UNDER THIS RED ROCK is a gripping, edgy young adult thriller by Mindy McGinnis that will leave readers on the edge of their seats until the very end. Tackling tough subjects such as mental illness, suicide, rape, and murder, readers will get an inside glimpse of a young mind teetering on the brink. What is real? And do we ever really know ourselves?
Neely Hawtrey lives in a different world than her peers. Her world has been plagued by mental illness, abandonment by her father, an accident that left her mother dead, and the suicide of her brother. Neely has experienced several tragedies in her short life. Her constant companions are the little girl under her bed and the man in her closet. Neely has rules to keep her monsters in check, but they don’t always listen. Living with her grandparents, Neely recognizes the sacrifices they have made to raise her, and she strives to be normal. Getting a summer job at the caverns, a place Neely has always loved and a place that has allowed her to escape her monsters seems like a reasonably normal thing to do. Neely enjoys her new job and especially bonds with Mila, a beautiful college-aged tour guide in charge of the employees. Brian, an old friend of her brother, also works at the caverns, and Neely quickly reconnects with him as well. More beautiful people round out the group, and soon Neely is enjoying these connections. When a late-night staff party involves drugs, Neely forgets what happened during the night, and when she reports to work on Monday, she discovers someone was brutally murdered in the caverns. What does Neely know? And was she somehow involved? With her hallucinations spiraling and her mental state deteriorating, Neely isn’t sure if she really knows what she is capable of and whether she needs to stop herself or someone else.
UNDER THIS RED ROCK is an addictive and engaging novel, taking place in an atmospheric setting where the caverns hide the “deep, dark, further” places in the earth and in our souls. Neely is suffering from a severe mental illness inherited from her father and made worse by the tragedies in her life. She uses coping mechanisms she has created for herself, but it soon becomes apparent that her ways are not working so well. There are a lot of tragedies and sorrows in this book, and the characters carry these heavyweights. McGinnis does a great job of creating multi-faceted and humanized people. From Neely’s grandparents to her new friends, the relationships are raw, real, and multi-layered. Neely acts in mysterious ways, and the zip-lining incident will leave readers wondering about her intentions. The murder and mystery are violent and suspenseful. Who could commit such an atrocious crime in the caverns? Neely is an unreliable character, and readers won’t know what to believe until the very end. UNDER THIS RED ROCK can be disturbing, raw, and contain some difficult material, but it is unique, creepy, and highly entertaining.
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.
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