Under This Red Rock

[cornerofmadness]

Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


CW: suicidal ideation, suicide, mental illness, date rape, murder

This was a very unusual book. Neely's family has a strange thread of mental illness running through it, marked by auditory and/or visual hallucinations. Neely's father disappeared, suffering with it. Her older brother, Lance was driven to suicide by the things in his head. Neely's mother is gone as well and she's being raised by her grandparents who are doing their best. What makes this schizophrenia-like mental illness unusual is that under the titular red rock (in this case a cave system in Ohio) the voices go silent. In the caverns Neely is at peace.

To her joy, her grandfather finds her a job with his friend John who owns the cavern and the canoe/ziplining adventure of the lake nearby. Neely takes to the cave tour guide job like a duck to water. She is almost earning some friends in fellow guides, Brian (her brother's friend), Mila (the girl she has a crush on) and Tabitha. Destiny (influencer/h.s. mean girl) and Josh (sexually aggressive jock type) round out the team.

The first two-thirds is setting up these friends, Neely's mental health issues and her falling in love with Mila. Also Brian helps her to get to know her brother a little better by showing her his online persona on a Reddit-like site allowing users to vent their violent thoughts in a 'harmless way.' This is naturally not easy for her to hear.

And here is where the blurb fails the reader. We know it's Mila who is going to die. I think we could have gotten tension just with 'one of Neely's new friends ends up murdered and....' But we have Neely believing one thing about the night of the employee lakeside party but sprinkled with hints of she can't remember, has some physical damage so we can have the doubt in our heads as to did she get those innocently or was she the one to hurt Mila.

And whoo boy, Mila's death is gruesome and on page (so that's your warning) The red herrings were good. Was it Josh who wanted her (and is known to do drugs) Was it Patrick (her ex who shared nonconsensual sex tapes online) Was it Neely (because she is crazy)?

It really felt like it could have gone one way but I was glad of how it did end. It was different and Neely is interesting.



View all my reviews