Under This Red Rock
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A Chicago Public Library Best Teen Book of 2024
From award-winning author Mindy McGinnis comes a mesmerizing YA psychological mystery following a teen girl who is grappling with the death of her brother as she starts a new job in the caverns of Ohio—only to become the number one suspect in her coworker's murder. Perfect for fans of Courtney Summers and Kathleen Glasgow.
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 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Via a horror-tinged psychological thriller, McGinnis (A Long Stretch of Bad Days) uses the lens of a whip-smart teen from a family with a history of mental illness to sensitively explore relevant themes. After gay 16-year-old Neely Hawtrey's mother dies in a car accident, her older brother Lance dies by suicide, and her father abandons her, Neely and her three secret monsters—a girl who lives under her bed, a strange man who inhabits her closet, and an annoying presence called Shitbird Man—move in with her grandparents in East Independence, Ohio. Neely is soon hired at a local cavern tourist attraction, where she crushes on her hot, tall, blond coworker Mila Minter, an English major at Ohio State University. Neely loves her job; hanging out with Mila and the fact that her monsters can't follow her underground allow Neely to briefly forget about her problems and her past. She's even started developing better coping mechanisms to manage her hallucinations and has befriended other cavern workers—but then a terrible crime occurs, destroying her carefully constructed reality. Neely is an acerbic protagonist whom readers will love and empathize with as she endeavors to regain control of her own life. Striking a careful balance of dry humor and occasionally harrowing depictions of Neely's mental health challenges, McGinnis delivers a compassionate and gripping read. Main characters read as white. Ages 14–up.
