This is definitely a YA book and I would recommend for middle schoolers. Cassidy is a teenager, filled with drama, angst and overreaction. She jumps to conclusions, is worried about what people think of her and also believe that long ago when she was a child she set a fire that almost killed her and did kill her best friend.

Her friend Gideon is drawn to women hurting and in danger. He has been Cassies best friend since they were young and they are inseparable, that is until Cassie starts acting strangely and hiding things from him.

As Cassie tries to unravel who she heard in the woods and what happened to Melody, things kept taking twists and turns and clues seem to point in all directions. Its like being inside the mind of a teenager with all the quick changes of direction and faulty reasoning and while I got tired of it as some points it did keep you guessing and the end I didn't see coming so I have to go with 4 stars for keeping me on my toes.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise sounded amazing. It was promising. But Cass is an insecure and selfish teen who acts like a kid. The twists and turns are incoherent. I felt like the story was going everywhere at once, it was dizzying. One good thing: I really didn't see the end coming. I don't know yet if it's a good thing or not...

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for the complimentary e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

You know what's especially great about this book? I can recommend it for middle school age kids all the way up through my kids graduating. Cassidy is relateable although most of us have never been accused of starting a fire that killed a neighbor. She is constantly under everyone's critical eyes and a favorite scapegoat for the town. So, when the town's bully goes missing, everyone wonders if Cassidy is at it again. The mystery is intriguing enough to capture almost any reader while staying clean enough to not limit the audience. There's a fair amount of suspense and excitement to keep readers going. I can see it being checked out constantly!

Little Creeping Things by Chelsea Ichaso is a young adult thriller with an unreliable narrator. This one would be for the fans of did she or didn’t she or one in which you just don’t know who to trust.

Cassidy Pratt is now a teenager but when she was little she had been saved from a fire that she herself had started. That moment in Cassidy’s life was forever marked in tragedy as another child died which in turn has made Cassidy an outcast among her peers.

One of the popular girls that constantly teases Cassidy is Melody Davenport. One day while Cassidy is in her favorite hiding spot she overhears what she believes is someone murdering Melody but Cassidy can’t go to the police since what she heard sounds exactly like her own ideas for a perfect murder of her mean girl nemesis.

Little Creeping Things not only has an unreliable narrator but one that is still struggling to overcome her past which adds to the tension. The tone is rather eerie as the book gets going but I would warn it can be a little teen angsty towards the middle with some romance drama thrown in. However I still enjoyed the story and thought the ending was solid to go well with the tense beginning.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Not my favourite read lately, but I finished it in less than a day so it kept my interest. The plot twist at the end was a little predictable.

I LOVED this book. Twists and turns in every corner. My students are always looking for thrillers, and this is one that I will definitely be adding to my classroom library.

Interesting, what I would call, young adult thriller. My only real complaint would be the protagonist cries way too much. It started getting annoying fast for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a YA Thriller which I found to be a little slow in development. Even as a YA novel , I found the relationships in this story to be a bit off from reality. But then again it is Fiction. It's a solid 3 stars, as it was entertaining although a bit predictable.

This story starts out with Cassidy having a hallucination during practice, which sets the scene to learn about her history. She suffered a tragedy as a child and is still dealing with it every day. So she is the outcast and the not popular girl who is dragged into a murder mystery. I liked learning about her history and trying to piece the puzzle of it all together but the result was pretty scooby doo.

Good for fans of YA, YA mysteries, Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys.

Trigger warnings: alleged sexual harassment, suicidal ideation

This isn't going to be an in-depth review because, honestly, this book wasn't that in-depth.

Little Creeping Things is very much a gateway YA thriller. The story is fine, the characters are fine. But nothing stood out or blew me away. It's the kind of book that is okay in the moment but I quickly forgot the details once I finished.

I found both the characters and the plot pretty flat and one-dimensional. While I enjoyed the idea of the main character's backstory, it felt like just an idea. I was never fully engaged with what happened, even when the backstory and plot tie together for a/n (equally mild) plot twist.

I was further disengaged with the story by some unnecessary school-yard bullying of a character pretty much unknown to the reader. It was pointlessly included and honestly pretty gross.

Overall, if it's on your shelf and you haven't read a tonne of YA thrillers, by all means pick it up. But there are plenty of better recommendations in the YA thriller sphere, in my personal opinion.

Cassidy, unfortunately known throughout her high school as Fire Girl, is a completely and utterly unreliable narrator. This fast-paced novel keeps the reader engaged, as Cassidy overhears one of her tormentors murdered - and knows that her notebook is floating around town somewhere, with explicit instructions on how to commit the murder. Like Cass, the reader will also be grasping at straws trying to figure out who the murderer is, and what really happened that fateful day when Cass’s best friend burned to death in their treehouse. Recommend to teens who devour April Henry and Natasha Preston novels.

An addictive and chilling YA thriller that I obviously enjoyed a lot because well, I am a sucker for YA mysteries and when there is a high school setting in it haaah considered the deal sealed! First, of all the cover is GORGEOUSLY CREEPY and I APPRECIATE IT A LOT. THANK YOU. Cassidy Pratt, known as the fire girl is most often the talk of the school for an incident that happen in her childhood and well years later she finds herself haunted by her past and in the midst of another terrifying incident that she thinks unintentionally caused. The disappearance of Melody Davenport, the bully who seems to not let go of the tainted incident and still publicly calls Cass the “fire girl”.
Then she gets a text which reads: I’m so glad we’re in this together.
Creepy stalker “A” like messages check! A missing girl check! A well plotted mystery check! Unreliable narrator check! Incriminating evidence against the protagonist check!
Getting back to what I liked and didn’t like : I was definetly impressed by the writing as it kept me hooked to a point that I lost track of time. Cassidy’s character struggling through her trauma and the triggering events that were happening around her definitely had my whole attention and sympathy. I was quite intrigued by the plot and ofcourse the big reveal was what I was waiting for but it did kind leave me sad! Because, although I could connect the dots with everything that happened in the past and the present, I was certainly feeling positive about the said character,although I had my doubts.
So, all in all I’d say LITTLE CREEPING THINGS was an absolute nail bitter and had me on the edge the whole time! A quick read and perfect weekend getaway if you are looking for a YA thriller to spice up your reading mood!

This one was a DNF for me, unfortunately. I really tried. I kept going back after I finished reading another book but I just could not get into it.

I don't know if this is due to it being a YA book. Normally I love YA as they are easy reads but this one just seemed a little too mehhh for me. I couldn't connect with the character and I didn't relate to the stories.

I'm sure this book is for someone out there, just not for me.

This was a first read for me by this author and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how well Chelsea Ichaso was able to take my mind in different directions and had me asking who really did what up until the end of the book. This is a great YA read and I know that many YA are going to devour this book once it is released!

Cassidy is labeled in the community as the "Fire Girl" because she set a fire when she was little that ended up killing her neighbor, but she managed to escape. Because her brother was the one to save her from the fire, he has become very protective of her and is always checking up on her making sure that she is ok. There is a bully that always reminds Cassidy of what she has done and kids her about being the "Fire Girl" all the time. Her name is Melody. One day when Cassidy was with another guy friend at a party, she verbalizes her fantasy to do harm to Melody and get rid of her, not actually ever going to act on her actions. The worst part about it all is that she and this guy, Brandon, wrote it all down in her notebook. It's in her handwriting.

Cassidy has an amazing friend Gideon that is always there for her and is able to look fast her faults. They have been friends for awhile and tell each other everything. When Cassidy starts to act strange, even for her strange, Gideon begs her to tell him what is going on, but she can't bring herself to tell him. The little secret is about that night with Brandon and what she wrote, but worst of all, Cassidy's notebook is missing and she can't find it anywhere.

When Brandon and Cassidy are at their secret hangout, they hear someone in the woods and Cassidy knows that it is Melody by her voice. The other thing is that there is a guy with Melody and she knows that it is Brandon. When Cassidy sneaks a peak at what is going on when Gideon sneaks away to send a text message, Cassidy is afraid that what she sees is exactly what she wrote in her notebook. She can't call the police because then she will be blamed for what was in her handwriting in her own notebook if it is found again. What is she going to do? This is where Gideon and Cassidy begin to have their troubles because Cassidy won't tell him what is going on and why she is so afraid for Melody when she is Cassidy's worst enemy.

You will have to read the book to find out the rest of the journey Chelsea Ichaso takes you on with Cassidy when Melody end up missing the next day. You will get lost in this read and not realize that yo have flown through it and are almost at the end in no time. I can't wait for more from Chelsea Ichaso in the near future!

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all opinions are my own. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

3-4 stars! While this book had some really creepy, amazing, and shocking things, something just did not completely grab me. There were times I found myself completely emerged in the story and others I put it away and had a hard time picking back up. Ultimately, I finished, and yes find the ending to be quite good, so I think it would fall somewhere between 3 and 4 stars! I would recommend to those who like creepy books with good endings!

Wow I really went back and forth on a rating for this, because there were times when I was hooked and loving it and times where I would be frustrated with it. Ultimately the fact that it really kept my attention and ended up shocking me completely at the end made me
up my rating from a 3 star to a 4 star. Is it perfect? No. I think there were definitely some questionable actions by characters that were a bit unrealistic, but overall it was a good thriller. It also appears this is a debut novel, so I can let some of my character issues slide. I would definitely pick up another book by this author..

Filled with plenty of twists and turns and a fantastic unreliable narrator, LITTLE CREEPING THINGS is a solid entry in the world of YA thrillers.

The mystery starts fairly early on when fellow student Melody goes missing. Cass immediately feels a sense of panic because not only do she and Melody not get along, she kind of maybe sort of told someone how she’d love to see Melody disappear. Not only that, but her fake plans were handily written down in a notebook. When said notebook goes missing, Cass immediately suspects who could be behind Melody’s disappearance. The only problem is that Cass could be implicated as well, since they were her plans after all.

LITTLE CREEPING THINGS sucked me in from the very first pages and kept me guessing almost until the end. Ichaso did a pretty good job of pointing the reader (and Cass) in every direction and making every character look guilty as sin. Add to that a narrator that has plenty of dark secrets in her past and is prone to lying, and the result is a well-crafted mystery that very few readers will be able to solve before the big reveal.

Bottom line — a well-crafted mystery, an unreliable narrator, and a bit of romance thrown in for good measure makes LITTLE CREEPING THINGS a perfect book for both contemporary and YA thriller readers. 3.5 stars.

Little Creeping Things is one of those books that just screams teen angst. I mean that in a good way, because it’s so relatable. Most of us went through this phase as a teen. You know the one, where you just feel like everything sucks.

Mix that up with the mystery and the fact that you will at some point think everyone is the murderer, and you have a book that’s hard to put down.

I give this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Total page turner, and like I said, the teen drama and the angst really just felt honest and real. Don’t get me wrong, you will shake your head as an adult and you will know better. But as a teen, you probably would have been feeling and acting the same way as the protagonist.

Based on the cover, I had expectations for this book that didn't quite materialize. However, I do think it's a great fit for its intended audience. Teen angst of the "friends-who-secretly-want-to-be-more" variety doesn't quite resonate with me in this season of life, but I know that will check some readers' boxes!

Little Creeping Things is a YA Thriller that involves a murder that the main character, Cassidy, planned by didn't follow through with. While Cassidy and her best friend Gideon are in the woods, Cassidy hears a scream from the woods which she realizes is her enemy, Melody. When Cassidy checks out the scene she realizes she's seen this all before, in fact this was her idea. Melody doesn't return home and Cassidy is stricken when she realizes the notebook she wrote down the murder plans are in is missing. Not wanting to be implicated in the murder, Cassidy spins a web of lies that threatens to destroy her friendship and possible future relationship with Gideon.
I'll be honest, I was really intrigued in this story especially with Cassidy's childhood trauma and the effects of being known as "fire girl." However, the mystery was very predictable. I was able to guess the "whodunit?" very early on which really took away the spark of this story. Overall, I did really enjoy the characters I just wish that there would have been more careful plot devices that would have allowed the mystery to stay a mystery longer.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Little Creeping Things is one of those books that grabs you right from the start and doesn't let go. Cassidy Pratt is known as "Fire Girl" in her small town, because as a child, she accidentally started a fire that killed her best friend. She doesn't remember any of it, but most people at her school won't let her forget. Everyone except Gideon, that is. Gideon has been her best friend and defender since 2nd grade, and they've been inseparable from then on. They even have a secret spot, a "hobbit hole" that they go to even now to get away from everything. One day, when Gideon leaves their spot to use his phone, Cass hears one of her worst tormentors, Melody, screaming in the woods, and she's certain that something bad has happened. What's worse is that Cass will be a suspect, because not only does she have a reputation of being "Fire Girl", but she actually planned Melody's murder one drunken night at a party, and there's proof. She didn't really mean it, but she knows that she will have no defense if Brandon, the boy she planned it with, shows the police her notebook where they wrote all the details. When Melody's body is found, Cass has to decide who she can trust with the truth and how she can find the real killer.

I am a huge fan of unreliable narrators, and Chelsea Ichaso really delivered. Most authors would make their MC purposely dishonest or shady, but Ms. Ichaso took it a different route by creating a character that is unreliable because trauma prevents her from remembering. The pacing was good, not so slow that you get bored, but not so fast that you feel like you missed something. The ending wrapped up nicely, even if it was a bit obvious by the time you get to the last 3/4 of the story. Also--I love when the title and cover art choices are revealed within the story and aren't just "eye catching", so it was a nice moment for me when I could say "Okay, so THAT makes sense now". It's not a necessity to make a good book, but it is definitely satisfying. As a high school librarian, I will definitely purchase this book and I highly recommend it.

This ARC was generously provided by Netgalley in return for my honest review and feedback.