Review: A DANGER TO HERSELF AND OTHERS by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

 

A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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.

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AMAZING. Seriously, that's the only way to describe this book. It is truly amazing.

In the opening pages, we meet Hannah Gold. She's a confident and likeable narrator, and she's just been institutionalised. But she tells us not to worry. It's just a mistake, her being there. It's because Agnes, her best friend and roommate at summer school, is in a coma with brain damage, and Agnes's parents mistakenly believe that Hannah was involved. But as soon as Agnes wakes up or her parents talk to Jonah, Agnes's boyfriend, Hannah's name will be cleared and she'll be back out in the real world.

The writing in this book is just so compelling. I was sucked in right away, completely on Hannah's side. We're given little snippets of info at the right time to keep us reading--this is one of the best books I've read for pacing--and we gradually begin to piece together a picture of what happened to Agnes that's led a psychiatrist to believe Hannah is a danger to herself and others. Indeed, being a danger to herself and others--those exact words--becomes a motif in this book as we learn Hannah is more than a little obsessed with it. But, still, we're thinking that's fair enough. And if I was in that situation, I don't think I'd be as calm as Hannah. She's handling it all well.

Now, the rest of this review will contain spoilers--because I have to talk about these twists. THEY ARE AMAZING.

So, Hannah gets a roommate, Lucy. Lucy is a ballerina who has an eating disorder and a dark secret--she wanted to hurt one of her rival ballerinas. She wanted to push her, take away her dancing ability. And it's when Hannah meets Lucy that we begin to suspect that Hannah isn't quite as level-headed as she lets on. She becomes obsessed with Lucy, wanting to be her best friend (giving Lucy no choice) as she believes if the doctor sees how she's best friends with Lucy, they'll know she's not a danger to herself and others--and then she'll be out.

Hannah's having therapy sessions throughout the novel with Dr. Lightfoot (not the real name, named by Hannah because the doctor wears ballet slippers), and in those sessions, we see Hannah open up more and more. She is a very complex character, and we learn of her childhood, seeing the pivotal moments that shaped her into this arrogant and intelligent character: her parents took her to grown-up meetings, left her in hotel rooms, made her eat oysters as a child. And she was rewarded for acting like a grown up. She wasn't allowed to be a child.

Hannah, at the summer school, also had an affair with Jonah--the guy we are told is Agnes's boyfriend. But then we get the twists. Neither Jonah or Lucy are real. I was gobsmacked at this reveal, but they're both hallucinations. And oh my goodness, I could not stop reading this book at this point (and I'd been so addicted to it before).

I've had hallucinations myself, and this really just 'got' me. Especially how we see Hannah in denial about this--insisting her friends are real--and then coming to terms to it. She then frets about how can she know if anything at all is real? She doubts all her memories, and I just loved this. It reflected exactly my own thought processes.

We never find out the diagnosis that Hannah has--and I think that really worked in this book. Instead, we see her at the hearing as she's cleared of being the cause of Agnes's accident, and we see her leaving the hospital once she's medicated. We see her moments of doubt, her delusions, and we also meet her parents. And wow, that characterisation is incredible. The parents are so cold and calculating that I desperately wanted Hannah to go back to the hospital where Dr Lightfoot was. Because she cared more for Hannah than her own parents did. And that was heartbreaking.

This is just an incredible book. Highly recommended.


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Review: THE COUSINS by Karen M. McManus

 

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Milly, Aubrey and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised…and curious.

Their parents are all clear on one point—not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother’s good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it’s immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious—and dark—their family’s past is.

The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over—and this summer, the cousins will learn everything. 

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Like with all of Karen M. McManus's books, I had this one on preorder the moment it was available to preorder and I was counting down the days until it appeared on my kindle. I loved the sound of this book--I mean, I love stories about complicated families, generations-old mysteries, and cousins. Not to mention this is set on an island. Having previously lived on an island, I love island stories--especially if they're the locked-room variety.

This book tells the story of three cousins who don't really know each other: Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah. Each of them is the child of one of the Story siblings--Adam, Allison, Archer, and Anders--and these siblings were mysteriously disinherited by their mother, Mildred when they were 18-ish. None of the A siblings knows why this happened--but they received a note the following day saying that 'they know what they did'. And this book starts when Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah are invited to Mildred's island. There, they're determined to find out what exactly went on when their parents last set foot on the island.

I'll admit, I was expecting there to be more of a present-day mystery and more present-day danger going on--instead, the book is very much just about what happened to the A siblings. And we have even got a few chapters told from Alison's POV which take place twenty years ago (the rest of it is told from the cousins' perspectives in the present day). But I was just waiting for there to be some sort of present day thrilling event that puts the cousins in danger--and it doesn't really happen until the end. The climax itself is great--we do get the sense that Aubrey is in great danger, and it delivers some HUGE twists. I didn't see those twists coming, so that made this read a 4 star rather than 3.5, which I had been veering toward until that point.

Having said that, while we don't get much sense of Aubrey, Jonah, and Milly being in danger for most of the book--which I found odd given it's a thriller--there is a huge twist with Jonah pretty early on. Again, I didn't see that coming. While it's not a point of danger for any of the cousins, it does create a lot of tension and intrigue.

As always, characterisation is solid--though I did get Anders, Archer, and Adam mixed up quite a bit because their names all begin with A.

All in all, I'd recommend this book. My first finished read of 2021.

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