THE CASTLE SCHOOL (FOR TROUBLED GIRLS) is a story of healing and friendship. Moira has been cast adrift since the death of her BFF, Nathan. She feels so much guilt about a promise she broke and she misses him terribly. After she gets a tattoo, which is forbidden because of her Jewish faith, her parents tell her that they are sending her to The Castle School, which seems like a new age reform school.

Moira arrives feeling rejected and highly skeptical of the school and its mission. There are eleven other girls there, who are each dealing with their own issues. They have group therapy in the morning, followed by a loose class, and then personal therapy in the afternoon. When Moira finds the lock on the window broken, she sneaks out and finds another Castle School that seems completely different, beginning with the students being boys.

As Moira spends time with the girls at the school, she begins to learn more about herself, her emotions, and how to move forward. The book is told mostly from Moira's perspective over time, with interludes from each of the girls in the school about the way that they developed the symptom that led them to The Castle School. I found the writing to be compelling, and although it seemed like a mystery/thriller, this ended up being more of a contemporary fiction about grief and healing.

The story took a few twists I was not expecting, but I found it all to come together fairly well. I appreciated seeing Moira's interactions with the others and getting insights into her therapy, as well as glimpses into her past and how these reflections change over time. The pacing seemed to change between the beginning, middle, and end, and the tone similarly changed. While it was not what I expected, I did appreciate the story. I really found the interludes of each of the girls to be particularly compelling, almost as short stories that pulled the reader in and which could have stood alone.

Overall, I found it to be a compelling YA contemporary.

I think I got this confused with a different book because I walked into this expecting some kind of mystery and it just wasn't there. The plot was sort of boring. Nothing really got fleshed out. Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

I want to thank the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review The Castle School (For Troubled Girls). I would hate the idea of going to a school for girls that need help. That's mostly because I would hate to be away from home and family. This school has a lot of girls that are going through something. Some have eating disorders where there are others who have an issue with stealing. They all need help in some way. I think all of the characters are done very well and they are believable. This story is very well done and has great pacing to keep you interested. I can't wait to read more books by Alyssa Sheinmel!

This wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it's still a decent read. I assumed The Castle School (for troubled girls) would be a thriller, but it's really more serious contemporary fiction about mental health with a slight mystery element. A genre I didn't know existed but feel there should be some what more of a mental health representation in todays books. This was a lot different than I was expecting. I love the idea of a boarding school book - the gossip, the drama - but I definitely didn’t get that with this book. I thought it was going to be more of a thriller or suspense. It ended up being a pretty sentimental read about grief and growth. The therapy sessions between Moira and her doctor were very interesting and in-depth. I found the characters and their variety of illnesses a bit cliched, but can forgive this as it is a YA read. The ending was really sad, but in a positive way, and definitely brought a few tears to my eyes.

Sheinmel never disappoints. The story line made me think about mental health in ways I hadn't before and it left me considering the characters long after I'd finished reading. I loved this book and will definitely recommend my students pick it up.

Usually I have a pretty good intuition on books. With this, I was wrong.
Am I the only one who thinks that this book sounds like a YA-thriller?
Well... It's not. That doesn't mean it's not a great book, though. It's intense, but not in the way you might think. This book deals with a whole other matter: Mental illnesses. I've never seen MHI portrayed like it's done in this book. It was incredibly well done, very careful and mindful and honestly? I was taken aback because I noticed some of my own behaviour mirrored in this book.
It really makes you think...

I received a free copy by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A solid YA book. It is unique and has a lot of different aspects to it. I enjoyed reading this book. It was a good break from my normal contemporary fiction. The protagonist is interesting, flawed, and fun to go on the journey of the book with!

This book joins "Watch Over Me" by Nina LaCour as the most pleasant "not what I was expecting" that I could possibly experience. The blurb read to me like a mystery or perhaps a paranormal thriller. Instead, I got a beautiful rendition of mental illness and healing from trauma. I'm not disappointed at all. I can think of many students who I can recommend this book to so my school library will carry at least 2 copies. I would recommend this to readers who enjoyed the above mentioned "Watch Over Me", "Wilder Girls", or "We Were Liars.".

The description of this book is deceptive. It leads you to believe that you will be reading a thriller about the mystery surrounding twin castle schools - one for girls and one for boys. What this book is is a dive into some of the mental illnesses that affect our youth - our daughters, in particular. It is unique and well-written

This unfortunately wasn't for me. I do want to try again, but at this time as mysteries in boarding schools are usually for me. I feel like the issue was the time I was reading it and the stress in my life at that time. I found the beginning gave a bit of a disjointed feeling and screamed Noir, which again I feel like I wasn't in the mood for. I'm hoping this will be a more fitting read in September.

I wish I could adequately explain what this book meant to me. I have never come across a young adult book that so adequately and delicately explains some mental health situations, and made them accessible to people who have never experienced them.

Moira thinks her parents sent her away to the Castle School because she keeps cutting class, acts out, and gets a tattoo. She cannot deal with life after her best friend, Nathan, dies of brain cancer. Her parents, not knowing what else to do, turn to Dr. Prince and his Castle School to get Moira the help she needs so she can deal with her life and what it means to live without Nathan.

When Moira gets to the Castle School, she meets other girls, all with troubles of their own, and for the first time in her life, she finds friends that aren't Nathan. She struggles to understand her past, and how to live now. It's hard to put the plot into this review, so I'm just going to tell you what I thought was wonderful about it.

Moira's grief runs deep within her. She feels like she can't live if Nathan can't. She doesn't want friends. She doesn't want to graduate high school. She doesn't want to go to college. The way the author handles Moira's grief was real and beautiful. I empathized with her. I cried with her and for her. I just wanted to hug her. Not only do we come to understand the real, deep, heartbreaking grief and depression Moira faces, we understand the realities of cutting, eating disorders, running away, teen alcoholism, drug abuse and more. All of these topics are addressed with empathy. The author understands teens. I fell in love with all of these girls. I wept with them and for them. This is a book I will be thinking about for a long time, and will absolutely be adding to my collection. I think this is as necessary for parents, educators, and teen caregivers as it is for teens themselves.

Content: Kissing. Mental health topics, as listed above, but the girls are not triggered in this book. They are healing (if that makes sense). Death of a friend.

This is a story about the people we meet while finding ourselves.

This book didn’t quite land for me, likely because I was expecting it to be a mystery. I did appreciate the positive portrayal of mental health treatment and the exploration of mental health was valuable, but I felt the characters felt flat for me outside of their “troubles”. Not bad, just not perfect for me.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley & Sourcebooks Fire for this eARC!

Huh. This was not what I was expecting... but it was really good? But really not what I was expecting. This was initially marketed as a thriller, and there are light mystery/suspense threads in the first half, but really this is a character driven YA contemporary--I kept thinking of Girl, Interrupted. I typically don't read these sorts of books, and I'm not mad about it... but regardless readers would be best served going in specifically knowing this is not really a mystery/suspense book. Those threads are LIGHT.

That said, those threads were intriguing in the first half, and I do like how it built light suspense as Moira landed at the Castle School and learned the lay of the land. Her distrust of things and poking around to solve the mystery of the school keep mt turning pages. Then by the time it because clear that the real purpose of the book was, I was so emotionally connected to the characters that I didn't mind.

This is essentially a book about grief, and human connection/imperfection. The grief stuff hit hard; I definitely cried. Generally highly recommend this as a YA contemporary centered on grief/messy relationships especially between parent and child, and pushing through our own barriers we set for ourselves. The cast was full of characters I really cared about, and cared what happened to. The romance was slow burn and not the most important aspect of the book, but was still nicely done.

This is the second book by Sheinmel I've read and once again I felt in the hands of a highly competent writer weaving a complex emotional story. She's excellent at character depth, and in particular clinical environments--her last one was also set at a facility, though that was in-patient and fully a suspense novel, whereas this is a more loosely structured school and as said this is a more straightforward contemporary. There is a wide and varied depiction of primarily young women with mental health concerns, and largely it seemed like a good depiction--I know good mental health rep is sorely needed.

So overall, hearty recommendation to fans of YA contemporary especially who love a little intrigue, a little romance, and some really good, complex character emotions/development.

That said, I do think this warrants one particular content/trigger warning (maybe two), and I believe I gave the same one for her last book. There were times in this book where I really wasn't sure about some of the depictions of or references to ED, and to be safe I would recommend anyone with a serious ED not read this. I believe, given the repetition of references to ED/characters with ED and knowledge of in-patient treatment that it may be likely the author has personal experiences here, and thus I don't want to police said depiction especially should it come from a personal place HOWEVER there was one particular scene featuring the character at the school who is in recovery that raised my eyebrows. She is shown participating in a very specific behavior and the MC questions what she is doing, and someone else explains "oh Alice does X because Y"--and it was a VERY SPECIFIC thing I hadn't heard of, and I imagine it must be something that some anorexic people do when in the thrall of their disorder. Essentially: I LEARNED something and I was like "oh no I did NOT need to know that"--I'm ok (b/c my issues don't tend in this direction) but this could literally give someone a pro-tip for their ED? That's where I'm wary--that a reader could take away a "tip" from this book that further disordered eating behaviors. Also Alice's journey is left very open ended which is realistic but further reinforces that I'm simply not sure if this is the best book for anyone with an active ED or who is in the early stages of recovery.

Similarly, I am not familiar enough with cutting and that community to speak with any authority, but I'll give the content warning that a major character is a cutter and it plays into aspects of the plot/subplots in a meaningful way. I would leave it to readers with more experience/expertise to say whether it was well-handled.

Good read, but not great. I enjoyed reading this one but I had some trouble really getting into it. I still think a lot of girls will enjoy this.

After the loss of her best friend Nathan, Moira, a Manhattan high schooler in her senior year, gets sent to Castle school in Maine by her seemingly angry and unreachable mother. An isolated castle in the forest, with no cellphones or outside communication, Castle school is no ordinary school. Designed as a therapy treatment center, the school hosts 11 girls with various mental health problems such as self-harm, eating disorders and substance abuse. When Moira and Eleanor find a broken lock on their window, they decide to climb down from their second-story window to follow music into the forest where they find a second castle hosting boys. Their castle seems like a haven in comparison to Castle North (where the girls reside), at least at first…

TW: This book delves into topics and themes of mental health, grief, cancer, depression, self-harm, addictions, substance abuse, eating disorders and more.

What I liked:
-The discussions of grief and healing were really well written and the mental health issues were not glamorized in my opinion, which was appreciated.
-Friendships between the girls and her friendship with Randy were great!
-Various POVs sprinkled throughout gave insight on the other characters and their reasons for being at the castle school.
-The intrigue in the book was engaging and the medium-pace made for an enjoyable reading experience.

What I did not like:
- The reason for not going to the second castle near the end seemed childish and a bit random to me. I did not understand the character change of mindset. I found that part to be rushed.

**I was generously provided a copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. All opinions expressed are my own. **

**Thank you NetGalley for giving me this book in an exchange for an honest review.**

This book focused on grief and the emotions that twist and pull at a person. The descriptions of the castle was beautiful. I found the book easy to put down and not pick it up again for a while, which is why I didn’t finish this book in a shorter amount of time.

I wish I'd been able to say I could finish this book. Rarely do I start a book and not finish it.

The Castle School (for Troubled Girls) was perfect on paper. It looked deeply into the mental illness of teen girls in a way that not many books have. However, I just didn't feel connected to the characters or their struggles. Moira, the books main character, felt impersonalized despite going through something so personal.

I may give this book another go in a few years but for now I couldn't recommend it.

This book was definitely not what I expected but it was still very good! The author did a very good job portraying different mental illnesses and problems. I really liked how throughout the book she did a chapter on each girl at the school. It was interesting to see what happens inside the minds of each girl. The ending was kind of abrupt, but it worked because it left me feeling satisfied with what happened. I liked how this book did not focus entirely on romance but there was some which I liked. The only thing I didn’t like was that the book was slow at first and the main character was kind of annoying. I feel terrible for saying that because I know that’s how people struggling with what she has are actually like, but it was just kind of annoying.

Overall this book was pretty good! I recommend it to people who like young adult books with a hint of romance.

This was an excellent exploration of grief and loneliness with a healing, hopeful ending. I very much enjoyed it.

Everything about this book told me it would be classed as brilliant by the end, and I was correct. From the arc and subplots to basic descriptions this book was crafted with precision of origami.
The part in Chapter 9
"Snow is curling down languidly. The flakes are far apart, as though they can't be bother with hurrying to the ground"
Is beautifully written and the use of words have made a perfect description which for me created an almost instant film in my mind as I read it.

This book is all about challenging perceptions. The plot line of there being a warm and free castle vs a cold and rigid castle is all about perceptions- is it helpful even though it is comforting?

The plot line was not some mystery it was an adventure of a character's psyche after a loss which would topple most people into a dark abyss.
I also must admit that during the last hour of reading this book I had tears rolling down my face constantly. I have read many books and only a few have evoked a consistent a mount of emotion and compassion for grief and other mental illnesses. In this it seems that the book is a love letter to all of those people with similar afflictions, a love letter to let them know that these emotions need to be felt.. And on behalf of them as I have some of these afflictions mentioned in the book I thank you, Alyssa Sheinmel, and look forward to other books you are writing.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.