Item: Little Creeping Things
Rating: 3.50
Author: quirkycat

by Chelsea Ichaso

From breakout debut author Chelsea Ichaso comes Little Creeping Things, a compulsively readable YA suspense novel with a narrator who can't be trusted, perfect for fans of Natasha Preston. She never meant to hurt anyone…
When she was a child, Cassidy Pratt accidentally started a fire that killed her neighbor. At least, that's what she's been told. She can't remember anything from that day. She's pretty sure she didn't mean to do it. She's a victim too. But her town's bullies, particularly the cruel and beautiful Melody Davenport, have never let her live it down. In Melody's eyes, Cassidy is a murderer and always will be.
And then Melody goes missing, and Cassidy thinks she may have information about what happened. She knows she should go to the cops, but…she recently joked about how much she'd like to get rid of Melody. She even planned out the perfect way to do it. And then she gets a chilling text from an unknown number: I'm so glad we're in this together.
Now it's up to Cassidy to figure out what's really going on, before the truth behind Melody's disappearance sets the whole town ablaze.
Perfect for fans of:
Detective stories for teens Teen thrillers Karen McManus and Natasha PrestonPraise for Little Creeping Things:
A Junior Library Guild Selection!
"Chelsea Ichaso has without a doubt written the breakout thriller of the year."—Dana Mele, author of People Like Us
"Ichaso's debut is a riveting whodunnit... a psychological thriller worthy of mystery aficionados."—School Library Journal
"Guaranteed to keep young readers guessing until the final pages...will satisfy the appetites of all manner of mystery fans."—Booklist
"[A] genre-solid whodunit and keeps readers guessing until the very last page."—Publishers Weekly

Chelsea Ichaso's debut novel, Little Creeping Things, is one that instantly caught my attention – and I knew that I had to make time to read it! One part horror, one part psychological thriller, and one part murder mystery; this book has a little bit of everything that I'm looking for.

Cassidy Pratt has spent her whole life being bullied for a fire she doesn't remember starting. To be fair, the fire did take a life, so she understands that what happened was not something that should be forgotten.

When a classmate goes missing, Cassidy feels like she should speak up with the information she has. But she knows how quickly the public can turn on somebody – especially her. She's experienced all that first hand.

“I've spent the past ten years trying to erase this image. Fire Girl.
Trying to convince everyone - trying to convince myself - I'm not a killer.”

Okay, I'm not going to lie to you: the first thing that brought my attention to Little Creeping Things was that creepy little doll on the cover. I mean, come on! It's so perfect for a psychological thriller, don't you think?

Anyway, let's move onto the actual plot, shall we? Little Creeping Things is a dark and twisty young adult thriller. It's pretty easy to understand the conflict that Cassidy faces. She's spent her whole life getting told one thing, and while it's horrible, she has no memory of it. Even though she really should.

That alone would have been a strong enough promise for this tale, but Ichaso takes it a step further by throwing a missing person into the mix, which is shortly followed by another twist. It's a lot to take in, yet it all worked together quite nicely.

Overall I'd say that this was a solid read, though I think the buildup was stronger than the actual conclusion. Still, I'm happy with the time I spent reading Little Creeping Things and would gladly recommend it to fellow readers.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Fire and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

For more reviews check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

Little Creeping Things

by Chelsea Ichaso

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on Sep 3, 2021

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