I didn't love this book. It seemed the author was trying to hit every number on a laundry list of high school traumas, including bullying, suicide, child molestation...you name it, it's here. Middle school and high school students would probably eat it up, but the foul language element would prohibit most teachers from putting it on recommended free reading lists.

There are some truly beautiful sentences and passages in this book -- I was constantly amazed when I'd remember this is her debut novel! Great book.

After reading some thought-provoking comments/reviews on what I'd found to be a powerful, highly entertaining debut novel, I began to notice that most of the comments were from readers who either have children, educate children, or both; many of them seemed to suggest that Ms. Johnson's story was a little overblown, exaggerated, and only relevant to the type of rich kid, private school society that is portrayed in the novel. Others were "shocked" and "unable to imagine that this is what goes on in high school these days!" I had to take a step back and think about my own experiences and how they contribute to my view, which is exactly the opposite.

Please indulge me this bit of contextual information: I grew up in a small town (population 7,400) with one high school, no private schools, and the only "rich" kids were the ones whose family had money passed down to them from previous generations...and there were two of them. Our parents were a little less "Tiger Mom" and little more community-oriented (most parents knew the other parents, they all attended community functions together, church, etc.); there wasn't as much pressure to "succeed" as students because the competition seemed a little less fierce back then (this was in the early '90s). Our parents thought that they knew what we were up to and, of course, they had no idea.

"Mill Valley sports ran on an unspoken rule: Don’t favor the kids who are talented, because this will make the untalented kids feel bad. Despite this bid for equality, this enthusiasm for mediocrity, the untalented kids always knew who they were. The whole thing was pointless, maddening."

None of the situations that are described in this novel shocked or surprised me; with the exception of social media, which had not yet been conceived during my high school years, all of these things were going on while I was in high school: the cool kids bullied the not-so-cool-kids (in some pretty horrific ways, as I remember it); most students drank to excess and many were enjoying their discovery of illicit drugs; kids were having sex - everywhere; teachers were having affairs with other teachers (married or not); and we were all trying to make sense of these things as best we could.

"In some ways, her students knew so much more than she did, possessed vast, secret stores of information, codes and connections, that she felt helpless to understand. What were they doing? she wondered. What lives were they living on those little screens?"

Sadly, many years have passed and, even though the novel is new, the stories are not; they are simply different. I don't have children and I'm not planning to have any in the future; my experience with teenagers is limited to the work I've done with youth groups, the teens I encounter in my work as a hospital chaplain and the stories I hear from friends. I am not qualified to fall back on time-honored clichés about "the way we're raising our children these days."

As I reflect on the stories from this novel, though, one thing really stands out: these kids, and the ones I grew up with, are all experiencing tragedy, grief and loss, very emotional events, with no knowledge of how to incorporate them into their lives. Parents certainly care about what their children are experiencing, but are unable to comprehend/acknowledge the magnitude of what's happening behind the scenes; their kids aren't sharing all of the story.

"What Cally felt then was more than guilt or sadness. It was like the pleasure-pain that Abigail had shown her, a connection that cut you and thrilled you, a sharp, exquisite opening."

While The Most Dangerous Place on Earth may not be a hit with parents and teachers (it's tough when the truth smacks you in the face and you're not prepared for the sting), Johnson eloquently describes the chaos of adolescence and illuminates the raw emotion that, left unchecked, can prove deadly. A remarkable debut novel that I will certainly recommend to many readers; even the ones with teenagers.

This is another one of those books that presumably exemplifies the adage: write what you know. As with most books that are usually debuts and start with this adage: this is about whether you can ever grow out of, or escape, the place in which you are raised and whether you should even want to leave. We enter Mill Valley, California and its high school filled with spoiled and wealthy teenagers. This one was told in an interesting manner - starting big where we get a flash of the characters to come and then devoting various chapters to different characters throughout universal events and moving forward between Junior and Senior year. It's a fast read and mostly I enjoyed it. It felt a bit heavy handed at times if only because it is definitively about #whitepeopleproblems. I am very familiar with Mill Valley and have been many times - this is likely an accurate depiction of current teenagers in this place but I'm not sure it is a place that should be romanticized or idealized, especially given so many other, diverse stories being written.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth came out last week on January 10, 2017 and you can purchase HERE. I definitely recommend this one if you like a novel that feels a bit like a collection of short stories and/or those books we all know that challenge the place in which we grew up - this reminded me of a great debut from last year, Desert Boys, in both respects.

In some ways, her students knew so much more than she did, possessed vast, secret stores of information, codes and connections, that she felt helpless to understand. When she circled the room, she'd peer over their shoulders at the phones in their palms, catching flashes of photos and texts. What were they doing? She wondered. What lives were they living on those little screens?

The Short of It:

From the first few pages I was immediately drawn in.

The Rest of It:

The title is very dramatic, isn’t it? Dramatic, but fitting because the most dangerous place on earth is…

High School.

This story is about a high school in a very affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of San Francisco. For the most part, the kids are well-off and smart but Johnson puts all of their flaws on display. The need for acceptance is front and center but there is a thick layer of regret within these young students which the author explores one by one.

Johnson does not spare the adults in this story. The teachers, the parents, the administrators are also included and have their own battles surrounding acceptance and fitting in. Some of their situations literally had me squirming from the inappropriateness of it all but man did it make for good reading.

I loved this book. Johnson absolutely nails the pressures of high school and pending adulthood. I would not classify this as YA in case anyone is wondering. I hope you pick it up because it was really good.

This book tells its story through the lives of several teenagers and the events that happen to each of them. It's like flipping through the pages of a yearbook and recalling the stories about each person. The teenagers (and one adult) Johnson portrays are fully-formed individuals with their own voice, thoughts, needs, and goals. They all seem like real people, and as the events unfold, they are impacted by each other's actions in ways they may not even realize.

This is a beautiful read.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson is a novel likely to frighten any parent of a middle or high school child. The story begins with an 8th grade outcast boy, Tristan Bloch, who is misguidedly smitten with a popular girl, Cally Broderick. When Tristan puts his feelings in writing to Cally, her response begins a chain reaction of bullying on social media -- a reaction that will affect Cally for years to come.
The story then jumps to Valley High, in Mill Valley, California, a suburb of San Francisco, where Cally and her friends are juniors. Molly Nicoll is a 23 year old first year English teacher, who has taken over the junior American Literature class mid-year. Desperate to connect to her students on their level, she revamps the curriculum and her classroom, creating an environment that is so welcoming to teenagers that they bring their lunches to her classroom and hang out. She exchanges cell phone numbers with the kids, and even friends them on Facebook. Molly is unaware of the relationships her students had before high school, or the extent of their dysfunctions outside of school. Although she seems to have difficulty forming relationships with her colleagues in the English department, Molly does manage to befriend another popular teacher, Doug Ellison.
The book jumps around between student characters, and the two teachers, weaving a story of drug and alcohol abuse, sex, bullying, over and under achievers, helicopter and absent parents, and inappropriate relationships. This is a troubling, but entertaining book. Johnson seems to have her finger on the high school climate and student behavior in an affluent suburb. However, the character development is lacking to the extent that it was difficult to care about any of them.
Thanks to Random House and Net Galley for the ARC of this book.

Book Review: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Random House

Where is the most dangerous place on Earth? According to the author it would be high school. This white school is in an affluent county in California so I didn’t really consider it to be all that dangerous.

The book starts with the suicide of a middle school boy named Tristan. He’s a social outcast and generally ridiculed by his peers. There is a girl that he has a crush on and he writes her a letter to profess his love. She gives it to the boy she has a crush on and he and his friends harass and bully Tristan online until he takes his life. I cried over the first few chapters.

The rest of the book starts in freshman year of high school. Tristan is rarely ever mentioned except in a joking manner. Each chapter is told from a different point of view and yet none of them really connect to each other. What started out as a story I cared about with a character I cared about (Cally, Tristan’s crush) went off the rails and never really came back to the track. At the end of the book I thought each kid was snooty, selfish, and stupid. Each chapter seemed to be an almost ripped from the headlines cliché about rich, white, high school kids and the stupid things they do and none of it was flattering.

The writing itself is good but the format to this story was lacking. I would give the author herself another try but not if she sticks to the same kind of storytelling.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

You can find this review and more at:http://shiningstarreviews.blogspot.com/

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson was a very well written story following the young lives of various friends, classmates, and enemies who have all grown up in a wealthy California town. A tragedy in their earlier childhood has affected them all in some way. Each of them played a part in the suicide of fellow classmate, and the memory of this event and the consequences of it have followed them into adolescence. I enjoyed Johnson's style of writing very much.

Saying I enjoyed this book would probably be a stretch. It was a dark and sometimes brutal telling of the lives of a group of high school students in the small town of Mill Valley. I like to think the high school experience isn't like this, but I know for many it is. Written with amazing honesty and clarity, Johnson is an important voice in YA lit.

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

Truly more enjoyable than Prep, to which it is often compared. A masterfully told story with excellent characterization and movement.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson explores the lives of a group of high school students and one of their teachers in a Northern California town. The story jumps around in time, starting off when the kids are in middle school and going all the way to the end of high school. The book also deals with a tragic event that occurs during middle school and how that event ripples through the rest of the students' lives.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought Johnson's writing was refreshingly blunt and evocative. I felt for a lot of the characters, though more so than others. Johnson absolutely nails the way that teenagers interact with each other, especially the torture they can inflict on each other.

The major problem for me was the teacher character. While Johnson does highlight that it is her first year teaching, I found some of her actions to be so unbelievable that they pulled me out of the story. This is really a small criticism; overall I found this book to be affecting, interesting, and biting.

Recommended for anyone who got through high school and lived. Bullies and victims alike.

In lovely Mill Valley, home to some wealthy families, a group of kids grow up and face their pasts and their futures. The story starts with them in eighth grade, all vying to jockey themselves into some kind of position among the ranks of the classes. There is a tragedy early on and it will just rip your heart out. I almost didn’t want to go on with the book. But once we get past that, the kids are juniors in high school. A new young teacher comes along, not much older than the kids, and she is so idealistic. The other teachers all seem so jaded. Molly becomes friends with another English teacher who is harboring his secrets. And boy, he is not who he seems at all. The kids have all changed since eighth grade. Cally, Calista now, has become a rather ethereal druggie that seems to float in and around the school. She was front stage and center in the tragedy in eighth grade. Her ex-best friend is trying to get to an Ivy League school, craving her parents’ attention and getting it from someone she shouldn’t. Most of the boys’ parents seem to have their lives planned out for them. Ryan, the jock, sleeps around, not really seeming to care about anyone. Nick, a very smart kid, is selling drugs and taking the SATs for money. Dave isn’t sure what he wants but he knows it’s not what his parents want. Emma wants to dance. Elisabeth isn’t sure what she wants either but with such a flamboyant mother, it’s hard to hide yourself. After an accident, their lives become something else entirely again.

I would not want to be in school these days with all the technology. Some of these kids’ lives were utterly changed by gossip and pictures and posts. They bully without thinking of the consequences for the person they are bullying and even for themselves because eventually, they are the ones who have to live with it. This is a very powerful read. It is sad. It does have some hope. It will make you angry. It will make you think about how to talk to your kids. I think the Most Dangerous Place on Earth is the place that we put ourselves when we try to be something we are not. It’s the place you live in when you don’t know exactly where your place really is.

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

Wonderfully written book with a wide range of fully developed characters. Glad I waited to read this until it was close to pub date, makes it easier to summon enthusiasm when recomending this book. The structure is effective and the ending is very moving.

First to be fair I read this book in two days - very quick for me. I could not put it down. Until the end when I finally did put it down I felt a bit icky...not inspired, not having gained anything, just nothing. Although the writer can tell a good story, I require more from my reading.
The beginning incident was believable and affecting. I believe the book could have gone somewhere from here but it would have been nice to see someone being redeemed, or something positive. I realize that these characters are for the most part brats and that not everyone is redeemed, some people are just "careless" to use a word and intertexuality the author herself used from The Great Gatsby. Still I have to wonder what is she trying to accomplish with this story? Just telling a story? Ok accomplished. To make me aware of the horrors of cyberbullying etc. Yes, I was horrified. Awareness of the dangers of "affluenza" and absentee parenting. Ok. But anything more to recommend? No, I just didn't get it from this book.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing a download of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a unique commentary on a California high school. Perhaps even a unique commentary on all high schools. I can't share with you the incident that was the catalyst for every other incident that happened in this book. The events are kind of startling...the characters ordinary yet not so ordinary...and the struggles with both teachers and students...kind of shocking.

It's been a long time since I was in high school, but though times have changed and problems may be different, the basic behavior hasn't changed all that much. There have always been the popular kids, the outcasts, and the middle group that doesn't quite achieve that rarified popular status but keeps trying.

The book is well written as it delves into the individual characters and how they cope with life.

When I finished the book, however, I was left with a somewhat 'is that all there is?' feeling. Maybe it's just me, but it felt somehow unfinished. It's an interesting read, though, and a very good debut novel.

Thank you to NETGALLEY and RANDOM HOUSE for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am always grateful for your kindness and generosity!

3.5 stars, somewhere between this book was okay and enjoying it. I rounded up instead of down, so I'm going to go with 4/5 stars for The Most Dangerous Place on Earth.

Pleasantly surprised with this book, which I found very fascinating in a horrible way. It's like a train wreck that you drive by and rubberneck so you can admire the disaster, I found myself enjoying this book the very same way. I loved reading about these rich kids get their comeuppance for something terrible that they did; granted I don't think any of the characters in this story wanted such a bad thing to happen to young Tristan.

I felt like the story line with Abigail/Doug was a little out of place but not distracting from the rest of the story. I understand why it was there, it just didn't go anywhere and it felt like there was supposed to be more story there that just didn't get addressed properly. I also sort of feel like this about Holly Nicoll's character but not as strongly.

I'm an older millennial so it was fascinating to me to read about social media in the lives of teenagers these days. When I graduated high school, MySpace was just getting ready to launch. I had a MySpace for a while, and subsequently move to Facebook (along with everyone else), but I didn't Facebook (oh my, it's a verb now!) for long before finding out that it simply isn't for me and deleted my account. It's so strange to read about how every day it is for children now, how quick news travels and how connected everyone is! It's not a part of my life and is a bit confusing to me. But it's interesting!

Calista is my favorite character in this book and I believe I identified with her the most. I found her desire to change and following through very inspiring, if one can momentarily forget why she had such a deep desire to change to begin with.


NOTE: I updated this review with the Amazon review link.