Holy-doodle, if The Most Dangerous Place on Earth isn’t a wake up call, I don’t know what is. Set in an affluent community in sunny California, this novel explores the facades of teen life on social media and the truth that lies behind those facades, and that is what makes it so compelling and horrifying.
Is it fair for me to say that Lindsey Lee Johnson gets teenage life in our era unlike anyone else I’ve read? Keep in mind this is coming from someone in their mid-forties. But i feel like this is a novel I will make my daughter read when she’s just a little bit older because it highlights all the pitfalls and hazards of teenage life and magnifies them to the most horrifying conclusions. As a parent, I hope it had made me more aware of what to look out for, but also kind of makes me want to put my kid in a protective cocoon that sheilds her from the outside world.
Who would like this book? I don’t know if high school teachers and parents will like this book, but it is definately something they should read. But truthfully, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth is a truly likeable book. The writing is superb, the characters are full and complex and the momentum of the narrative means I ignored my family for 2 days while reading it. It is a book for people who enjoy coming of age stories that aren’t saccharine. I loved it.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
52 books or bust 
I’m always sucked in by demented high school dramas and have been planning to read this one…so glad to hear you loved it!
Consider yourself happily sacked in with this one.
This sounds like a book that will terrify me and make me lock away my children’s phones and tablets forever! But now, of course, I want to read it.
Yes to locking away everything including your kids, and to reading it.
Thanks for the review. I was offered a copy of this book but passed on it. Think I’ll give it a go.
You should. It really is great. And horrifying.
The opening sentence to this post is excellent! I also found it to be a wake-up call. My step-children are a little young, but when they are teens, I hope I remember to give them a copy of Johnson’s book. I also hope that by then that our world has shifted for the better. Johnson’s take is grim.
Ha- you tore through it! Pretty scary, right? And I don’t even have children.
I’m putting my daughter on a leash!
I think I’m scared by what I’ve heard of this one, but you have me curious. Too scary ? or doable?
Scary but doable. It’s gripping.