Book Review: A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel

Book Title & Author: A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel
Published by: Sourcebooks Fire on February 5th, 2019
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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Synopsis: Only when she’s locked away does the truth begin to escape… 

Four walls. One window. No way to escape. Hannah knows there's been a mistake. She didn't need to be institutionalized. What happened to her roommate at her summer program was an accident. As soon as the doctors and judge figure out that she isn't a danger to herself or others, she can go home to start her senior year. In the meantime, she is going to use her persuasive skills to get the staff on her side.

Then Lucy arrives. Lucy has her own baggage. And she may be the only person who can get Hannah to confront the dangerous games and secrets that landed her in confinement in the first place.

Review:
I was really curious about this book just based off the synopsis alone. I have a weird fascination with mental health institutions. I was definitely hopeful that I would enjoy this book, but considering I've DNFed a previous book by this author, I was also very apprehensive. That feeling did not last long as I was hooked almost immediately. Love that feeling! 

2019 is going to be an amazing year for YA. I'm writing this review in September and I've already read 3 2019 books and all of them have been awesome & have exceeded my expectations. Immediately upon picking up this book, my brain started to question things and I questioned things throughout the entire book. Was it really an accident? Was Hannah really as smart as she was portrayed? And what about her parents? Were they really as disinterested in her as they appeared to be? And the most important & broadest question: What the hell was going on?

Hannah struck me as very odd. Especially when it came to her talking about Agnes & Jonah. She seemed to have every excuses in the book about her betraying her friend for a boy. I struggled to feel anything but contempt for her. How could she rationalize what she and Jonah were doing to Agnes? See, told you there were questions all through this book. I love books that have me questioning everything at every little turn.

Hannah was labeled "A danger to herself and others" on the paperwork when she was admitted into the institution, which of course lead me to believe that they didn't believe the incident was an accident. Because of her label, Hannah was allowed no privileges. She was in solitary confinement and the only time she seemed to have people in her room was when the doctor, Lightfoot, Hannah called her, came into the room. The doctor was usually accompanied by a man named Stephen. Honestly, I kept expecting Hannah to explode and rage out on Stephen.

And then there was Lucy. She was fascinating for more than one reason. I found her as captivating as Hannah, but I didn't feel nearly the amount of contempt for her as I felt for Hannah. Lucy was there for her own reasons, reasons I suspected early on. She didn't seem afraid of Hannah, which struck me as odd. Maybe she didn't know the reason Hannah was there.

This book was so creepy and captivating. It actually reminded me a lot of Girl, Interrupted, which I loved. A book like this has to be character heavy, which this one was. I wanted just a bit more character development for all of them. I wanted more specifically for Hannah's parents, who seemed very child-centered at first, but then as certain things unfolded, I realized they were pretty distant parents.

Final thoughts: If you want a book where you'll be questioning everything, all the time, pick this book up next month.

Book Review: After the Fire by Will Hill

Book Title & Author: After the Fire by Will Hill
Published by: Sourcebooks Fire on October 2nd, 2018
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 464
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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Synopsis: A teenager’s world is shattered in a devastating confrontation between the cult she grew up in and the forces of the U.S. government. 

Father John controls everything inside The Fence. And Father John likes rules. Especially about never talking to Outsiders. Because Father John knows the truth. He knows what is right, and what is wrong. He knows what is coming.

Moonbeam is starting to doubt, though. She's starting to see the lies behind Father John's words. Then a fire engulfs life as she knew it, and Moonbeam is forced outside The Fence into a world she does not recognize.

Alternating between Moonbeam's life before the fire, and her time spent in a government-sanctioned facility afterward, After the Fire is a fascinating look at life inside a cult and its harrowing affects on survivors.

Review: 
Religious cults are one of the most fascinating concepts to me. I cannot imagine having complete & total belief & trust in one person when that one person is claiming to be a messenger of God. Leaders of these cults are said to be charming & charismatic. They have this ability to make people believe that they are telling the truth, even when that seems crazy. So, when I saw this book up for request on Netgalley, I didn't even stop to consider my ginormous review pile. I hit "request" immediately, and was thrilled to get approved not long after.

I was out of practice with reading really long books, so I wasn't sure how long it would take me to read After the Fire. What I wasn't counting on, was how engrossing I would find the book. How much I didn't want to put it down and how much I wanted to know all the answers to all of my questions. I wasn't expecting to be pulled in, right away. I love when books manage to pull the reader in right away. That is always a good sign. I was expecting a little more build-up, but I was thrown right into the chaos.

My heart hurt for Moonbeam. She was sure that she was the reason so many people were dead and it takes her a long time to understand & accept that she is not the reason so many of her Brothers and Sisters are gone. Everything she did on the night the fire erupted, was for her own good and the good of the younger children that could still have a shot at a normal life away from the compound.

It was fascinating to see where she had lost her faith. Not her faith in God, mind you, but her faith in Father John. It was captivating to see Moonbeam's journey from believing everything Father John said, to questioning all of it, silently of course. It was interesting to see how her interactions with certain people changed as her beliefs changed. What was most fascinating to me was the reasoning behind Moonbeam being promised to Father John as his Future Wife and how that had come to be.

There were several truly atrocious people in this book, namely Father John, but also Luke and Father John's inner circle: The Centurians, the four of them basically followed Father John's orders without question. Even when they seemed insane like locking someone in a metal box for days at a time. Like Moonbeam is told, withholding food from a child for days would be a case of child abuse in "normal" cases.

I wasn't expecting to like Agent Carlyle or Dr. Hernandez as much as I did, but I really felt like they both brought something extra to the book. Agent Carlyle in particular seemed more like a father figure, which was something Moonbeam desperately needed. Especially given the fact that her mom hadn't been a part of her life in 3 years. Dr. Hernandez was gentler with her, but I don't know if that was totally necessary. Moonbeam was incredibly tough and I got the feeling she could handle just about anything that was thrown at her.

I did enjoy the ending, but it seemed really rushed. There was one thing I was waiting for, that did happen, but I wanted more from it. I felt like the author didn't think this one thing was all that important, so he hastily stuck it in there at the end, without much thought.

Final thoughts: If you want a captivating book about a religious cult and the people that made and then wrecked it, then you need to pick up this book.

Book Review: In Her Skin by Kim Savage

Book Title & Author: In Her Skin by Kim Savage
Published by: FSG on April 17th, 2018
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old con artist Jo Chastain is about to take on the biggest scam of her life: impersonating a missing girl. Life on the streets of Boston these past few years hasn’t been easy, and Jo is hoping to cash in on a little safety, a little security. She finds her opportunity in the Lovecrafts, a wealthy family with ties to the unsolved disappearance of Vivienne Weir, who vanished when she was nine. 

When Jo takes on Vivi's identity and stages the girl’s miraculous return, the Lovecrafts welcome her back with open arms. They give her everything she could want: love, money, and proximity to their intoxicating and unpredictable daughter, Temple. But nothing is as it seems in the Lovecraft household—and some secrets refuse to stay buried. As hidden crimes come to the surface, and lines of deception begin to blur, Jo must choose to either hold onto an illusion of safety, or escape the danger around her before it’s too late.


Review:
I've had some bad luck with Savage's previous two books. One of them I gave 2 stars and the other one I DNFed, so I was worried about giving this book a shot. I generally have a 3 strikes policy with authors, so I was extra nervous about picking this one up.

I am so THRILLED to tell you that my nerves were for naught. This book was her best book yet and I am super stoked to see what is next for her.

Initially, I thought Jo was the manipulative one. The troublemaker, the one to watch out for, but that's before I met Temple and was introduced to a truly manipulative, calculating young lady who was fooling everyone, including me! As much as this story was about Jo and how she wormed her way into the Lovecraft's life, I found myself absolutely fascinated by Temple and the degrees she would go to in order to bring some excitement to her life. Clearly being filthy rich & all that comes with it wasn't enough excitement for her. No, she got into all sorts of crap. Crap I didn't expect from her initially.

There was much more to the Lovecrafts than I initially thought. There were more secrets than I expected. More unexpected twists that involved this family. I wondered how they could so willingly and so quickly believe that Jo was Vivienne Weir. I mean, being gone for as long as she supposedly was, only to have her reappear again and have her immediately welcomed into the Lovecraft's life seemed to be too much too soon.

The one issue I have with this book is that the few male characters, mainly Wolf and Slade, weren't as well developed as the rest of the group was. I was a bit disappointed by that. I wanted more from Wolf especially. I feel like there was more that Savage could have explored with Jo & Wolf's backstory.

Final thoughts: This book surprised me in a great way and it is definitely Savage's best book yet.

Book Review: One Of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

Book Title & Author: One Of Us is Lying by Karen McManus
Published by: Delecorte Press on May 30th, 2017
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 361
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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Synopsis: The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide. 

Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. 
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. 
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? 

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Review:
I desperately wanted to love this book and I was so excited to be approved for it so long ago. Yet, I didn't pick it up until it had already been out in the world for over a year. I still have no idea why it took me so long to pick it up. I love my character driven YA mysteries and I felt sure that this one was gonna fit that bill completely.

I found myself on a pacing roller coaster with this book. It was incredibly slow to start with, and I almost decided to DNF it. Right around 30% of the way through, it picked up, started gaining speed. I started to become more invested in the story, and in the characters. By 50% of the way through it, I was totally into it, coming up with my own crazy theories about what happened to Simon and what, if anything, the Bayview Four, had to do with it.

Sister stories are always a huge draw for me, and I think it's because I have several half sisters that I really don't know well. One Of Us is Lying had two sets of sisters: Ashton & Addy & Bronwyn & Maeve. Both Maeve & Ashton came through for their sisters in really big ways. Despite what was going on in each of their lives, they were able to be sisters to Bronwyn & Addy, both of whom really needed them.

Cooper had a fantastic grandma, Nonny, who was really there for him when shit started crashing down around him. Like the other 3 students involved in this thing, Cooper had his secrets. Secrets he tried so hard to keep for as long as he could. Cooper's dad was a grade A dick and I could not stand him at all. Not once did he seem to care about what Cooper wanted or how Cooper felt. It was all baseball all the time. Even through a murder investigation.

Nate was the outlier. Like it was said multiple times, if it came to it, he would be the scapegoat. He was the only one on probation, whose parents were not involved in his life and who had no money. The other three had crystal clear legal records, had involved parents and were fairly well off. So I wasn't hugely surprised that the police department seemed to zero in on him fairly quickly.

Usually in a book like this, any kind of romance tends to weaken the book for me, but with this book, the romance between Bronwyn & Nate totally improved the book. I actually really enjoyed their romance, and was really excited to watch it progress from burner phone conversations to kissing in the school cafeteria. 

Their romance was a sharp contrast to the controlling one Addy had with Cooper's best friend, Jake. Jake was a total controlling asshole who I had no patience with. Neither did Addy's sister, Ashton. Jake was always telling Addy how to wear her hair, how to dress, where they were going etc. Addy never spoke up for herself. Out of all of the Bayview Four, Addy's character development was the best and I really enjoyed watching it.

There is a subplot where a character is outed, but I didn't see it as a twist. The way the character was outed was horrible and it caused a knot in my stomach and an urge to hug the character, but I didn't see it as a plot twist.

I was so massively disappointed by the ending and how everything was revealed. I could not have been more disappointed if I tried. It felt like the author took the easy way out with the murder reveal. Easily one of the most disappointing endings of the year, if not the most disappointing. I wanted so much more from the murder reveal and I didn't get it.

Final thoughts: Aside from the uneven pace & the massively disappointing ending, I did enjoy the book. I really liked the characters and the particular mode of death was interesting.