I could not get interested in this book. Thank you for choosing me to read this book however I am sorry I didn't like it.

In this homage to Edgar Allan Poe, Mindy McGinnis once again delivers a dark and gritty of story of revenge.

In the town of Amontillado, having the right last name means everything. Tress Montor’s last name used to mean something. Now it means white trash. Tress’s parents disappeared when she was little and the only witness to what happened was her best friend Felicity Turnado. Felicity never remembered the circumstances of the Montors disappearance because she had an epileptic seizure when it happened.

The disappearance of her parents turned Tress’s life upside down. In one night she went from having a family, security, and love to living in a run down trailer with her alcoholic grandfather in his sketchy wild animal zoo. After years of wondering, Tress decides she’s going to make her former best friend Felicity tell her what happened. And Tress does it in the most Poe like way imaginable. As a high school keg party rages at the decrepit Usher house, Tress tries to force Felicity to remember that fateful night using one brick at a time. The only thing Tress didn’t count on interrupting her plan is an escaped black panther from her grandfather’s zoo.

McGinnis specializes in tough, strong but broken girls. You root for Tress to find the truth and have a better life, but you’re also horrified at what she does to Felicity.

This is an intense, creepy, and dark thriller that shouldn’t be missed.

Mindy McGinnis is the perfect author to give to mature students looking for an intellectually and emotionally challenging read and her new novel is no exception. This novel will satisfy students who love thrilling novels that test their own morality and perceptions of the world around them.

This book started off slow but wow it took a turn. It wasn't fast paced but still went quickly because of the flashbacks. Truthfully, didn't love the ending but it felt like the right ending. I would definitely read more from this author.

Holy cow. I don't really know how I feel about this book, but it kept me reading. The story is a "retelling" of The Cask of Amontillado and that's what drew me in. The story is told in alternating POV and thru flashbacks. Its' a dark read, but it was compelling. The cliffhanger ending through me for a loop...I'll definitely be picking up its sequel. Recommended.

Wow! I'm not really sure where to start.... At first I was going to give this book 1 - 2 stars because I really, really did not care for it.... But after some serious consideration I decided 3 stars was fair.....
When I read the premise of the book I was excited..... 2 former best friends, Halloween, party at creepy house, unearthing years old secrest.... definitely right to my alley!
Basically a modern retelling of Poes A Cask of Amontillado, with a few of Poes other stories mixed in. To me the book jumped around and was a bit jumbled. Some parts just seemed completely unnecessary. And in all honesty the book just wasn't for me, with that being said I wouldn't recommend the book but I believe a lot of people will love it! I do plan on reading the 2nd book of the duology in hopes it will change my opinion.
Thanks to Netgalley & publisher for ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

I maybe shrieked a little when I saw this ARC on my shelf. I LOVE ALL THINGS Mindy McGinnis.

This extremely fucked up and at times brutally gory story is told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of former best friends Tress and Felicity with occasional poetic insight from a panther (which sounds bananas, but is seriously excellent).

Tress is "Cask of Amontillado"-ing (sure, it can be a verb) Felicity to find out what happened the night her parents disappeared, destroying her life and leaving her with nothing but a drunk grandpa, a filthy trailer, and the world's jankiest, most depressing roadside zoo. Both girls are complicated, messed up characters, which is something McGinnis excels at -- no flinching away from the dark side of girls, friendship, families, and the many, many gross things that can happen to bodies. The ending was perfection, and I am officially dying to read the second book.

THANK YOU to NetGalley and Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins for the ARC.

A modern retelling of "The Cask of Amontillado" (with some other Poe references thrown in there for good measure), "The Initial Insult" centers around former best friends Tress and Felicity. Now on opposite ends of the social circle spectrum - Tress lives with her one-eyed, alcoholic grandfather in what is known as the "White Trash Zoo", whereas Felicity is wealthy and popular - the two find themselves at the same wild party one night. It's no coincidence, though: Felicity wants to buy drugs from Tress, and Tress has her own plans for Felicity, as Felicity was the last person to see Tress's parents before they disappeared several years ago. And if Felicity doesn't confess what she knows, Tress will slowly seal her into an old coal chute, brick by brick.

Although I love the weirdness of this book, and appreciated that the dual narrative allowed you to feel sympathy for both characters and their situations, I didn't really connect with this book the way I did with the author's other works. I thought that the third POV narrative was unnecessary, and took me out of the story every time it popped up. That being said, it was compelling enough that I breezed through it, and I will certainly be reading the next one. This will be an easy recommend for fans of YA thrillers.

Oh, Poe retellings. I’m here for it.

Tread lightly with this one though as it definitely takes some surprising twists and turns. Almost too gruesome at times? Poe would probably disagree.

We will have to see what Book 2 holds.

THE INITIAL INSULT is such a creative idea that it almost couldn't go wrong (almost being key). Overall, I enjoyed myself as I read it, and appreciated getting the perspectives of both Tress and Felicity so you could see how both of them were hurt by each other, and hurt each other. It would have been easy to vilify one or the other, but I thought that McGinnis was pretty even handed towards both of them, making me feel for both of them, and at times loathe each of them. Taking THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO and using it as a framework, both in figurative and literal senses, made for a suspenseful and taut thriller, and while I was wondering how she was going to pull it off, I feel like for the most part she did. I will say that there may have been an overreach with trying to cram too much Poe into the story, however. We get plot lifts from THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO and THE BLACK CAT, along with a number of references to other stories and poems, and had we stopped there I think it would have worked really well. But then McGinnis also decided to throw in subplots from THE MASK OF RED DEATH and HOP FROG that didn't quite get enough time to shine, which made them feel overdone and superfluous.

Also, evidently this is going to have another book to follow this one up. I'm very interested to see where that one is going to go, as the ending in this one seemed pretty definite. That said, I have some ideas.... I enjoyed THE INITIAL INSULT, outside of some over ambitious plot points. I will definitely read the next one to see where this all goes.

I don’t even know where to start. First this was an incredible retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s cask of amontillado. However, there were so many other Easter eggs of all of his other incredible short stories. Poe lovers everywhere will love the story. I think I figured out the mystery of what happened to Tress’s. Parents. This was so twisty it absolutely blew my mind. This really should be 4 1/2 stars not four. It was suspenseful, it was mysterious, it was horrifying, all wrapped up in one. I may add more to this review later as I think about it a little more.

Before you read this book, make sure you brush up on all your Poe, as this is a fascinating mash up of them all. Some of them are easy to spot with the names (Usher, Turnado, etc), and some of them are fairly subtle such as a pendulum paired with razor sharp claws or the flu that is incapacitating people. And as always, Mindy McGinnis puts the reader in a quandary to decide how far is too far? What should determine a fair punishment for wrongs. Do not be deceived- this is not a book about teenage angst. Instead, we read about real life through the eyes of teens, their perspectives, and their social status, especially in small towns. Ms. McGinnis again has kept the reader eagerly turning pages to find out what the outcome with her book that we can't look away from the train wreck of flawed characters as they pile up upon each other.

I’m not even sure where to start with this review. It is a strange book and not what I was expecting but that could be why it also missed the mark for me.

The book is labeled as mystery/thriller and even though it has a bit of those elements, it wasn’t enough to convince me that this is what the book is.

A majority of the book is spent in the past going over why Tress and Felicity are no longer friends while also fleshing out what they have been going through in their own lives apart. Each girl gets her own point-of-view. There is also a point-of-view for the panther which didn’t make any sense to me.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy a good book about friendship and the hardships of it, but I wasn’t expecting it to take up much of the book. The parts that deal with Tress’s parents disappearing are minimal and is solved for the reader by the end but not Tress who is still wondering which is why the book ends on a cliffhanger and sets it up for the next book. Even though this is the case, I find myself not interested in the next book as this one just didn’t mesh well with me.

There are other characters that are mentioned and some get more page time than others. I can’t say I ever liked any because most were very minimal. I will say that the scenes with Ribbit were quite uncomfortable to read. I’m not sure if they were meant to be funny or to help with the plot.

I am also not sure why most books I have been reading have animals dying but I’m tired of it. Two dogs in this one and it had my stomach rolling. I get things happen but I don’t want to read about it even when it involves wild animals and it’s part of the animal kingdom.

When it comes to the retelling aspect, I think I have read that particular Poe story once and it has been some time so I can’t really comment on it.

Overall, it was okay. It wasn’t what I was expecting and it just didn’t work for me.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, so thank you to them!

I've been back and forth about my rating and I think I'm going to settle on a 3.5 rounded up to 4.

I also have to let you know right now that I love Mindy McGinnis. I love her. She's been to our library, I admire her as a person and a writer and I just think she's the bee's knees. Just so you know that going in.

I'm still going to be honest about this book because I feel it's one of her weaker efforts (but that shouldn't stop you from reading her because she really is amazing!)

Okay, let's start with the things I did like.

The characters - Mindy McGinnis knows how to write characters who feel real. They're easy to identify with and relate to; I haven't been a teenage girl in a hot second but reading this book brought back a lot of the feelings I had as a teen in a rush. It's not easy to be that age in any circumstance and Mindy does a wonderful portrayal.

The relationships - I'm thinking in particular of the relationship between the 2 main characters. Friendships are hard and a failed friendship can sometimes hurt worse then a breakup. I'm not saying I would have taken things to the lengths the characters do in the book...I'm just saying the pain both Tress and Felicity experience is one I have felt myself.

These things were done well throughout the book. I will say that the pacing was slower then I would have liked at the beginning and the middle felt like it started and stopped a lot, but I was totally on board and sucked in by the end. I don't mind books that start slow, but I would have liked the pacing to be a bit more consistent. But, like I said, I was flying by the time I got to the end, so, no harm, no foul as they say.

Now for my dislikes.

The Poe retelling aspect - Don't get me wrong, I love Poe and I love me a good retelling but this one felt heavy-handed and awkward. I think I might have been more on board if the whole thing had been a bit more subtle - maybe keeping the main reference to The Cask of Amontillado (and the nod to The Masque of the Red Death) and resisting the urge to name drop every other Poe story in existence. It just got really distracting for me and didn't add much to the story. Toning it down a bit would definitely have helped.

The Cat POV - Maybe there were some serious typos in my ARC or maybe reading this while simultaneously trying to handle my 6-month-old made me miss what Mindy was trying to do, but this whole POV felt weird and out of place for me. Every time I had to read it, it jarred me out of my momentum and I had to struggle back into the story. I'm not saying the idea definitely couldn't work, I'm just saying I don't think it was executed here as well as it could have been.

But, anyway, I still enjoyed reading this and I plan on giving it a reread before reading the sequel (I can't believe we have to wait until 2022 for that!!) If you're new to Mindy McGinnis, I would suggest starting with The Female of the Species or Heroine before giving this one a try. If you're an old hand, give this one a go - it's definitely not all bad! (And, honestly, some of you will probably be a little more forgiving!)

Mindy McGinnis really had the AUDACITY to end the book that way. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about a Poe retelling, but I loved it. I love all the nods to Poe’s works. I love Hugh. I love Tress and Felicity’s totally messed up history. I want to read the next one but the first one isn’t even technically out yet so I guess I’ve got a long wait ahead of me.

I hated this book. Whoo. It feels good to say that. `I think I ended up hate reading the last 80 pages.

I get that this book is based on Poe and his work and the allusions abound. That's great and all. And I love the story "The Cask of Amontillado." But that short story is not enough to spin into a book (or books, if Goodreads is to be believed).

It's hard to read a book when you hate both of the protagonists. It's hard to read a book when the reasons that the protagonists do anything doesn't make any logical sense. It's hard to read a book that doesn't have a clear, coherent plot. It's hard to read a book when the dog dies.

Nothing in this book makes any sense. This kind of plot works for "The Cask of Amontillado" because it's a short story. Try to make that short story 250 pages longer? It doesn't work. I leave the book feeling so confused. Why did the parents die? What's going to happen to the animals? Why does everyone in the town hate each other? What's going on?

I feel like the answer to all these questions is "Who the fuck knows?"

Incredible book by McGinnis, as usual. I loved how this was a retelling of Poe in a Poe-inspired universe. If you come here looking for a happily-ever after, maybe go somewhere else. More please!

WOW!
So, I'm a long time fan of Mindy McGinnis. By 'fan' I mean I'm borderline obsessed. I love the rich characters, dark plots, and realness she brings to her books. When I first heard the premise for 'The Initial Insult' I was hooked. Edgar Alan Poe meets The Tiger King checks all my boxes. Right on brand, this book brings a darker side to teens, life in the Appalachian areas, and the human will for survival. This book did not disappoint with anything other than waiting for the next installment

I read lots of spooky books in October. Unfortunately this one didn't grab my attention and I ended up not finishing it; more of a "me" problem than an issue with the book itself.

I sat on this for a bit because holy crap! I have SO MANY thoughts rattling around my head about it still. So many things I loved about it. The darkness surrounding Tress, the guilt building inside Felicity as she aged, the solid goodness that Hugh represented, the sheer chaos that was Ribbit. McGinnis does a fabulous job at *showing* the character of people rather than telling. I absolutely love how no matter what book I pick up of hers I know I'm going to get great, fleshed out characters, vivid, dark storytelling, and come away feeling spent.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself with it and wrote down like at least 5 pages worth of notes/quotes. 😊 Which will come in handy when the next one comes out. Questions abound still and I can’t wait to read the sequel to [hopefully] get those answered.