18 November 2024
Teen Librarian
Teen Librarian
Perfect little monsters by Cindy R. X. He
[Insert book cover image here]“Perfect little monsters” by Cindy R. X. He is a young adult thriller/murder mystery. The story revolves around Dawn, the new girl at school who’s recently been in a horrible car accident with her parents. Dawn then meets Raquel, a left out, bullied girl in her grade, and the designated “mean girls” of the school. After her first day, she struggles with her own identity at this new school. Should she join the mean girls, her fellow cheerleaders, or join Raquel, and lose any chance at having a social status. However, after one faithful party with the cheerleaders, the main mean girl turns up dead, and Dawn is the prime suspect. This novel is filled with thrill, betrayal, and friendships, with deeper themes such as mental health, bullying, depression, and guilt.
In my opinion, “Perfect little monsters” was a decent murder mystery with heavy tones of “young adult” aspects. In the beginning, the situations and writing seemed very stereotypical and unrealistic of a real high school experience. The characters and their actions were very similar, and possibly influenced, by other pieces of media such as the movie Mean Girls, and the tv series, Pretty Little Liars, containing similar title structure as well. The overall book was an interesting read, with other plot points, however I unfortunately wasn’t able to truly get past some of the character and writing choices.
One thing I found memorable was the structure of the book. The chapter would sometimes continue from what the previous chapter had ended with, or it would pick up from the past with another shorter story. The correlation between the two stories in the two different time periods was interesting to see play out.
Reviewed by Anisha Raam, Twin Hickory
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