Cassie McDowell is a 12 old girl who enjoys school but is looking forward to summer vacation. She doesn’t have a lot of friends as she lives in an isolated area at the edges of town but she and her older sister Sephie share secrets and enjoy each other’s company. She likes band, reading, her kitty clinic and daydreams about a popular boy in class. What sounds like a normal 12 year old girl is far from it though. Cassie also sleeps under the bed or in the closet, straining her ears for her father coming up the stairs. Her parents throw swinger parties that even a member of the police department attends and is hiding something in the basement that she has been warned to never enter.
The last week of school there are rumors that a boy had been taken . Local boys begin to disappear, only to come back changed. Rumors about what happened are whispered about and a curfew is imposed but no one is caught. Cassie decides to find answers on her own to protect the new boy who is her neighbor and her first friend.
This is a difficult book to read. It is told from a young girls perspective but is not a book for teens or young readers. There is incest, swinger parties, molestation. The author states that it is based on a true story from her own hometown but I didn’t see information about that case.

Spoilers-

I would only give this 3 stars because there are so many unanswered details. Where does their mother keep going to in the evening ( the school doesn’t make sense) and why would she leave the girls with a husband that behaves the way he does? Towards the end it is revealed that Sephie had been abused by their dad but he had not come to the top of the stairs yet. in Cassie’s telling. What was the significance in cutting his nails? What was the truth regarding her aunt?

This is another book it would have been nice to have an epilogue. I think most readers would like to know the resolution. Thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my opinion.

Cassie McDowell is a twelve year old growing up on a farm in Lilydale Minnesota during the 1980's.
What appears to be an idyllic childhood on the surface, is filled with unspeakable things.
The story is told through Cassie's perspective. She lives at home with her parents and older sister Persephone "Sephie" who is fifteen years old. Mom is a teacher and dad is an artist who drinks too much and is prone to bad tempers, controlling the family.
School is almost over with for the year. Cassie is thinking of ways to see her "crush" Gabriel over the summer.
Her parents are planning another one of their disturbing parties.
And Cassie's dad continues to warn the girls not to go down into their basement.
Suddenly the boys in town go missing. As they each return, they are changed. Taken by a masked man, they come back savage and remote.
Then Sephie goes through a change after her parents latest party.
And Gabriel disappears and does not return.
Cassie is determined to look into these strange happenings and find out what is going on and who is responsible.
I literally could not put this book down. It gripped me and wouldn't let go.
Full of dark menace and sinister undertakings.
I almost held my breath as my apprehension and uneasiness grew, and the suspense intensified.
The writing style was captivating, a perfect blend of Cassie's beguiling personality and the horrific events surrounding her.
A must read!
Thank you to Thomas & Mercer for the e-ARC via NetGalley.

I was initially drawn to this book by the premise. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the fact that it was based on true events. A sucker for true-crime, I was all in.

Unfortunately, this book was really just ok for me. Cassie and Sephie live a pretty rough life. Poor doesn't even touch what they are, and it's not because their parents are uneducated. Both have Master's degrees but their dad is a self-proclaimed artist, who always seems to be working on something. Their mom works hard to keep a roof over their head and food on the table, but with their dad drinking all the time, they go without a lot of things.

Their parents are known for the 'parties' they hold, parties that the girls know involve lewd behavior by the adults that attend, all taking place in their barn. So, when boys in town start being assaulted, it's anyone's guess who could be the culprit...but the girls dad is a suspect, at least in their minds.

I wanted to really like this book more than I did. It did keep me reading until the end but I felt the author left a lot of things unanswered. Part of that I think was deliberate, in the way it was written it leaves you to infer what has happened without really going into details. And while that is ok sometimes, I felt there were areas that needed to be fleshed out a little more.

If you have read this one, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

A must read suspense thriller. Narrated from the view of a 13 year old farm girl she tells us the story of boys being abducted and abused in central Minnesota. With the underlying truths being the main stay the story telling is top notch. Absolutely loved it. Highly recommend.

ARC fro Net Galley

Great use of the "wise" 13 yo as the author relayed the fears and doubts of this minor detective as the story builds and tightens down to a thrilling mystery. A unique approach from that stand point and the fact it is based on real events made it only better for me,

Unspeakable Things is a thrilling and suspenseful coming of age novel told by a 7th grade girl, Cassandra. Cassie lives with her older sister and their parents in the small little community of Lilydale, Minnesota. Strange happenings has Cassie in fear, her anxiety high as she tries to make sense of her home life while also secretly investigating the people and events that take place in her surrounding area, including her own Dad.

The subject matter addressed is disturbing and disconcerting, my heart hurt for all the children involved within the pages as well as those affected in real life. The whole town has secrets to hide. From page one there is a sense of foreboding that permeates the entire novel. Lourey blends spine-tingling tension, with eerie dread, and hellish events that nightmares are made of. This book will stick with me for a long time.

It took me back in time as I remembered all the cultural references Lourey threw in to remind readers of the 80's era. I could visualize everything perfectly.

This would have been a five star book if only there wasn't so many plot holes and unexplained things left for the reader to wonder about.

Thank you to Thomas and Mercer, Netgalley and Jess Lourey for the advanced readers copy. The opinions in this review are honest and voluntarily left because I wanted to review this novel.

Cassie is not your average twelve year old. She lives with her parents and older sister in a ramshackle house on the outskirts of town. She is smart and has an inquisitive mind, but few friends since her home life is anything but normal. When young boys suddenly go missing, then come back, changed, Cassie is on high alert. She knows what bad men can do, after all, her father Don wrote the book.
Cassie never describes what happens at home in great detail. Rather, we get glimpses of her life; the way Cassie behaves when she goes to bed, the way she never discusses her home life with anyone, the way people act when her parents throw a party, and the ominous changes in her sister. Not knowing why Cassie reacted in certain ways, sent my imagination into overdrive.
Cassie is the kind of character that I immediately cared about and I just wanted her to find a way out. The ending, like the story, doesn't wrap everything up into a neat little package. Unspeakable Things was a well-paced chilling tale that kept me on the edge of my seat. The tension was unbearable at times and as the story progressed, it only got worse. My first read by Jess Lourey and not my last.

There were plenty of 'unspeakable things' in this book and like the title, they were mainly alluded to rather than specifically described. Incest, PTSD, rape, 'swingers', abductions. In a way, having them just be hinted at in most cases made them even more horrifying. Lourey does a great job of making the readers' imagination do the work of bringing out the details.

Cassie is a mix of Scout from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and Nancy Drew. For the most part, she's believable and a sympathetic character. The father is horrible - - but so is the mother for closing her eyes to what was happening.
The author does a good job of feeding small hints throughout the story as to what exactly was happening. The fact this story was based on a true occurrence - - and something that no doubt happens every day somewhere - - made it all the more horrifying.

Trigger Warning: indirect content related to child sexual abuse.

Unspeakable Things was a dark fictional novel based off of a true story in 1980s Minnesota.

Cassie is a 13 year old spit fire who calls everyone out and asks questions that make people uncomfortable. I LOVED her.

The dark side of this novel, boys were being abducted and assaulted by an unknown masked man, and due to them living in the “rougher” parts of down, were told they were making it up; until a boy from a richer family goes missing.

Frank, Cassie’s best friend calls the boys who were abducted and returned werewolves because once returned, the boys were extremely disturbed. Cassie’s father and the local police are also “monsters” to Cassie.

This book was very suspenseful, difficult to read at times, but also had it’s charming moments of humor, and I loved following Cassie while she tried being Nancy Drew to find out what was happening to these boys, who used to be her friends.

4 🌟

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What an interesting read...It was borderline uncomfortable at times. The title really has this story pegged. A lot of what happens is very unspeakable. This story should really come with a trigger warning. There is incest, molestation, abduction, and swingers parties.

Although the story itself is dark, it is very well written and very compelling. As I do with most books, I don’t like to dive too deep into the guts of a book because I don’t want to give away spoilers. I was not immediately pulled into this book, it took me quite a bit of this book to get into it.

I would say this isn’t an easy read just because of the premises alone. It has a lot of very hard to swallow subject matter, but it was executed well. Thank you kindly to Jess Lourey, Thomas & Mercer Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to review this title.

This is a dark, uncomfortable read about abduction, incest and swinger parties, all told through the eyes of a young girl.
It’s the summer of 1983 and young boys are being molested. The main character of Cassie has a list of suspects that includes her own father and the story takes us on her journey to discover the truth.
For me it was too dark and uncomfortable, although well written.

An OK read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

A great suspense read.

Sephie, Cassie and their parents live in a country town - Lilydale, Minnesota.

Average girls, Sephie (9th Grade) and Cassie (7th Grade) are waiting for the upcoming summer break from school. School buses and packed lunches are the norm for these girls.Their mom is a teacher at the High School and she takes on extra duties that leave her exhausted most nights Don,.their dad, however, describes himself as an artist and a soldier. A Viet Nam vet, Don makes metal sculptures ; = for a (not so profitable) living. Mom brings the bread home, yet dad rules the roost.

Another feature keeps the reader guessing - what is up with the sporadic "parties" that the parents have.- they can't be so bad. After all, a police sergeant attends...
Also, there is the town's "peeping Tom" that does more than just peep...

A thrilling ride that the reader is bound to enjoy!

Many Thanks to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for a good read !

Unspeakable Things is a dark and intense, very well-versed read, but from the cover and the blurb, I expected my mind to explode at its greatness, and I didn't find that. Still a very enjoyable read.

An absolutely fantastic mystery thriller. I loved it. Really hard to put down and it went in a completely different direction than I thought x

First for me from this author. Was a great pull you in book and kept me interested all the way through. Didn't go where I thought it was going which is good as kept me guessing. Lived the title and the cover! Wanted to read this one as soon as I saw it.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Thomas and Mercer and the author, Jess Lourey, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of Unspeakable Things in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I thought this book provided a good, quick read . The storyline was well thought out and written with engaging characters. It kept me hooked from the start.
We'll worth a read.

Awesome book, read it all in a day! It was a mix of mystery, thriller and a family drama. I loved that it was told from the viewpoint of a preteen. They are so honest and at such a great age where they are still curious but starting to realize the world is not always a happy place. I needed a good thriller and this one fit the bill. I've already told my friend to read it because I'm desperate to talk about the end!

An intense coming of age novel that is set in the middle of tragedy. The plot is multidimensional and the method of characterization is pivotal. While Lourey offers a story of unspeakable tragedy, she does so with elegant literary skill that softens the edges. The true beauty in this story is Jess Lourey’s gift of drawing the reader in with the different subplots and connotations. Excellent read. 5 stars

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #UnspeakableThings, which was read and reviewed voluntarily

In this new read from Jess Lourey you meet Cassie McDowell. She is a preteen in the 1980's and she takes the tale of what happened that long ago summer. She lives in a farm with her parents and older sister, enjoys school and hopes to one day become a writer. Her parents throw parties that at one time were fun but as the years have passed have become quite deviant in their nature. She has seen things most young girls should never see, they make her uncomfortable but she knows better than to say anything. She learned at an early age how to handle the moods of her father and as she has gotten older she fears what he might do to her. When young boys start getting attacked and then her crush disappears making her worry about who the culprit could be. Rumors abound about what has been happening to the boys, Cassie believes she can figure out what is going on and starts to subtly ask questions. Will she go to far in her questions or even ask the wrong ones? This was such a thought provoking read that pulled me in, I finished it in one sitting. You realize you never really know what is going on in the homes around you.

With a prologue that indicates that the main character survives and maybe even flourishes, we are taken back to Cassie McDowell's past when she is nearing the end of her seventh grade year and when terror stalks her small Minnesota town. Someone is taking boys and returning them changed.

Cassie is worried by the disappearances and the the curfew but her biggest problems are in her own home. She is terrified of her father whose unexplained rages and excessive drinking makes living with him like living with a bomb that could explode at any time. She is so terrified of him that she no longer sleeps in her own bed but either underneath it or curled up in her closet. She is also concerned about her older sister who seems to have changed greatly in the past year.

Cassie is also concerned about her parents who host swinging parties on their rural farm where the sexual hijinks embarrass her and have caused her to lose friends. She is also crushing on the nicest boy in her class and planning a future with him that he doesn't know anything about. He becomes the next victim of this strange stalker. Only he doesn't return. Cassie is left with her fears that her father could be involved or that one of his creepy friends could be.

The author mentions that she was inspired by the Jacob Wetterling abduction that was big news in her part of Minnesota when she was a child. Jacob's case took twenty-seven years to be solved and shaped a generation of kids who were his age.

I enjoyed this story but I felt that all of Cassie's concerns rather overwhelmed the thriller aspect of the story.