Three young girls meet to spend some time together in their little get-away cave that no one knows about.

When the day is done ... Heidi's best friend is murdered, her younger sister is missing, and Heidi suffered a savage attack that left her with no memory. She’s lived her life for the last 15 years with little memory of her friends and family.

Now her memory is returning ... and someone will do anything to keep her memory buried ... permanently.

I read this in almost one sitting. It's well written with skillfully drawn characters. The mystery portion kept me turning pages. I loved how Heidi's thoughts and memories were portrayed. The ending was unexpected, violent, satisfying.

Many thanks to the author / Agora Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Set in 2016 Monstrous Souls introduces us to Heidi who back in 2001 was brutally attacked along with her best friend Nina, Nina didn’t survive and the attack on Heidi left her with memory loss. She doesn’t remember the attack, who it was by or the lead up to it. Heidis little sister Anna was taken that day as well and the police never found her or the culprit.

Denise was a police officer on the case at the time and it has always haunted her that they never solved things or found Anna so when Heidis memory looks like it may be coming back, Denise is keen to investigate and help Heidi. Someone isn’t so keen though and wants to stop Heidi from revealing the truth.

With a duel timeline and told from different perspectives, Monstrous Souls is a dark and twisty read that is uncomfortable at times but the subject that is approached is done with sensitivity and isn’t described in detail which I was thankful for but it certainly sent shivers down my spine.

I felt really frustrated for Heidi, I couldn’t imagine having gone through something so terrible and having no memory. You’d think it might be a blessing not remembering the terrible things that happened but she has no recollection of her friend, her sister or herself.

When I started reading this book I stopped and started many times due to family life which was really frustrating but it was when I got to about 40% I really got the chance to get into it and I read it with an urgency, an urgency to find out what happened, an urgency for Heidis memories to return and an urgency to read that justice would be severed to the monsters. It’s definitely a story that is gripping, tense and keeps you on your toes.

Monstrous Souls is an incredible debut by Rebecca Kelly and although it touches on some incredibly difficult and heart wrenching matters it’s a story that you need to make time to read, with no distractions because once you start you really won’t want to put it down. I’m excited to see what Rebecca Kelly comes up with next and I’ll be highly recommending Monstrous Souls

This is an absolute cracker of a thriller. It has everything you need from familiar characters to heart breaking storylines and everything in between to keep you hooked.

I always enjoy a dual time frame novel and this book is one of the better ones. Most of the narrative is from Heidi, the young woman who was attacked in 2001 which resulted in memory loss and how she handles dealing with the snippets that she has started to remember fifteen years later. And there is also Denise, a police officer who has involved in the initial investigation and the only person who can help Heidi find her answers.

Some of this book is quite difficult to read, especially in 2001. The way Nina had to deal with what was happening to her and how a cry for help resulted in further tragedy. The guilt Heidi feels as more memories resurface. The anger and frustration felt by the police when faced with a historic crime that looks like it could involve one of their own.

What the author does so well is show how the crimes committed affect the different individuals concerned, both at the time they were committed and in the future. How the fear of retribution made many stay silent. It is extremely convincing.

It’s hard to be believe that this is a debut novel, it is very well written with little hint of who could or couldn’t be trusted.

This was a very dark, intense book but very well written. It gripped me right from the start and wouldn’t let go until I finished. It was worth reading in one sitting, I had to know what had happened!

In 2001, Heidi was the victim of a brutal assault after being left for dead at the scene. Unfortunately, this meant she had suffered long term memory problems and even fifteen years later, her memory still wasn’t there. Her best friend Nina had not survived and no-one had been caught for her murder. Heidi’s sister, Anna, had gone missing at the time as well.

Come 2016, Heidi starts remembering small bits of her memory. She lets the police know and asks them to tell her what happened on the day of the attack which she has never been able to face hearing about before. She remembers her sister being taken! Due to that, Heidi decides she will give her memory a nudge so she visits Nina’s family. They used to live next door to each other. Danielle, Scott and Jason, are more amenable then Nina’s mum and together they start trying to put together what happened to the girls that fateful day. Other memories start surfacing as well. From the bunker Nina and her used to go to and where Nina had stored some stuff behind a brick. Heidi was keen to see if it was still there. Her first attempt was thwarted by someone following her to the bunker but she sensed him, she hid in the brambles all night. When she next went, the bunker hadn’t really changed over the years but more importantly, Nina’s stash was still there! So were the photos and the money…...

The police started looking into things that were brought to their attention but unknownst to some in the police, there was someone who had someone tracking Heidi and was keen to know what she knew as well. Trouble was, she didn’t realise how much danger she was in!

Although there were fifteen years between the initial events and Heidi’s memory starting to return, who killed Nina and attacked Heidi, did they kidnap Anna? Will we learn the truth? Read the book to find out.

This was a really intriguing, nail biting story in places, well thought out and planned to tease the reader. I certainly didn’t foresee the ending.

As a debut novel this is first class and marks Rebecca Kelly as an author to watch out for. This is a gripping psychological thriller which deals excellently with difficult subjects - Child abuse, parenting, alcoholism, growing up trying to find a place in the world all described in superb detail. The Story is based on Heidi with the basis in 2001 and the current day flashbacks and life in 2016 in alternate chapters. It was a slowish start but very quickly became absorbing and I found that I did not want to put it down until I reached the end.
I had sort of thought about one of the nasty people but the superb finale brought everything together very neatly. Overall It was sad to read of the child abuse issues but certainly a gripping read.

I really enjoyed this book! Monstrous Souls is twisty thriller book that you will devour in a sitting.

This book was everything I had hoped it would be, and more. I knew just by reading the small summary that it would be something I would be interested in.
The book follows Heidi, and flashes back and forth between the present and the past. Heidi's best friend, Nina, was murdered, and her younger sister, Anna was abducted. Heidi was there, but has had amnesia since the incident, as she was struck repeatedly in the head with a brick and left for dead. All she wants to do is remember what happened, and who hurt them, so she can bring a killer to justice and try to find out what happened to her sister. What she begins to uncover is so much more than what happened to them. This is one of the largest criminal organizations that has ever been uncovered in their area, and it has far reaching hands. The reason the cases were never solved is due to the amount of cover-up involved, but hopefully this time will be different.
This book does not disappoint!

I was not immediately drawn into Rebecca Kelly's Monstrous Souls as I found the continuous change of narrative annoying, I don't know how it could have been handled differently other than maybe the flashbacks could have been longer and more detailed.

However, half way through the book the plot became shockingly compulsive and I was torn between reading as fast as I could or putting it down and never reading on. The storyline is sickening in that it is abuse of the worst kind and I felt Nina's shame and fear deep within me, but I had to see it through, perhaps for her sake.

The conclusion was horrific in that if you thought the situation couldn't get any worse there is so much more to come and most of it unexpected and chilling.

TW: Abuse

"It had been a policewoman who had eventually discovered them - not on an illicit camp-out as they had assumed, but a devastating scene of death."

At thirteen-years-old Heidi was the lone survivor of a brutal attack that left her hospitalised, her little sister missing and her best friend dead. She has no memories of that day or her life leading up to it. Now, just over a decade later, small fragments of memories are beginning to reappear. As Heidi tries to put the pieces of her past together she finds herself in danger from those who want to keep the truth about that night hidden. But she is determined to find out what happened. Whatever the cost.

"I don't like the way the memories come, like a letter bomb on the doormat. I don't like the way they are tagged to feelings of grief and rage and self-recrimination. I am never prepared."

Monstrous Souls is a pacy, gripping and layered thriller that was hard to put down. The story moves between the dual timelines and multiple narrators as we are given glimpses of events leading up to the night Heidi was attacked and follow her fifteen years later as she begins to regain her memories. As terrible truths are slowly unveiled it is soon clear that there is much more to the events of that night than anyone first imagined.

In this novel the author doesn't shy away from the exploration of deep and difficult subject matters. She examines our psychology, the things we hide from the world, our deepest secrets and fears, and the effects they have on our actions and relationships with others. She also tackles the difficult subject of abuse with sensitivity, avoiding graphic descriptions while still managing to convey the full horror and depravity. She also shines a light on the reasons victims stay quiet, the guilt they feel and the long-lasting effects of abuse exploring if there are fates that can be worse than death.

"I don't want to think about these places, about this other life she has to endure... what I have seen in the photograph seeps through me like a toxin."

For me the characters are a vital part of any book and the characters this author created were authentic and compelling. I found Heidi to be a very sympathetic and likeable character with an interesting character arc as her memories returned. We witness a seemingly fragile woman emerge into someone with great strength. In the flashbacks we witness the usual teenage angst and squabbles with her best friend become something much more serious when Nina confides in her. Heidi is filled with turmoil as she's torn between the solace and security of her home and wanting to help her friend escape her private hell. We watch her anguish over how to help and if she should betray her friend's confidence to do so. Nina is definitely the character I had a soft spot for. Between her awful homelife, the horrors she endures and the knowledge that she is brutally murdered so young, I desperately wished I could save her. Her sorrow, anguish and desolation lept from the page and left me heartbroken.

While I enjoyed all the different perspectives, the mysterious and sinister person stalking Heidi provides some of the best narration of the whole book and his story arc was probably the most nuanced of them all. When his identity was revealed I learned that all my predictions were wrong and my jaw hit the floor.

Monstrous Souls is a sensational, twisty and riveting debut that will have you hooked from start to finish.

When I started to read this book, I was a bit confused about different people and different years, which in the book, were running next to each other. However, I managed to orientate pretty quickly and I was taken into a story within the first 10 pages. The story is evolving quickly, however, the number of characters in the book is just perfect to don’t get lost in the story and enjoy it. A very well-written book and I look forward to reading more books written by Rebecca.

Monstrous Souls is incredibly dark and very addictive. The split timeline allows the reader to see the build up to the attack and how in the present day these memories are the basis for the reopening of the case. In 2001 the first person narrative of Heidi makes the story more personal, and as a reader we are privy to the lead up to the crime, that Heidi in the present has no recollection of; she remembers nothing of her life before the attack. Heidi and her best friend Nina are typical teenagers, sharing secrets, talking about boys and spending all their free time together. However, some secrets are darker than others, but they are still there for each other. In the present Heidi still feels the guilt to what happened, why did she survive and why can’t she remember. She also lost her mother in the aftermath after she had a mental breakdown and was taken to a psychiatric hospital. This has resulted in Heidi being a loner, not trusting anyone.

In 2016 DC Denise Gilzeen also can’t forget the crime, as it was one of her first investigations when she joined the police. She has always kept in contact with Heidi, and as the memories start to return she fights to reopen the case. She is dogged in her determination to find the killer, even though there are rumours of a cover up in the police. Both timelines have their own tension, and fear running through for different reasons; in the past the plot races towards the day of the crime and in 2016 the investigation takes some shocking turns putting Heidi back in danger.

Monstrous Souls deals with the most horrifying type of crime I can imagine and deals with the subjects of grooming, abuse and the grief of those left behind. Rebecca Kelly, however, only implies the crime, there is no graphic detail just a suggestion, leaving the detail up to the imagination. She expertly builds the suspense over both time lines, giving them equal plot time, so there is no let up for the reader and you need to keep reading. The terror and dread that underpin the story, had me on the edge of my seat, almost not wanting to read what happened. All this tension and fear culminates in the final, brilliant, heart wrenching paragraph, that has stayed with me since.

Monstrous Souls is an accomplished debut from Rebecca Kelly, and one I will remember for a long time. The personable characters draw you in to their lives, and I felt Rebecca Kelly handled their emotions, and the subject matter with empathy and understanding. Full of terror and suspense, the dark nature of this book will captivate you with that ‘just one more chapter’ feeling. This an impressive and immersive thriller and one I highly recommend.

In 2001, when Heidi Bevan was 13, she was assaulted with a brick, her sister, Anna, aged 7, went missing and her best friend and next-door neighbour, Nina Carpenter, was murdered. The three girls had been playing in their den, a bunker in the park at the top of the hill, one summer evening and were late home. The police looked for them and the two older girls were eventually discovered lying side by side outside the entrance to the bunker. A fire had been started to try and destroy any evidence.

Due to her injuries, Heidi suffered from amnesia and was unable to tell police what happened and although they had suspicions about who the murderer was, no one was charged and no trace of Anna was ever found. Afterwards, the girls’ mum, Lynn, took an overdose and ended up in a psychiatric hospital, where she still remains. Heidi’s dad was killed in a motorbike accident when she was a baby.

In 2016, now a young woman, Heidi is beginning to remember things and have flashbacks about those dreadful childhood events – she sees Anna being taken and her new red shoes with straps. The family’s stuff is kept in a storage area at a warehouse and, for years, Heidi has been going to look at their things in the hope that something will come back to her. It has meant very little until recently, when she experienced a new connection to her past.

Heidi also looks at her suitcase from her time in residential care, which contains old photos of her mum, dad and sister, as well as her friend, Nina, and Danielle, who was Nina’s little sister and Anna’s best friend. She can’t really remember or visualise these memories but she begins to remember things; she knows that Nina was deeply unhappy but can’t remember why.

The awful events have drastically affected Heidi’s life and, as well as suffering from memory problems, she says, ‘I’m aware of my profound loneliness – I’m not just a stranger to myself, but to others, too. Getting too close is a risk.’

Set in the two time periods, the book switches between the build up to the awful events of 2001 and the current day, 2016, when Heidi starts to piece things together with the help of Detective Inspector Denise Gilzeen, who was part of the original investigating team, and the case is reopened. The original case was high profile with a massive police search but was unable to get any definitive results for some reason, despite what seemed like overwhelming evidence in various areas.

The book is a difficult read at times; chilling and disturbing. The girls are caught up in something awful but they feel helpless and on their own; they don’t know who to turn to and aren’t sure who they can trust or who will believe them. There seems to be no easy way out.

Heidi and Nina have a close, but slightly volatile at times, relationship and it seems typical of an early teenage friendship with all the fun, laughs and dramatic angst involved. As events get out of control, Heidi feels powerless to help her friend and unable to tell her mum what’s going on. Her family is quite close knit, despite the loss of her dad, but Nina’s family is more chaotic with her heavily-drinking mum, Carol, sinister stepfather, Ken Finch, younger sister, Danielle, and two older brothers, Scott and Jason.

The novel was gripping, absorbing and well layered, and I was frantically turning the pages when the pace ramped up and Heidi seemed to be in increasing danger as the past came back to haunt her. There were lots of secrets plus various shady and evil characters and everybody seemed to be doing their hardest to ensure that the past remained hidden.

It’s a raw and emotional read, without resorting to graphic descriptions. Poor Heidi feels such guilt about how things turned out and wishes she had been able to save her younger self as well as her friend and sister.

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-plotted and cleverly written police procedural/thriller. It was an engaging and gripping read with some rather dark and tense moments and surprising twists and turns. An excellent debut and I looked forward to reading more from the author. I’m hoping we’ll meet DI Denise Gilzeen again soon!

Heidi is the victim of a horrible attack that left her best friend dead and her sister missing, but she cannot remember what happened or why. She lives her live as an outsider, afraid to get close to anyone, and unsure of who she really is and what she is capable of.

When flashes of memory start to come back to Heidi, she opens a whole can of evil worms connected to a paedophile ring that was involved in the abuse and disappearance of boys and girls around the time of her assault - and with the help of one of the detectives connected to the original investigation, it seems the chance may finally be here to find out who was responsible.

As the new investigation starts to take shape, it becomes clear that the original inquiry was seriously flawed - perhaps deliberately. Someone did not want the truth exposed.... and that someone is apparently still around and directing things behind the scenes. How far does this web of corruption reach and how far was Heidi herself involved?

As more and more of the past comes back to Heidi, she begins to feel that she may have been responsible in some way for Nina's death and Anna's disappearance, but the truth, when it comes, is so much worse than she realised.

What an absolutely cracking thriller! Monstrous Souls is a masterclass in perfect pacing and seamless plotting that will keep you turning the pages all the way to the shocking end. This is absolutely heart in your mouth stuff, full of secrets, lies, corruption, and betrayal - all beautifully packaged in a dark and compelling story.

And this is tale that has chilling echoes of some of the most distressing real life cases that have been in the news in recent years - stories of grooming and abuse of young people on a huge scale, especially those from socially deprived backgrounds, that involve perpetrators in positions of trust and power that were able to cover up their activities for years with a conspiracy of silence. This is also a book that asks some interesting questions about the nature of guilt and how much someone's silence can make them complicit in the acts of others - very thought provoking indeed.

For a debut thriller, this is a most impressive and accomplished book. I can't wait to see more from Rebecca Kelly.

A well written and throughly thrilling novel. The author sets out the story well going backwards and forwards over a period of fifteen years. The two main characters write in the first tense making for a more enjoyable read. In summary a very good piece of fictional work..

I'm going to remain neutral and go with the unpopular opinion of 3 stars....

I feel like the elements for an amazing thriller are there, but I felt like I've read this story before and that I could predict what was going to happen, so I can understand where the rave reviews are coming from.

Heidi is 13 years old, found attacked and burned, her best friend is found dead next to her, and her 7 year old sister is missing. The story line flashes forward and backward between the time of the attack and 15 years afterward. I feel as though the unraveling of the story would have been more interesting if things slowly started to come back over the course of the 15 years. It's too convenient that she tries to remember and it all comes together because she must have done something different this time than she did over the course trying to remember any other time.

A special thank you to NetGalley, Agora Books, and Rebecca Kelly for providing me with an ARC.

The title of this novel says it all. If there was another, even more appalling word for monstrous, I would probably use it. What kind of person would abuse children and threaten them, if not someone with a 'monstrous soul'?

The book, however, is beautifully written. I loved how it gripped me and stirred every single emotion within me. Some of the descriptions were so amazing, that they filled me with dread and made me wish I could close my eyes and wish I were asleep until the action passed, in order to avoid facing what the character was going through and what was going to happen to them. It could be used to raise awareness about what kind of people we could be associate with, without knowing.

It is definitely a must-read! I am looking forward to the paperback copy so I can share with my students.

Thanks to @agorabooks #rebeccakelly and #netgalley for this wonderful book. #monstrous souls

Wow,

This is another one of those rare books where you chuck whatever food you can at your family/delegate meals to someone else as long as you can keep one hand free to change pages on your kindle. Food becomes secondary when you are racing through a story as heartbreaking, soul destroying and determinedly plotted as this one.

Heidi and Nina become irretrevably linked in your minds, you make connections between their shared pasts even as Heidi tries to recover the worst thing which ever happened to her. The girls are first introduced as children-Nina's last moments and Heidi's first are seared into this reader's mind as unbelievably tragic and awful. This is because of the lack of details which do not linger on the physical attacks, rather as someone going through this, it's the small things that are noticed. Like the ash and rain drops, the position of fingers, what can be seen through bandages. It gives the victim a dignity in death, which, as you read on, she never had in life.

Nina, dead, Heidi's little sister Anna missing, the only witness so badly injured that she has blocked all knowledge from her mind. Her 13 year old self's defence to the horrific near death experience is to shut down and build walls of protection allowing her to recover.

Years later, as she goes about her business resembling a fully functioning adult yet simulataneously being so far removed from this state as it is possible to be, things begin to resurface.

It starts with a red buckle shoe, and a detective unwilling to let go of a case which has haunted her for 15 years.

From there it takes the darkest of turns, because as Heidi begins to piece together what happened the day Nina died, and turns to the police for help, someone seems to be one step ahead of them. And someone is lurking in the shadows, watching Heidi as the darkest of secrets are dragged out into the sunlight for all to see.

This is a hard read-the topics are so painful, the desperate attempts of a child thrust into adulthood way too soon to search for justice reminds you just how disposable children are when they are at their most vulnerable, And when those who are the ones who should be there to help you are turn out to be worst of all humans, how do you keep your soul in the absence of all hope?

The bravery and fragility of Heidi and Nina is heartbreaking and all too believable, a story echoed in daily headlines of missing children. The missing pieces are not easily slotted together, this is a book to concentrate on, and when the answers eventually come, they are somehow worse than not knowing.

This is so much more than a whodunnit, yes there is a central mystery but it also takes a look into the darkest side of child abuse. The characters are fully fleshed and do not resemble caricatures, the subject is dealt with empathically and sensitively. The victims are the focus , not the criminals. There is nothing straight forward and banal about 'Monstrous Souls', it is so well crafted it seems astounding that it is a debut. I loved the main detective, Denise Gilzeen from the moment she was introduced-a Detective Inspector of colour who takes zero nonsense from anyone and always, always remains focussed . She is a breath of fresh air and I genuinely hope she returns.

'Monstrous Souls' is currently available as a Kindle Unlimited title so if you have this, I would 100% recommend downloading it. If not, it is 99p so again, please get it if you enjoy a gripping mystery, humanity explored at its worst(and its best) and characters who linger.

I really enjoyed this book. Over 10 years ago Heidi was the victim of a vicious attack which left her best friend dead and her little sister missing. She can't remember anything. Now, though, things are starting to come back to her. Can she finally help the police to solve this cold case? However, other people are determined to stop anything coming out. There are horrendous secrets which they are determined to keep hidden. This is a gripping thriller which will keep you guessing to the end. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

Excellent novel. Really enjoyed it. Told over two time frames, which I love, and from several peoples perspective, again a plus for me. Not read anything by this author before, but will definitely read any future works.