Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ALC of this book!

Wow! McGinnis is a master of making books that on the surface shouldn't be that horrifying, but with the details and atmosphere she creates are a particular kind of creepy that will keep me up all night!

This book is loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, which is one of my favorite short stories! So I was immediately captivated by the relationships between the book and the story, but what really hooked me was the complexity of the relationship between Tress and Felicity and their long and strained history together.

Both characters are relatable but also completely 'other' to me in certain ways. It had this quality that found me sort of in the uncanny valley, where everything was almost recognizable, but just a little bit off in a way that gave me the heeby-jeebies!

I was definitely not ready for this book to end and I'm glad to hear it will be a duology! I can't wait to read the sequel!

Definitely pick this up when it comes out in January!

CW: death, disappearance, poverty, neglect, death of a pet, blood, seizures

This book just was. I'm not a fan of horror or spooky books. I'm a squeamish person, but I wanted to read this story so badly! I'm glad that I was able to.

The writing was so well done and the creative use of description. The cat is one of my favorites. The story that was written, was different. I felt for both Felicity and Tress and I didn't want to feel for either one of them. They were both horrible in their own right. Granted, they were both made this way due to the way they grew up and life.

I'm looking forward to the second story in this book to see what happens and how Ms. McGinnis wraps this up.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

I loved this book. The atmosphere was everything I wanted it to be. I loved the plot and storyline in the book. I loved the characters in this story. It gave me all the feels I was looking for when I started reading this. I highly recommend this author. I loved the writing. I will be looking for other works in the future from this author.

<b>Welcome to Amontillado, Ohio, where your last name is worth more than money, and secrets can be kept… for a price.</b>

When I saw that Mindy McGinnis had a new book coming out, I was beyond excited to get the opportunity to read it early. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me the audio book in exchange for my review!

The first book of Mindy's that I've read is "Heroine" and I honestly loved that book. It was dark and gritty. It shone a light on this topic that affects so many people every single day and I found it so compelling that I knew I wanted to read more. I immediately purchased "This Darkness Mine" and "Female of the Species," both of which I knew I wanted to dive into because of the topic. While I'm still to pick them up (after an unfortunate slump due to the pandemic), I had to jump into The Initial Insult. As I understand, it's going to be a duology, and it's holds roots in another story that I loved deeply.

My initial thoughts about "The Initial Insult" is that it's a perfectly fine book. I love Mindy's writing and I love the way that she weaved this story through out the different perspectives between Tress and Felicity. Her story telling is never one I could ever fault but I think this story just wasn't my cup of tea. It was good and entertaining but definitely one of those stories that if I read it first, I wouldn't have run out to immediately purchase more of her novels. I do think there is an audience for this story - and the ending was great! - but it wasn't for me.

Tress Montor's life changed dramatically after the disappearance of her parents. The Montor name was highly respected in Amontillado, Ohio before their disappearance, but now, it is a name that has come to be associated with white trash. Since her parents went missing, Tress has tried in vain to figure out what happened to them. Their case has gone cold despite having a living witness, Felicity Turnado. Tired of Felicity's silence, Tress sets out to make Felicity tell the truth about that night. The premise for this book has all the right thriller elements: a cold case disappearance, a witness who can't remember the event, a condemned mansion setting on Halloween night, and a protagonist with questionable morality who is out for revenge/answers. It is instantly intriguing.
It was interesting to set this book up as a duology. The first book does all the set up and background work. The POV are scattered between both girls dealing with present events and each girl reliving specific events in the past. We learn about the friendship Felicity and Tress had before Tress's parents went missing and the disintegration of that friendship after the event. Tress also follows through with her plan to make Felicity talk to her about the night of the disappearance.
The chapters discussing past events skip around awkwardly through the years: fifth grade, Freshman year, seventh grade, etc. It is not set up chronologically. But, the main problem is that few of these accounts actually help Tress or the reader make any new discoveries about the cold case. In the whole book, only 2-3 clues are ever revealed. There is a subplot also going on with an additional POV, but, so far, it hasn't really had any affect on the main plot. The most revealing clue is given at the very end of the book. Because no actions are directly taken due to the few revelations in this book, it feels like it is only half a book instead of the first in a duology.
With that said, this is a very well-written book. It is super atmospheric. You also really get to know the characters, their backgrounds, and their motivations. The story definitely leaves you craving more. Unfortunately, that might be because nothing came to fruition in this first installment. And, I say that as someone who loves background information. If a very large cliff hanger doesn't bother you and you love build-up suspense, I do recommend this book. Thank you Katherine Tegen Books, Harper Audio, and Net Galley for and arc of this audiobook. I do fully intend on reading the sequel.

If you would like to read a book where you are simultaneously loathing and cheering for the two main characters the entirety of the reading experience, this is the book for you!

"The Initial Insult" by Mindy McGinnis pulls a lot of dark and eery inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe, which is incredibly evident throughout the story and also just happens to be an aspect of the book that I loved. The atmosphere of this read is everything you want from a dark Young Adult mystery/contemporary. You've got missing parents. You've got shady, gray characters. You've got secrets in a spooky, small town. You've got a half-hearted, borderline depressing "White Trash Zoo." I really don't know what more you could want!

I really enjoyed this book but I think the drugs in the book is keeping me from giving it 5 stars. As someone who had a Mom as a drug addict I don't care to read much about drug use. Especially in a YA book. I found this book interesting though and the narrator did a good job. I feel like it kind of left off on a cliff hanger which makes you want to read the next one but it's also annoying because you have to wait. 🤣 I could also kind of relate because I grew up poor so I felt for Tessa. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my gifted copy.

Going into this book, I really wondered how on earth a thriller could possibly be two books.
But it's Mindy McGinnis and she nails everything she does.

This book was fascinating with three points of view (one which was unexpected) and a slow yet exhilarating pace to understand why these characters are connected and what their motivations are. At times gruesome, McGinnis weaves gore and unusual circumstances that reminded me of A Series of Unfortunate Events meets Saw, with a dash of Edgar Allen Poe. Overall, I don't think this is for the faint of heart (in regards to the descriptive torture scenes), but it is a must for anyone who loves an unsettling mystery.

Overall rating: 5/5 stars!

I think I'm the wrong audience for this YA novel, although it was pretty well written. In addition, the ARC audio version is tough to listen to.

Thanks very much for the audio review version!!

4.5 stars
Wow what a ride. This was definitely a thriller!
This book jumps around in time A LOT, so if you don't like that, this book may not be for you, but if you do like that or can wrap your head around it, read it! In present day, one of the main characters Tress has knocked out and chained her former best friend (and other main character) Felicity to the wall of a basement in an abandoned house where a party is happening upstairs to try to find out what happened to her parents years in the past. Felicity was a witness, but happened to have a seizure at the time so doesn't remember what happened. If that doesn't get your thriller senses excited, I don't know what will!
It was a little bit confusing getting into the mindset of having the book jump around in time so much. The main part is the present, where Tress has Felicity held hostage. Then we jump around from kindergarten to the recent past, reliving moments that were significant to both of them (the moment they became friends, the moment Felicity's new "friends" made fun of Tress, and Felicity didn't stand up for her). Every moment made you understand their current relationship more and more and I could totally see why Tress had Felicity chained to the wall. I spent the whole book hoping they would reconcile their friendship and have a happy ending. BUT this is a thriller, so of course it ended on a cliffhanger. I came to understand both Tress and Felicity and really enjoyed both their characters. The side characters were great too.
The one thing that just kind of baffled me was the POV of "cat." At first I thought it was a person named Kat, but it is an actual panther. I know this will probably make more sense in the second book, but especially at the end, this POV was really confusing. This may be due to the synthetic narrator, but I literally had to listen to the end 4 times and slow it down to understand what happened because at this point, the cat POV doesn't make any sense.
I'm almost upset at myself for listening to an advanced copy of this book because now I have to wait a really long time for the second one and I need to know what happens!

Wow, where do I begin? This book. When I started The Initial Insult, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew it would be a thriller and that there would probably be some drama, but I wasn't ready for what I found. It did start a little slowly, but it took time to set things up for the reader, which I can respect. Once the party began, I was glued. I'm a sucker for multiple POVs thus I was happy to find that the story does bounce between the two main characters and more, truly giving you each side of the coin. I loved how this book shows how easily you can misconstrue the people around us because we assume they are like everyone else. Another aspect this story does amazingly is how it shows how much our lives can become entangled, especially in a smaller town or school. The climax to the end had me on the edge of my seat and constantly repeating the words, "no way" and " oh my god"! I know I will be counting down the days until I can get my hand on the next one.

While I did find the pacing at the beginning a little slow, throughout The Initial Insult, I found myself becoming more and more into the story to a point where I was listening to the audio any chance I got. Thus I am giving this book 5 stars and a big thank you to Harper Collins, Mindy McGinnis, and NetGalley for giving me the chance to listen to the advance audio for this great thriller mystery!

I am new to audiobooks and this one was difficult to follow with the constant shifting of narrators done in a digital voice.
Tess used to be best friends with Felicity until the night Tess’ parents disappeared. Felicity was there that night but claims not to remember what happened.
Tess is determined to get her to tell the truth and comes up with a plan to isolate Felicity at a party at an old abandoned house that is due to be torn down.
While the party rages upstairs, Tess slowly begins laying bricks to entomb Felicity unless she gets the answers she needs.
I think I would have bought the hard copy of the book if it was not for the ending. I do not care for books in which we are left with more questions than answers. I replayed the last few chapters several times thinking I must have missed something.
I look forward to discussing this book after publication to get a better understanding.
Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for the free audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion.

Whoa! This was a wild ride! Can someone tell me what happened At the end ha ha? I probably would not have requested the audiobook if I had seen it was a synthetic voice. The whole point of an audiobook is a real narrator so I would suggest any publishers not bother using audio unless it’s the actual audiobook. I had to switch it the kindle book 5% in.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Usually, I'm not the biggest fan of YA, but this had a dark, sinister twist to it. Keep in mind, this is a series, so the ending isn't a conclusion. I think some of the negative reviews didn't enjoy how the ending was so open-ended, but I thought it was unique.

This story was so quick and engaging. What a wild ride. Highly recommend if you enjoy "weirder" stories with unexpected twists and perspectives!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Well this was a wild ride, interested to see where it goes in the next book, will reread before i read the second one too lol

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of “The Initial Insult” by Mindy McGinnis. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book felt like a perfect story to pick up for Halloween for mystery/thriller fans. Told from three POVs- two former best friends Tress and Felicity and the third POV comes from a panther escaped from the roadside zoo where Tress works. The panther POV chapters sounded very poetic so I would be interested to see how they are laid out on the page.

I’ll admit the synthetic voice for the audiobook was lacking the skills a real narrator will hopefully bring to the table. There were a lot of emotional parts to the story that needed more finesse as well as sometimes dialogue exchanges got confusing and ran together without dialogue tags. But even with the hindrance of the synthetic voice I still couldn’t put this book down. I can only imagine how good it would to be read physically or with a proper audiobook narrator.

The main story is broken up with flashbacks from Tress and Felicity’s past leading up to their falling out. I didn’t mind the flashbacks as they felt purposeful and heightened the suspense of the story. The book’s description emphasizes the Poe influences in the story but it’s been awhile since I read Poe so all that really pinged for me were the names and some of the plot points. I bet a more avid Poe reader would have a lot of fun identifying all of the influences in this story.

I also liked how the dual perspective of the former friends showed the hardships in their lives that neither knew about. There wasn’t a clear victim and villain as these roles changed throughout the story as more information was revealed. There are also discussions of poverty and privilege and small town politics.

Definite trigger warnings in this book for blood and gore, drug and alcohol use, vomiting, and if you’re bothered by pet deaths there are two dogs that die so be aware of that.

There’s also the mystery of what happens to Tress’ parents. It isn’t solved in this book so the wait for the next book is going to be awhile. If cliffhangers annoy you then you might want to pick this one up closer to the release of the second book. I can’t wait to read what happens as well as buy a physical copy so I can see how the story looks on the page.

5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for an early audio copy of this book! This is a solid ya thriller with a quick pace! It’s not personally a favorite of me but it’s still a solid read. I would recommend if you are interested but it’s not a favorite for me.

Thank you net galley for my copy of this book to review.

So this book was so good, I couldn't stop! Mindy McGinnis has written a story that quite reminds me of gossip Girl. There are characters that you love even though you shouldn't. Their station in life and upbringing has given them the feeling they are untouchable. The writing style really pulled me in and I know that this book is wonderful for people who don't normally enjoy YA just by the way this reads. I cannot wait for the 2nd book so I can secretly root for the people who I shouldn't.

I received this book as an ARC from Net Galley in exchange for a review. I could not stop listening! My heart was breaking for these characters. McGinnis accurately portrays teens, some swear, talk about drugs, sex, alcohol, friends. Definitely complex relationship. The chapters alternate between 2 girls and a panther, who adds an interesting viewpoint. Several times I was like omg no! Definitely an edge of your seat book. I can't wait for the second book. The synthetic voice wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's funny hearing it say swear words.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Children's and Katherine Tegan Books for an advanced copy of this audiobook.

I went into the audiobook with some fairly high expectations, I've enjoyed this author several times and the previous reviews had me intrigued. The audiobook was computerized, but actually did not take away from the story.

My rating is 3 stars. A bit generous because this book was a bit of a hot mess. The order of the story , flashing back and forth between times and characters was a bit confusing, disorganized and just a bit unnecessary. I found myself trying to reorient myself to time and characters more than to the plot of the story. The plot of the story wasn't apparent for way too long, and by the end of the book I wasn't really that sure of it either. Was this story about the girls or the missing parents. Neither, I felt was really that well developed. I'm not a fan of long drawn out books ,but this one needed more meat.
So on the positive side of things, the story of Tress was interesting. A girl left abandoned with her uncaring grandfather in an illegal wild zoo. Yep, that had my interest. But I felt like it wasn't clear enough and left me wanting more details. It was an intriguing story of a girl who was like any other girl, thrown into a life of filth, animals and anger.

I didn't feel what should have been strong emotions of the girls. I didn't feel that Tress wanting the truth about the night her parents went missing would warrant her smacking a friend (ex) in the head with a brick , just couldn't fathom that her bricking her in to kill her was the only choice Tress had. It seemed a bit extreme for the development of the story that we had. Both girls seemed to still want to care about each other, and that alone left me feeling like it couldn't come down to this.

The other characters in the story were just fillers, Huge and Ribbit, Gretchen and Brynn. Remove them and for the most part the story is the same. The ending was too unclear for me and I felt like we needed more answers.

I wanted to love this book, so many good reviews out there... but it just fell short for me. It ended and I thought "good, time for a different book".