I loved Miranda’s first novel Fracture last year, so when I heard about this book, I knew that I had to check it out. Once I read the summary, I knew that I was going out to love it, just the type of my book, mysterious. I ended loving the book. It seemed more of mystery then thriller book to me and I loved it. I was on edge of my seat from first sentence, till the end. I liked it bit more then Fracture and if I could give it more than 5 Stars, I would. Megan Miranda did it again, she’s an author worth checking out if you haven’t yet.

GOODREADS SUMMARY

Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can't remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn't charged. But Mallory still feels Brian's presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past. But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others.

In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda's masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.

One of first things that captured my attention in this novel, were the title. Hysteria, how can that not capture anyone’s attention? When I saw the title, it was a first thing that got me curious about the book, before reading the summary. I had a feeling that it was going some sort of thriller in it, just by the title of the book. Now, cover, that made book look even mysterious and I knew that something going happen there, something mysterious, bad. I love how the girl is holding up a frame, it gives more mysterious look to the book. The cover is very creative and took a lot of imagination, and totally suits the storyline.


Mallory : I wasn’t sure how to feel about her at first, considering that she killed someone. At first, I wasn’t even sure if it was self defense or not and it did seem like her parents, especially her mother seemed bit afraid of her. At same time, I felt sorry for Mallory, how her own parents seemed to treat her, when she needed them more than ever, especially when they sent her to boarding school. I seriously thought that they were afraid of her. As book progressed, I began to like her but I also felt afraid for her, once she started to hear those noises. Part of me thought that she was hearing something that wasn’t there, but another part of me wondered if someone was there, following her. But once things started happening in her dorm room, I was sure that someone was following her, the question was who. Dylan was last person who came into my mind, I was sure it was his mother, that she somehow managed to escape and followed Mallory. I actually felt relieved that it was Dylan. I was glad to see everything work out for Mallory in the end. I loved how Mallory’s emotions and descriptions were displayed through the book, it felt so real. I felt like I could connect to Mallory more than any other character.

Reid & Colleen : I loved Reid & Mallory’s relationship. Within short period of time, Reid seemed to get protective of her and making sure that she’s all right. He seemed the one person who didn’t hold against her what happened with her and Brian, and accept her despite that. I hoped that Mallory was going to let him in, and was glad that she finally did. They seemed to have a bond, one that her and Brian never seemed to have. I was happy to see that she could find someone to care for her, despite her past. Colleen and Mallory’s friendship reminded me a lot of mine and my best friend relationship, friends that would do anything for each other. They had a special connection, a special bond with each other. Despite what happened Colleen knew that it was for a reason, and she was there and she even covered for her, lied to police for her, got hurt because she was trying protect her. That’s type of friend that will last a lifetime. It made me smile anytime I read about their friendship.


I loved how once in awhile, it go to flashbacks, to what happened. Right from first sentence, I was wondering what really happened between Brian and Mallory. Flashbacks made it clearer. I got say, I wasn’t fan of Brian at all and I could see that he was one that got out, of control. I knew that if she didn’t defend herself, something worse could happened to Mallory, especially since he was angry and drunk.

Hysteria has more mystery then thriller but there some thriller parts to it. Megan Miranda found a way to capture reader’s attention. If you love mystery, thriller with bit romance, check this book out. You will find yourself observed from first sentence, to last.

2.5 - Rant-ish: The book was nice, creepy, and interesting. It started off ok but then I got confused. Turns out I missed a lot of things and I still don’t know why certain things happened, and the end was supposed to be satisfying but it was fake-satisfying? Like things couldn’t have worked out that well? And I don’t remember some of the side characters. Or their personalities. Or how they were important. BUT the unreliable perspective is cool, and the “best-friend” is super chill.

Basically, cool but confusing

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Gut Instinct Rating - 4
Story Line - 4.5
Writing Style - 3
Characters - 4
Excitement Factor - 4
Believability for type and topics - 3
Similarity to other books - 5
Cover art - 5
Title Relevance - 3

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.66. I think it was more deserving of a 3.94.

When Mallory kills her boyfriend, Brian, her parents send to her a boarding school, Monroe. But when trouble ensues at Monroe, will Mallory's troubled past come back to bite her?

You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
YA Fiction
Crime
Boarding School

This book wasn't horrible... but there were certainly points of improvement. Overall, it was a pretty good book. It was entertaining, easy-read, and mostly well-written. But I wasn't a fan of some components.

The characters were well illustrated, if you like one-sided, basic, YA characters. Which isn't a negative thing. Some people enjoy YA books because the YA characters are easily read and pretty relateable. However, there were 14 characters (that I counted...), and I felt like some of the characters from Mallory's past weren't well defined, so I wasn't really sure of the importance of their involvement. The dad's character - it was incredibly hard to remember that he was actually involved in the family matters. For majority of the book, I truly did forget that he was alive. And considering he was a Monroe alum, I really thought there would've been more of a presence from him, so I was a bit disappointed by his continued absence. I saw a few parallels between Brian and Jason as far as their personalities go, but I'm not sure why. It's that inside feeling that you could easily confuse the two individuals, so I was a bit annoyed with Jason's character, as was I with Brian's character - in particular, how the author just brushed over a 15/16 year old dating a 19 year old. While it's a common event, I wasn't entirely pleased with how this topic was brushed over entirely. In most states, this is illegal - and Bryan and Dylan's mom even hinted at her age... and he reassured her that Mallory was 18. So this was a bit of a strange story line that looked like it was going to go somewhere, that went absolutely nowhere. I'm not sure if this has more or less to do with the character or if it has to do with the story line.

It wasn't all that believable, honestly. A 16-year old who was murdered and in a matter of weeks shipped off to boarding school in another state, completely cleared of all charges? Seems too good to be true, for one. In addition, how was the second case that Mallory was involved in solved in a matter of weeks? It was all just so unbelievable. But the story itself was pretty decent. It was entertaining, it was especially twisted towards the end. I kind of felt like I need a bit more closure on Reid, on Colleen especially, on Dylan... I mean, all of these things that happened, it just felt absent at the end.

The writing style was really annoying. I'm not a huge fan of flashbacks, because I often think they're done poorly. And these were. I'm not sure why they were italicized. I would much rather hear about the past via "That summer... xyz..." or something. In addition, I hated that there were "chapter" breaks within the chapter. I think a chapter should be about one moment, not extended periods of time. I think it influenced the excitement factor of the book. It was just so broken up that you'd get geared up for a big moment, and then you'd be taken back a year or so. The flow just wasn't consistent, and it was a bit of a letdown.

Initial reaction: You know those times when you start off really liking a book but then as you go along it feels like a balloon that deflates as time goes on, which by the end it's no longer floating but barely tracing the ground? That's what this book did to me. Man, I sincerely thought I'd come out of this reading experience singing the praises of this book because it actually started off intriguing enough. It really did. Yet it became more ridiculous and formulaic as time went on and by the time it went towards the ending, I wanted to throw the book at several characters and events for tugging with my suspension of disbelief. That's not to say that this novel didn't have good moments and places in its writing, but on the whole? What a disappointment.

I put the review as a status update accidentally.
This book sucked so....NO REVIEW. Just read the update, I'm not even gonna bother...

Megan Miranda reminds me of my teenage obsession with all of the YA novels by Christopher Pike. I mean that as an extremely high compliment. This book, like her others are set in a truth about high school but heightened for pure enjoyment. I liked the story and the characters. I would have liked just a bit more about the initial incident. It felt a little empty when it was explained in full. I did love Mallory’s friendship with Colleen. There is a purity to some friendships that can only be borne through high school emotions. Another fun one.

Really just a 2.5 for me. I wanted something...more out of this book and felt like it was really slow through the middle. There was also some weird plot holes or maybe just crap red herrings. Not bad but could have been better.

I did not like this at all

I loved this book! I read Fractured at the beginning of the year and loved that book as well. I read this book very quickly and I loved the little twists and turns in the book. I loved the murder mystery that occurred in the book and the entire story was engaging!

A nice mix of creepy, romantic and exciting. I'm probably going to have dreams of crazy, psycho boyfriends pounding down doors with knives, but hey, it'll be worth it.

This is definitely the sort of book I was looking for when I went searching for mystery-thrillers!

4/5 stars