Under This Red Rock

By: Mindy McGinnis

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

From award-winning author Mindy McGinnis comes a mesmerizing YA psychological mystery following a teen girl who is grappling with the death of her brother as she starts a new job in the caverns of Ohio—only to become the number one suspect in her coworker's murder. Perfect for fans of Courtney Summers and Kathleen Glasgow.

Neely’s monsters don’t always follow her rules, so when the little girl under her bed, the man in her closet, and the disembodied voice that shadows her every move become louder, she knows she’s in trouble. With a history of mental illness in her family and the suicide of her older brother heavy on her mind, Neely takes a job as a tour guide in the one place her monsters can’t follow—the caverns. There . . . she meets Mila. Mila is everything Neely isn’t—beautiful, strong, and confident. As the two become closer, Neely’s innocent crush grows into something more. When a midnight staff party exposes Neely to drugs, she follows Mila’s lead . . . only to have her hallucinations escalate.

When Mila is found brutally murdered in the caverns, Neely has to admit that her memories of that night are vague at best. With her monsters now out in the open and her grip on reality slipping, Neely must figure out who killed Mila . . . and face the possibility that it might have been her.

©2024 Mindy McGinnis (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

soooooooo GOOD

Mindy McGinnis has such an amazing understanding of the emotions & thoughts of people & how to use them in her characters

"Because I know the feeling. Know the fingers of 3:00 a.m. and the final count of everything you did wrong that day."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"Mom slept with madness every night, and she was no fool."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"I can hear all of it, his chest rising, lungs expanding, the exhale of carbon dioxide, adding a little poison to the world."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"leaving me to wonder how this person that I thought I knew could have carried the will to die inside of them, and the determination to see it through."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"Traditional grief had been taken from us, the pall of suicide stitched people’s mouths shut, and what was left of Lance couldn’t have been formed into anything like a human body."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"Lance never introduced me to his monsters. I don’t know who they were or what they said. I don’t know what sounds followed him everywhere he went, or if he ever got the smell of Mom’s blood and Dad’s sadness out his nose."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"Instead, she’s staring back at me, the high, protective walls of bad jokes completely fallen. There’s just the pain of someone who trusted and tried, and is moving through the world doing her best.
But the world has teeth, and we are all soft meat."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"she’s August and campfires and smoke and something a lot more dangerous"
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"Because we have things between us now, Mila and me. Pain and secrets and broken rules and me squeezing a boy’s throat shut."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"My hands move to my face, on either side of my mouth, as if they could reach in and fish out the words, pull them into the air. I’m helpless as I stare at Mila, her gaze and accepting silence a language no one else speaks."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"She has lost her words, thoughts going somewhere her tongue can’t follow."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

"I also need to find her because it seems her presence reinforces my sanity, the double-locking steel plates of our connection not leaving room for anything else."
Under this Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

Both make a great team, as always.

Brittany's narration is top notch, as usual. Mindy's choice to use mental illness as a huge part of it was an interesting concept, one that works well. One of her best.

Great performance - pretty interesting story

Liked the ending the most- it had some crazy parts - pun intended but I did like it for the most part! Hard to know when you can trust your own reality when you see and talk to people who are not there.