another thriller that uses mental illness as a plot point, portrays harmful stereotypes of people living with mental illness, and contributing to stigma through ambiguous disorder trope. don’t try to paint this as “girl comes to terms with a mental illness diagnosis” and write misinformation

2.75

3.25✰ The plot twists were definitely plot twists. I actually really enjoyed this book. It's kind of confusing and feels incomplete. I feel like I need another book to know what happens afterward. Does she get help? Do her parents still treat her differently? I need more

Librarian: Unreliable narrators are very popular in adult fiction, so it comes as no surprise that they're spreading into YA as well. In this case I find that to be unfortunate. I understand that this type of sensationalized suspense novel is very popular, but I feel like the depictions of mental illness in this particular story is likely to cause more harm then good. There are many excellent depictions of mental illness in young adult literature today (i.e. Turtles All the Way Down, Eliza and Her Monsters, etc.) but this isn't one of them. Reader: I really wanted to like this one. I went in after hearing good reviews, and I was hoping for a suspense filled read. That isn't what I found. Instead I got an entire cast of thoroughly unlikable characters, who it was impossible to root for, and a overly sensationalized depiction of mental illness that feels like a throwback to a time when it was stigmatized instead of helped.

Danger to Herself and Others is something I wasn't expecting to read. I thought it would be just a normal YA thriller but it wasn’t. That pleasantly surprised me, I loved Hannah’s unreliable character and you could feel the truth right there on the edge of her mind. She is smart, somewhat a little cocky and could be a total jerk at sometimes but I think that is what made her human.The author wrote about mental illness in a real light. She didn't romanticize it like I have seen a lot do. She showed the dark side of it and how people react to it. Like Hannah's parents and everyone else including Hannah herself didn’t handle it well. You could tell the author took her time with this book and didn't rush into it. I will probably be picking up her other books later on.

I really enjoyed this book, which I listened to on audiobook. The book was about Hannah, a girl who is institutionalized after an “incident” where her school roommate falls out a window. Hannah is being observed for signs of mental illness, too see if she was crazy and to try to see if she was capable of pushing her beloved friend out the window. Hannah is obviously an unreliable narrator from the start. She tends to ramble and not always make sense but I really enjoyed listening to her. The book was an interesting depiction of mental illness and not really like anything I had read before. The plot line, and style of the book gave me similar vibes to the movie “The Uninvited” which I love, though without all the creepiness or mystery since this book is pretty straightforward: no creepiness, no big twists or surprises.

Disclaimer: I received an arc in a contest I won hosted by the author. Thanks! All opinions are my own. Book: A Danger to Herself and Others Author: Alyssa B. Sheinmel Book Series: Standalone Rating: 3/5 Recommended For...: contemporary lovers, mental health readers, mystery readers, ya readers Publication Date: February 5, 2019 Genre: YA Contemporary Recommended Age: 16+ (mental health, suicide mentions, gaslighting) Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire Pages: 341 Synopsis: Four walls. One window. No way to escape. Hannah knows there's been a mistake. She didn't need to be institutionalized. What happened to her roommate at her summer program was an accident. As soon as the doctors and judge figure out that she isn't a danger to herself or others, she can go home to start her senior year. In the meantime, she is going to use her persuasive skills to get the staff on her side. Then Lucy arrives. Lucy has her own baggage. And she may be the only person who can get Hannah to confront the dangerous games and secrets that landed her in confinement in the first place. Review: I had to DNF this book at page 71. While the book is wonderfully well written and I love that I won it, I just couldn't read it at this time and it's time for me to put it off my TBR for awhile. The book has some graphic detail about mental health and some various ways the character and her therapists try to deal with it. I don't feel like I'm in the best health myself to read that and unreliable narrator books don't really interest me as they are sometimes wrote too confusingly. However, the book didn't shy away from calling people out who dehumanize people with mental health issues and I love how raw and unapologetic it is. Verdict: It wasn’t for me this time, but it could be for you!

This was so good until the end.... Which was just crazy anticlimactic

This arc was provided to me for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 3 stars Hannah has been institutionalized due to an accident with her roommate. We follow Hannah as the doctors begin to diagnose her and to prove she doesn’t belong there. Hannah then meets Lucy, a girl who begins to help Hannah deal with her own issues and how she never saw them coming. A Danger to Herself and Others has a solid concept but unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the whole book. It got incredibly predicable right at the start but it was still able to maintain a little mystery. And the ending left me so incredibly disappointed, but not in the way, you would think. I am disappointed at how real that ending was. It feels more real to leave it the way the author did and I am glad she ended it on a note like that. I enjoyed Hannah and Lucy as characters and I enjoyed going back and seeing how Hannah evolved. Hannah is portrayed as rich and smart, but as time goes on you begin to see how manipulative and cruel she is. You get to explore some of her past friendships and you find that her friendship with her roommate was not what you thought it was. I figured the friendship wasn't as described but I wasn't prepared for the reality. I appreciate the take on mental illness as it's not often you find it wrote like this. I think the author did an incredible job portraying a very sick girl who did not know what was happening to her. I look forward to reading more by this author and if you enjoy a little predictability with some mystery this might intrigue you.

A Danger to Herself and Others was captivating right from the start. A fascinating story about mental health. I was immediately drawn in and the MC was a very unreliable but believable narrator. I believed her even though in hindsight it was obvious that something wasn't right. I enjoyed this book.