3.5 stars. This was a really quick read for me and I have to agree with the other reviews that compare it to Mean Girls. I did enjoy that part of it and it did keep me interested throughout. I didn't love the way mental illness was portrayed in the end and, as with most thrillers, the ending felt very far-fetched. Definitely check trigger warnings on this one!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my review.

Ella was the most popular (and hated) girl in school, so when she turns up murdered, there are too many suspects to count. Unfortunately for Dawn, being the new girl puts her in suspect spot number one. She puts on her own investigative hat to find out who the killer is.

PERFECT LITTLE MONSTERS by Cindy R. X. He is a bingeable YA thriller that will have you screaming at the meanness of the popular kids and rooting for the outcasts!

This isn’t the strongest book I’ve read - some of the characterization fell flat and the pacing never really took a moment to breathe. It was overall lacking a bit of substance…

BUT, with that being said, this was a very quick read and, being a debut, I’m very intrigued to see what Cindy may be cooking up next!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: May 7

tw: suicide, suicidal thoughts, eating disorder, murder, bullying, fatphobia, mental health

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc. I've been in a really bad reading slump but I was still able to read this, which is a special kind of compliment. This book kept my attention and was easy to read. I will definitely recommend it to patrons.

This high school psychological YA thriller went one way and then did a sharp turn. The narrative is clever and the characters intrigued me to the end. I didn’t fully see the major twists coming; I wondered about one of them about 1/2 way through but convinced myself I was wrong.

I saw a couple other reviews complain about how the mental health issues were handled at the end. Mental health issues are absolutely no joke, however I look at it as this is not a work of non-fiction.

I don’t typically read YA but if the author writes another, I’ll definitely check it out.

Note: Bullying and attempted suicide trigger warnings, please read with care.

Upcoming release date of May 7, 2024. Thank you very much to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the early e-book.

This was a really enjoyable book. Sometimes the writing threw me out of the story as the language wasn't language that I'd expect a teen to use but an older person. The writing at other times seemed dry and stiff somehow. However, the story was great. I truly enjoyed it and didn't see the ending coming at all, which is always fun and the reason for the 4 stars. Without the excellent surprise ending, I probably would have given this book 3 stars, but the ending is really, really good. I would definitely recommend this book to teen students who enjoy murder mysteries like I do. They absolutely would enjoy this book, especially fans of Danielle Vega's Merciless series, which gives the same very mean girls vibe. Absolutely enjoyed this book!

Cindy R.X. He’s debut novel hits the mark with what teens rave about in their favorite mystery thrillers: real issues, twisted characters, revenge, and some surprises. He grapples with the complex issues of teen-on-teen bullying, controlling, and shaming and their complicated intersection with suicide by developing characters who are iconic stereotypes but just realistic enough to be believable. This was a fast-paced, multi-perspective read. I am looking forward to discussing it with the high school students I recommended it to who have already added it to their TBR list.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire, Netgalley, and the author for early access to this twisty and twisted mystery.

(Posted on Goodreads and will post on Amazon on publication)

I love the Mean Girls revenge vibes. I loved the pacing and felt like this was a real page turner. I did catch on early to who the culprit was (but my deduction skills were in my favour). One thing they took me some time to adjust was the transitions between Hannah and Dawn and trying to recall the storylines from both.
This book is heavy on bullying, mental health, suicide and parent death. Please check the TWs.
This was a good YA murder mystery to read and I would recommend it.

Cindy R X He's debut PERFECT LITTLE MONSTERS makes my skin crawl, in the best way possible. PERFECT LITTLE MONSTERS is a dual POV YA contemporary thriller/mystery, the main storyline following the death of a high school bully Ella. Dawn, the new girl at school, takes it upon herself to solve the mystery and figure out who might have killed the school's most hate-able queen bee. The narrative cuts back to a time when Ella bullied a girl so badly she attempts to commit suicide several times. The prose is tight, the structure is cinematic, and the book is unputdownable.

I came in fully expecting to know the twist and was delightfully surprised.

"You're beautiful on the surface, but you're monsters inside." In middle school I was a big fan of Christopher Pike's horror novels. This story gave me Christopher Pike writes Mean Girls vibes! If you want Mean Girls with a darkly ever after, this is it.
I sped through this book without even realizing it. Every time I finished a chapter I thought, one more won't and hurt and next thing I knew I was more than halfway through the book. The story moves fast, alternating between Dawn and Hannah's point of view as cheerleaders at Sierton High School, which is ruled by Queen Bee Ella and her squad, Lucy and Naomi. Everyone hates Ella, and many want her dead, but who hates enough to kill her?

Well, I devoured this twisty, riveting, smart thriller at lightning speed. It's a freaking great psychological thriller that kept me on my toes, flipping pages, and absorbing every twist in record time. As you can imagine, my jaw is on the ground after the biggest twist hit me in the face! I started to get suspicious in the middle, wondering if it could be true, but then shook my head and told myself, "No freaking way," only to realize, "it's way!" I'm stopping myself from ruining your reading experience!

Let's focus on the plot line: Dawn Foster, 17, transferred from Santa Cruz after her parents had a tragic accident that prevented them from working and affording their mortgage. They are forced to move to Wisconsin to live with Maddie, the aunt who is kind enough to accept them into her home.

Dawn tries to fit into her new social circle by attending the cheerleaders and befriending the three queen bee mean girls club: Ella Moore (the leader of the girls who everyone is afraid of), Naomi Chen, and Luciana Aguilar.

She even gets an invitation to Ella’s house party, which may help her get to know her new classmates a little more. But unfortunately, the party night ends in tragedy when Ella Moore is killed with poison, and Dawn is the last person who gave her a drink. She understands that Naomi, Lucy, and Ella’s boyfriend Scott, who are also suspects of the murder, are trying to blame her. The only way to save herself is to find the real culprit, but unfortunately, Ella has more enemies than friends, exerting her power over people by threatening them in creative ways.

We also read the POV of Hannah, another victim of the mean girls trio! Could she be the real killer, or is she the girl who committed suicide and is now living in a vegetative state, the sister of Isaac, whom Dawn has a crush on?

Who really killed Ella? By digging through everyone’s dirty secrets, did Dawn put her own life in danger too?

Overall, I loved the execution, the fast-paced trajectory that made it impossible to put the book down. I definitely enjoyed it and am rounding up my 4.5 stars to 5! I wish streaming platforms could find smart plotlines like this book has. It would make an amazing movie!

Many thanks to NetGalley and SOURCE BOOKS Fire for sharing this riveting page-turner’s digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC! This story was intriguing, and the ending was very surprising. I wish that the author had done more showing not telling in her writing, though.

Such a romp. For all my girlies who wanted The OC or One Tree Hill with a twinge of Hitchcockian menace, this one's for you. It's literally if Mean Girls was just straight up mean, and murderous.

Writing is fine and spotted the twist from a mile away, but it's fun in that it introduces young readers to unreliable narrators. How do we form trust? Who do we trust the most? Is trust meant to be spread out or devoted to certain special people?

Okay, Cindy, hear me out. If you end up finding this, think of writing this as a black comedy. It would just work so much better with the cat fights and murdering. If this is ever adapted to screen or mini-series, make me laugh and gasp!

First, thanks to Sourcebooks for a phsycial ARC and Netgalley for an eARC!

This book was Mean Girls, meets Carrie, meets.... I don't even know. I loved it. Suicide is mentioned quite often, but isn't DETAILED in a way that affected that part of me. ❤️

This was a fast read, short chapters, and addictive subject matter. It is YA, and definitely reads like it, which for me is great for a quick and thrilling read. I absolutely adored this!

I couldn’t out this book down! It was totally a Mean Girls meets A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets American Psycho. It kept me guessing until the very end- I loved it!

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read an advance copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Holy plot twist! I didn’t see it coming at all! I’m loving all of Sourcebook Fire’s mystery thrillers. I love how they are all so binge able and you can get through them in a day. This one felt like a stereotypical murder mystery between bitchy high school girls in the beginning but it was so good!! Stayed up way later than I should have in order to finish it! The end was kinda cheesy but I still really liked it. Books like this make me so happy I want popular and didn’t care about things like that in high school. Cheerleading was so far away from my thoughts and books always make it seem like a nightmare.

Dawn has to transfer schools for her senior year of high school where she makes the cheerleading team and is invited to a party by the head cheerleader Ella. The morning after the party, Ella is found dead, and Dawn is a suspect.

This book has a dual timeline and also follows Hannah, a student at the same school, only in the past.

It’s a fast, easy read. I was in a bit of a reading slump, as in not being able to read for very long at one time, but when I started it before bed last night, I ended up reading just under the first half of it and finished it today. It’s full of high school mean girls and drama, so there are characters who are easy to dislike or even hate. It gave me flashbacks to when I was in school. There’s a little romance. I was definitely surprised by how the book wrapped up.

I do suggest reading the note at the beginning of the book if you have any triggers. There are a lot of them, especially for young adults with mental health issues.

Perfect Little Monsters is one of those books that manages to be incredibly intriguing even before the reader's eyes fall on the opening line. The title, the cover, and the premise all promise a story that will keep the reader on the edge of their seat.

Cindy R. X. He's debut, at its core, is a classic whodunit story. A murder occurs, and we are presented with a list of suspects, each with their own motive. This is where Perfect Little Monsters departs from the realm of the familiar and takes the reader on a thrilling journey that becomes more complicated with each page. I was genuinely struggling to predict what would happen next because, after being blindsided by the plot a couple of times—in a good way—I simply had to admit defeat and allow myself to drift with the narrative until I reached the last page. Not many stories can keep me guessing until the very end, so kudos to the author for pulling this off.

One thing I feel like I have to acknowledge is the way Cindy R. X. He tackles heavy and complex topics in this book, such as mental health, self-harm, and bullying. I appreciate how she didn’t shy away from these topics and decided to commit to them, giving them the respect and care they deserve. This also goes hand in hand with how three-dimensional the characters are. I don’t think the portrayal of such heavy topics would’ve been possible, or done justice, if the characters didn’t feel as real as they did.

Overall, Perfect Little Monsters is a wonderful debut by Cindy R. X. He. It’s a tale that will gladly challenge you to outsmart it because it knows that it will keep you guessing.

If you struggle with bullying, ED, "mean girl" mentality in general, I wouldn't recommend this. There absolutely is unnecessarily unkind behavior in here, which is not untrue of the world, but can feel triggering for folks who experienced this for real. Just keep that in mind. Not all of us can predict everyone's triggers but I can see this as incredibly frustrating and triggering for people. Anyway, I thought Cindy R X He did a great job in unveiling this murder mystery. I am curious to see what CRXH does next!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Perfect Little Monsters by Cindy R. X. He

Perfect Little Monsters is a “One of Us is Lying”esque type book. Queen Bee Ella is murdered at a pool party. Whodunit? New girl, best friend #1, best friend #2, boyfriend, secret lover… They all had motives and they all had secrets.

Told in dual POVs and timelines proved to be an interesting take on this storyline. I can’t really explain why without giving the ending away. I was fully intrigued with this book. Kudos to the author for not having Dawn and Raquel be the police in the story, even though they were doing some of their own investigating. What they did was believable - and that’s a breath of fresh air for young adult mysteries. What did bother me a bit, and tends to be a common theme throughout ya books, is the level of bullying portrayed by these teens. It just seemed exaggerated.

Even though the ending was a bit far-fetched and I had to pause a second to consider the direction it went, I found it to be a worthwhile read.I will recommend this book to my high school students.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Perfect Little Monsters, by Cindy R.X. He
3.5-4/5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TRIGGER WARNINGS-
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Murder, drinking, bullying, suicide, ED, death

The school’s queen bee is murdered at her own house party and her friends, boyfriend and the new girl are all suspects.
It’s written in multiple character pov and dual time frame, (present and three years ago). It definitely keeps you guessing as there are plenty of people that could be suspects. Very engrossing and the twists and turns keeps you on your toes wanting to read more.
I loved that the author offered TW on the first page and that there were inclusive characters-ex: a character with autism.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for giving me an E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.