About the Book
-
Author:
- Mindy McGinnis
- Genre:
- Suspense
- Voices:
- Cis Girl
- Lesbian
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: Pebbles Flintstone
Drinking Buddy: Do Not Take With Alcohol
MPAA Rating: R (depictions of suicide, assault, marijuana and alcohol use, sexuality, language)
Talky Talk: Deep Breath
Anti-Bonus Factors: Sexual Assault, Mental Illness
Bromance Status: Cautious
Trigger warning: Depictions of suicide and sexual assault.
Cover Story: Pebbles Flintstone
Very eye-catching cover, though it’s one where you might casually mistake the stalactites and stalagmites for flames. The title comes from a T.S. Eliot poem.
The Deal:
Neely has had a rough life. Her father abandoned the family years ago. Her mother died in a car wreck with Neely and her brother in the back seat, and they got to watch her slowly bleed out. Her brother, Lance, killed himself, and she got to identify his mangled body. Her retired grandparents took her in, and now they’re forced to work as Walmart greeters to make ends meet.
Even worse, Neely’s father and brother suffered from mental illness. As does Neely. She learned at a young age not to react to the mysterious applause or to speak to the people only she can see. After all, that’s what drove her brother to suicide. But she’s slipped up in the past. Pulling a knife at a first grade slumber party. Accidentally drowning a cat. People are wary of Neely.
But there’s one place she can go where the imaginary people can’t follow her: the local caverns. For some reason, the voices turn off when she’s underground. When Neely gets a job as a tour guide, she finally finds some stability. She also meets Mila, the gorgeous, free spirited fellow guide. Could Neely have finally met someone who understands her?
That is until Mila is brutally murdered in the caverns. And Neely was the last person seen with her. Why can’t she remember so much about that weekend? What did she do?
Drinking Buddy: Do Not Take With Alcohol
I loved Neely, but she really doesn’t need any mind altering chemicals (by her own admission).
Neely is a girl swimming in a world of agony, with no one to talk to. She’s lost just about every family member, and the only people she can depend on, her grandparents, lost their lazy retirement when they were forced to take in a high-needs granddaughter. She can’t really keep piling things on their plate, so she repeats the ‘everything is fine’ mantra. She won’t even admit she’s a lesbian. Not that her grandparents wouldn’t understand, but it’s not something she wants to deal with right now. She just needs a buddy. Like Brian, her brother Lance’s best friend who is worried about her. Or Tabitha, another cave guide, who doesn’t believe all those nasty stories about Neely and her family. Or sweet Mila, whose brave front covers a deep pain.
MPAA Rating: R (depictions of suicide, assault, marijuana and alcohol use, sexuality, language)
Once again, this is a dark book. When Neely’s mother was dying in that car accident, she made her young children recite their full names and addresses, just to be sure the EMT’s would know where they belonged. Neely was forced to identify her brother’s body…by his arm, the biggest piece left after he jumped off a bridge. Mila’s murder was unbelievably violent and graphic.
A fellow librarian said she met the author once, who admitted being in a bad place when she wrote this book, and I believe it.
Talky Talk: Deep Breath
This is certainly not a feel good book, and if you’re not in the mood for something graphic and gory, this might not be for you. Also, the ending left me with some unanswered questions, and I might have to contact the author to get them resolved. It’s a book that gets under your skin, and the extremely sympathetic main character will make you want to finish it.
Anti-Bonus Factor: Sexual Assault
So Mila has had a rough time with things. Her boyfriend not only assaulted her, he posted images online. And now Josh, a coworker, is bragging about seeing them. With Neely’s help, she’s going to press charges. But now, it seems, someone has shut her up permanently. Well…the suspect is obvious, right?
Except he has an airtight alibi for that night.
Anti-Bonus Factor: Mental Illness
Neely knows that not many people hear the voice of a little girl under her bed or a man in her closet. She just tries to ignore them and spend as much time as she can underground. But Lance had the voices too, and he chose to end it all. It doesn’t help when Brian shows her posts that Lance made on a grim website just before he died. Posts about wanting to hurt women. How could her brother even imagine things like that? And when Mila is attacked…does it run in the family?
Bromance Status: Cautious
This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I think I’ll see what else she’s written…hopefully something just a smidge lighter.
Literary Matchmaking
Julia Walton’s Words on Bathroom Walls also deals with a person battling mental illness and hallucinations.
Beneath, by Roland Smith, is about a boy who also finds comfort below the ground.
For another mysterious, unsolved murder, check out Gabriella Lepore’s Bad Like Us.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher, but no money or park passes.
This one does sound REALLY heavy. I have meant to read more Mindy McGinnis since we read The Female of the Species for FYA book club. It was AMAZING.
Woof. And yet, I know how well McGinnis writes, so I want to read it. I might have to wait for a happier time to try it out. (Definitely thought the rocks on the cover were flames, though!)