Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette's

Read trigger/content warnings. The author does have a brief warning at the beginning as well.
Once again, Hanna Alkaf writes another banger for me. She has quickly become my fave ya author not only because culturally I can connect, but also her writing is just so good. It's a great take on supernatural horror/haunted house (well in this case haunted school) while also discussing heavy topics like sexual assault, r*p*, and PTSD. I enjoyed the characters and the story line flowed well for me. I liked the ending overall, but I wish there was one little thing involving the first missing girl to fully close the story. I did start to tear up at one part towards the end which the author somehow always makes me emotional in her books.
There were very topical and memorable lines toward the last fourth of the book like "How many times have we dismissed a girl because she acts in ways that makes us uncomfortable?" and "Perhaps girls just do what they can to get by. To survive." Plus many more that I even took pics of the pages with the lines on them.
I will def be watching out for what the author writes next because every single thing she has written has been top tier for me.

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readcells's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Oh I wanted to like this more than I did. The premise was so interesting and it generally felt different than most YA thrillers out there. I do think the marketing did this one a disservice because it is marketed as dark academia, but it didn't read that way to me. Yes, it was taking place at a boarding school, but the academic aspect didn't necessarily play into the overall mystery/thriller plot taking place.

I did appreciate the way that this explores body automony, trauma, and relationships between teen girls. The relationships and characters are really what drive the main story in the book, which was definitely one of my favorite aspects of the story.

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starglitters's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s is not just a mass hysteria story. It is a story of sisterhood, of female rage, of a woman’s identity (as a girl, a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister), of a woman’s voice. It is a story about finding your voice, and about listening to these voices.

This book is in equal part scary and comforting. Terrifying, but full of heart.

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