Book Review: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth
/8 Comments/by SuzannePublished by Random House on January 10th 2017
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 288
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Goodreads Synopsis:
A captivating debut novel for readers of Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You and Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth unleashes an unforgettable cast of characters into a realm known for its cruelty and peril: the American high school.
In an idyllic community of wealthy California families, new teacher Molly Nicoll becomes intrigued by the hidden lives of her privileged students. Unknown to Molly, a middle school tragedy in which they were all complicit continues to reverberate for her kids: Nick, the brilliant scam artist; Emma, the gifted dancer and party girl; Dave, the B student who strives to meet his parents’ expectations; Calista, the hippie outcast who hides her intelligence for reasons of her own. Theirs is a world in which every action may become public postable, shareable, indelible. With the rare talent that transforms teenage dramas into compelling and urgent fiction, Lindsey Lee Johnson makes vivid a modern adolescence lived in the gleam of the virtual, but rich with the sorrow, passion, and beauty of life in any time, and at any age.
My Review:
I’ll confess up front that I went into Lindsey Lee Johnson’s striking debut novel The Most Dangerous Place on Earth blindly. I was intrigued by its title and have had such great luck with debut authors lately that I eagerly snatched this one up when I received an email from Netgalley suggesting it as a book that might interest me and saw that it was another debut. I started reading and was immediately captivated and maybe even a little horrified to find that from this book’s standpoint, the ‘most dangerous place on earth’ is, in fact, high school.
The opening chapters pack an emotional punch. The story begins with a look at a group of eighth graders in an affluent school district in San Francisco. We see a socially awkward boy named Tristan Bloch, who has been having trouble fitting in and is basically friendless, decide to write a love letter to one of the most popular girls in his class, Cally Broderick. This single act sets off a heartbreaking and life changing series of events. Cally decides, for whatever reason, to give this note to her boyfriend Ryan, who then decides to post the note on Facebook for all of their classmates to see and then friends Tristan on Facebook with the sole purpose of humiliating him. Other friends follow suit and they then relentlessly cyberbully Tristan until he tragically ends his own life by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. The rest of the story follows the core group of kids who were ultimately responsible for Tristan’s death.
Johnson presents her story from multiple points of view. She weaves together a series of vignettes where we hear from each of those students, beginning in eighth grade and then returning to each of them as juniors and seniors in high school. We watch them all attempt to navigate the various pitfalls of high school and to a certain extent, adolescence in general – peer pressure, pressure from parents, alcohol, drugs, and of course, lessons not learned regarding using social media to humiliate people, even after what happened to Tristan. Interspersed between those chapters we also hear from a first year (and still very idealistic) English teacher Molly Nicoll who has all of these kids in her English classes, sees all of them struggling to stay afloat, and tries to do everything she can to connect with them.
What I Liked:
I think what I liked the most about The Most Dangerous Place on Earth is how eye-opening it was. As a parent, reading this story made me all the more aware of the fact that no matter how I raise my child and how active I am in his life, there are always still going to be so many other influences out there shaping him into who he is going to be, in some cases working directly in opposition to the kind of person I’m hoping he’ll grow up to be. It also has me rethinking my views on the internet and social media. In the past, I’ve always been primarily focused on protecting my child from online predators. This book has really made me rethink that stance since apparently cyberbullying fellow students is also a thing now. Sometimes the people you know can be even more dangerous than people you don’t know.
I also thought Johnson did a remarkable job of making a story told from about half a dozen points of view so easy to follow. Each of the voices was so distinctive and so authentic – from the class troublemaker to the diehard party girl, all the way to the high school English teacher. If I was reading from the point of view of an adolescent male, it truly felt like I was reading the thoughts of an adolescent male, and if I was reading from the point of view of a young English teacher, it felt like I was inside that teacher’s mind reading her thoughts. None of the voices came across as generic or forced.
Another strength of the novel is that Johnson is actually able to portray these teens in a way that I still felt a tremendous amount of empathy for them even after what they did to Tristan. That’s not to say that I necessarily found any of them all that likeable, but I did feel for them as they struggled to make it through high school and live up to everyone’s expectation. Whether it’s the pressure to be as successful as their parents expect them to be or the pressure to live up to a certain reputation, or perhaps even live down gossip that is flowing around the internet about them, the pressure is always present in some form or another. In some cases, the pressures at home are just as bad, if not worse, than the pressures at school. I don’t want to give away any spoilers so I’m keeping this general, but the way Johnson portrays high school and the dangers of peer pressure, it’s basically a battlefield and you’re lucky if your child makes it out in one piece. It’s a very powerful read in that sense.
I also thought the portrayal of teachers was pretty realistic. I don’t know the exact statistics but I know the burnout rate for new teachers is super high and some of the things Molly Nicoll experiences are surely contributing factors to those statistics. The desire to connect with her students leads her to cross lines that she probably shouldn’t be crossing because she’s so desperate to reach them. We need good teachers who can make a different in their students’ lives, but one of the older, more experienced teachers points out to Molly, she’s never going to make it long term if she keeps doing things the way she’s doing them. High school will chew her up and spit her out just like it does the students.
What I Didn’t Like:
As much as I enjoyed the read, there were still a couple of problem areas for me. One is that I like to be able to connect with characters and relate to them as I’m reading. Because there were so many different points of view, it was harder to do that in this book. I never really felt like I got close enough to any of them to do that. Stylistically though, I’m thinking maybe that was intentional. I think maybe getting too attached to any of the characters would possibly make the reader lose focus on the overall bigger picture. Ultimately I think it was the right choice for the book; it just didn’t play into my own personal preference for that connection to the characters.
A second issue I had was that I would have liked to see a more diverse student population. I know all of the issues highlighted in this book are chronic issues throughout our school systems, both the wealthy and the poor districts, so I would have liked to see more of a cross-section of our overall student population instead of so many rich, privileged kids. I think having a more diverse population represented would highlight that these problems are widespread, not just localized to the wealthy and privileged of our society. Again, that’s just a personal preference for me and it didn’t prevent me from enjoying the book overall.
Who Would I Recommend this Book to?
Because of its emphasis on the dangers of bullying and especially cyberbullying, I would recommend this book to parents of middle and high school students, as well as to the students in those same age ranges. Students need to understand the power of their own words, especially the negative words, and parents need to start hammering that into their kids’ heads at an early age. The wrong words to the wrong person can set into motion life-altering and often tragic events. In the case of this story, Tristan Bloch chose to end his life, but he could have just as easily come back to school the next day with a gun…
Rating: 3.5 stars
Thanks so much to Netgalley, Random House, and Lindsey Lee Johnson for the opportunity to review this book on my blog.
About Lindsey Lee Johnson
Lindsey Lee Johnson holds a master of professional writing degree from the University of Southern California and a BA in English from the University of California at Davis. She has served as a tutor and mentor at a private learning center, where her focus has been teaching writing to teenagers. Born and raised in Marin County, she now lives with her husband in Los Angeles.
Waiting on Wednesday- Spotlight on The Leavers by Lisa Ko
/10 Comments/by Suzanne“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about.
My “Waiting On” Wednesday selection for this week is The Leavers by Lisa Ko. Based on the description and the advance reviews I’ve read so far, The Leavers sounds like it’s going to be an incredibly moving read and one whose subject matter is quite timely. I’m also a huge fan of Barbara Kingsolver so seeing her praise for this book has me that much more excited, as does seeing that it was the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for fiction, which is awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice.
The Leavers
by Lisa Ko
Publication Date: May 2, 2017
From Amazon:
An emotionally harrowing debut novel that explores assimilation and loss, immigration and homeland, independence and connection.
One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her.
With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an “all-American boy.” But far away from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother’s disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind.
Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging. It’s the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he’s loved has been taken away–and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past.
This powerful debut is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice.
Check out this advance praise for The Leavers
“Courageous, sensitive, and perfectly of this moment.” —Barbara Kingsolver, author of Flight Behavior
“A rich and sensitive portrait of lives lived across borders, cultures, and languages. The Leavers is one of the most engaging, deeply probing, and beautiful books I have read this year.” —Laila Lalami, author of The Moor’s Account
“A moving mother/son story and welcome contribution to immigrant literature. In writing about Polly and her son Deming, Ko captures one family’s unique experience of becoming American while also exposing the loss of status, economic desperation, physical endangerment, and psychological grit of the undocumented worker as well as the alienation, double consciousness, mobility, and comparative access of the first generation.” –Emily Raboteau, author of Searching for Zion
* * * * *
I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your WoW selection for this week. 🙂
Top Ten 2016 Releases I Totally Meant to Read But Didn’t
/30 Comments/by SuzanneTop Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten 2016 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn’t Get To (But TOTALLY plan to). I’m almost embarrassed to say how easy it was for me to pull together this list. The list of 2016 books I meant to read far exceeds the number of 2016 releases I actually read. I also own all of these as e-books so I think It’s all good though because as an added motivation to get these titles read this year, I’ve signed up for NovelKnight’s Beat the Backlist reading challenge and most of these titles are on my reading list. Wish me luck!
Top Ten 2016 Releases I Totally Meant to Read But Didn’t Get To
(But Still Totally Plan to!)
* * * * *
1. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
(Read the Goodreads synopsis..)
* * * * *
2. And I Darken by Kiersten White
(Read the Goodreads Synopsis…)
* * * * *
3. This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
(Read the Goodreads synopsis…)
* * * * *
4. To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
(Read the Goodreads synopsis…)
* * * * *
5. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
(Read the Goodreads synopsis…)
* * * * *
6. The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel
(Read the Goodreads synopsis…)
* * * * *
7. When We Collided by Emery Lord
(Read the Goodreads synopsis…)
* * * * *
8. Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
(Read the Goodreads synopsis…)
* * * * *
9. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
(Read the Goodreads synopsis…)
* * * * *
10. Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova
(Read the Goodreads synopsis…)
* * * * *