I believe The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson is suppose to be a YA story. At times I thought the story was too juvenile for this age group and at other times I thought too explicit. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth did a lot of jumping from character to character. Most of the story was quite predictable. I was given an early copy to review.

I work in a high school. I see high school kids every single day. This book is offensive to high school kids and those that work with them. I can't believe someone would write a book that portrays kids and teachers in such a horrible fashion. If you like kids, have kids, have seen a kid, don't read this book.

I had a hard time rating this one, trying to decide between a 3 and a 4, so I will say it's technically a 3.5. I enjoyed the gossipy aspect of the book and reading about the characters, but it all seemed out of order and a little jumbled up to me. The author did keep me in anticipation of what happened to a previous character while learning about a new one, so she did a good job of keeping me reading. I feel like adults would enjoy reading about these rich, entitled kids more than teenagers would for some reason. As a high school teacher, I could relate to some of the things with the young, first year teacher: wanting to know about her students, trying to get through to them, etc.; but, she also takes it too far, which is part of the plot. It is an interesting exploration of the student/teacher dynamic and today's teenagers in general...makes me not want to think about what they are doing outside of school time!

This book focuses on the lives of a select group of teenagers in an upper-class suburb of San Francisco as they move from middle school into high school. While it's set in beautiful California the experiences of these teens, and one of their teachers, are less than ideal as readers get glimpses into their lives and their own unique sets of problems.

The story is told using multiple POVs with each character getting their own chapter. When combined, these shorter scenes tell the bigger story of this group of teens who seem to have it all - including seemingly unlimited funds and no parental supervision.

Johnson touches on many serious issues plaguing today's teens - the influence of social media, peer pressure, bullying, the pressure to succeed, drugs/alcohol, lack of connection with parents etc. That's a lot of issues and honestly, it felt like she may have taken on too many issues for one book.

Johnson's writing is good and she pulled me into her world, but I had hoped for more complexity and depth to the story lines and characters as well as less predictable endings. Several of her characters verged on clichés (with Miss Nichols, the idealistic and naive teacher being the most frustrating). With only being given a small number of pages to tell each of their stories, unfortunately I can't say that I was invested in any of their lives.

I had a love/hate relationship with this book. While teen angst and (too?) many issues are brought to light that affect teens today, I didn't find it as powerful as I had expected and wish there was more depth to the plot and characters. I hovered between a 2.5 and a 3-star rating but opted to bump up my rating to 3 stars because Johnson was able to keep my interest.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Random House Canada and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary e-book copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

High School and teen-agers, a place of learning, friends, fun and fear, insecurity and menace. Who are the students who enter Miss Nicoll's class as juniors? What forces drive them to behave as they do?
A darkly human psychological study of a group of classmates as they maneuver through their schools years, the teachers who work to help them succeed, and the influence of parents who care, but don't know what to do with them. they all come together in their junior year as Miss Nicoll, an idealistic teacher works hard to teach uninterested students.
Can she find what motivates them and why these well off students seem bent on self-destruction? Lindsey Lee Johnson weaves a tale of love and hope amid a storm of anger and confusion.

** spoiler alert ** I wanted to like this book more than I did. The beginning was so poignant and so wonderful and made me feel like it would be such a beautiful story - so important and so wonderful. These issues (bullying, suicide, mental health) are very prevalent today - and I'm not sure if they're more prevalent than they used to be or if they are just getting more attention than they used to get.
Either way, when they jumped to junior year, I feel like it lost some of its integrity. I missed hearing about Cally and why she had turned out to be the way she was. I didn't feel like it delved deeply enough into what it could have been.
I did love that it brought in an outsider - a teacher that I very much connected with - to retell the story, to see the kids in another light.
But, for me, it fell just a little bit short. And that makes me a little bit sad because I really wanted to love it, but I just didn't.
All that being said, I did finish it quickly as I was curious what was going to happen to these kids. I wonder if this would have been a different story told from a different perspective - a rural, middle class society unlike the affluent society it was placed in. Or if it had been told strictly from Molly Nicoll's point of view or Cally's point of view only.

There are many people who never want to return to their high school years, but Lindsey Lee Johnson provides a fascinating and disturbing fictional look at present day high school life in Mill Valley, California. Because of the ubiquity of social media and the way it is used to savage other people, these high school students resemble a pack of hyenas trying to take down the weakest in the herd. Yet for all that is out in the open, there are hidden depths and heartbreaking pain for each of the characters. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth is eye-opening fiction about the lives of teenagers today. It’s also a great read!

My review was posted on Goodreads on 1/4/17

This book started out very strong. It starts with several of the more popular students in eighth grade and their actions that contributed to the suicide of one student. This section was very gut wrenching and heartbreaking, especially because I know this stuff actually happens. Kids don't realize how their actions affect others and sometimes kids don't even mean to be so cruel. It was interesting seeing Callie's POV and how torn she was in her actions, but she also just wanted to fit in.

But after that initial section, things kind of went downhill for me. It started with the POV of Molly Nicoll. We get her perspective as she enters the teaching profession for the first time. She is young and optimistic and she cares way too much (yes, that is possible). She is teaching a lot of the kids that were involved in the incident with the student in eighth grade. It's high school now and you can tell that the students have been impacted by that. The book would tell a few chapters from the teacher's POV, but then it would go to one of the students. But it would have one section by one student and then we would never hear from that student again. And there were so many issues that were talked about, but never fully resolved, like Callie's guilt and the sexual relationship between the teacher (not Molly) and one of the students and one of the students being arrested for a DUI and one of the students feeling so much pressure that he cheats on the SAT's (the author never did reveal his score and that was irritating). There was just so much going on and none of it was resolved. Molly gets way too involved with her students and I felt like her growth as a teacher came about way too fast and was kind of unrealistic. Also, I get that a lot of Molly's actions were a bit over the line, but one of the teachers suggested their job was NOT to care, but to teach. Isn't it possible for a teacher to do both?

This was a book that was supposed to be about bullying, but it ended up having so many voices and so many issues that I didn't really feel satisfied by any of the characters or the plot.

Uh, this book. It took me back to also the most dangerous place I have ever been - my Catholic high school - where I experienced being the only Asian girl and biggest nerd in a sea of white preppy students. For of all of the cliches and repetitive dialogue, I found this book horrifying and fascinating and have come out of it feeling so strongly about three things that I can't help but give it a three-star review:

1. I never want kids.
2. If I have kids, they can't get older than 12.
3. If they get older than 12, they aren't allowed to leave the house.


But seriously, this book is terrifying and sadly accurate. I hope I never have to read it again.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

Upon reading the blurb for this book on NG I was immediately intrigued. The twisted nature of high school, cliques, mob mentality, and growing through those unsettling times always fascinates me in stories. With The Most Dangerous Place on Earth this holds true for the plot and premise of Lindsey Lee Johnson's debut novel.

Impressive is her third person writing and the easy way she hooks you in the beginning. There's a very mature quality to her writing that I find admirable. Her writing hails as descriptive prose and immersive for the reader. This story is told from succinct chapters from different characters. In between those new characters is a chapter from a newly minted, young English teacher. The arc of the story is woven through all of these mindsets. The thought of this is brilliant in my opinion. However, this method of storytelling ended up giving me contradicting feelings. I felt as though my connection to the characters was stunted. There was always this feeling of something big on the horizon with each of them but it never really culminated for me.

Her illustrations of high school in an affluent area outside of San Francisco were equally as intriguing as the plot. I thought the setting really lent itself to being pertinent to the story she telling. And each character are ones, in some capacity, that you’ll recognize from your own teenage life which I found important while reading as it gave me a small sense of connection. Overall, I enjoyed this story. It held my attention and provided a solid plot. There were a few areas where I wished there was more depth and richness from certain characters definitely but it was enjoyable.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson is a story set in a place that many of us either relish or dread: high school. The story opens in the eighth grade with Cally Broderick being called into the office for neglecting to do her homework. While she is there, she unwittingly extends an act of kindness to the awkward kid at school. This sets off a chain of events which leads to a shocking event. Fast forward three years, Molly Nicoll is the new English teacher at the high school, she finds Cally, and her classmates in their junior year. Each chapter gives a different perspective of the same high school. You have the brain who must live up to his parents’ expectations. The talented dancer, the jock, the screw-up and all the other characters we seem to meet in high school. Their stories intertwined into a climax which leave the students and teacher baffled by the turn of events. Who will see their dream come true and who just wants to survive high school?
The Most Dangerous Place on Earth is set in Mill Valley of Marin County, California, an area of affluence and privilege. However, inside this high school we see the same issues and attitudes that this story could be set in almost any high school in America and the events could still resonate with us whether we enjoyed high school or were happy it was over. I highly recommend The Most Dangerous Place on Earth as a story that our actions have consequences and those consequences can follow us for the rest of our lives.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth
will be available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
on January 10, 2017
in hardcover and ebook

The place is Mill Valley, California, the most affluent community in the USA, and yet there’s serious trouble in paradise. Although this title is being marketed as a novel for young adult readers, a lot of adults will want to read it. It’s thought provoking and a real page-turner. Thank you to Net Galley and Random House for the DRC, which I read free in exchange for this honest review. I actually finished this book some time ago, but often I find that the most interesting, complex books are ones I will want to give considerable thought to before I review them; everything I have read and thought has to gel. So I apologize to the publishers for my tardiness, but it’s not a matter of not caring; maybe it’s a matter of caring too much.

My own background is in teaching inner-city teens and street kids, but Johnson makes a good case for attention toward the privileged yet sometimes neglected children of the upper middle class. This sophisticated story features a number of characters—teachers and students—in detail. We follow them from eighth grade into and to the end of high school. There’s baggage and drama left over from middle school that high school counselors, teachers, and administration won’t know about, and it carries over and influences events in ways no one can foresee.

One key player is Molly Nicholls, a brand new teacher whose age is closer to that of her students than to many of the teachers she works with, and who can’t tell the difference between caring for students, and becoming their peer; between the professional distance used by her colleagues to protect themselves both legally and emotionally, versus jaundiced burn-out. Molly is flattered when students come to her with complaints about other teachers, and she loves it when they tell her that she’s different than they are. But then she hits a crisis point that may abort her new career if mishandled; and the fact is, these new ‘friends’ of hers are going to graduate, while she’ll be left behind with the colleagues she’s alienated.

She just doesn’t get it.

That said, we also meet students that are stuck in a variety of unenviable positions. Young Abigail believes that she is special indeed; Mr. Ellison, everyone’s favorite teacher, spends extra time with her, drives her around in his car. His wife doesn’t understand him the way she does; she’s crushed when she realizes that he doesn’t intend to leave his wife, and that they have no real future together. She might be absolutely powerless were it not for the other power dynamic in place here, that of the socioeconomic disparity between the students’ families, who live in ostentatious luxury, and the teachers, who either commute a great distance, or live, as Miss Nicholls does, in a converted tool shed for an apartment. The relationships and the components that skew them are absolutely riveting.

Mill Valley kids don’t worry about where their next meals will come from; they drive cars far nicer than those of their teachers, and instead of allowances, they have bank accounts and credit cards. But what many of them lack is parental time and attention, and most of them lack boundaries. And adolescents really need boundaries; they need small, frequent reminders to check them when they cross an important line. Their teachers don’t dare provide the discipline and structure; they need these jobs. And the parents often won’t.

For example, there’s cyber-bullying. Tristan Bloch is a special needs student whose social skills often lead to miscues, and the primal behaviors of adolescents lock onto those miscues like sharks when there’s chum in the water. Miss Flax, a teacher that counsels Tristan, makes a horrible error when she suggests that he make a move toward Calista, a popular girl who’s going through a family crisis herself as her mother lies dying in a dark bedroom and her father comes unstuck. Calista turns to her friends to deal with Tristan’s unwanted advance. The whole ugly mess erupts on Face Book, and the result is tragic.

“Teachers like [Miss Flax] were always encouraging hopeless kids like Tristan to inject themselves into the social scene with ridiculous gestures—declarations of love, blind stabs at friendship—as if middle school were a safe haven in which to conduct these experiments, when in fact it was the most dangerous place on Earth.”

Then there are those like Dave Chu, a B student whose parents will be crushed if he isn’t admitted to an Ivy League college. Dave studies constantly, but he doesn’t have the talent to get where his parents need him to go, and they won’t hear of his entry into an ordinary California state college. Dave’s anxiety turns to panic, and ultimately he’s driven toward an extreme personal solution .

There’s a host of controversial material here, and also limitless potential for students’ reactions to what’s provided. I can see parents offering their child with a copy to read, and I can also see other parents hot-footing it to their child’s middle or high school to demand its removal from the curriculum or even from the library shelves. One thing’s for sure though: it’s generated a lot of advance buzz, and that buzz will only get louder with publication. It’s meaty, complicated, and an unmissable read for parents of adolescents, as well as those considering entering the minefield of teaching.

You can buy this book January 10, 2017, and you should. Highly recommended!

This novel was quite sad - and utterly believable. Johnson is able to illustrate a group of teenagers from multiple sides - the bullies are multifaceted, with parents who love them (or neglect them) ambitions, difficulties and the actions they believe will make them cool can have disastrous consequences.

I think this is an important book for both teens and parents to read - it can open a valuable door to discussion for whatever peer group you see your child in - the loner, the popular kid, the art kid...they are all still kids - they need guidance and understanding and the ability to trust someone who is going to have their best interests at heart.

I received this book from Net Galley for an unbiased review.

I really loved this book! Random House Publishers always does a fantastic job of finding the best books and authors and i was not disappointed at all! This book was fascinating and well written! A true round of applause to the author for such a captivating read! 4 stars from me!

Is a wealthy, privileged high school the most dangerous place on earth? While that may be disputed, there is no denying that to many teenagers, the high school years are incredibly tough, and can certainly feel like the end of the world. This novel - written in short vignettes that offers a glimpse into multiple character's POV - follows a group of teens from a traumatic event in 8th grade through high school graduation. The teen perspective is balanced out by the chapters from the POV of Ms. Molly Nicolls, a young, new teacher at the wealthy Marin County high school featured in the novel.

The setting is the definition of privilege on steroids. Wealthy suburban enclave, where teens have their own credit cards, BMWs, and little to no parent supervision. Lindsey Lee Johnson did an admirable job of using the setting as a starting place to explore the culture of wealthy, white privileged teens.

The format is where things go wrong. I really like the idea of the vignette chapters, but this book would definitely have fared better with a larger page count. Each chapter spends a brief amount of time focusing in on one of the characters. You hear that person's inner thoughts and perspective for one chapter, and then they seem to disappear back into semi-anonymity. This could have worked extremely well if the reader had the chance to come back to that person's POV a second or third time. What we're left with, instead, is the feeling of incompletion and not knowing what lies beneath the surface. Take Abigail, for example, we see her chapter towards the beginning of the novel, yet the ramifications of what take place in "her story" carry throughout the rest of the book. But her voice is lost during the remaining 75% of the book. David Chu was another character that I really wish I could have heard more about. The same goes for Calista, who we hear from at the beginning and the end, and out of all the teens, was most deeply and sincerely affected by her role in the tragedy that takes place at the start of the story.

The characters in The Most Dangerous Place on Earth are all flawed, and Johnson does an excellent job at getting to the heart of the culture of affluency, and the impact it has on kids raised in such a setting, who are rarely denied anything by their parents.

I do, however, have one major problem with the story. Part of me feels that the initial set up: cyberbullying and the resulting teen suicide, was done for its shock factor. The first chapter was heartbreaking, but at no point in the rest of the story was the awfulness of the bullying behavior addressed in a meaningful way. In fact, the "trauma" for the kids who engaged in the cyberbullying was used as justification for their selfish and cruel behavior in high school. Not cool.
In regards to the audience, I have seen this book listed as both YA contemporary and adult contemporary. I think it falls more into the adult genre, despite the protagonist's ages.

Would I recommend it? Yes. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth has flaws, just like the student's within the pages, but it is a thought-provoking, quick read. I would also add a trigger warning for the way that it handles bullying.