Perfect adult book for teens! Cyber bullying in junior high leads to a disaster and then so does partying when the same group is older. Add in a naive first year teacher and this has all the makings of a Netflix miniseries. Wide cast of characters and perspectives made it a quick and fast read for me.

This title has been archived. It is too late to add a review of this book, long since published. Apologies for the timing error.

This book had heavy themes of the toxicity that occurs leading up to and during the high school years. I enjoyed how it was told from different perspectives (even including the teachers).

Definitely check content warnings before picking up this one.

Lindsey Lee Johnson's The Most Dangerous Place on Earth is a riveting and insightful novel that explores the fraught and turbulent lives of high school students in a wealthy California suburb. The story is set in Mill Valley and delves into the hidden struggles, secrets, and social dynamics of the students at an elite high school. Johnson's writing is sharp and perceptive, capturing the pressures and pitfalls of adolescence in the age of social media and privilege. Through multiple perspectives, the novel examines themes of identity, trauma, and the yearning for connection and understanding. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth is a compelling and thought-provoking read, offering a poignant look at the complexities of modern teenage life.

listen, as someone who went through HELL in high school, this book had themes that hit CLOSE TO HOME so it wasn't necessarily a fun one for me... after a note goes public, the impact is long-lasting and severe, and i could relaaaaaate, lemme tell ya.

there's so much about social media, relationships between students/peers/teachers/etc, that plays out here, and while it was interesting that the POC changed so much, it also made it hard to really connect with the characters or get deeper into the plot here.

not a favorite overall.

As a fan of Celeste Ng, a parent of high school students, and a fan of novels set against the backdrop of school, the marketing copy really drew me to this book. Honestly, I was a little let down. The story was similar to those I have read before and the students were the typical stereotypes you find in every high school -- definitely some flawed characters, but not ones that I came to care about. There was definite potential for this to be a really enjoyable read, but I just wanted more from the story. More originality, more thoughtful writing, more depth.

Ehhhhh… not a big fan, I might be in the minority here. Found it difficult to stay invested in this tale, was not a big fan of the characters - could not finish and that’s saying a lot for me. I will keep my eyes peeled for more of this author and try them again though.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC opportunity though!

Absolute nightmare fuel. So grateful I was out of
High school but today’s iteration of social
Media came to be.

This was a tough book to read because so many of the characters were not very likable. They’re not meant to be and that’s what makes this book gritty and painful to read. As a parent this book made me question my own beliefs about adolescence and the complicated world that young adults are living in.

I did not finish this book because I did not enjoy it. It did not hold my attention and I ended up reading other books instead.

Just not a fan of this book. The wording was jumbled, I couldn't keep track of all the characters. Just not my cup of tea;

This was a tough book to read because so many of the characters were not very likable. They’re not meant to be and that’s what makes this book gritty and painful to read. As a parent this book made me question my own beliefs about adolescence and the complicated world that young adults are living in.

An interesting and well-written novel about American adolescence, Johnson has written a very good debut, one that plumbs the depths of teenage angst, secrets, and repercussions.

Recommended. Looking forward to reading the author's other work.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth centers around a group of teenagers who attend an elite school in California. This topic fascinated me. I love to slice of life stories.
The story begins with a tragic event occurring to one of the students at the school. The subsequent chapters rotate back and forth between various students and teachers.
The thing that stands out most about the story is that there is no plot to this book AT ALL. It's more just vignettes of various days of various character's lives. I didn't like any of the characters. All the kids were privileged beyond belief and acted badly. The new English teacher, Molly, was incredibly naive.
While I did enjoy the 'Great Gatsby' parallels, this book was not for me.

Something about this book makes me feel uncomfortable. Perhaps it's the mismatch between the characters' ages and the contents of the book. And perhaps how on point but so wrong it is.

These characters were not likeable, but they felt vividly real. Beautifully written and incredibly unsettling.

I honestly don't remember requesting this book, I don't remember reading anything from this book and I honestly have no sort of feedback to give.

The Most Dangerous Place begins in the 8th grade, with the story of the event that alters the lives of Cally (a.k.a. Calista), Abigail, Emma, Elisabeth, David, Nick, Ryan, Damon, and Tristan. Following this event, the narrative fast forwards to the junior year of high school, where each of the POV's of the teens involved is shared. All deal with the aftermath in different ways, but the common thread that binds them together is the search for their identity. I couldn't put The Most Dangerous Place down. It was full of surprises, and each POV felt distinct and very real. I highly recommend.

This was definitely an interesting book. It certainly was not what I expected from the blurb when I picked it up on NetGalley eons ago.

High school sucks. I'm only 11 years removed from high school. Myspace was the rage. Facebook was still pretty much limited to college kids. Snapchat? Smartphones? WTF are those...man am I glad that when I was in school, all that stuff wasn't as prevalent as it is today, because I would probably have felt like even more of a loser than I did then.

I felt the ending of the book fell kind of flat, and some of the stories weren't tied together, but overall this story of privileged rich high schoolers and how events that transpired years ago still haunted them was interesting and thought provoking at the very least.

This is recommended for readersof Celeste Ng, but then also classified as YA. Ng’s novels are certainly not YA, so that’s confusiing/misleading.