Personally I'd not class this as a YA (tho' highly recommend it for younger readers) because an OA like me can not only enjoy it but bring a maturity & historical perspective. Back in the 1970s a delightful work of satirical fiction first appeared in Northern California as a series in a local newspaper, which was collected under the title The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County. The author was Cyra McFadden, who was later to publish a memoir of her own chaotic upbringing by nomadic & somewhat alcoholic parents. Her characters are on the cusp of middle-age, who still think like teenagers themselves even tho' they are already parents of teenaged children–who might be "living with some turkey in a yurt." McFadden's characters may belong to "the Radical Unitarian Church" & subscribe to every New Age practice & belief: EST, Rolfing, T-groups, the Eslan Institute. I found myself reflecting back on The Serial as I read The Most Dangerous Place on Earth, set @ Marin High School, because the characters in The Serial would have been the grandparents of these students. Tho' these young people enjoy every material luxury–their parents bribe them to get high grades with BMWs & unmaxable credit cards–they inhabit the moral & spiritual equivalent of a toxic waste site. The spirituality in The Serial was utterly bogus, but @ least there was a spiritual dimension in the characters lives. These students, their teachers, & their parents believe in nothing @ all except getting them into an elite college.

Despite their nihilistic world, some try to behave decently. Molly Nicoll is a new English teacher from lower middle-class Fresno who wants to help her students develop. Calista Broderick is one of Molly's best students, carrying a load of guilt because when in the 8th grade she took part in online bullying a class geek into jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, riding the entire distance on his bicycle. Calista ends up befriending a group of slackers who seem to be only characters with any authenticity. Abigail Cress is seduced by another teacher, Doug Ellison. When rumors reach her parents, he cowers & she covers for him, telling him: "I wanted you to know . . . I could have told them, & I didn't, & I still could. If you ever try to talk to me again." That was for me the most chilling and revealing moment in the book. All the guilty teacher had to do to redeem his stature as an honorable man would have been to reply to Abigail: "Tell your parents & the principal the whole truth. Your respect & my honor are worth infinitely more than my marriage & my miserable career. I loved every moment we were together, & I shall never regret our relationship." I am not @ all sure that I'd have the courage to do that myself, but I know the right choice wouldn't take long -- speak three sentences.

But the most painful episode for me as a former teacher was when Molly was called to the principal's office for taking too much interest in the welfare of her students. She's told: "There have been some questions raised by certain members of the staff, questions about your pattern of behavior. It seems the tone that has been set in your classroom, I mean as far as student learning objectives are concerned, has not been especially productive." That jargon-laced reprimand is bad enough, but it continues: "These are not your kids. These are your students. Last year they were someone else's, next year they'll be gone. You can't be their mother. You certainly aren't their friend. You are the person who gives them grades. And if you go on caring for them in this way you won't survive." Molly takes the lesson in professional standards to heart. When later when Caly asks for her comments on a very moving confessional essay about her part in having helped drive that student to jumping off the bridge, Molly treats it impersonally as a work of fiction & confines her comments entirely to matters of organization & style. I term what happened to her "professional deformation" & unfortunately it is the norm for "educators."

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth fails to be a complete artistic success. Dividing the story among too many characters made it difficult for me to care enough about any particular one of them, so I never felt I'd really got to know how she would feel. Except for the boy who committed suicide early in the book, none of the boys captured my sympathies at all. It should have bothered me that the outstanding athlete ends up a male prostitute in Los Angeles, but it didn't. And the boy who hired a ringer to take his SAT exam was equally fatuous. (BTW, the ringer's formula for an outstanding essay wouldn't work in real life–examiners really can identify the distinctive features of anonymous essays.) But my strongest reason for recommending this book is what it tells us about American education. Why would parents be content to send their children to schools that teach them to believe in nothing except worldly success and be concerned only that they get accepted by elite universities, bribing them with expensive cars, clothes & accessories to get high grades & score well on entrance exams. Why not instead spend the money to send them to good secondary schools that would provide a moral & spiritual formation, & then let them attend a much less expensive & prestigious public college? It seems counter-intuitive.

I am most grateful to PenguinRandomHouse & NetGalley for a gratis ARC.

This is a well-written, compelling read. Sad, upsetting, hard to look at.....but a look at the reality (for some) of growing up today.

I started and could not finish. This one was not for me.

Oh, this must be purchased for adult readers who love thrillers.

I could not finish this book. The characters were just too obnoxious for me. Bratty, privilidged teens through and through. it was probably just as the author intended, but for me, it made it unpleasant to read. I can see what tthe author was trying to do but I just didn't connect. Sorry.

This is the story of a group of terribly heartless, California-raised children. We follow them from 8th grade through their senior year. They're entitled, spoiled, and largely ignored by their parents. Through the use of social media they are also extremely dangerous. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a student or teacher. After reading, I was left with a pit in my stomach.

I couldn't put this book down. I kept reading to find out what happened next, and the harsh realities kept coming. Unbelievable yet completely believable scenarios -- the kind that happen in real life. Well-written and authentically dialogued, but left me a little flat at the end. I really wanted -- expected -- a bit more of ending.

This book. Lindsey Lee Johnson is a phenomenal writer. She turns the lens of the story from one character to another so gracefully, and the characters are incredibly fleshed out. Were there some moments that were over the top? Sure. But for my part, it was easy to overlook them. She is a phenomenal writer and I can't wait to read more from her.

A slow start but entertaining finish

It was certainly dramatic if not what i was expecting

It was an enjoyable read and think it is suitable for a quick holiday read more than anything

I was attracted to this book because I thought I would be able to identify with the characters. I had a hard time getting into the story, however, and felt that I was not able to connect as I wanted to. I did finish the book, I wanted to see how things would pan out in the end, but I did not feel any desire to rant and rave about the book.

An entertaining, but ultimately forgettable read. Ms. Johnson has all the tools of an excellent author: control, quality, immersion, skillful plotting, etc.; however, something about this particular storyline failed to interest me for long after I had put it down. Definitely a library check-out. Not a buy.

This was was an emotional rollercoaster for me. Within the first hour I was crying. Then, I took a break from it and came back and pushed through. It was scary, frustrating, insightful and, at times, just too much. It starts with a group of middle schoolers in Marin, California, and follows their tragedies until senior year of high school. Being a mom with kids in Marin, it was hard for me to get through this book. It was well-written, giving each character a distinct voice and the description of Marin felt very real. At the same time, all the situations together felt over the top, like all the horror stories of privileged teens were condensed into one class. In this sense, the book felt unbalanced; but, taken with a grain of salt, I think it is a worthy read and would be a great book to discuss with a friend or in a book club.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for this book. Unfortunately, I don't like it. I have read to 33% and I don't like the characters. I will not post a negative review. Good luck with the book.

Ahhhhh the halcyon days of school... An idyll of learning and self-improvement.... Who am I trying to kid. School is like an American Ninja Warrior Course - ridiculously tough to navigate, and with the constant threat of disaster. That said, if you can successfully navigate your way through and survive all the obstacles - success is yours!
Lindsey Lee Johnson's debut novel is an assured first novel, filled with richly drawn characters with whom the reader can fall in love/hate relationships. From the teacher trying to be too cool and "down with the kids" to the kids themselves - bullying, dating, sleeping around, drinking, pushing themselves too hard... all life is here. Clear a good chunk of time if you are planning on starting this excellent read, as once you start you won't want to stop, as it hurtles towards its denouement. Highly recommended.

Characters and situations in this novel disprove the nursery rhyme "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me". Words - whether spoken, written, or scattered in wafts of gossip - lead to a series of unfortunate nano-mistakes that spin out of control. Cultural pressures, adolescent fears and yearnings flow through school and town like a river of invisible toxins.

THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE ON EARTH by debut novelist Lindsey Lee Johnson is a page turner told with deft exploration of place and character. With impeccably crafted dialogue and descriptions, Johnson captures the zeitgeist of contemporary, affluent, California suburbia.

The novel, which reads at times like a series of true-confession memoirs, creates meteoric collisions among the archetypal teens. Readers will meet Cally/Callista who is perpetually high and lost, tragic Tristan, average guy Dave Chu, delinquent bad-boy Flint, dancer/sometime-slut Emma, ultra-beauty Elisabeth, brilliant-but-mean Abigail (whose rumored affair with her math teacher is not the worst calamity to befall Valley High), scoundrel-slacker Nick, and baseball pretty-boy Ryan. Parental units figure peripherally, as do some of the teachers. One teacher, empathetic Molly/ Miss Nicoll, tries to make a difference, and maybe she does, but the school system is stacked against her with ingrained, mostly-unwritten rules of behavior and classroom design.

Relationship dynamics here are as complex as the characters, and while Mill Valley, California may not arguably be THE most dangerous place on Earth, let alone the most dangerous place in the SF Bay Area, the author holds a mirror up to middle America, right here, right now, and asks us to notice that "problems exist" and an entire generation is hugely at-risk, even in the most picture-perfect suburbs or well-endowed schools.

Johnson traces the story of a group of teens through 8th grade, junior year, and senior year. She also delves into the relationship they have with 2 particular teachers. It's an interesting read, compelling at times, but I felt like it was too over the top and the characters shallow. In a lot of ways it reminded me of the cast of characters in "13 Reasons Why".

Loved this book
Didn't want it to end
Highly recommend

I really enjoyed this book. I loved that the story was broken up into sections- Eighth Grade, Junior Year and Senior Year and told from the point of view of all the students that were involved in a tragic event. I must say I am glad that my daughter is no longer in high school. I was totally hooked from the first page and loved the pace of the story throughout the novel.

What the book reminded me of once I'd read it is Thirteen Reasons Why, the book by Jay Asher (now a series on Netflix), minus the tapes. What would have happened if Hannah hadn't left any tapes? Because in reality, in most cases, there are no tapes or explanations. What happens then?

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson is one version of an answer. The book begins in the eighth grade with the events leading up to a student's tragic suicide. The book then jumps to the first day of the 11th grade, with this tragedy a distant memory, albeit with long shadows. There are barely any direct references to how this event has affected the lives of the characters involved, but look between the lines and the traces reveal themselves.

Needless to say, the book deals with the issues relevant to high-school students today --bullying/cyberbullying, helicopter parents, suicide, sexual abuse by an adult, ineffectual teachers who try to "befriend" the students etc. Therefore, trigger warnings here for suicide, bullying, cyberbullying, sexual abuse. Tread carefully, if you think these might affect you. But on the whole it is not a dark, sad tale. There is just enough hint of hope in the end.

One easy trap to fall into while writing a book such as this, is creating characters that are caricatures or stock characters. It is to the author's credit, that even though we find all the usual suspects--the popular girl, the jock, the pretty girl with no friends, the Asian struggling to keep up to his parent's expectations, etc, they do not feel like cardboard cut-outs. They are fleshed out and real enough for the reader to care about them.

I do wish the book had more representations though--POC, LGBTQIA etc. This is one place where I felt the book could have been better.

To say anything more would be to spoil the book. This is a book that each reader must experience for themselves. After all, many if not all of us, I'm guessing, have been through one form of high-school or another, and good or bad, it has made us who we are. My brush with it left me a stronger, more determined person, with the belief that no matter what happens, life must go on. This ultimately seems to be the message that the author wants us to take away too.

FTC disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for this honest review.

Who doesn't love a good book about wealthy students?