The Most Dangerous Place On Earth
By Lindsey Lee Johnson
Random House, Hardcover, 9780812997279, January 10, 2017, 288pp.
The Short of It:
From the first few pages I was immediately drawn in.
The Rest of It:
The title is very dramatic, isn’t it? Dramatic, but fitting because the most dangerous place on earth is…
High School.
This story is about a high school in a very affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of San Francisco. For the most part, the kids are well-off and smart but Johnson puts all of their flaws on display. The need for acceptance is front and center but there is a thick layer of regret within these young students which the author explores one by one.
Johnson does not spare the adults in this story. The teachers, the parents, the administrators are also included and have their own battles surrounding acceptance and fitting in. Some of their situations literally had me squirming from the inappropriateness of it all but man did it make for good reading.
I loved this book. Johnson absolutely nails the pressures of high school and pending adulthood. I would not classify this as YA in case anyone is wondering. I hope you pick it up because it was really good.
Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.
Book Chatter 
Wow! This sounds awesome. I have it on my kindle, so I’m definitely looking forward to reading it now. Great post!!
I think you will love it.
I used an Audible credit for this one earlier today. Looking forward to listening to it. And good to hear that you recommend it. It sounded like something I’d like. 🙂
I hope it plays out on audio as well as it did in print. I looked to see if she had any other books out but I didn’t see any. Surprised by that because this didn’t feel like a debut to me.
Wow! Awesome review! I’m off to find this one now! I can’t even imagine going to high school today!
I managed to get one kid through high school last year and next year my daughter starts so wish us luck! I think much of high school is the same but the addition of social media sure kicks it up a notch.
My 14 year old is a freshman this year in the largest high school in Arizona…..3800 kids…….I don’t know how she does it! I graduated in a class of 129 kids!!
Good luck Ti!!
My daughter’s school has about 2800. When I was in high school we had a class of 3500 and that was just 10-12. Crazy!
I loved it, too! I am still needing to write a review of it. I also caught the Beaks and Geeks podcast where they interviewed Lindsey Lee Johnson and she does say she is working on something else. I can’t wait to see what it is!
I was wondering if she had any books before this one but I see that she doesn’t. I can’t wait to see what she has coming up next. I loved how she went from character to character pretty seamlessly.
I got this book at SIBA after hearing about it there. I’m glad to know it’s as good as it sounded.
I expected it to be a page turner but there is actually quite a lot to it. I spent some time in between chapters thinking about the characters.
You’ve got me there, Ti. Never thought that’s the most dangerous place on Earth. But this sure sounds interesting and relevant. Thanks for sharing this book.
It’s a riveting read. Navigating high school these days is like wading through dangerous waters. I suppose much of it is the same (the bullying, the sense of not belonging, the pressure to do well) but add social media and money to the mix and it gets ugly pretty fast.
This is on my TBR for this month! It has gotten a lot of buzz so I’m looking forward to it
Wow, this sounds fantastic.
It is!! So much more to it than you’d think.
i finally have my reading bug back. There was big storm that hit Albany GA that caused all the trees to fall . We were lucky no one in my family got hurt we were without electricity for almost a week. That was the time I started reading. Our neighborhood will never look the same almost all the trees are gone.
So scary!! I am glad no one was hurt. Did you have any damage? When we moved into my current house, there was this enormous pine tree in front of it. Gorgeous. It fell down one Christmas Eve years ago and blocked the entire cul de sac for hours! No one could leave the neighborhood for holiday gatherings or anything else. It missed all cars and all property so it was a blessing and… we thought it was ours and that we’d have to pay for the removal but it was noted as a city tree so they came and took care of it. It made such a sound when it fell.
I am so glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah I can see where high school is Dangerous. I worry about kids these days — with so many bad things out there. I’m glad you enjoyed this one. Sounds intense.
It was kind of intense. Lots to think about as my daughter enters high school in August. Did I just say that?
I loved how mature the writing was. The setting is high school but the overall tone is very grown-up and adult. Big themes, big issues. Really gave me a lot to think about.
Argh! I passed on this one for my Book of the Month Club selection this month, and you totally made me regret this decision! I hope they have copies left so I can snag one next month!
Oh man. You would love this one.