This was a super good thriller that kept me engaged. Perfect for a young reader who is interested in branching out into thrillers. A good one to read as a family as well.

I accidentally copied the wrong review from my goodreads and sent it last night. Here’s the review you need.

I’m not sure where to start with this one. At first I was thrown off by there being a POV for the Panther. I thought it was weird. Then it kind of evolved to be more artistic and spoke of past times.

Tress- i don’t understand the crazy plan she came up with to get Felicity to talk. What high school kid would actually go through something like this?
Felicity- this is a character I believe. Someone who ends up with friends she doesn’t even like. Friends with people who aren’t particularly good people. A person who just is trying to survive high school.

I will say they ignored this Panther in the house for a long time. Like a loooonnnngggg time. It’s a Panther. Tress went upstairs where the Panther was, had a crying moment, got scratched by the Panther then just left to go back in the basement for her revenge. She didn’t tell anyone that the Panther was in the house, didn’t call for help with the Panther, just went back downstairs.

And... that ending. Ummm she actually did it.

I would like to thank NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy that was given in exchange for honest review.

Tress and Felicity used to be best friends, but not anymore. Not ever since Tress' parents mysteriously disappeared, and left her to be raised by her nefariously negligent grandfather. Now, Tress is convinced that the only person who has any answers regarding said disappearance is Felicity; and, she intends to get the answers she seeks by any means necessary.

This story was suspenseful and engaging. It is basically a cross between Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask of Amontillado and Netflix's Tiger King. I would highly recommend this book; and, I cannot wait for the sequel.

❐ Overall Rating 4⭐ | Narration 😁 = Very Good
❐ Narrated by Lisa Flanagan, Brittany Pressley & Tim Campbell
❐ Listening Length: 7H 30m
❐ YA Contemporary
❐ Mystery/Thriller
❐ Weird AF --like only Mindy McGinnis can do

description


I originally received an ARC of this or actually an ALC (advanced listeners copy) from Netgalley but couldn’t listen to it at all with the monotone reader that it had. The actual finished Audiobook has three separate narrators...and is a much better performance and can actually be called a performance. So, I’m glad I waited.

The only thing, I should’ve waited until book #2 was closer to coming out...because this literally feels like it ends right in the middle of the story. We learned almost nothing about why Tress was building a brick wall around her once best friend….other than that she did some terrible things to her...that were not necessarily her doing...but we never find out what happened to Tress’s parents on the night they disappeared. Plus...

...there’s a Halloween party going on while she is building the wall above them and there is a shitload of teens behaving badly up there...

...oh yeah, there is a black panther on the loose and he even has his own POV, which probably sounds really weird and it totally is...

...it’s exactly what you might find when reading/listening to a Mindy McGinnis story...pure f-ing madness.

And...I’m still here for it. But still, I’m kinda pissed that I have to wait till next year for the second half of this madness.

I want to give this 5 stars but I just don’t know how I feel right now. Mindy McGinnis knows how to mf WRITE. And she knows how to write some messed up stuff that’ll make your stomach hurt. Trigger central.

And she’s really gone and done it this time since this is book one in a duology - and book one leaves off on a VERY time sensitive matter. And book two like... doesn’t even have a publication date right now. So I’m a bit stressed about holding this story in my brain for a year.

Essentially, Tress and Felicity live in a small town where your family name is important. They were best friends until one night when Tress’s parents and Felicity went missing together and only Felicity came back. Felicity doesn’t remember what happened, and Tress falls from grace pretty quickly as she goes to live with her weird and drunk grandfather. He has some exotic animals on his farm and Tress becomes almost sort of feral in a way from the lack of nurture and the farm work. There’s just a lot of factors that ended in their friendship ending.

Tress has no clue what happened to her parents but she really thinks Felicity does. Of course, Felicity can’t remember, but Tress thinks under certain circumstances, it’ll all come back to Felicity.

Well, there’s going to be one last party at an old house in town before it gets torn down and everyone is going. Tress and Felicity meet up and something stressful goes down - I forgot to reread the synopsis before going in so I had no clue what was going to happen so I highly recommend just diving in blindly if you can!!

Also, this story is based on some works of Edgar Allan Poe, but I’m tragically unfamiliar other than recognizing the names Usher and Amontillado. I want to say that might give you a hint at the tone of the story, but genuinely it’s probably worse. If you’re sensitive, this might not be the story for you, or else tread lightly. It gets pretty graphic at times.

The characters have realistic reactions to things around them, there’s a pretty realistic representation of class struggle, and none of the characters are morally black or white at all. It’s hard to know if you like a character in this story, for sure. But even though the story LARGELY centers on Tress and Felicity, there’s a few fully fleshed out supporting characters that add to the atmosphere.

Without giving too much away, this story is about the seemingly small transgressions that Tress has perceived from Felicity, and then Felicity’s side of the story proving that intentions or reality was at times much different. It brings the question - what’s more important, intention or perception? If you hurt someone’s feelings but didn’t mean to, how off the hook are you? At what point is it accidental enough that you’re not morally responsible at all? Does it at some point just become the other person’s fault because they can’t just let things go? Yeah, these girls’ dynamic is a really interesting one and this story is really just a head shaker when you think about it all when it’s over.

Basically I don’t know what I’ve just read, and I don’t know how I’ll cope with the wait for book two. I’m not sure who I’d recommend this to - it’s sort of white trash gothic sort of Shameless-esque mixed with high school drama a la The Clique series. It’s a quick read, so if it sounds intriguing definitely give it a shot! But for real, if you’re sensitive to reading graphic things, including things involving pets, make sure you’re prepared when you go in.

I could have done without the third narrator, but I MIGHT change my mind if it is important for the second book. I liked the flashbacks and seeing the events from both sides. I am not clear if the person that carried Felicity was revealed with the clue or not because I don't know who it referred to and if the reader is supposed to know it yet. I really want to read the sequel. The cliffhanger is going to make the waiting seem like forever!

I chose this book only because it is a YA mystery. I didn't even read the synopsis before reading the book. So when began to pick up on all the Edgar Alan Poe references this literature nerd was pleasantly surprised. From the minute I caught on I couldn't stop listening to the audiobook.
I loved how the author worked in all the Poe references and still created a story that was interesting and engaging.
I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series.

This story follows Tress Montor and Felicity Turnado as they both tell their sides of the same story. Tress is the town pariah and wants to find out the mystery of the disappearance of her parents, while Felicity is trying to navigate her life without revealing her illness to the community. The two stories converge when Tress decides to take matters into her own hands to uncover the mystery by interrogating Felicity, her former best friend.

This was an interesting story and I enjoyed the changing perspectives. However, I don't like reading from the perspective of a panther. That was unnecessary.

I received an EARC of the audiobook for this story. Im not sure if i will continue to request books in audiobook form as an EARC. I love when audiobooks have a large cast of characters. As for the story, it had good characters and was well written. I enjoyed this intriguing book.

This book was so good. I still can’t stop thinking about it. The end got to me! Like I couldn’t believe what happened! I have been telling everyone about this book.

I have not heard enough people talking about this. Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most prolific and surviving horror writers from the US, and this novel brings in elements from his works to create a seamless and creative world. Every name, setting, and incidental plot point derives from a work of the gothic genius.

The main influences in this first novel (of a duology) include "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Cask of Amontillado," and "The Black Cat." McGinnis's YA interpretation of the revenge story found in "The Cask of Amontillado" features two teenage girls who grew up as close friends and cousins. When Tress Montor's parents mysteriously go missing and she loses all respect in their small town, Felicity Turnado is forced to turn away from Tress and cuts all ties. Tress now lives on the edges of town with her grandfather, helping to maintain the exotic animals in a roadside zoo with questionable practices.

The tension between the two comes to a head at the Homecoming Party at the decrepit Allan House, featuring a mysterious illness spreading quickly through the town and secrets shared by their classmates under the influence. In the meantime, a panther escapes from the Montor's cages.

Told in alternating chapters of three characters and through the time Tress and Felicity have known each other, the audiobook is masterfully produced, featuring the talents of Lisa Flanagan, Brittany Pressley, and Tim Campbell. The performances from the female narrators might be confused if the reader loses focus for a moment, which I view as a positive since these characters grew up together and in the same small town - an extra moment and it becomes clear whose perspective you are in at any given moment, but serves to pull you deeper into the web McGinnis weaves in this story.

The final moments are heart-pounding - very reminiscent of the dread found in most of Poe's most well-known works. I can't believe I now have to wait a year before I have the opportunity to read the conclusion.

** I received a copy of The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.**

The Initial Insult is a fun modern YA spin to classic Edgar Allen Poe tales. In Amontillado, Ohio, the Usher house sits in ruin and has become the place where the teenagers like to party without the supervision of the rest of the town. It's also where Tress Montor plans to get information about her missing parents from her former best friend Felicity Turnado, who was with Tress's parents when they disappeared 7 years earlier. The memory of that night has been buried in Felicity's mind and Tress plans to get it out of her or wall her up brick by brick in the Usher house's coal chute. Will Felicity remember what happened in time? or will she disappear as well?

This book is a great take on the gothic stories of Edgar Allen Poe, and it was so fun to pick out the little nods that McGinnis sprinkled throughout the book, but it also does a great job of not needing to know the original stories to enjoy it. The characters are all very complex and while not all of them are particularly likable they are very layered and dynamic. This is the first book that I have read from McGinnis, and I look forward to checking out more of her work.

When I saw Initial Insult was written by Mindy McGinnis I knew it was going to be good. I haven’t had a chance to read all of her books, but I plan to this year. I love her writing so much. She always writes the most interesting stories with the most interesting characters.

Description
Told in alternating POVs, with an added 3rd POV, we have Tress and Felicity. They used to be best friends when they were younger but because of a life-altering event that happened 7 years ago, that changed. Tress’s parents disappeared one night and the last person to see them was Felicity. Felicity was young when it happened and all she remembers is waking up and not knowing why she was alone. Tress is tired of not knowing what happened so she comes up with a plan to force Felicity to tell her all she knows about that night. A plan that involves trapping her ex-best friend in the basement of a soon-to-be abandoned house.

Thoughts
Wow, wow, and wow! I am a huge fan of Mindy’s. She writes the craziest stories with the most interesting characters you can’t help but love. When I saw this book was a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado I knew I had to have it. I read Poe’s story a few terms ago and fell in love with it. It’s a dark story, but one that is so well written. Mindy did an amazing job taking this classic and doing a modern twist on it. I couldn’t put it down.

Character Love
Tress- I loved Tress. She was such an interesting character. Tress went from being one of the popular kids because of her last name, to someone that no one really liked. I easily connected with her and understood her reasons for what she did, no matter how crazy they were.

Felicity- I wanted to dislike Felicity at first, but it was too hard. She was actually a nice person that has dealt with so much. Even though she looks like she had it all, her parents were fake and she truly missed her best friend.

Cat-This was an interesting POV, and at first, I didn’t understand why. But as the book progressed it was a fun POV to be in.

Conclusion
I loved the Initial Insult!! If you love dark, creepy books then this is the story for you. If you like Edgar Allen Poe, then this is definitely the story for you!

4.5 stars. I wanted more and I'm hoping that the sequel will give some closure to what I wanted. Review to come.

Due to working as a high school teacher, I am often behind on reviews, but here are my initial thoughts.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an early audiobook of The Initial Insult in exchange for an honest review!

When I finally decided to start The Initial Insult, I had completely forgotten what it was about so imagine my surprise when a panther is on the loose and someone is being sealed into the wall. What the frick. When things got violent in The Initial Insult, I found myself being all in; my attention being glued to the audiobook until the closing line.

The Initial Insult jumps around timelines; providing us with the current going-ons of Tress attempting to get answers from her former best friend, Felicity, along with different memories during their school years & ultimately showing the decline of their relationship.

Mindy McGinnis switches the POV between the two characters (along with some chapters being in the perspective of the panther). This allows us a deeper look into Felicity and Tress's mind, something that, in the end, makes us feel a more intense connection with the two.

I really did enjoy The Initial Insult and am looking forward to the sequel in 2022!

I am confused by my own feelings at this point!

This book is a hard one to review. It was odd to say the least. The plot is very flushed out in some aspects and very not in others. For example the Cat having a POV weird and the flu never being explained or explored more. The book was also slow and lulled in areas, however it did pick up.

I was not all that invested in finding out the truth until the very end. Now I need answers. Speaking of the end.... THE HELL?? I'm torn because the end is the reason I will read book two, I'm invested and need answer. But at the same time it seems like that big twist could have been easily avoided by taking a pulse?

Three stars because as weird as it was I'm invested now and want to see how it all plays out.

I really thought I was going to love this book. I really, really did. Mindy McGinnis is a fantastic writer, and her book Heorine is one of my favorites. I love how dark and raw (and just straight up out there) her books can be; how heavy and even sometimes bizarre they are. It’s one of my favorite things about her writing. Some of the things in her writing style that may not appeal to other readers and be too much for them are pretty much the things that draw me to them. Her books GO THERE and as I stated, sometimes it’s a lot, but I usually love it.

But.

I did not love, or even particularly like this book sadly. I was really anticipating this book and thought I was going to love it. But love it I did not.

This book was…a lot. And i’m not talking about in the good way. It was a whole lot of mess. It started off alright, but soon spiraled into a bunch of bizarre happenings thrown together, and I just didn’t get it. I was very confused, and more often than not, I just didn’t understand why so many things that were taking place were happening and why.

There was even a wild panther on the loose, and while this may not be strange in itself, especially featured in the right kind of story, the panther even gets its own POV. I mean…what??

This story also contained drugs, bullying, PTSD, child neglect, etc (the list goes on) and while these things aren’t necessarily things that will ruin a story, depending on the type of story and the context. It all depends on how these things are written and handled. And it was all just very very wrong in this book. I think there was also some weird sickness going around in the story, but there was so much else going on (and you know, the panther. especially the panther) that it’s all a bit vague when it comes to me remembering the specifics about that.

Now I love a good revenge story, (Did I already mention that this book largely centers around a plot of revenge? No? Sorry, I was too distracted thinking about the panther. WHAT EVEN? WHY? I’LL NEVER GET IT, SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME BECAUSE I AM JUST NOT OKAY) but this particular tale of revenge just wasn’t for me.

I wish I had more positive things to say about this book (why Mindy why?! It’s okay I still love you) but unfortunately I don’t.

Judging by the many positive reviews on Goodreads that I’ve seen, there’s a good chance that you may feel differently than me and love this book. So if you are really wanting to read this one, still give it a chance because you may end up loving it.

On other note: I read the audiobook version (which is pretty exciting because i’m not an audiobook reader tbh and plus, this was my first audiobook ARC) and while I didn’t enjoy the story itself, I thought the narrators did an excellent job. 5 stars for them!

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t it but I am still highly anticipating Mindy’s next book!

SPOILER WARNINGS FOR THIS REVIEW
TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR PET ABUSE/VIOLENCE/TEENAGE OVER-DRINKING

This had a lot of potential, and I was actually pretty entertained throughout the book. However overall it left me feeling pretty meh once finished. So much of it felt overly dramatic just for the sake of being "shocking or edgy". And then other side plots were just tossed in and left behind/forgotten. Absolutely needed better editing to cut out all the stray bits and pieces of the plot that were completely irrelevant to the story. For example, the whole "Flu" plot? Possibly meant to relate to the coronavirus pandemic, or perhaps Masque of the Red Death peaking through. Either way, completely forgotten about and pointless. For dramatics, we have dead animals (pets) described in detail in regards to "parts remaining". Mostly for shock value and added "grossness". A time waster when the real story was shocking enough. Hello, the girl slowly bricking up her ex-BFF into a basement wall?? Is that not already plenty dramatic? Why the need for swinging pet dog tails around? (There was no need)

A part that I found intriguing but was left highly disappointed by was the whole situation with Tress's cousin. When he becomes intoxicated, he is susceptible to manipulation by his peers and acts as if alcohol is a truth serum. Thus everyone at the party has their way with him, recording his night's events for everyone to see. Tress knows this damaging behavior is going on and yet shrugs it off as not a big deal, and resumes her torture of her ex-best friend. As a reader, it felt like we were expected to go along and agree that this kid was just fine at this party because Tress had bigger issues on her hands. But we pretty much never circled back to this, when it was nearly as traumatic of an event as what Tress was doing downstairs. AND, ONCE AGAIN, COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY TO THE ENTIRE STORY. Another side plot, completely abandoned, but still mentioned occasionally for... what purpose? Who the hell knows. Humor? Shock? All I saw was a random kid getting naked, swinging his dick around, and talking about wanting to fuck his teacher while drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol, for no purpose whatsoever. Needed to be cut, or given purpose.

Despite being entertaining, it lacked reason and the ending was melodramatic at best. This the below-average rating. I will read more of Mindy's books however, I know she is well-loved. This just wasn't for me.

Appalachia, Flu pandemic, Tiger King shenanigans, Edger Allen Poe-esk crimes, and revenge. It is hard to put down!

This audiobook was a journey that I really enjoyed listening to. The three points of view work very well and tell a complete story. Tress is a character readers can sympathize with and root for, even when it feels wrong. Whereas, Felicity is easy to dislike but also feel for. The cat's perspective was unsettling and creative. That character added an outside perspective to the events going down in the book.

The audio was crisp with good differentiation between characters. The additional effects were minor and did not take away from the story. The pace of the reading is good and easy to adjust as needed.

The mystery keeps readers guessing until the end and the climax will leave you itching for the sequel!

Sera needs to find Rachel because she is the only one that can. Rachel hosts a missing person podcast and Sera is obsessed. Brazier takes the traditional mystery genre and transforms it into something new and disturbing. The second person narrative brought a different feel to the book and made Sear seem off center. This added to the depth of Sera's character but it seemed to stop there. Over the course of the book the reader does learn more about her past but it felt very shallow and did not add to the content or character of her. For most of the book, Sear seemed detached while obsessing over a woman she did not even know, all because she thought she had disappeared. Rachel's podcast did make appearances throughout the book but they were in segments and didn't really give enough to fully textualize what the podcast was like. I would have enjoyed hearing at least a couple of episodes to know how Rachel saw the world and the people in it. The plot felt unsteady, in places fast then slowing down to a weird transitional pace. Giving the reader a sense of urgency that may propel them to read more or wonder what the heck is going on. Over all the book was sort of enjoyable, readers will walk away with a shock at the end but was the journey worth the ending.... it may not have been