I love thrillers with lots of suspense and excitement- and I genuinely didn't see the end coming- BUT, I have one very large issue with this book. Catherine's brutal rape by three men at her college is NOT ESSENTIAL TO THE PLOT. It was not necessary, and to be quite honest hard to read. It did nothing to advance the plot, had nothing to do with the central conflict, NOTHING. As someone who works on a sexual violence prevention coalition, I would never give this book to a teen struggling with similar issues. There would have been plenty of other ways to get Andrew involved in the story and other ways for Catherine to have inner turmoil over something in her life. It is the only reason I can't give this book 4 or 5 stars- this is not a "trendy" thing to include in your book, it is quite damaging and unnecessary. However, I enjoyed everything else.

I love reading young adult mysteries and thrillers, so this was right up my alley. It's about a girl named Catherine who goes home for the winter break after her first semester at college. She survived a sexual assault a few weeks before returning home, and she is still shaken from it. When a close friend is murdered, Catherine's world is turned upside down again. She teams up with a childhood friend and a mysterious new boy to figure out what happened.
This book is twisty, dark, and full of surprises! It reminded me of The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas a little bit, in a good way. It featured a protagonist who had gone through something traumatic and is now consumed by solving a mystery. You'll love it if you enjoy small towns, police scandals, and the Netflix series You.

Content: Language, violence, and trauma.

Source: Netgalley.

I almost quit reading this book very shortly after I began it. I was afraid that I would be spending a book caught in the traumatized memory of the main character. And she was traumatized! Catherine Ellers was raped after drinking too much and attending a party. She doesn't remember much about the experience. She sees the bruises and knows she washed away blood. She can't remember and both does and doesn't want to remember. Since it is just before Christmas Break, she comes home where her parents don't know how to help her.

Catherine reconnects with her childhood friend Henry Brisbois and his dog Molly. They had lost contact with each other at the end of Elementary School for reasons that make Catherine feel guilty. But now his presence is something of a comfort to her because he doesn't look at her strangely and know about what happened at college.

When twelve-year-old Amy Porter is found strangled to death. Catherine is pulled out of her introspection and needs to find out who killed her. Catherine had been Amy's babysitter/nanny for three summers and feels very connected to her. Catherine recruits Henry to help her with her investigation.

Then a boy named Andrew Worthington comes to town with Catherine's coat and drivers license and debit card and knowing more about what happened the night Catherine was raped than Catherine does. His need to assuage his own guilt makes him add himself to the investigative team.

The three teens find out all sorts of buried secrets as they investigate including secrets about what happened to Catherine. The story was filled with tension that kept building and building. I enjoyed the story and thought it was a well-plotted mystery with a surprising twist.

Overall, I really enjoyed Monsters Among Us. I wasn't particularly thrilled by the religious aspect and the implication about those who die by suicide are tortured in hell, but I will say these are brief and minor moments that don't totally detract from the story. My biggest issue was the twist that felt inorganic and forced. The best part were the suppporting characters and the interactions as it felt real and genuine. Tons of potential, I'll keep an eye on the author's future works.

Monsters Among Us is about the monsters that hide in plain sight all around us. Catherine returns home after a date rape incident at college and gets caught up in a murder investigation in her hometown. While it is a little clunky at times, the overall story is one that is unfortunately too well known, but is handled slightly differently.

Monsters Among Us is about a girl named Catherine who returns home after being raped at college. Catherine has barely any recollection of the event, and struggles to remember exactly what happened while she was in college. While this is going on, one of her friends, Amy, a girl she used to babysit, goes missing and is shortly found dead. Catherine decides to try to find out who killed Amy all while fragments of what happened at college comes back to her.

I personally felt that there were too many different things happening in this book. The fact that Catherine was raped, didn't really feel necessary to the overall story. I felt like there were two conflicting major stories that were struggling for importance the entire time.

This book overall felt disjointed and choppy making it ultimately forgettable shortly after finishing it.

I was surprised reading some of the reviews because I really enjoyed this book. Well, it wasn't necessarily an "enjoyable" topic, but it was a good story and I thought Monica Ridden did a really good job.

Some spoilers?
The book starts off with the main character being home from college after experiencing a sexual assault. But, she's still in that weird mind fog of: did this actually happen to me? Am I sure this happened to me?

And while home, one of her dear neighbors dies, and she embarks on finding out who the killer was. I think she uses this as a way to seek justice for her friend but also as a way to not deal or think about what happened to her. She throws all her energy into solving this, and there are some twists and turns. Both issues end up being handles/dealt with in a sense.

I really liked this book. I thought it was written really well.

So, initially I thought I was all in with this one and was sure that it was going to be a 5 star.

I finished this awhile ago...and couldn't get around to writing my review for it. Now, looking back I couldn't really remember the main storyline for it. Hmm.. I guess that's a sign that this wasn't something that was that memorable for me.

Monster Among Us has two different storylines going on here... and unfortunately the author didn't do that well of a job converging the two. Catherine has been raped at a college party and has no memory except leaving a dorm room without her ID and blood dripping down her legs.

Then the other storyline... Catherine comes home from Christmas break and her neighbor a young girl named Amy has been murdered. Catherine and her friends become some what of detectives trying to solve the murder of Amy as well as connecting the dots to help Catherine remember what happened to her that awful night she was raped.

Rodden misses the mark on this one for me... it turned out to be a pretty predictable YA thriller and lacked the gritty, dark, and gruesome unputdownable storyline that I crave in my thrillers. This was compared to those that enjoyed Sadie (which I LOVED)... and I feel that Sadie and Monsters Among Us are very very different from one another.

Overall, 3 stars for me.

Huge thank you to Netgalley and Macmillian Children's Publishing Group for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Pub date: 10/27/20
Published to GR: 8/2/20

Catherine returns home from college in shambles, she's been sexually assaulted but doesn't really remember the details. While at home recovering and deciding what to do about the next semester she reconnects with Henry, a childhood friend, and Amy the little girl that she often takes care of during the summer.

Then, something else horrible happens and while the whole community is shaken by the events, Andrew Worthington shows up with Catherine's coat, wallet, and ID. Catherine, Andrew, and Henry begin trying to piece together the events surrounding the town tragedy and to find the responsible party. Catherine also needs to find out exactly who Andrew is and why he wants to help.

I really wanted to love this book. It checks a lot of boxes for me. Mystery, danger, adventure, teenagers trying to solve crimes...but it fell kind of flat for me. It took awhile to get into the book and a few days after I finished the book, I found myself hard pressed to remember major details of the story. I also feel like the stories two plot lines were kind of in conflict with one another. I think I would have liked a story about Catherine's recovery or about the incident that shakes up her home town more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a DRC of this title for review. All opinions are my own.

So, initially I thought I was going to rate this pretty highly, but I finished it a few days ago and couldn't even convince myself to write anything about it. I was strangely ambivalent. And now, 2 days later, I almost couldn't even remember what the main story line was, so clearly it wasn't something that stayed with me. Part of this might be due to the fact that this walks to very different paths. 1-It is a gritty realistic fiction look at what happens after a girl is raped after a party at college. Catherine has no memory of it happening and only knows that she comes to in a stranger's dorm room and tries to make her way home without her coat, her ID, and with her dress on backwards and blood dripping down her legs. This in itself is a compelling story. 2, though is a different matter. The other path this story takes is about when Catherine comes home for Christmas break and her neighbor, a young girl (Amy) she used to nanny for, goes missing and then is found dead. She then becomes almost a Nancy Drew type character, with her old friend from middle school (and someone she avoided in high school) and Adam, a guy who shows up at her doorstep with her ID (from that night) who is dealing with guilt because he knew what was happening to her and never stepped in to help. This trio sets out to find out who killed Amy. This too could have been a compelling story.

The intertwining of the two narratives took something away from the overall book, for me. It had been hyped as a book for those who liked Sadie, but I feel like that is a bit of a stretch. The grittiness is there, but only in flashes. Rodden abandons that for a more plotted and predictable YA thriller about a girl who has been killed.

Overall, this is a second purchase for large collections that have a huge mystery/thriller fan base.

Monsters Among Us was a good mystery book. I was hooked on this one from the first chapter. My heart broke for Catherine and what happened to her at college. This poor girl goes home to deal with trying to remember what happened to her at a party and it's anything but peaceful. At one point I thought how much more can this girl handle. I figured out the outcome pretty early on but I still felt like it was a good mystery/suspense read.

Catherine, college freshman, is a survivor of sexual assault, at least she thinks she is; most of the night is a still a blur. She heads home to find comfort--only to find another brutal tragedy. She is compelled to help with the investigation; she can't just stand by helplessly.
I had to stay up late reading this one because I could not put it down! Riveting, tragic, and true.

This book really came out of left field for me. I hadn’t heard about it at all!! It’s a book about sexual assault/rape, male entitlement to so much more than they deserve from a girl, and grief and healing. There’s not much at all that’s non-spoiler that I can say, but the mystery aspect of the story definitely eases the heaviness of the rape, even though the mystery is that of another girl’s murder. I guess it just gives Catherine something to put energy into and focus on while slowly healing herself. I thought the mystery was well done, quite enough characters to keep you guessing... the ending was a little cheap but it was still unexpected enough. I recommend giving this book a try if you like tough topics in your stories.