A review by alifromkc1907
Hysteria by Megan Miranda
4.0
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Gut Instinct Rating - 4
Story Line - 4.5
Writing Style - 3
Characters - 4
Excitement Factor - 4
Believability for type and topics - 3
Similarity to other books - 5
Cover art - 5
Title Relevance - 3
Goodreads users gave this book a 3.66. I think it was more deserving of a 3.94.
When Mallory kills her boyfriend, Brian, her parents send to her a boarding school, Monroe. But when trouble ensues at Monroe, will Mallory's troubled past come back to bite her?
You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
YA Fiction
Crime
Boarding School
This book wasn't horrible... but there were certainly points of improvement. Overall, it was a pretty good book. It was entertaining, easy-read, and mostly well-written. But I wasn't a fan of some components.
The characters were well illustrated, if you like one-sided, basic, YA characters. Which isn't a negative thing. Some people enjoy YA books because the YA characters are easily read and pretty relateable. However, there were 14 characters (that I counted...), and I felt like some of the characters from Mallory's past weren't well defined, so I wasn't really sure of the importance of their involvement. The dad's character - it was incredibly hard to remember that he was actually involved in the family matters. For majority of the book, I truly did forget that he was alive. And considering he was a Monroe alum, I really thought there would've been more of a presence from him, so I was a bit disappointed by his continued absence. I saw a few parallels between Brian and Jason as far as their personalities go, but I'm not sure why. It's that inside feeling that you could easily confuse the two individuals, so I was a bit annoyed with Jason's character, as was I with Brian's character - in particular, how the author just brushed over a 15/16 year old dating a 19 year old. While it's a common event, I wasn't entirely pleased with how this topic was brushed over entirely. In most states, this is illegal - and Bryan and Dylan's mom even hinted at her age... and he reassured her that Mallory was 18. So this was a bit of a strange story line that looked like it was going to go somewhere, that went absolutely nowhere. I'm not sure if this has more or less to do with the character or if it has to do with the story line.
It wasn't all that believable, honestly. A 16-year old who was murdered and in a matter of weeks shipped off to boarding school in another state, completely cleared of all charges? Seems too good to be true, for one. In addition, how was the second case that Mallory was involved in solved in a matter of weeks? It was all just so unbelievable. But the story itself was pretty decent. It was entertaining, it was especially twisted towards the end. I kind of felt like I need a bit more closure on Reid, on Colleen especially, on Dylan... I mean, all of these things that happened, it just felt absent at the end.
The writing style was really annoying. I'm not a huge fan of flashbacks, because I often think they're done poorly. And these were. I'm not sure why they were italicized. I would much rather hear about the past via "That summer... xyz..." or something. In addition, I hated that there were "chapter" breaks within the chapter. I think a chapter should be about one moment, not extended periods of time. I think it influenced the excitement factor of the book. It was just so broken up that you'd get geared up for a big moment, and then you'd be taken back a year or so. The flow just wasn't consistent, and it was a bit of a letdown.
Gut Instinct Rating - 4
Story Line - 4.5
Writing Style - 3
Characters - 4
Excitement Factor - 4
Believability for type and topics - 3
Similarity to other books - 5
Cover art - 5
Title Relevance - 3
Goodreads users gave this book a 3.66. I think it was more deserving of a 3.94.
When Mallory kills her boyfriend, Brian, her parents send to her a boarding school, Monroe. But when trouble ensues at Monroe, will Mallory's troubled past come back to bite her?
You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
YA Fiction
Crime
Boarding School
This book wasn't horrible... but there were certainly points of improvement. Overall, it was a pretty good book. It was entertaining, easy-read, and mostly well-written. But I wasn't a fan of some components.
The characters were well illustrated, if you like one-sided, basic, YA characters. Which isn't a negative thing. Some people enjoy YA books because the YA characters are easily read and pretty relateable. However, there were 14 characters (that I counted...), and I felt like some of the characters from Mallory's past weren't well defined, so I wasn't really sure of the importance of their involvement. The dad's character - it was incredibly hard to remember that he was actually involved in the family matters. For majority of the book, I truly did forget that he was alive. And considering he was a Monroe alum, I really thought there would've been more of a presence from him, so I was a bit disappointed by his continued absence. I saw a few parallels between Brian and Jason as far as their personalities go, but I'm not sure why. It's that inside feeling that you could easily confuse the two individuals, so I was a bit annoyed with Jason's character, as was I with Brian's character - in particular, how the author just brushed over a 15/16 year old dating a 19 year old. While it's a common event, I wasn't entirely pleased with how this topic was brushed over entirely. In most states, this is illegal - and Bryan and Dylan's mom even hinted at her age... and he reassured her that Mallory was 18. So this was a bit of a strange story line that looked like it was going to go somewhere, that went absolutely nowhere. I'm not sure if this has more or less to do with the character or if it has to do with the story line.
It wasn't all that believable, honestly. A 16-year old who was murdered and in a matter of weeks shipped off to boarding school in another state, completely cleared of all charges? Seems too good to be true, for one. In addition, how was the second case that Mallory was involved in solved in a matter of weeks? It was all just so unbelievable. But the story itself was pretty decent. It was entertaining, it was especially twisted towards the end. I kind of felt like I need a bit more closure on Reid, on Colleen especially, on Dylan... I mean, all of these things that happened, it just felt absent at the end.
The writing style was really annoying. I'm not a huge fan of flashbacks, because I often think they're done poorly. And these were. I'm not sure why they were italicized. I would much rather hear about the past via "That summer... xyz..." or something. In addition, I hated that there were "chapter" breaks within the chapter. I think a chapter should be about one moment, not extended periods of time. I think it influenced the excitement factor of the book. It was just so broken up that you'd get geared up for a big moment, and then you'd be taken back a year or so. The flow just wasn't consistent, and it was a bit of a letdown.