Book picks similar to
The Monsters Club by Lotté Jean Elliott


young-adult
not-released
mystery-and-or-crime-thrillers
genre-mystery

Out of the Fire


Andrea Contos - 2021
    Catching each other's sparks until the flames grew, spread, raged beyond our control.We'll give them back the damage they left us with, burden them with the weight of our pain.We may be temporarily broken, but we will leave them forever charred.Ashes to ashes.It wasn't the kidnapping that ruined Cass Adams's life. It was the letters that came after. The pink envelopes that appear in her car, her locker, her bedroom. Notes from the man she escaped, telling her that he's always there, always watching.And that someday, he'll be back for her.The police say there's nothing they can do, and Cass resigns herself to live in fear until she reconnects with three old friends-three girls ready to exact vengeance on those who wronged them.But the deeper Cass digs, the more shocking the truth becomes, especially when she discovers that the person who ruined her life may be the only one who can save it.

The New Girl


Jesse Q. Sutanto - 2022
    When she wins a full ride to the prestigious Draycott Academy on a track scholarship, she's determined to make it work even though she's never felt more out of place. But on her first day there she witnesses a girl being forcefully carried away by campus security. Her new schoolmates and teachers seem unfazed, but it leaves her unsure of what she's gotten herself into. As she uncovers the secrets of Draycott, complete with a corrupt teacher, a golden boy who isn't what he seems, and a blackmailer determined to get her thrown out, she's not sure if she can trust anyone--especially when the threats against her take a deadly turn.

This Is Why We Lie


Gabriella Lepore - 2021
    But even more shocking is the fact that her drowning was no accident.Once Jenna's best friend becomes a key suspect, Jenna starts to look for answers on her own. As she uncovers scandals inside Preston Prep School leading back to Rookwood reform school, she knows she needs Adam on her side.As a student at Rookwood, Adam is used to getting judgmental looks, but now his friends are being investigated by the police. Adam will do whatever he can to keep them safe, even if that means trusting Jenna.As lies unravel, the truth starts to blur. Only one thing is certain: somebody must take the fall.

League of Liars


Astrid Scholte - 2022
    People who carelessly use extradimensional magic for their own self-interest, without a care to the damage it does to society or those around them, deserve to be punished as far as Cayder is concerned. Because magic always has a price. So when Cayder lands a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apprentice under a premier public defender, he takes it. If he can learn all the tricks of public defense, the better he'll be able to dismantle defense arguments when he's a prosecutor. Then he'll finally be able to make sure justice is served.But when he meets the three criminals he's supposed to defend, it no longer seems so black and white. They're teenagers, like him, and their stories are . . . complicated, like his. Vardean, the prison where Cayder's new clients are incarcerated, also happens to be at the very heart of the horrible tear in the veil between their world and another dimension--where all magic comes from.

Gone Too Far


Natalie D. Richards - 2015
    Richards, the New York Times bestselling author of mystery books for teens, comes a YA psychological thriller book about a girl pulled into a dangerous revenge plot she can't escape, perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Natasha Preston.Piper Woods can't wait to graduate and leave high school—and all its annoying cliques—behind. But when she finds a mysterious notebook filled with the sins of her fellow students, Piper is suddenly drowning in their secrets.And she's not the only one who knows them. An anonymous text invites Piper to choose to punish the cheater, the bully, or the shoplifter. The popular kids with their dirty little secrets. With one text, Piper can make them pay.But the truth can be dangerous…A great buy for readers who want:Teen fiction with romance and suspensePulse-pounding twists and turnsShocking mysteriesPraise for Natalie D. Richards:"As addictive as it is unpredictable. Natalie will keep you second guessing until the nail-biting end."—NATASHA PRESTON, New York Times bestselling author of The Cabin on My Secret to Tell"Brimming with suspense and intrigue."—MEGAN MIRANDA, New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls on My Secret to TellAlso by Natalie D. Richards:Five Total StrangersSix Months LaterMy Secret to TellOne Was LostWe All Fall DownWhat You Hide

When All the Girls Are Sleeping


Emily Arsenault - 2021
    But every student knows all is not as it seems. Each January, the Winter Girl comes knocking. She's the spirit who haunts the old senior dorm, and this year is no exception.For Haley, the timing couldn't be worse. This month marks the one-year anniversary of the death of her ex-best friend, Taylor. When a disturbing video of Taylor surfaces, new questions about her death emerge. And it actually looks like Taylor was murdered.Now, as Haley digs into what really happened last year, her search keeps bringing her back to the Winter Girl. Haley wants to believe ghosts aren't real, but the clues--and the dark school history she begins to undercover--say otherwise. Now it's up to her to solve the mystery before history has a chance to repeat itself and another life is taken.A skillfully plotted mystery, ...dark secrets await. --Holly Jackson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder on Emily Arsenault's All the Pretty Things

Message Not Found


Dante Medema
    Bailey and Vanessa shared everything: laughter, secrets, and packets of Pop Rocks to ward off bad days. But that all changed the night Vanessa left Bailey's, headed for home, and ended up swerving off a cliff nowhere near her house. Now Bailey, who thought she knew Vanessa better than anyone in the world, is left with a million unanswered questions, and the only person with answers is gone.To help grieve her loss, Bailey creates a chat bot of Vanessa using years' worth of their shared text messages and emails. The more data she uploads to the bot, the more it feels like she's really talking to her best friend. That is, until the bot starts dropping hints that there was more going on with Vanessa than Bailey realized--a secret so big, it may have contributed to Vanessa's death.This compelling puzzle of a story, filled with engrossing twists and turns, is written in alternating prose and text message formats. Teens will gobble up this fast-paced page-turner.

If You're Out There


Katy Loutzenhiser - 2019
    Worse, Priya’s social media has turned into a stream of ungrammatical posts chronicling a sunny, vapid new life that doesn’t sound like her at all.Everyone tells Zan not to be an idiot: Let Priya do her reinvention thing and move on. But until Zan hears Priya say it, she won’t be able to admit that their friendship is finished.It’s only when she meets Logan, the compelling new guy in Spanish class, that Zan begins to open up about her sadness, her insecurity, her sense of total betrayal. And he’s just as willing as she is to throw himself into the investigation when everyone else thinks her suspicions are crazy.Then a clue hidden in Priya’s latest selfie introduces a new, deeply disturbing possibility:Maybe Priya isn’t just not answering Zan’s emails.Maybe she can’t.

The Marvelous


Claire Kann - 2021
    Heiress turned actress turned social media darling who created the massively popular video-sharing app, Golden Rule.After mysteriously disappearing for a year, Jewel makes her dramatic return with an announcement: she has chosen a few lucky Golden Rule users to spend an unforgettable weekend at her private estate. But once they arrive, Jewel ingeniously flips the script: the guests are now players in an elaborate estate-wide game. And she’s tailored every challenge and obstacle to test whether they have what it takes to win--at any cost.Told from the perspective of three dazzling players--Nicole: the new queen of Golden Rule; Luna: Jewel’s biggest fan; and Stella: a brilliant outsider--this novel will charm its way into your heart and keep you guessing how it all ends because money isn’t the only thing at stake.

The Safest Lies


Megan Miranda - 2016
    Her mother hasn’t set foot outside their front door in seventeen years, since she escaped from her kidnappers with nothing but her attacker’s baby growing inside her—Kelsey.Kelsey knows she’s supposed to keep a low profile for their own protection, but that plan is shattered when she drives off a cliff and is rescued by volunteer firefighter and classmate Ryan Baker.A few days later, she arrives home to face her greatest fear: her mother is missing. She and her mother have drilled for all contingencies—except this one. Luckily, Ryan is as skilled at emergency rescues as Kelsey is at escape and evasion. To have a chance at a future, Kelsey will have to face all her darkest fears. Because someone is coming for her.And the truth about the past may end up being the most dangerous thing of all.

This Is Our Story


Ashley Elston - 2016
    Four came out.No one knows what happened that morning at River Point. Five boys went hunting. Four came back. The boys won’t say who fired the shot that killed their friend; the evidence shows it could have been any one of them. Kate Marino’s senior year internship at the district attorney’s office isn’t exactly glamorous—more like an excuse to leave school early that looks good on college applications. Then the DA hands her boss, Mr. Stone, the biggest case her small town of Belle Terre has ever seen. The River Point Boys are all anyone can talk about. Despite their damning toxicology reports the morning of the accident, the DA wants the boys’ case swept under the rug. He owes his political office to their powerful families.Kate won’t let that happen. Digging up secrets without revealing her own is a dangerous line to walk; Kate has her own reasons for seeking justice for Grant. As she investigates with Stone, the aging prosecutor relying on Kate to see and hear what he cannot, she realizes that nothing about the case—or the boys—is what it seems. Grant wasn’t who she thought he was, and neither is Stone’s prime suspect. As Kate gets dangerously close to the truth, it becomes clear that the early morning accident might not have been an accident at all—and if Kate doesn’t uncover the true killer, more than one life could be on the line…including her own.

Moth to a Flame (Narrowdale Mystery Book 2)


Michael Omer - 2015
    Since then, the recurring nightmares, creepy hallucinations and overpowering fear are gone. That's good, right? I mean, no one in their right minds wants to feel like that. I am starting to wonder if I'm in my right mind anymore...When a lady in my neighborhood died, I couldn't help but stick my nose in, to see what happened. I should just get on with things–I've got some new friends, and a cool boy named Chris has taken an interest in me. Everyone is telling me to just leave this weird murder alone.But I can't stop myself. The more I find out about her death, the more twisted everything is.I think there’s a predator in Narrowdale. And now it’s hunting me…What have I gotten myself into?

See Jane Run


Hannah Jayne - 2014
    Then she finds a birth certificate for a girl named Jane Elizabeth O'Leary hidden inside her baby book.Riley's parents have always been pretty overprotective. What if it wasn't for her safety...but fear of her finding out their secret? What have they been hiding? The more Riley digs for answers, the more questions she has.The only way to know the truth? Find out what happened to Jane O'Leary.

Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets


Chelsea Ichaso
    Did someone want her dead? It's up to her sister to discover the truth in this shocking new thriller with an unreliable narrator, from the acclaimed author of Little Creeping Things.Piper Sullivan was in a strange hiking accident last month and has been in a coma ever since. Her older sister, Savannah, can't pretend to be optimistic about it; things look bad. Piper will likely never wake up, and Savannah will never get any answers about what exactly happened.But then Savannah finds a note in Piper's locker, inviting Piper to a meeting of their school's wilderness club...at the very place and on the very day that she fell. Which means there was a chance that Piper wasn't alone. Someone might've seen something. Worse, someone might've done something. But who would want to hurt the perfect Piper Sullivan...and why?To discover the truth, Savannah joins the club on their weekend-long camping trip on the same mountain where her sister fell. But she better be careful; everyone in the club is a suspect, and everyone seems to be keeping secrets about that tragic day.And Savannah? She's been keeping secrets, too...

The Things We Don't See


Savannah Brown - 2021
    . ." To its residents, Sandown is home - a tiny village holiday resort in the western United States.To everyone else, it's a minuscule island, that brings tourists in summer and not a lot else the rest of the time.To Mona Perry, it's a mystery.Thirty-four years ago, promising singer and Sandown resident Roxy Raines went missing, and was never found. The people of the island are still reluctant to talk about it, claiming Roxy was simply a runaway, but the evidence doesn't quite add up.Mona is convinced something else is going on. Armed only with a suitcase and a microphone - to record her findings for the general public - this runaway teenager is determined to get to the bottom of the disappearance.But as Mona gets drawn deeper and deeper into the strange goings on of this isolated community, it is clear that nothing is as it seems - not even Mona's own past. Some things are meant to disappear . . .