Publishers Weekly
04/27/2020
At the start of this gripping novel from White (The Good Divide as Kali VanBaale), 13-year-old Christopher Stewart vanishes while on his early morning paper route in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1984. The aftermath of his kidnapping unfolds through the perspectives of 12-year-old paperboy Sammy Cox, who has a weighty secret; his 18-year-old sister, Crystal, an aspiring journalist who writes an essay about Christopher’s disappearance; and Sgt. Dale Goodkind, of the Crimes Against Persons Section of the Des Moines PD. Two years earlier, Dale worked on the still unsolved case of another missing paperboy. The experience has left him clinically depressed, a condition he hides from his colleagues. His assignment to the Stewart case puts even more strain on his fragile mental health. His unraveling engages just as much as the search for clues. Dale, Crystal, and Sammy each evolves and becomes more self-aware as White skillfully keeps readers questioning everyone’s motives. Fans of character-driven crime fiction will be satisfied. Agent: Julia Kenny, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary. (June)
From the Publisher
Praise for The Monsters We Make:
"[A] gripping novel...White skillfully keeps readers questioning everyone's motives."
—Publishers Weekly
“Very, very good. An air of menace laced with melancholy hangs over every page, a mourning for a more innocent time that perhaps never was real. The monsters were always there; we just couldn’t see them.”
—Booklist
“A gut-wrenching novel.”
—Seattle Book Review, 5-star review
“An excellent read which should appeal to both horror and thriller fans.”
—HorrorDNA
“Deftly explores the effects of one crime exposing another and the secrets people keep hidden from friends, families, and sometimes, even themselves.”
—Red Carpet Crash
“[Kali White] brings the chilling silence of the 80’s to vivid life in a smart, relentless domestic noir. The writing is taut, the plot is fresh, and the small, broken family at the center of the action completely captured my heart. Prepare to be up late; once I started, I could not stop turning pages.”
—Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Never Have I Ever
“Kali White catapults readers with fierce, unflinching honesty into a time corrupted by innocence. The characters are so real they sizzle, and will make you cry as you cheer them on. In the pulse-pounding climax, White manages to serve up justice without ever once denying the terror of all The Monsters We Make."
—Jenny Milchman, USA Today bestselling author
“In The Monsters We Make, Kali White deftly conveys the terror that gripped a community, a city, a state and a nation when several paper carriers were snatched from their routes... With a shivery premise and richly-drawn characters, VanBaale takes a child’s greatest fear and a parent’s worst nightmare and delivers an addictive novel that must be read with the lights on.”
—Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of Before She Was Found
“I sped through this page-turning novel, a story so palpably, terrifyingly real that it will haunt me forever. Kali White knows how to write, period.”
—Robin Oliveira, New York Times bestselling author of My Name is Mary Sutter
“Kali White has spun a tale of unbearable suspense in prose...I truly did read this remarkable new novel in one sitting.”
—Lee Martin, Pulitzer Prize Finalist author of The Bright Forever
"The Monsters We Make, inspired by true events and snapping with suspense, is a gripping novel, evocative of a time and place that should have been safe but was not. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough."
—Jess Lourey, bestselling author of Unspeakable Things
"Kali White’s The Monsters We Make had me hooked from page one...A nail-biter with a dark, atmospheric heart.”
—Kimberly Belle, international bestselling author of Dear Wife
