Oh, man. This was amazing. I have enjoyed pretty much every Mindy McGinnis book I've read, but this one is definitely up there with Female of the Species. She just has this amazing way of writing strong, bad-ass female characters, and her books always have some kind of mental illness aspect and don't get me started on the messed up/broken families. Loved. This. Book.

Neely knows she's mentally unwell. Her brother recently committed suicide, her parents left her to the care of her grandparents, and she also has active hallucinations. But she just got a job giving tours of a local cave system, which is the only place her hallucinations can't follow - until Margaret, one of long-dead women who helped explore the caves, shows up. Then Neely goes to a party with some coworkers and ends up by herself in the caves with Mila, a girl she likes. Now Mila is missing and Neely doesn't know what happened, and she can't help but suspect herself.

This was another great thriller from Mindy McGinnis. At first I thought this story might be set in an adjacent world to The Initial Insult as it feels a bit similar, and since I really enjoyed that world I didn't so much mind. Her books always feel very gritty and real and don't shy away from the edge. There was a solid twist at the end and some reveals that explained a lot of Neely's hallucinations. The caves themselves felt almost like a character.

Content advisory: Mentions of suicide, drug use, rape (not graphically shown), strong language.

This book, in my opinion, offers a truly fascinating look into mental illness, the way conditions worsen over time if treatment is not received, and how your brain prevents you from believing in yourself while you're experiencing a serious mental health crisis. The plot is usually interesting, but there are a few of truly surprising tiny turns, in my opinion. I adore Mindy McGinnis's writing, and I think it's great that she's constantly unpredictable and this is undoubtedly a fresh path for her.

I don't normally listen to audiobooks since I find it hard to not have the written material, but I thought I'd give this a go.

Whilst I enjoyed the story and the characters, the progression of the plot and pacing, I found it very difficult with the audiobook. It was a sample voice which was very monotone making it harder to concentrate and listen to which I don't think does this book or the author any justice to the work they've put in.

I'm sorry but I'm not able to review this book even though I really wanted to read it. There's something wrong with my netgalley shelf app and despite having asked for help to fix this, I've just never been able to access the book, either as a download or just streaming to listen. :(.
I'm leaving an average mid 3 stars for this book as I don't know what I would have given it if I could read it. I don't want to have to leave a score at all but if I don't it affects my netgalley ratio. Thank you to the publisher for approval and apologies for not being able to listen to it, I really wanted to:/

This book is not for the faint of heart. There's mental illness and murder. McGinnis writes an empathetic portrayal of a main character, named Neeley, who has auditory hallucinations and is grieving the death of her mom and brother and the abandonment of her father. Neeley starts a summer job as a tour guide at a cave, and notices that her auditory hallucinations don't follow her underground while she's in the cave. When Neeley's crush Mila (who is also her coworker) ends up dead, she tries to figure out what happened to Mila with the help of a hallucination of a deceased local cave adventurer named Margaret.

This book is very dark, and I would not recommend this book to squeamish readers because of its detailed descriptions of suicide, torture and death.

I like this series by Mindy McGinnis, and the teens I've recommended it to in my library enjoyed it as well. I liked the narrator and audio version, we will purchase this for our collection (in addition to the physical version).

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, and Harper Audio in exchange for an honest review.

Mindy McGinnis has done it again! And by it, I mean write a book I am completely sucked into. When McGinnis releases a new novel I immediately add it to my TBR! Under This Red Rock was interesting, thoughtful, and heartbreaking at the same time. I almost wish there was more of this novel to unravel the ending a bit more, but the ending was still satisfying- I just wasn't completely ready to leave it.

I would give this 4.5 stars!

This was my first Mindy McGinnis book but after finishing this I went out and got nearly all her others. This is the perfect mix of mystery, thriller and a little horror on top. I think the thing I adored the most was that for the most part Neely could arguably be seen as an unreliable narrator but slowly we begin to realise that despite her thinking the monsters she sees mean she is not okay that she might know more than she believes.

The prose kept me hooked as well as each chapter seeming to end in such a way that you need to find out what happens next. I loved the way McGinnis dealt with dark and difficult topics and kept it respectful as well as delving deep into it. It’s hard to discuss the plot in great detail without spoiling but if you like your mysteries and thrillers twisting you will love this one.

Whooooaaaa I don’t know what I was expecting but what a journey. This was dark and sometimes disturbing but also emotional and I was all over the place. Quite frankly I’m still in a bit of shock but I really rather enjoyed this. Neely is such an interesting and fleshed out character and I really appreciated the themes of mental health. A lot of the time I was a little confused about what was real and what wasn’t but I also think this was really fitting. The dry humour also offset everything rather well. Overall I’m just a ball of emotions at the moment.

Thank you Netgalley and Katherine Tegen Books for and eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first Audio review and let me say it didn't disappoint. I was hooked from the first half an hour. The narrator did an amazing job at bringing the story to life.

Neely has monsters ones that like to talk to her; the man in the closet, the little girl under her bed who's always thirst and disembodied voice that follows her around everywhere she goes.
Neely has a history of mental illness in her family and with the suicide of her older brother on her mind she decides its time she gets a job. Lucky for her she knows just the place; the one place her monsters can’t follow—the caverns. The one place she can pretend to be normal and find peace. Working as a tour guide for the caverns is where Neely meets Mila another employee, and she's everything Neely isn't Confident, Beautiful and very outgoing. After a wild night after a staff party involving drugs Mila is found dead and Neely's hallucinations have gotten worse. Neely must figure out who killed Mila . . . and face the possibility that it might have been her.

I really felt for Neely in this book, She's really been through a lot and was scared, She'd lost of her family and not in a great way. The whole book I was just hoping someone would notice she just needed some help. This books was an emotional roller-coaster and I made the mistake of listening to it in public and having to try and hide my tears. I did kind of guess the twist at the end but I only ghosted over it as a possibility as I was thinking about what could happen so it was still a very big surprise.
Overall I will be buying myself a physical copy to add to my shelf so I can reread it at some point.

This book was honestly so so so good! I find it really hard to find thriller books that can keep my focus but this one had me on every page. Every character is beautifully written and the plot is well developed and thought through.
I absolutely adored the idea of a character with auditory hallucinations and thought that the way it was written into the conscious thought of Meena was really creative.
While, yes, the book did discuss plenty of darker, more mature themes, I think it was done with poise and really strong emotional awareness. This book is not supposed to be a light read and I am very happy to say I loved the book.
I will be recommending to all of my thriller-loving friends.

I was kindly invited to read Under This Red Rock by Harper360YA, I was unaware at the time of request that this was an audiobook.

The audiobook is read by an AI voice which are first I was a bit put off by but soon got used to. One of the issues I had with voice was that sometimes it was hard to distinguish between the names of Neely & Mila as they sounded quite similar at times.

The story itself is an emotional rollercoaster for Neely, her family has a history of mental illness, her older brother commited suicide and she often hears voices.

Neely jumps at the chance of working in the local Caverns where her monsters can't follow her, she has a chance at normality and soon develops a crush on Mila.

I loved that throughout the story it was hard to tell who were the voices in Neely's head and who was real which added to her diminishing mental state.

There were a few unexpected twists which I thought added well to the story and overall I really enjoyed it and would try works by this author again.

Although this is a YA book it contained swearing and sensitive topics which I didn't mind but it would be inappropriate for the younger side of YA readers.

Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis is a dark YA mystery with a mentally ill protagonist that will stay with me for a long time. I’m so grateful to @penguinaudio for an ALC of this one.

Neely is still reeling from the death of her brother, but that’s just the last in a long line of tragedies. She lives with her own monsters—voices she hears—but those are usually quiet underground in the Ohio caverns she likes to visit. She gets a summer job there and meets confident Mila who’s everything Neely is not. Neely’s innocent crush grows stronger as the two girls get closer, but when tragedy strikes, Neely can’t trust her own memories.

This was a really well written, really hard book to read. Being inside Neely’s head was a really intense place to be. She’s grieving, hears voices, has very low self-esteem, and doesn’t want to be any more of a burden on the grandparents who have turned their life around to raise her, so she doesn’t ask for help. I don’t actually think she believes help is an option which is a really hard, but realistic, place to be.
I enjoyed the mystery in this one, and the cavern setting was a fabulous place for a story this spooky. I could completely imagine the cavern walls and the darkness that might feel like solace to a person with so many demons. I also loved the feminist threads in this novel. I suspect it wouldn’t be a Mindy McGinnis book without them. There were names carved into the cavern walls to show which explorers had gotten the furthest and of course the prize went to a woman. My family visited a cave last spring break where there was a similar story of women explorers. But the book also tackles LGBTQ+ themes and explores some of the ways we’ve grown as a society and maybe some of the ways we haven’t.

Brittany Pressley narrates and she does a fabulous job. I was worried her bright voice might not work for the material, but she is a great performer and absolutely got me into Neely’s head.

I’d recommend this one to anyone looking for a dark story. There’s a bit of hope at the end, but it’s not what I’d call a happy ending.

Thank you to Harper Collins: Katherine Tegen Books, Mindy McGinnis and Net Galley for sending me an audio arc of this book in exchange to an honest review.

Storyline: ★★
Writing: ★★
Twists & Turns: ★★★
Narration: ★★

Overall: ★★.5

This story follows Neely. Her life after experiencing some trauma as a child, she experiences hallucinations and gaps in her memory. The only time she gets relief from the hallucinations is when she works at her job as a tour guide on the caves.

After a party, the hallucinations become more pronounced and we follow Neely where the story progresses.

One of my favourite genres are mysteries and I rarely read them. But I felt I needed to know what happened.

We get the story from Neely's POV so I felt very unsure if what she was telling us is what happened, I feel that so the point! Were meant to question what happened especially when we understand Neely has gaps in her memory.

I wasn't a fan of the AI narration and found this book would have been rated higher if it felt like a real person telling the story. The negativity toward mental illness aimed at Neely did rub me the wrong way too, those parts were hard to listen to and I did feel that were a bit too frequent and I wish it wasn't emphases so much.

This book had me hooked. It was a unique premise and although I’m already a big fan of urban romances the concept of the political climate for this book was super intriguing.

Kennedy Ryan fills a gap in the romance market. Bringing together the real life injustices people face with the almost still whimsical romances. Both characters were complex which was great as I feel like it’s easy to focus on developing one whilst others are dragged along.

The end made me want to immediately read book 2 and so I have to class this book as a win.

Neely isn't sure what happened to her friend, because her mental health issues cause hallucinations and gaps in her memory. This story takes us on a journey of a family who has struggled with mental health and the associated stigmas, and a daughter who just wants to live a normal life.

Love the cover. Great narration.

Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis
Pub Date: 3/19/24

*YA, but with a side of psychological thriller vibes

Let me start off by saying there were a lot of good qualities about this book, but I could not get past the AI generated narration. Had I known this was narrated this way I would have never requested it on NetGalley. If I get around to it I may have to listen to this book after there’s an actual narrator.

Having said all of the above, I would still recommend this book because the premise was very interesting. I’m usually not one to like unreliable narrators, but it fit perfectly into the storyline. The author really dives into mental health and other very tough issues. The story starts out pretty slow, but definitely picks up about halfway through. I was questioning most of the characters for a good portion of the book and was unsure of what was real and what was not. The setting was dark and creepy too. This book was incredibly tense and had layer after layer of intrigue.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this early copy of Under This Red Rock.

I can only say that whatever robot/ai y’all have reading this is so awful. The voice put emphasis on the wrong words in a sentence and there were multiple times it paused too long in between words. It was so jarring I could not listen to it very long. It was extremely distracting and hard to understand.

I can’t rate the story because of this issue as I wasn’t able to complete it.

I loved Heroine and the premise of this one sounds so interesting. I'm sure my teen readers will love it, and I am hoping to listen when the actual audiobook comes out.

I didn't realize this was AI narrated--it's very distracting.