A Danger To Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel

Four walls. One window. No way to escape.
Hannah knows there's been a mistake. She doesn't need to be institutionalized. What happened to her roommate at that 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. Those college applications aren't going to write themselves. Until then, she's determined to win over the staff and earn some privileges so she doesn't lose her mind to boredom.
Then Lucy arrives. Lucy has her own baggage, and she's the perfect project to keep Hannah's focus off all she is missing at home. But Lucy may be the one person who can get Hannah to confront the secrets she's avoiding―and the dangerous games that landed her in confinement in the first place. 

This book seemed like an amazing thriller. I was sure that Hannah had been wrongly accused, that someone was trying to set her up. I thought that the book would lay out clues, agonizingly slow, building up to the finale that would take my breath away.

I was wrong.

This book started off at a good pace, and then completely dropped the ball. I understand what the author was trying to go for, but it was not enjoyable. This book was thrilling, until the end. Rather than ending with a bang, it just kind of died. Instead of an explosive ending, it settles for something lukewarm. Hannah is guilty … but only somewhat. Who wants to read that?

Presenting: how is should have been.

A) She’s innocent. Someone really did something bad, and they set her up to take the fall. She has to figure out who it was in order to clear her name. Why did they do it?

B) She’s guily. She actually committed the act, and her mind erased the memory. Why? Guilt? Trauma? Why did she do it?

The book takes the bland third route, and it leads the story down the wrong path. It goes from a thriller to something that resembles a poetry/ monologue/ memoir style that I did not sign up for. The book lures you in with false promises of a psychological thriller, and instead tries to feed you a bitter pill about mental illnesses (?).

In the hopes of creating something different and cool, this book lost its way. I would have settled for a cliché nail-biting suspense thriller over this any day.