DNF a little close to being halfway through it. I was just confused on why he was in detention and what that had to with what was going on at home. I guess I just couldn't relate to Roger and just couldn't figure out what was really the deal with him. Don't even get me started on this so called "detention" area.

The end of this book doesn't even come close to make up for how annoying the main character is. The text isn't consistent, there's no resolution at the end. I chose not to review it in other places, just here.

Detention Land is a seamless blend of mystery, fantasy and mental health and Susan Orion's writing is sublime. I highly recommend this novel to those who want a slightly different take on the mental health genre.

"Please answer my questions without lip service. This is detention, not conversation circle"

*
1 / 5


I'm not even sure what I read. I'm not really sure what I was expecting to read, but judging from the synopsis some kind of mystery/thriller novel centred around a "locked in the room" scenario. Which is sort of what Detention Land ended up being.

There are three characters in this novel: our main character, Roger, who is constantly in detention which seemingly takes place in a locked room in the school basement; Roger's mother; the mysterious lady who speaks over the intercom during detentions, asking Roger increasing personal questions and who he has a lot of sexual thoughts about. Mixed between the detention interrogations are excerpts of Roger's journals.

"Even as a kid, I knew I came into this world with a noble purpose: to rid the world of mediocrity. People ask for miracles all the time and when they are blessed with benediction, they turn their heads away without the slightest recognition of the awesomeness set before them"

Roger is a typical unreliable narrator who seems entirely unhinged. He's exceedingly unlikeable and flips between crying and peeing himself and shouting about how he's a genius with an IQ of 200+. The narrative was entirely stream-of-consciousness and Roger's mind was incredibly tiring. But mostly, nothing really happened and the ending didn't make much sense.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC of this book

Very odd. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what was going on in this book.

This entire story is told through a never-ending internal dialogue between the main character and maybe some woman behind a wall who speaks through an intercom. I don't know; she might just be a figment of his imagination. The main character, Roger, spends every day after school in detention to make up for his bad behavior in class. Except, he denies all wrongdoing. The way the story is told, you're not sure if it's the story of a screwed-up kid who is abused, neglected, and harassed by literally every person in his life, or if he's just a jerk who needs to get it together. The story was disjointed and nothing ever really happened other than Roger complaining about how he's so much smarter and better than everyone else and he should be worshiped as a genius.

After 80% the plot started to make an appearance. Once it did though I was surprised. What really got me was the last 5% of the book. The last lines were what bumped this rating up from a 2 to a 3 star read for me. I was so shocked. However, I was left wanting closure at the end. It was too open-ended for my taste. I was reading this book and wasn't really getting into it. It was a 2 star read up until about 80% of the way through the book. As I continued through it I got more and more confused as time went on.

Look I wanted to like Detention Land by Susan Orion a lot but I just couldn’t. I had to force myself to read this but I still couldn’t get farther than halfway. The main character is beyond unlikeable, the author attempts, poorly, to humanize him but to no avail.
The biggest thing I got from this book was that it thought it was some brilliant mystery about what's true and what Roger is imagining. However, it is just a brat, who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else, complaining the about how people don’t like him and how his life is so hard. The author seems to be writing from a perspective that they have absolutely no familiarity with as an attempt to pander to disenfranchised teens. However, the only people who could possibly empathize with such an entitled narcissist as Roger wouldn’t waste their time reading this because they would think it beneath them.
Also, Roger doesn’t even seem to be all that smart (yes I think it said stuff about inventing stuff but that's the only reason you’d think of him as anything more than pretentious) but the vibe from him certainly doesn’t feel like one you’d get from somebody with an IQ of 200. An IQ of 200 (which is what he says he has) is rather preposterous and there’s hardly even been any reported cases of that and the people whose IQs are anywhere near that high are significantly more impressive.
I found this book extremely unenjoyable and I’m probably part of its extremely small target audience. This book doesn’t apply to a wide audience and that's a big problem. It has minimal arc, is poorly written, and doesn’t have enough to keep any normal reader interested. Maybe there was some big twist at the end but that doesn't excuse the beginning and it's the author's, not the reader's fault if it is not captivating enough to make them want to read to the end. Also, Roger is just a pretentious ASS.

This particular story is about a young man who seems to keep getting himself into trouble. He thinks very highly of himself and has no problem telling others his thoughts and opinions. Even if it hurts them. He ends up in detention for what seems to be almost the entire book. This is the type of story that makes one reflect back on ones self. A person may look at what the main character has said or done and can identify with that action or feeling. As the plot progresses, the young man becomes further distressed and isn't sure if he is hallucinating or not. I personal could not connect with most of the plot line. It felt like it dragged on a bit and was somewhat disjointed in certain parts. This book is not for elementary school level.. I would say junior high but not much lower.

Headed to Detention
I was approached by Susan Orion to read her novel Detention Land: Lip Service’ I was hesitant at first as I am not really a YA Reader though the synopsis grabbed my attention so I gave it a go. Detention Land is definitely a different read. It’s honestly unlike any other book I’ve read. It kept me reading to the end waiting and wanting to see what was going to happen next, but it was a slow read and I had trouble connecting. The writing was good and descriptive I just could not connect with the Roger and so it made it a slow read for me.

"Detention Land" by Susan Orion can only be described as an unusual read.

The story had potential but it lacked appeal for me, sorry to say. You may enjoy it as I think that we all like different stories for different reasons.

Roger is a 15 year old boy, who appears to be constantly in trouble, which causes him to be placed in endless detentions, where he is in dialogue with an anonymous person via an intercom.

The story alternates between when he is in detention and him writing in his journal. The impression I received form this story was that Roger was a very troubled youth, both emotionally and psychologically. I think that it showed that he used his imagination to cope with the reality of his troubled life.

It sounded like his parents were possibly neglectful and abusive but this was seemingly downplayed by the anonymous speaker so I was left wondering about this. Was Roger being bullied?

I’m hoping that some of the confusion I felt in reading this book will be clarified in the next book in this series.

I received a copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

I've tried. I promise.

I've tried three times to read this book. I swear that each time I had good intentions to finish it. I'm sorry that I didn't because I understand it is a massive undertaking and emotional commitment for any writer. I admire all writers.

With this novel, I didn't care about the characters and I didn't like the writing style or tone. This combination meant I found it a battle rather than a pleasure. It's quite possible that these were deliberate actions on the part of the writer but they didn't work for me.

I believe there are people out there who will enjoy this book but I am the wrong reader for it.

This book sounded like it would be really engaging. I've read books before where the reader is given bits of the same puzzle the characters are trying to solve, to see if they could solve it first. When the summary for Detention Land gave hints that it would be very much like this, trying to figure out why the main character Roger is locked in a barbaric detention room, I thought I'd give it a try.

I had to DNF this book at 43% because it was so frustratingly boring. Roger was an aggravating character. I would've understood if this was a reaction to being in the detention room, but then there were journal entries that just made me dislike him more. In the detention room scenes I got the feeling that Roger might be a bully on the outside, though there were a couple of sentences that offered a glimmer of redemption for him. However, these were once again countered by the journal entries were he revealed a manipulative personality that I disliked reading intensely. 

I'm all for unlikable characters (Joe from You, The Darkling from the Shadow & Bone series) but there also has to be something about them that makes me want to know what happens next to them, to find out more about their story. Roger is nowhere near either of  these characters and I did not care to read to the end to find out one more iota of information about him.

I hate to do this, as this appeared to be close to the author's heart, However, I promised an honest review. So, here goes:
This was only a semi-enjoyable book. I am just glad that I figured out how to do the text to speech app on my phone, or I may not have finished it. It isn't very long, but it is super monotonous, with no clear point to the chatter. (The author indicates that it is about--and meant to educate about--mental illness, however, it is portrayed in wuch a way that it mainly just comes across muddled.)
Something that bothered me early on was the flip-flopping of the point of view--one paragraph or chapter it was "he" and the next it was "I".
Even though it was not very long, it was still a chore to finish. There is no real beginning or end, it is just a chunk of time described by a kid--from the afflicted's perspective--which would have to be difficult to attempt, and I have no idea how to improve on it, but I am certain that it does not have the author's desired outcome. (I think the goal was to provide a snapshot into the mind of mental illness...which just came across as a monologue.) The author writes interestingly enough as a story teller. I may be willing to read something lighter by this author.

I gave this book a really good try. But it was just so unrealistic. I read the first thirty pages before giving up. I don't know if this was real, fake, or imagined but it didn't do it for me.

Didn't really enjoy this book, maybe just not for me,

This book was fascinating. I felt like it took me on a ride.

Okay, so.... This was a very peculiar book. As you can see, I gave it no star rating, because I couldn't decide how many stars I should give it. And why is that? First of all, I'm not entirely sure I liked it. Roger was not a very likeable protagonist or even a reliable narrator for the matter, and at times I found myself simply not interested enough in him and his story to finish this book. On the other hand, I really wanted to see how this book was going to end.

Another part I'm not entirely sure I liked was the book's portrayal of mental illness. I belive that the depiction of anxiety was a very accurate one, but names of a variety of mental illnesses were thrown around, and since I am by no means an expert, I can't say whether that was accurate or even appropriate. Like I said, it's a very weird book.

**An ARC was provided via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review **

Whole new look on detention. LOVED THIS BOOK! Wasn't sure what to expect at first but I really enjoyed it.

As a teacher, I was immediately drawn into this book. As a reader, I simply had to stay. It was one I did not want to put down. I was impressed with Susan Orion’s gift of recreating the mind of a disturbed boy genius. Bravo, Susan! The journal entries were written so well they were outright creepy. Following Roger’s thought process throughout the book was an adventure. His twisted mind and perplexing actions kept me on my toes. Orion also did a great job of incorporating Roger’s mom and dad. Their actions further complicate Roger and make him more believable. The complexity of all the characters pose the question environment vs. genetics? By the end of the book, I thought I understood Roger but did I really?

This book would be a great read in a high school psychology class (does include some language). It could be read as a whole or single chapters. The cover is inviting and begs to be used in a prediction activity. It would be a perfect starting point for deep discussion. It will appeal to both young men and women.