Damn! This book is a lot…
Neeli hears the monsters and is never alone. As she copes with grief she tries to be “normal.”
After witnessing something truly horrible she falls further into her world of monsters while trying to discover truth.

I love everything that Mindy McGinnis writes so I’m sure I will love this one. However, the audiobook is a computer narrated voice which did not work for me. I can’t wait to read the book or listen to a human narrator.

This was my first Mindy McGinnis book and it certainly will not be my last. The book was well-written and had plenty of twists I didn't see coming. The main character was very interesting. I thought the author did a good job of depicting mental health issues. The book had a nice conclusion (that I didn't see coming). Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

I always end up enjoying Mindy McGinnis's books.  They are always well-written and twisty in the ways I never fully expect. The main character was really interesting and the depiction of mental health issues felt well-done.  I really enjoyed the way the story played out.  It really kept me guessing about how it was going to conclude.

If you've never read anything by Mindy McGinnis, then make sure to prepare yourself! Under This Red Rock does NOT shy away from tough topics and addresses mental health and suicide head on. With that said, I thought this book was an excellent read. The story starts out a little slow, but that is necessary while readers get to know the characters, gain necessary backstory, and witness the relationships between characters developing. About midway through the book, the story picks up and is a wild ride from that point on! This book is a true psychological thriller in that I never knew what was real or what to believe until the very end. After I finished reading, I definitely had some strong feelings and for me, that is a true sign of a great read.

This book is considered Young Adult and I will definitely be adding it to my high school library, but it's one that I think adult thriller readers will enjoy too.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the opportunity to review this title.

An intense look at the life of a teen reeling from the loss of her brother to suicide. Mental health issues are very prominent in this book and are almost an extra character layer to the story. An intense and deeply emotionally charged read.

For as long as she can remember, Neely's had rules for her monsters. The monsters that only she can here living under her bed and in her closet, always reminding her that she's not quite like everyone else. This not quite like everyone else thing runs in her family, but since her father left and her older brother committed suicide, she has been left to float along on her own with only the rules they left her to blend in and be "normal." Normal is what she is looking for when she seeks a job as a tour guide in the local caverns attraction. For as long as she can remember, the voices in her head have been able to follow her everywhere, but the caves. Maybe there, maybe for a summer, Neely can be as close to normal as possible, at least for awhile. However, it's not just the unseeable things Neely will have to watch out for this summer as she encounters Brian (her brother's former best friend), Jason (notorious bully and flirt), and Mila (gorgeous girl and soon to be object of Neely's crush). When Mila disappears after a midnight staff party where she was last seen leaving with Neely, Neely will have to delve deeper as her monsters grow stronger to figure out what happened.

I was really intrigued by the description of this title and am always down to read an unreliable narrator. However, this story just didn't quite do it for me. I was mostly sad for Neely as we delved deeper into her life and family history. I never really trusted her perspective on the world and that honestly made her less interesting as an unreliable narrator. I thought she always had the best of intentions and was working with what the world gave her. I was more unsettled by a world in which such obvious mental illness wasn't addressed and there wasn't more compassion for what she was going through. The moments when I was suppose to doubt Neely the most felt to contrived and I was unsatisfied with the twist in who was responsible for Mila's disappearance. Overall, I wanted there to be more conversation and critical analysis of the tough issues in this book (mental illness, suicide, consent, and sexuality), but felt like they were solely used as plot points without enough further commentary.

Compared to McGinnis' previous works, this one had a slower pace with less conflict moving the plot along. This was also reviewed using the auto-generated audiobook narrator voice, not a person, so I am unsure if that was a factor in the reading/listening experience. I would recommend this for young adults who enjoyed Courtney Summers work.

The AI narrator was distracting and I was unable to get into the story. I may need to try the book. The description sounds interesting. Thank you to the publisher for the copy but I don’t think artificial is for me. I may check back when a narrator is chosen.

This one is a psychological triller involving a girl who hears voices. She has a psychotic break and her voices become illusions and she can’t tell what is real. Or if she killed her coworker.

This book was absolutely wild and I truly mean that. There is some horrific stuff going on but the idea of things (being in the Ultimate Dark, Tight Spaces, Men) are usually implied off screen so to speak. Also, if you can't handle animal death/torture, might want to avoid it.

I really enjoyed the pacing and the payoff of this book and it would make a great addition to any reading challenge involving horror/lgbt topics. Our lead is Queen of the Unreliable due to her own trauma and mental illness and while you want to root for her you DO sometimes find yourself wondering if she is truly believing her own story.
I can't speak for the authenticity of the representation of mental illness and we never really know what if anything it is that Neely has going on but she IS hearing/seeing things and it IS genetic based on her family so who knows. I do think it was at least a little bit respectfully done. But again, I am not one to speak on it.
The book is sapphic but only just and I do hope McGinnis explores this combination between sapphic longing and horror again soon.

My only real con is that the ending feels a bit too abrupt to me. I just felt like for as long as we were in sick Neely's head, we were owed a bit more of recovering Neely.
Also, the audiobook as it exists on NetGalley feels um, clinical? I think it may be that new system they have with autogenerated voices because I have heard the narrator thats listed on Audible before and she is capable of reading with much more feeling than this. I couldn't find info listed on NetGalley but I'm willing to be corrected.

Under This Red Rock gives creepy caves, unreliable narrator, and MURDER.

Neely has been hearing voices that she calls her ‘monsters.’ They are a constant in her life and seem to be a family trait. I thought that Mindy McGinnis towed the line of reality and fiction well where the reader feels just as lost and confused as Neely.

The cave system was such a perfect creepy setting, and I really enjoyed the parts centered around that. I thought the conclusion seemed a bit obvious, but overall, I enjoyed this.

I would not recommend this to the younger YA audience as there was a lot of profanity, drug use and references to SA and sex.

Thank you NetGalley for this ALC. So, this was not an actual narrator, but rather a computer generated audiobook. At first, it was hard to follow this plot. I could not tell if Neely was insane or able to see ghosts. I did realize, after a while, that she was indeed suffering from a mental disorder. The mystery part of this plot I did indeed not see coming. Overall this is a very interesting story, with a main character who will bring awareness to mental disorders.

I always love diving into a new Mindy McGinnis story. I love that the characters are always flawed but really realistic. They are struggling in ways that are identifiable, trying to find a way to fit in or let go of anger. And the stories are always dark, gritty, and end up giving me a moment or two of being uncomfortable.

Neely is struggling. She comes from a long line of people in her family who have mental illness. They call them their "monsters." They either hear or see them and both Neely and her brother have had to learn how to ignore them and not react to them, otherwise it makes other people uncomfortable. But now Neely's brother is gone, lost to suicide, she's spiraling. Her ups and downs were heartbreaking to read. As she starts her new job and meets the crew, her new friendships gave hope. But once the murder happens, it really left me wondering what happened that night. I loved the twists, the story had me hooked. I had no guesses and just followed the raw emotion as Neely tried to untangle what was real and what wasn't. It's brutal but such a great, dark read. I loved this one!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Mindy McGinnis’ books have always been hit or miss for me and unfortunately this one was a miss. I’m not sure if it was just the narrator or the story itself but I found myself stopping and not wanting to pick it back up. I think Neely is an interesting main character and it was neat to read about how mental health can affect someone if it goes untreated through various generations but something was missing for me. With most of Mindy’s works, there’s always a hard hitting theme, in this case the death of a loved one, but I feel like in this case it didn’t really work in this books favour

This is a story about the voices that guide, potentially right over cliff.

This book was such an impressive depiction of psychosis (not a spoiler you find out immediately) and the ambivalence its possible to experience about mental health symptoms. Also, it’s viscerally horrifying & also so beautifully written that I couldn’t look away, with a well crafted twist that I couldn’t predict.

Thank you so much @netgalley & @katherinetegenbooks for the audio!

This review has been removed because I've been accepted onto YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults 2024 committee and cannot publish reviews for eligible titles.

I thought this book was really good. First I appreciated that mental health wasn’t just a mention, the whole story was centered around Neely’s mental health. It was interesting that she was aware some of the people weren’t real (her monsters), but yet she treated them very real and accepted them into her life. It was also interesting that while she was very aware of some things, there were times she didn’t remember what happened or what she was capable of, such as murder. The main characters was very likable through everything. I did laugh when she had to repeat a certain phrase at inopportune times.
I was really unsure who the murderer was. I went back and forth on whether it was Neely.
Overall I gave this book 4 stars. It kept my interested throughout. I enjoyed the characters, including some of the secondary characters as well. The ending was a surprise which was great. The reason for 4 was although I really enjoyed the book, I didn’t feel emotionally connected to it or Neely.
I really liked NerGalley’s automated voice system! I already listened to my second book with it and will be listening to more!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Wow, Mindy McGinnis has done it again with another nail biter, edge of your seat, faced paced thriller. My heart broke over and over again for Neeley. McGinnis knows how to get you hooked and write an unputdownable book. Her characters are memorable and stay with you. Major book hangover after this one. Be sure to be aware of trigger warnings and sensitive content.

This was an interesting undertaking. As an audio book with generated audio (no voice inflections--the released audio will be fully narrated), some of the "monsters" in Neely's head could get lost. I appreciated McGinnis's cleverness, idioms, and sexual innuendo. However, I believe this may e over the heads of some young adults who are the intended audience. It also moved rather slow. It really caught my interest when the mystery aspect was introduced rather than the belaboring of the main character Neely's situation which includes monsters in her head (but does she give voice to those voices in her head?) a brother who also was afflicted having committed suicide, a mother who died, living with grandparents who she does not want to disappoint with her mental health or her sexual identity crisis.
Neely gets a job in a crystal cavern-the monsters don't follow her underground. She also has been visiting these caverns for a long time--she knows more than anyone. She is enamored with the head tour guide, who forges a friendship with Neely though very straight. The dynamics of the staff is far from smooth and when a staff party gets out of control resulting in drug use leading to hallucinations and ultimately a death (now it gets interesting) Neely is not sure if it was her that caused the death. Was it? or is there something more? great twist and tie in for the end.
Thank you NetGalley for the preview.