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A review by karynlibrarian
Hysteria by Megan Miranda
3.0
I really liked Hysteria, despite some flaws. This is the story of how Mallory starts recovering from the trauma of murdering her boyfriend (in self defence?) and the aftermath of the trial and grief.
To get her away from the anger and gossip of their town Mallory's parents send her to boarding school - yes, let's separate the traumatised teen from everything she knows! Mallory arrives at school to find unfriendly classmates and an unfeeling administration. This is one place where the book falls flat to me - a school like Munroe would have some type of counsellor of staff with whom Mallory would be forced to have at least weekly sessions. Instead it's Reid, her love interest that suggests she has hysteria.
Parts of the story were wonderful: I loved the slow reveals of the events the night of Brian's murder and the Monroe urban legend. Colleen and Mallory's friendship was brilliant - they had no illusions about who the other girl was, but they had each other's backs through everything. Reid was a great support through Mallory's issues with endless patience and understanding.
What didn't work were the descriptions of Mallory's nights. Miranda was trying for a creepy, uncertain tone. We're not supposed to know what's going on, just that it's creepy. In the end, though, they felt too repetitive and vague to be every interesting and I confess, I started skipping them. The mystery in the last part of the book had a very obvious answer; so much so that the suspense relied not on the doubts about Mallory's sanity that the first half had been building but on a 'can we catch them' scenario.
Overall this book was good contemporary YA, but it lacked the power to rise above its potential.
To get her away from the anger and gossip of their town Mallory's parents send her to boarding school - yes, let's separate the traumatised teen from everything she knows! Mallory arrives at school to find unfriendly classmates and an unfeeling administration. This is one place where the book falls flat to me - a school like Munroe would have some type of counsellor of staff with whom Mallory would be forced to have at least weekly sessions. Instead it's Reid, her love interest that suggests she has hysteria.
Parts of the story were wonderful: I loved the slow reveals of the events the night of Brian's murder and the Monroe urban legend. Colleen and Mallory's friendship was brilliant - they had no illusions about who the other girl was, but they had each other's backs through everything. Reid was a great support through Mallory's issues with endless patience and understanding.
What didn't work were the descriptions of Mallory's nights. Miranda was trying for a creepy, uncertain tone. We're not supposed to know what's going on, just that it's creepy. In the end, though, they felt too repetitive and vague to be every interesting and I confess, I started skipping them. The mystery in the last part of the book had a very obvious answer; so much so that the suspense relied not on the doubts about Mallory's sanity that the first half had been building but on a 'can we catch them' scenario.
Overall this book was good contemporary YA, but it lacked the power to rise above its potential.