For fans of Rene Denfeld and Shari Lapena comes a rich, atmospheric family drama set in the 1980’s following the disappearances of two paperboys from a small midwestern town.It’s August 1984, and paperboy Christopher Stewart has gone missing. Hours later, twelve-year-old Sammy Cox hurries home from his own paper route, red-faced and out of breath, hiding a terrible secret. Crystal, Sammy’s … secret.
Crystal, Sammy’s seventeen-year-old sister, is worried by the disappearance but she also sees opportunity: the Stewart case has echoes of an earlier unsolved disappearance of another boy, one town over. Crystal senses the makings of an award winning essay, one that could win her a scholarship – and a ticket out of their small Iowa town.
Officer Dale Goodkind can’t believe his bad luck: another town and another paperboy kidnapping. But this time he vows that it won’t go unsolved. As the abductions set in motion an unpredictable chain of violent, devastating events touching each life in unexpected ways, Dale is forced to face his own demons.
Told through interwoven perspectives–and based on the real-life Des Moines Register paperboy kidnappings in the early 1980’s–The Monsters We Make deftly explores the effects of one crime exposing another and the secrets people keep hidden from friends, families, and sometimes, even themselves.
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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. A product of the face on the milk carton generation, I was immediately swept back in time and into a maelstrom off fear, uncertainty and suspicion as I flew through the pages. With a shivery premise and richly-drawn characters, White 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.
Don’t talk to strangers. No means no. Find an adult. Sound familiar? These are just a few stranger-danger points passed on from parent to child everywhere. I don’t even remember a time when stranger-danger wasn’t at the top of every parent’s mind. We fear for our children’s safety, we fear for their lives. We do everything in our power to keep our children out of harm’s way. But what if it isn’t enough? What if strangers aren’t the only ones for whom we should preach caution?
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“The Monsters We Make” by Kali White is a poignant portrayal of life in the 1980s, of newfound fears, and a turning point for parents everywhere. While the book is loosely based on the real-life missing-person paperboy cases of Johnny Gosch, Eugene Martin, and Marc Warren Allen, White entwines their stories into her own fictitious tale. Her writing explores the life of another young boy facing impossible odds, his older sister chasing collegiate dreams, and an officer of the law just trying to do right by his family and the children of Iowa.
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“The Monsters We Make” was all-consuming, from start to finish. I felt for the characters and became invested in their outcome. The narrations from the twelve-year-old paperboy Sammy, his eighteen-year-old sister (and aspiring journalist) Crystal as well as Officer Dale Goodkind, a Sergeant in the Crimes Against Persons department, brought upon some fairly deep reflections of my own. Typically I’ve run across books where the characters were within a similar age-group; however, reading Sammy’s internal monologue at the mere age of twelve did something to me. My heart ached for him; he felt that he’d tried to reach out, to seek help, and, in his mind, he’d exhausted all options. Sammy was fearful and desperate. As a mother, that’s truly heartbreaking. Alongside his voice were alternating chapters from a young woman just trying to find her way, make it to college, and better herself, all while helping take care of her little brother and overwhelmed mother. The sergeant’s narrations were equally as important in their own way, exploring the effects of the job force on the individual, especially as it pertains to crimes against persons, and the particularly trying balance of work and life. How much should you share with your loved ones when the majority of your day is spent dealing with the unquestionably heinous aspects of human nature?
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This snippet from the final chapter sums up a lot of my own (and I’m sure my mother’s) feeling’s quite well:
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“If she got married and had a family someday, she tried to imagine what it would be like to raise children now, knowing what she knew, after everything she’d seen that could happen to children. She would never be able to let them walk to school alone, or go into public restrooms alone, or to the movies or the mall or the park without adult supervision. Lord only knew how it would eventually affect her generation as adults.
Generation Paranoid.”
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There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t worry about my children, about their safety, health, and well-being. Call it paranoia if you will, I’ll forever call it undying love. You never can be too careful.
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I would recommend “The Monsters We Make” to true crime fans and anyone interested in the goings-on of this time. Please keep in mind that crimes against children are at the forefront of this novel. I also feel that it’s important to mention that while the ending may sit differently with each individual, I personally thought that it rather fitted the times and was, sadly, accurate to the nature of the topic. Kali White’s latest work is one that I won’t soon be forgetting.
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Thank you, @CrookedLaneBooks, @NetGalley, and the author, @KaliWriting, for providing me with a complimentary copy of “The Monsters We Make.” I have voluntarily and honestly reviewed this title, rating it 4.5 stars.
Excellent and compelling. Audio narrator is great. Expect dark elements.
The Monsters We Make is a mother’s worst nightmare.A boy go missing while taking care of his paper route. This story is told by 3 different people. Officer Dale Goodkind, is the police officer in charge of the investigation. Sammy, who is a 13 year old boy also with a paper route who seems to be hiding something. Crystal, Sammy’s 17 year old sister, who is investigating the crime thinking it will help her with her essays for entering college. This story is creepy, scary, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
Three unenthusiastic stars.
I saw that this novel was compared to Rene Denfeld’s Naomi Cottle series, so I knew I had to give it a try. I am sad to report it was in the same basic genre, but it was more of a Holly Jackson young adult whodunit, but without much oomph.
Mostly disappointing was the overall reminiscent effort. I wish the author had taken the time to do some proper editing, which is vital with a period piece. If you want to pull people back into the day-to-day of America’s 1980s, that’s all good and fine, but make sure you’re telling a true tale with authentic detail. For instance, if tasers weren’t issued to police officers until the mid-1990s, don’t refer to one being used in the late 1970s or early 1980s. It jars the reader out of the story and leaves him feeling betrayed.
I listened to this one on the Chirp app. I am from West Des Moines, Iowa, so it was very interesting to hear about local things in the book. It is based off two very real abductions. The author included some very real facts into this book. It is scary to think about someone that can steal children. It’s even more scary to know that these two children are still missing 30 some years later and the heart break that these mothers must bear. I think this was a well planned book. It kept me listening as much as I could. The narrator was good. The author set the mood for all the feelings, at times you want to scream because no one is noticing what is going on besides the teenage sister. You’re just thankful that she was aware. I really enjoyed this book. The story does resolve in the end. I knew the two characters it was based off have not been found, so I was concerned that the book would not resolve. Those characters did not resolve, but the story itself does have a nice wrap up, so I was concerned for nothing. I would recommend this book and try other books by this author, especially if they involves Iowa in them.