YA books don't always work out for me much anymore but I'm still a sucker for them. I have to give the thrillers and mysteries a shot. And I really loved the female of the species. I love the premise (yay Edgar Allan Poe inpso) and the way McGinnis writes but I don't know this just didn't end up working for me like I'd hoped and expected. The pacing was off and wrong for me..I didn't even feel connected to the characters but liked the use of different POVs. Then there was the confusion I struggled with

I think it's still something to check out especially for the younger (closer to teen) audience. And if you're into Poe (how can you not be?!) It

The Initial Insult reminds me why I love Edgar Allan Poe so much — nobody does atmospheric creepy better than Poe.

So if I tell you this novel is a riff on the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” (one of my favorite stories to teach, BTW), you know that living up to that is going to be a big ask — and it’s not one The Initial Insult meets, sadly. Tress Montor is determined to get revenge on her former bestie and now Mean Girl-in-Chief, Felicity Turnado. One night, when they were driving Felicity home from a sleepover, Tress’s parents disappeared — Felicity was found bleeding and bruised on the side of the road with no idea about what had happened. With Tress’s parents gone, she gets stuck living on the edge of poverty, in a shady animal park with her alcohol-abusing grandfather. Of course everyone in town immediately shuns the princess-tuned-pauper (because that’s totally reasonable). And of course Tress bides her time, plotting revenge, and seizes the opportunity a Halloween party presents: She’s going to get revenge on Felicity and find out the truth about what happened to her parents that fateful night. And Tress isn’t wrong: Felicity knows more than she’s telling — and she has secrets, too.

Narrated in turns by Tress, Felicity, and an escaped panther (no, really), this should be a gripping game of cat and mouse. Alas, it is not, and the sheer plethora of violence (against animals, against people, against literary coherence) feels excessive and unnecessary. I suggest you reread “The Cask of Amontillado” instead.

I love everything Mindy McGinnis writes and this novel did not disappoint! It tells the story of two former best friends and one's wish for answers...and revenge. It's twisted and kept me on the edge of my seat.

A creepy, entertaining book that will raise the hair on the back of your neck!

If Edgar Allan Poe has ever given you nightmares or that crawling feeling up your spine then The Initial Insult, an tribute to/retelling of The Cask of Amontillado is for you. Tress and Felicity used to be best friends, until Tress's parents disappeared while driving Felicity home seven years ago -- and Felicity cannot remember a thing from that night. Fast forward to high school where Felicity is thriving but Tress has sunk to the lowest status in town, stuck living with her grandfather at his notorious "white trash zoo." Tress blames Felicity for the disappearance of her parents and everything that's happened since. And boy oh boy does she have a plan for revenge.

If you know Poe's story, then you know exactly how Tress's revenge goes, though we certainly are on a journey to get to those final bricks. We are told the story in glimpses of Tress and Felicity's early friendship and its subsequent dissolution -- as well as both perspectives in the present, while Felicity is trapped brick by brick. And -- straight from the white trash zoo itself, we also have a more poetic narrator in the escaped panther. This was a fun read with relatively fleshed out characters and its best qualities were in showing the pain of a broken friendship, and how one can carry that hurt as it festers. The ending felt a tad rushed and I'll admit I was surprised to hear it is the first in a duology, but I am intrigued enough to read its sequel for sure.

This was again another pick from me based on author. I loved her Heroin book. I really struggled to get into this book. I actually abandoned. I didn't want to not review. I am not sure if it was just reading timing that was my hold up.

Tress Montor used to have a family that meant something. But then her family disappeared years ago driving her best friend home and she lost everything she knew. Tress Montor is looking for answers and she plans to pry them from Felicity; the girl who was with her parents the night they went missing.

Overall, the book was decent. The author did an great job of setting up the setting and characters in the beginning, along with a bit of back story but this also caused the story to have a slow drawn out pace.

Mindy McGinnis is an author who I’ll automatic read anything she writes. The Initial Insult was well written. It had a creepy feel to it where you weren’t really sure where the book was going. There are some trigger warnings to go along with it. But I cannot wait for the next book to come out. It’s something I would recommend to anyone.

Initial Insult is the Ozarks meets Pretty Little Liars. It’s a gritty high school revenge drama told in the most unique multi-narrator way ever.
I loved every part of this book until the WTF cliffhanger but only because, how is the author gonna do me like that?
I’ll be recommending this book to my friends/students who think all YA books are the same and are ready to get their minds blown .

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review but if you know me, honesty is not a problem.

Tress needs answers and she will do what ever it takes to get them. Even if it means ending her former best friends life. The Initial Insult shines light on the darkness everyone carries but tried to hide. The book is broken into three narratives, Tress, Felicity, and an animal. Tress lost everything when her parents disappeared and now she is at the end of her rope. Tress is a complex and dark character, who was made by the circumstances of her life. Her perspective is dark and her memories give foundation to why she acts this way. The desperation Tress experiences is masterfully done, the reader will feel the weight of this emotion with every word they read. On the other side of the coin is Felicity, the one girl who could explain everything if only she could just remember. Felicity is perfect on the surface but right below she is fracturing with every minute. McGinnis unveils the expectation family and society have on an individual. Pain is seared through every word Felicity speaks. The third narrative is a panther, spoken in verse. For the life of me I don not know why this narrative is involved. It broke the rhythm of the other two narratives and didn't add much to the fast paced plot. The book is dark, intense, and heavy with past emotional baggage. It was interesting to see two points of views to the same experiences but the character development was on the slower side. It seemed the character development was exchanged for displaying how horrible humans can be to one another, which maybe what McGinnis was aiming for.

Mindy McGinnis does it again!!! This is an amazing book!

The suspense, the emotions, the intrigue, the friendships, it is all intertwined and pulls you into the story and you don't want to put it down!

The cliffhanger!!!!! The waiting is going to be miserable!

I listened to a portion of the audiobook and I couldn't listen to it fast enough so I quickly switched to the eBook so I could find out what was going to happen!

This is one of the most haunting, heart-wrenching books I've read in a long, long time. Mindy McGinnis pulls no punches. The overwhelming sense of dredge in the book is almost hard to cope with sometimes, but it all pays off in a fantastic conclusion that has me counting down to the next book.

Mindy McGinnis has absolutely done it again! This one might even be her best yet. The characters are realistic, while the writing is completely gripping. I dare you to read this one and not need the sequel right away! The story is filled with suspense and an addictive plot. Tress’s parents disappeared seven years ago driving her best friend, Felicity, home. She lost everything. Meanwhile, Felicity gained everything and is popular. Tress is determined to find out what happened to her parents and she is certain Felicity knows more than she claims. She’ll do anything to get those answers. The story is dark with a mystery at the center of the story. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys dark YA mysteries.


I reviewed an audio version of this as well.

I...have never really read another book like this, especially not a YA one. In The Initial Insult, Tress and Felicity were best friends all through elementary school. Then, one night, when Felicity was spending the night at her friend’s house and had to go home because she was sick, she woke up on the side of the road with no memory of what happened to her - or Tress’s missing parents. Tress’s life is turned upside down - where she was once happy, safe, and supported, she now lives with her alcoholic, emotionally abusive grandfather whose measly income comes from a selling drugs. And she has reached her breaking point. She wants answers.

And she’s not afraid to kill Felicity to find out what happened to her parents.

I truly went back and forth between loving and hating this book. I can’t explain it other than at times I was super invested in the story and at times super frustrated by it. The format of it was not for me; it jumps back and forth between the perspectives of both girls AND to that of a panther. Yes, a panther. As someone who almost exclusively reads realistic fiction, I was just kind of annoyed by the panther sections, but I could definitely see people who read fantasy to be super into them. I will say that the ending was so unbelievably maddening to me that I actually googled the book and other reviews to make sure that I wasn’t missing 100 pages from my copy. If you, like me, prefer things to be wrapped up after dedicating hours to reading a book, I think you’ll be in the same boat. But hey, some people love cliffhangers! 🤷‍♀️ For me, this didn’t compare to Heroine or The Female of the Species, but I’ll definitely still be keeping an eye out for future Mindy McGinnis releases!

I received a free advanced copy of this from @netgalley in exchange for this honest review! Thank you! 💗

I went into this book with a lot of high hopes. I am a fan of this author from some of her previous work. However, this novel fell so flat. I was not engaged with the story or characters through the entire book. While reading I did not understand the point of anything that happened.

I believe that some people may enjoy this as this author has a good track record, but it was not there for me. The writing felt dull and boring. I really wanted to like this but it was a pain to read.

The Initial Insult was a dark and riveting tale, full of spectacular touches and mysterious echoes.

I’d previously read and absolutely fallen in love with McGinnis’ work through the phenomenal The Female of the Species, so hearing that she was working on another mystery and that it was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s work, it made for a tantalising combination that was impossible to pass up. The very essence of Gothic fiction seeps into every word of this shadowy tale of death, broken friendships, and the blood search for vengeance. This genre was a smart choice as it often allows for the exploration of darker, tougher topics, which McGinnis does so well. Also, it grants some more creative license with some unexplained events creepily occurring in the background of our narrative and a highly unusual extra perspective we get to peek into.

Often, there is a thin line between our search for justice and a burning desire for revenge. Tress has been tipped over the line after years and years of being mistreated and marginalised and with the aching burden of the uncertainty of what happened to her parents all those years. The only person who may know is her former best friend, Felicity. Both of these characters are deeply flawed and hiding their own secrets in their troubled, messy, and multi-layered lives, but they’re just so well-developed and crafted. It’s great how we get to really delve into each of their perspectives and understand their individual motivations behind their actions. Often the same event is visited from both sides, which allows for a more realised and true to life depiction. Things are rarely as simple as they first seem. Part of the true hook of the story is trying to unpick the tangled mess that used to be their friendship, as well as wanting to solve the mystery. This makes for compulsive reading that you cannot find the strength to put down.

This is a highly unusual book in terms of its narrative structure and the events that occur within its pages. However, this only works in its favour. It blends this strange, almost surreal tale with an unflinchingly honest and slightly gruesome internal mediation on one person’s quest for the truth and revenge. In the background, there’s this hedonistic night of debauchery that slowly starts to go very, very wrong. There’s some intriguing elements of the story that aren’t fully explained, which assumedly will be further expanded upon in the sequel. There’s more than enough to keep you racing through the pages, but McGinnis also doesn’t spell everything out, leaving gaps for your imagination to run off with for now.

McGinnis’ signature strong style of writing meshes so well with the terrifying touches of Poe’s short stories. She goes dark and isn’t afraid to stay there, rarely allowing you a moment of lightness to relieve you from the sheer tension. This is a claustrophobic, heart-racing novel where the atmosphere and the tension are incredibly thick. With every moment that passes, the danger only grows and you are left genuinely unsure as to whether everyone will survive.

Without saying too much, this review would be incomplete without mentioning the sheer brilliance of that ending as the book has naturally built up this point. It’s not purely for shock or dramatic effect, though it delivers both of them in spades. Instead, McGinnis has incrementally built up to this, laying narrative breadcrumbs that finally pay off. It leaves some great threads open for the sequel, while adding the darkness and flair of the Gothic.

The Initial Insult is a horror thriller for the modern YA audience, jam-packed with suspense, disturbing events, and plenty of Gothic style.

Content warning: dead parents, seizures, car accidents, animal cruelty, animal death (off-screen), drug abuse, vomiting, bleeding

This book is so fun, in as much fun as a story about a friendship falling apart can be. Filled to the brim with Edgar Allan Poe references, this book is a treat. Tress Montor lives with Cecil, her grandfather and guardian, who lives in a trailer next to a questionably-legal zoo. Her former best friend Felicity Turnado has the disappearance of Tress’s parents to answer for. Then comes the Halloween party, then the wall, and the secrets come tumbling out.

The pacing in this book is simply delightful and there’s even segments from the point of view of a panther. Fun from start to finish.

So, one of my favorite things about “The Cask of Amontillado” is that you just accept that Montressor has to wall up Fortunato. This book thrives off that concept, leaning into the unfurling tapestry that is the slights both Tress and Felicity have committed against each other. Some of them are typical middle- and high-school pettiness. Other things are chilling in the depths of betrayal.

McGinnis, time and again, excels at gray morality. She writes girls who can neither be labeled “good” or “bad” so excellently. Each of our point of view characters can only be described as a product of their environment. Tress experiences a massive upheaval and complete lifestyle change when her parents go missing. The people of Amontillado, Ohio, do not make it easy for her.

Like in previous works, McGinnis is also careful to construct nuance around class and the tensions both interior and exterior. Tress is a fighter, but my heart ached for her need to just go back to being someone’s daughter. Deeply angry girls as a product of both circumstance and personality. I guess the thing I wish there was a little more of was the Tress of before-the-accident, but hopefully that gets explored in the second half of this story.

If you're a fan of Mindy McGinnis, you'll know that no one does dark better. And she shows it over and over in this first installment of The Initial Insult. The Cask of Amontillado is one of the few Poe stories that I actively remember from the centuries ago that I was in high school. Probably due to the fact that it is so creepy and, frankly, upsetting, it stuck with me. So I knew going in that this wasn't exactly going to give me the warm fuzzies. And wow, that's accurate.

Tress and Felicity used to be besties. They are decidedly not anymore, as burying someone alive in a basement isn't exactly the calling card of a healthy bond. And the thing is, while you know that Tress shouldn't be resorting to this level of vengeance, you also kind of can't help but understand why. Through flashbacks and current events, the author makes you feel sympathy for Tress throughout. Felicity is, in Tress's eyes, vapid and spoiled at best, and a straight-up life ruiner at worst.

But there's so, so much more to the story. Tress sees it from her own point of view, obviously. After her parents' disappearance, of which Felicity was present during, Tress wound up with her neglectful mess of a grandfather who owns a "zoo"/drug side business. Tress's life has been nothing but hardship since then, while Felicity has seemingly been living the high life. And she has, certainly, compared to Tress! But that also is probably not a reason to kill someone? 🤷‍♀️

Add to it, while all this is taking place, there is a very messed up party happening. Debauchery of all sorts, showcasing pretty much the worst of people. And Tress's grandfather's zoo animals get involved. So if you think a book about two girls in a basement might get dull... think again. There basically is not a dull moment to be had. Even in quieter moments, we learn so very much about the characters that there's not a page wasted.

While we learn many things about the town and all its inhabitants, we unfurl even more questions about what exactly is going on. It's basically unputdownable. Oh and the ending? It's evil, and I am probably going to start a countdown clock for the sequel or something, I need it that badly.

Bottom Line: Brilliantly dark and multi-faceted, I could not stop flying through the pages.

It wasn't that long ago that Tress' life was "normal." Before her parents went missing, before having to move into a trailer at a homegrown zoo with her surly, alcoholic grandpa, Cecil. Before her best friend, Felicity, abandoned her, keeping the events of the night her parents disappeared to herself.

But Tress is tired of being the town charity case, her plight their joke. It ends tonight. She's going to confront Felicity Turnado and get the answers she's looking for, by any means necessary.

Told from three perspectives (Tress, Felicity, and a panther), this book is a fever dream of misguided intentions. If you read and enjoyed The Female of the Species, you won't be disappointed by this twisty, gritty mystery. An ode to Edgar Allen Poe, this tale will throb in the back of your mind like a beating heart beneath the floorboards.

I originally picked this ARC because I thought it was a retelling of one of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that this manages to pay homage to most of Poe’s stories. As a teacher, I’d love to use this novel as suplimentary material after completing a unit on Poe as I’m sure my students would find the young protagonists easily relatable.

What... what did I just read?

As a certified former Emo Kid™, when I read that this was a modern take on Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” you better believe I clicked “request” as fast as humanly possible. An added bonus: The Initial Insult takes place in small-town Ohio, a familiar enough setting for me, seeing as my own childhood was spent toiling away in a tiny Ohio village. The description of Amontillado’s zoo reminded me of the tragic Zanesville zoo escape, and I was hopping I’d get some very on-the-nose references to Ohio folklore mixed in with the macabre darkness of a Poe retelling. All in all, my kind of book.

Not so much.

Had this book been solely focused on Tress and Felicity, the two main characters who have fallen out of friendship following Tress’ parents going missing, I think it would have been a lot more compelling. Instead, we’ve got a mysterious illness, a panther that has it’s own POV, a jock going viral for live-streaming the embarrassment of a people-pleasing nerd... and that’s not even the half of it. There lots of drugs, sex and alcohol, so this is very much a mature YA read. There’s also some death, serious injury, and descriptions of bodily functions I could have done without. When I say there’s a lot, I’m not kidding.

This is a duology, so I assume that everything will be explained and wrapped up in the next installment. Still, you would think there would be some type of conclusion to mark the end of “part one”. Instead, I got to the last page and stared incredulously at my Kindle, muttering “what the fuck?” under by breath. Will I read the next book? Probably. Not because I think I’m going to especially enjoy it or anything, but because I don’t know if I can live with this feeling of having no earthly idea what just happened.

If the goal of this book is to get me to read the next one, I guess it was successful? But as far as enjoyment goes... It’s gonna be a “no” from me. But if you like “weird” books that are heavy on atmosphere but not so much on plot, I could really see this being a hit for you.

Content Warnings: kidnapping, torture, blood & gore, graphic description of injuries, alcohol and drug use, neglect, seizures, several animals die and mild animal abuse.

**Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this novel in exchange for an honest review.**