Today I’m excited to participate in the Bookstagram & Creative Tour for No Beauties or Monsters by Tara Goedjen hosted by MTMC Tours! For fans of Veronica Mars and Stranger Things comes an all-new YA mystery about a girl whose desperate search for her missing friend unearths dark secrets, preternatural threats, and a truth that could ultimately tear her family, friends, and town apart. Out on December 7th, 2021 from Delacorte Press.
Alright, without further ado, scroll down to read a review with quote art graphics, a fun character playlist + to enter a fantastic international giveaway!
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No Beauties or Monsters by Tara Goedjen
Published by Delacorte Press on December 7, 2021
Genres: Mystery, Speculative Fiction, Thriller, YA
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Goodreads
Buy on Amazon|Book Depository|B&N
Source: Author, MTMC Tours
I received this book for free from Author, MTMC Tours in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A mystery about a girl whose family secrets are as threatening as the desert that surrounds her—but whose quest to expose the truth may tear apart reality itself.
Rylie hasn’t been back to Twentynine Palms since her dad died. She left a lot of memories out there, buried in the sand of the Mojave Desert. Memories about her dad, her old friends Nathan and Lily, and most of all, her enigmatic grandfather, a man who cut ties with Rylie’s family before he passed away. But her mom’s new work assignment means their family has to move, and now Rylie’s in the one place she never wanted to return to, living in the house of a grandfather she barely knew.
At least her old friends are happy to welcome her home. Well, some of them, anyway. Lily is gone, vanished into the desert. And Twentynine Palms is so much stranger than Rylie remembers. There are whispers around town of a mysterious killer on the loose, but it isn’t just Twentynine Palms that feels off—there’s something wrong with Rylie, too. She’s seeing things she can’t explain. Visions of monstrous creatures that stalk the night.
Somehow, it all seems to be tied to her grandfather and the family cabin he left behind. Rylie wants the truth, but she doesn’t know if she can trust herself. Are the monsters in her head really out there? Or could it be that the deadliest thing in the desert . . . is Rylie herself?
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Why you need to read No Beauties or Monsters
“Sometimes you don’t miss what you have until it’s right in front of you again and no longer yours.”
If you are in for a breathtaking journey through the desert, where every trail and every rock hides a secret and is sprinkled in mystery, then look no further than No Beauties or Monsters.
This is the kind of book that sweeps you into a story full of wonder and questions. So many questions. The main character brings us back into a place that once held good and bad memories for her. A place that she both wants to forget, but is unknowingly clinging on for. For the first few chapters we understand Rylie had a strained relationship with her strict grandfather who used to live in Twentynine Palms in the Mojave desert, and that she is desperately trying to forget traumatic events that involved her childhood friends, an event that made her want to stay away for good. But now, after her mother remarries and accepts a new governmemt job, she is back at the place that started it all. And the mystery and secrets that cling to this place have been waiting for her.
Strange things are happening in Twentynine Palms. Missing people. A teen on the run. Curious bees. A cabin hiding secrets. And as soon as Rylie comes back, she hits something or someone with her car, only to not find anything at all. This is when the setting becomes a character on its own and the mysteries it holds makes everyone that steps foot inside to be caught up in all of it. I loved it!
Oh, but you need to reach the end of this book. Each chapter is just a layer and every page would just take us one stop closer to unlocking all of Rylie’s memories and figuring out what is truly happening. Overall, such an atmospheric read with characters that were easy to fall in love with. Definitely my cup of tea!
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What kind of music do the characters of No Beauties or Monsters listen to?
Rylie misses being around her dad, so she usually listens to the indie folk music that he used to play to her—her dad’s original lyrics and songs.
Rylie’s little brother Owen listens to “Mojave Mix,” a fictional radio station that is full of news reports about the murderer on the loose.
Rylie’s stepbrother Kai is always strumming on his guitar, probably intentionally butchering an ‘80s power ballad.
And Rylie’s best friend Lourdes works at a café when she isn’t at an audition in Los Angeles, so she mostly listens to coffee shop music at work, or to desert rock when she’s on her way to visit Rylie in the desert. (If she can make it there alive!)
INTL Blog Tour Giveaway!
– 1 winner will receive a signed copy of NO BEAUTIES OR MONSTERS (open US)
– 1 winner will receive a $10 gift card to Book Depository (open internationally)
This ends on November 5th, 2021 at 11:59pm EST.
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Tour Schedule:
October 25
Paper Fury
@says_books
October 26
The Reader and the Chef
Becca in a Book
October 27
Ramblingmads
@Preciousbooksworld_
October 28
Sprinkled With Words
October 29
Clouded Galaxy Reads
Read More Sleep Less
October 30
Books, Tea, Healthy Me
@belle.bookcorner
October 31
Gluedtobook
@a_fictionate
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Hosted by:
About Tara Goedjen
Tara Goedjen adores anything mysterious. She is the author of THE BREATHLESS (Delacorte Press, Random House Children’s Books) and NO BEAUTIES OR MONSTERS, forthcoming Fall 2021.
Tara wrote her first story at age ten about children who disappeared at midnight, and she’s been writing fiction ever since. Mostly raised in Alabama, she played college tennis in Iowa and then moved to Alaska and Australia before heading back to the continental US.
While completing grad school, Tara worked as a tennis coach, a yoga instructor, a university writing teacher, and as an editor for a publishing house. These days, when she’s not making up stories, she’s probably chasing after two small monsters or hiking through an enchanted wood while dreaming up her next book.
