping read.” — Publisher’s Weekly
★ “Tackling a sensitive subject that easily could have veered into sensationalism, McGinnis cleverly shapes a tender examination of mental illness, grief, and love that still contains her characteristic dry wit and deeply disturbing imagery.” — Booklist
“McGinnis brings an enormous amount of compassion in her portrayal of Neely’s struggles, contextualizing them within her family’s history of mental health issues and eventually using them to more fully delineate Neely, her trauma, and her grief. Neely evokes a strange concoction of sympathy and repulsion, bringing an additional layer of complexity to a viciously taut whodunit.'“ — BCCB