Little Creeping Things

Article Written By: Gabrielle

Disclaimer** This review may contain spoilers and is firmly based on my opinion**

Title: Little Creeping Things

Author: Chelsea Ichaso

Publisher: Soucebooks Fire, 2020

Category & Genre: Young Adult Thriller and Mystery

Page number: 313

Tropes: Unreliable Narrator, High School Drama, Red Herring

Synopsis from the book jacket:

"When she was a child, Cassidy Pratt accidentally started a fire that killed her neighbor. She’s pretty sure she didn’t mean to do it, and she’d give anything to forget that awful day. But her town’s bullies, particularly the cruel and beautiful Melody Davenport, have never let her live it down. In Melody’s eyes, Cassidy is a murderer and always will be.

Then Melody goes missing, and Cassidy thinks she may have information about what happened. She knows she should go to the cops, but she recently joked about how much she’d like to get rid of Melody. She even planned the perfect way to do it and then she gets a chilling text from an unknown number: I’m so glad we’re in this together.

Now it’s up to Cassidy to figure out what’s really going on before the truth behind Melody’s disappearance sets the whole town ablaze."

Why did I choose this book to read?

Someone gave me this book a while ago, and it’s typically not a book I would ever read. I’m working on my own novel, so I figured I needed to expand my reading options and try something new. I am guilty of having many books on my bookshelf that are on my “to be read” list, so I started reading the backs of some books, and the synopsis of this book intrigued me. I felt a little risky and went out of my comfort zone.

What did I like about Little Creeping Things?

I enjoyed the breakdown of the book. The first 150 pages took place over four days, and you panicked with the character the whole time. Time moved slowly, and every second counted. After the initial 150 pages, time seemed to jump a couple of days to a week at a time, creating a period where the reader could breathe, and boy, did it feel good to be able to breathe! 

Another aspect of the book that I liked was that you could tell the main character and her friends were all high schoolers. The author did a great job of capturing the minds of teenagers. I could see the immaturity in all of them, and it helped me understand them better, especially when they were making bad decisions and how they were reacting to things. I never read a book with an unreliable narrator before, and the author did it excellently. Cassidy had a troubled past in which she can’t remember all of the details, and that life-altering event changed her forever. The author did a great job at showing the main character walking on a tightrope where one small mistake would have her becoming the Fire Girl a.k.a the murderer most of the town saw her to be. Her whole identity rested on whether she was the Fire Girl or not, which had her questioning herself a lot in the book. It didn’t help that Gideon, her best friend, started not trusting her and questioning her. Cassidy questioning herself was so well done that even black-and-white scenes had me questioning, “Did that just really happen?” I felt just as crazy as the main character, thinking I somehow spun a situation out of thin air, but I definitely read it. Cassidy was questioning her sanity, which in turn had me questioning mine. 

The last thing I will touch on is that the author did an excellent job peppering in a sentence or two that snagged my attention and made me pause and want to know what Cassidy meant. As an impatient reader, some of these sentences would make me want the next sentence to explain what she meant, but I didn’t have to wait long for the reveal. It was the perfect amount of lure that caught me and drove me to read on.

Where did Little Creeping Things go wrong for me?

The book went wrong in a couple of ways for me. It was overall such a depressing book. I probably laughed a total of 4 times. Cassidy’s situation was terrible; her friendships were spotty, and her life seemed like there was constantly a problem. She made many poor decisions due to her immaturity and sheer panic, but I felt there weren’t enough lighter moments to break up those negative emotions. I empathize and feel strongly for people, even if they only exist on paper. I understand it’s a thriller, and you’re supposed to be on the edge of your seat, but there weren’t many moments in the book's first half to breathe or break up the tension. Even in the book's second half, where the time fast-forwarded a couple of days at a time, her everyday life was not good. It made sense for her life to be that way, given her situation, but even when you think there will be a happy moment, Cassidy somehow ruins it. 

Another area where the book went wrong for me is Gideon’s confrontation with the killer at the end of the book. I’m still confused about how he knew to look into that person and do exactly what he did to find the damning evidence. It felt like it came out of nowhere because neither Cassidy nor Gideon mentioned the killer as a person of interest. I reread the day before scene, the scene of the confrontation, and the time after. It didn’t shed any light on how Gideon knew to investigate the killer. I felt like it was a bit of a plot hole, and it still bothers me because I want to know how he knew where to look. It felt like the author revealed so much at the end that readers would ignore the question about how Gideon knew to look at the killer. Maybe I missed where the author told the reader, and if I did, then please leave a comment so I can go back and check it out!

Here are some of my favorite quotes…

“They’re looking at the Fire Girl like she’s claimed another victim.”

“I slump down in my seat, trying to piece my shredded mind back together.”

“Instead, shrouded in twilight, we trudge and stumble our way back through the pines, the sound of the twigs snapping like brittle bones beneath our feet.”

“I let those little creeping things embed themselves inside my brain, inside my very core, until they ate away at who I was.”

My character connection…

The character I relate to the most is Gideon. When I was his age, all I focused on was fixing other people. I was friends with everyone, including those who didn’t quite fit in. Even when he was upset at Cassidy and didn’t trust her anymore, he still listened to her when she came to him. He made it clear that he wanted space from her at one point, but anytime she wanted to talk, he put that boundary to the side and listened. I have grown to learn that isn’t healthy behavior, but Gideon is young.

Star Rating: 3 stars

Spice Rating: 3 stars

Final Verdict:

I don’t think I would ever pick up this book to reread it due to there not being a balance between negative and positive emotions, but I am glad I read it! I couldn’t put it down! It was such an adventure reading this book. At moments, I was shaking my head, angry, frustrated, and disappointed at certain characters' actions. I can’t recall another book where I felt so disappointed in someone, which was thrilling. It’s a treat when the writer can make the readers feel things intensely and be so invested. I want to touch on the fact that some areas of the book are predictable. I predicted who the killer was, their motivation, and other important facts halfway through the book, but that didn’t ruin it for me. It actually made me feel super smart and excited when I found out I was right! I know predictable books are a turnoff to some people, but not to me. Overall, I recommend the read, preferably when you know you have hours to read! You won’t be able to put it down!