Joined in 2023 
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Grown-Up Gabby – She is a little girl in curls with the habit of pretending she is an adult. Gabby is willing to act as grown-up as possible, like putting on makeup (as shown in her book), wearing her mum's attire (like her mum's hat, dress and high heels), and even disapproving of things she claims are childish. Okay, then. Is the CVS in Orleans still your primary pharmacy?” the doctor asked, concluding their visit as he’d started it, hunched over his computer.
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.
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going to try my best to explain my thoughts here… 😅 Sometimes I struggle reading and reviewing literary fiction in bookish communities because there is a pressure that you have to like it, and if you don’t you must not “get it.” You must not understand the themes. You must suffer. You must enjoy said suffering.
All in this complex family are hiding buried secrets. Is it possible to “hide an entire life behind a lie?” Envy and jealousy among family members will gradually climax and culminate at the birthday bash. The skeletons will come out of the closet by the end! In preparing her father’s birthday present, Abby reflects on her family. She “couldn’t pinpoint a date, but over the last few years, the distance between the three of them had turned into something more palpable, a liquid congealing into a solid. Ken was nursing old grievances, their father’s fuse was growing ever shorter, and Abby felt herself pulling away from them both.” Another commendable aspect of the novel is its avoidance on subscribing to the twisted, abusive stepfamily trope through its depiction that such can be as loving and supportive as one's biological family. Moreover, the normalization of seeking help from mental health professionals and taking prescribed medication are also points to be appreciated in the novel. I was very excited to read this book, as I loved the author’s memoir “Wild Game” (which I gave five stars to). The synopsis of this book sounded interesting as I love reading about family dysfunction. The cover of the book is also beautiful. However, I’m left very underwhelmed after having just finished reading this. Little Monsters, in the end, became something more than I initially believed, and a whole lot of slow building fun: the fun you anticipate before the rush and fall of a roller coaster, and into a claustrophobic and dizzying mouth of utter roaring darkness.
The new girl in Broken Falls, Kacey immediately befriends Bailey and her best friend Jade. Having left a troubled home to live with a father she’s never met, Kacey craves the stability and attention her new friends and family present. But sometimes appearance isn’t reality. After a night spent with her friends trying to summon a legendary ghost, Kacey wakes to find she’s persona non grata. Text messages go unanswered. Weekend plans are squashed. What did Kacey do wrong? Well, Kacey doesn’t have long to stress about Mean Girls: Wisconsin Edition because the next morning she learns Bailey is missing. Vanished. Without a trace. What follows is a twisted tale of jealousy, betrayal, lies, and secrets…..and a town where nothing is as it seems. This will be a brief review, as I don’t have much to say. In fact, I kept waiting and waiting for something major to happen, but it never did. We have the story of Abby and Ken, who are brother and sister. Abby and Ken were raised by their single father, Adam. Adam is bipolar, and he likes to quit taking his medications from time to time. Therefore, Abby and Ken are pretty much trained to know when he is having a manic episode. Abby and Ken’s mother died while giving birth to Abby, so there seems to always have been some resentment and competition between the two of them. Their once very close relationship has since pushed them apart.
Adrienne Brodeur knows her way around a family drama... Brodeur weaves a story dense with stinging secrets and simmering resentments, rooted in another context that she knows well: the manicured towns and wild fringes of Cape Cod... Set against the island's rippling dune grasses and scrub pines, [the] narrative is as elegantly rendered as it is compulsively readable." — Vogue An] engaging and neatly plotted novel. . . Little Monsters is so alluring, with its sense of looming familial implosion within a cultural implosion. . . Brodeur is very deliberately examining a small family horror story within a larger political context.” — The New York Times Somewhat slow, antagonizing, and gripping, Little Monsters was a very surprising read for me. This was my second read from Kara Thomas, and I believe it was the better of the two, comparing it to her other book, The Darkest Corners. I didn’t start writing Little Monsters until the spring of 2020, but I always knew I would set the book in the months leading up to the 2016 election as I found the uneasy mood of the country riveting. It was a time when you could practically feel the ground shifting beneath your feet, although most people I know, me included, did not correctly anticipate how. I also love the subversive idea that the readers know more about what will happen next than the characters. Obviously, there are some truly evil people in the world but for the most part, I think humans are like any other animal—at their most aggressive when they’re wounded. Who hasn’t said something horrible to someone they love★ As a writer, I want to portray the complex gray areas in character. I’m far less interested in heroes and villains than in what’s courageous and corrupt in all of us.
Little Monsters
Thomas' suspenseful and accessible writing style formatted in easily digestible, short chapters makes Monsters a light and fun read. What highlights the building tension of the novel is Thomas' masterful craft of chapter-making, showcasing her deliberate control over dropping significant plot points through the exchange over two perspectives: from first-person Kacey to first-person Bailey through her journal. While reading this book, I kept thinking that it reminded me of something - and then it hit me: Sarah Pinborough's 13 MINUTES. That suffocating small-town paranoia of everyone being in everyone else's business; the mean girls with a sinister (maybe?) agenda, and the twists upon twists upon twists? Yeah, both books have you covered. I feel like if you enjoy Gillian Flynn's work, you will enjoy both of these, but 13 MINUTES is more like GONE GIRL where the easy answer isn't the right one, whereas this book is more like SHARP OBJECTS - there's a twist, and there's a twist about the twist that will make you question everything. Many thanks to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, and the author for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. Publication date: June 27, 2023. 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. I couldn't get enough of it. There is rarely a time that I’m not absorbed in a book, listening as I take walks, or reading before bed. That said, I’m unable to point to a specific book that inspired Little Monsters, rather I feel indebted to all writers who’ve ever ignited my imagination and empathy, as cumulatively, they encouraged me to join the conversation. As for music, I can be very specific—every morning as I sit down to write, I put on headsets and listen to whale songs. There is something so profoundly moving about these ancient-sounding ballads that I’m almost instantly transported into a perfect state of openness to write.
I adore books that encroach on the dark, secret lives of teenage girls and this book did so in an exciting yet unpredictable way. From sneaking out at midnight to parties, to holding seances in haunted and remote buildings - this book was a series of exhilarating scenes tied together with the dark undertone of both the reader and the characters second-guessing everyone's motives. No emotion was spared and I spent much of my time reading this breathless with either suspense or terror.The character of Kacee is one of a girl who wears her pain with a deep sadness. I loved Kacee. I connected to her and my connection only deepened as the story went on.
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