This is not a light-hearted read. I’m starting the review off like this because I wish that I had known all of the trigger warnings in this book before I started reading it. I knew it was about mental health, so I had prepared myself for that trigger, but the rest of them? I had no idea. So, here you go. 

Trigger warnings: bulimia, anorexia, eating disorders, purging, self-harm, parental neglect and abandonment.

Four walls. One window. No way to escape. Hannah knows there’s been a mistake. She didn’t need to be institutionalized. What happened to her roommate at her summer program was an accident. As soon as the doctors and judge figure out that she isn’t a danger to herself or others, she can go home to start her senior year. In the meantime, she is going to use her persuasive skills to get the staff on her side.

Then Lucy arrives. Lucy has her own baggage. And she may be the only person who can get Hannah to confront the dangerous games and secrets that landed her in confinement in the first place.

Continuing on with how many triggers there are in this book, I found it so so hard to read because of how deep, heartfelt and raw all of the descriptions and emotions were. I think that it took me a few days to read because I had to keep stopping to take a breather, recollect myself, and make sure that I was in an okay place mentally to carry on reading it.

I know what you’re thinking. The simple answer would have been to just stop reading it if it was that hard for me. But to be honest, it was a very good book. I can’t say too much about the plot because there are a lot of twists and turns throughout, but it’s such a powerful story about mental health that has an unreliable narrator, who’s telling of her story will keep you guessing until the last page.

“But can you really call it sanity when it isn’t real, it isn’t natural, it’s chemically induced? When it doesn’t technically belong to me because I wouldn’t have it without the pills they keep giving me? Maybe I’ll never know for certain what’s real, what’s madness, what’s the medication.”

– Alyssa Scheinmel, A Danger to Herself and Others

This novel is very much character-driven, and not plot-driven. Sure, the plot is interesting and moving, but it’s the characters that really make this book what it is. Hannah’s mental health, and how she saw herself was heartbreaking. Even though she was our unreliable narrator, and said some questionable things, I just wanted to envelop her into a hug and tell her that everything was going to be ok.

Parents are always an interesting topic when it comes to YA books. They’re either in them or not. Hannah’s parents were in this book in little bits and pieces, and I really didn’t care for them. They gave off this feeling of being really cold towards their daughter, which was another reason why I empathised with Hannah.

“If I’m not responsible for my words and actions, then I’m nothing. No free will, no self.”

– Alyssa Sheinmel, A Danger to Herself and Others

When it comes to thriller books that centre around mental health, I always tend to be a little bit weary because I don’t like the thought of mental health being used as a ‘scary’ thing. If that makes sense? People who are ignorant to all different types of mental health are the ones that are scared of it because they don’t fully understand it, and this is why it’s so important that people educate themselves on the topic. Scheimnel represented mental health beautifully in this book, and even though it was hard to read, I think that was because I saw so much of myself in there.

Overall, this book was uncomfortable for me to read, but it was also dark and mysterious that centred around a plot that opened the reader’s eyes to mental health. I think I will definitely read this book again in a couple of years if I’m in a much stronger place mentally.

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

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