Little Creeping Things

March 27, 2020

Gr 8 Up-Ichaso's debut is a riveting whodunnit. In the small town of Maribel, OR, where all should be quaint and serene, a dark and murderous secret remains unsolved. Cassidy Pratt is a high school student and varsity volleyball player from a decent family. She attempts to lead a typical teenage life, although her tortured psyche refuses to let her embrace that existence. The recurring memory of her childhood friend's death is often triggered when peers taunt her with the ill-humored, accusatory nickname, "Fire Girl." Fast forward to present day, where the town's most popular girl and one of Cassidy's tormentors, Melody, has gone missing after having a lover's quarrel with a mysterious person. That person knows a secret about Cassidy and is turning her into a suspect. With the help of her older brother and a longtime friend/love interest, Cassidy must revisit the tainted past in order to solve the crime at hand. There are some depictions of teenage drinking and violence, but they are not explicit. VERDICT Although a bit on the long side, this James Patterson-like crime drama will keep readers up at night; a psychological thriller worthy of mystery aficionados.-Beronica Puhr, Oak Park Public Library, IL

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2020
Cass is obsessed with figuring out who murdered her worst bully--because they followed her very own plan. Cass is known for having survived a fire as a child. Her brother pulled her out--but her friend Sara wasn't so lucky. Now, she's tormented by Melody, Sara's cousin. Cass is called "Fire Girl" and treated as a loose cannon; only her best friend, Gideon, views her without stigma. One night at a party, Cass gets drunk and details how she'd kill Melody, outlining the perfect murder plot. When Melody and the notebook containing Cass' plans are missing, Cass becomes paranoid and frantic. She receives threatening texts but daren't tell the police in case they find out about her notebook. Her need to find the murderer distances her from Gideon as she hides information from him, too afraid he'll start seeing her like everyone else does. She careens into her own reckless investigation, no longer able to draw a clear line between the girl she once knew herself to be and the vengeful Fire Girl she's perhaps been all along. Cass' feverish journey becomes repetitive as she hammers on the same suspects with little success. Rather than being led along a tightly drawn line of suspense, it feels like running full force into walls. However, the reveal on the other side is both well earned and eerie. All major characters are white. An unnerving but uneven thriller. (Fiction. 14-18)

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April 15, 2020
Grades 8-12 When Melody Davenport goes missing, all eyes immediately turn to Cassidy (Cass) Pratt, the girl who killed her neighbor in a fire when she was just a kid. Or so she's been told. Ever since that day, Cass has been known as Fire Girl, destined to a life of infamy and suspicious glances. But after Melody disappears and somebody gets arrested for the crime, Cass feels that something just isn't adding up. Along with her friend Gideon and her brother Asher, Cass tries her best to find out what really happened, only to be told at every turn that she's crazy and just making things up for attention. This thrilling novel leads audiences along a series of steadily more bewildering twists and turns, guaranteed to keep young readers guessing until the final pages. Delivering just the right number of clues to ensure avid sleuths will find their way through the various feints and parries that Ichaso's debut provides, Little Creeping Things, with its cast of creepy and untrustworthy characters, will satisfy the appetites of all manner of mystery fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

May 11, 2020
Ichaso’s chilling debut follows narrator Cassidy “Cass” Pratt, a high school senior whom cruel peers have dubbed Fire Girl in reference to her having purportedly started a blaze that claimed her childhood best friend’s life. Barely remembering the traumatic event except through the occasional fire-tinged hallucination and her older brother’s account, her fears of complicity in a murder return when her biggest bully, Melody Davenport, goes missing. Cass and her crush/confidant, Gideon, have information that could crack open the case, but they can’t share it without incriminating her: just the week before, Cass wrote out with a friend the perfect way to kill Melody, but the notebook they used has disappeared and she begins receiving ominous text messages (“I’m so glad we’re in this together”) that warn her against telling the police. As Cass struggles to unravel the mystery, everyone’s a suspect. Though teenage concerns (an upcoming dance, Cass’s fixation on her dissolving friendship with Gideon) can slow the pacing, gripping twists and turns add suspense to this genre-solid whodunit and keep readers guessing until the very last page. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kristy Hunter, the Knight Agency.