Rowena’s review of Hysteria by Megan Miranda.

Main Character: Mallory
Love Interest: Reid
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

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.

I enjoyed reading Fracture by Miranda and this book caught my eye as it sounded interesting.  It’s not like anything I’ve ever picked up to read but I enjoyed Fracture enough that I wanted to check this one out.

This book follows Mallory as she transfers to her father’s old prep school, Monroe.  Mallory is sent to Monroe because things have gotten pretty hard for her at home ever since…she killed her boyfriend, Brian.  There are things about that night that Mallory can’t remember but she does remember that Brian is dead because of her.  She knows that it was self defense but there are things from that night that are just outside her memory.  Things with Brian weren’t all that great for Mallory, according to her best friend Colleen.  Colleen wasn’t a fan of Brian and Mallory because Mallory wasn’t Mallory when she was with him and because of Brian’s violent history, the case was dismissed and Brian’s family was torn apart.

Brian’s mother went crazy and started harassing Mallory so much that Mallory’s parents had to get a restraining order and Brian’s brother Dylan was shipped to live with his father up in Massachusetts.

Dylan.  The boy that should have been Mallory’s but he had a girlfriend.  So Mallory moved on from Dylan…with his brother, Brian.

Dylan wasn’t too happy about it but what could he do? He was already in a relationship and so he passed on Mallory.  Brian’s friends want to make sure that Mallory feels their grief and their anger so they give her a hard time, such a hard time that Mallory is shipped out.

Now, Mallory is miles away from the only home she’s ever known and she’s thrown into the mix that is Monroe Prep School.  She doesn’t know anyone until she comes across someone she does know, Reid.  Reid’s father and Mallory’s father were roommates back in their Monroe days and she used to see Reid every few years since they were little.  The last time she saw Reid, she made a pass at him and he didn’t take it because well, they were at his father’s funeral.  He was going through some stuff.

Now, it’s three years later and they’re going to school together.  Reid wants to be her friend but Mallory is all kinds of messed up.  She’s not sleeping and when she does sleep, she’s having nightmares about Brian.  He’s haunting her every waking moment and she’s kind of taking a break from boys.  Things at school aren’t going the way she’d thought they would because there are bullies here and one of those bullies seems to be out to get her.  He makes her completely uncomfortable and he goes out of his way to make things hard for Mallory and to be honest, it didn’t fit with what I know about teens.

What I really didn’t understand is that Mallory killed Brian.  She really did.  She stabbed him and he bled out in her parents house.  She’s dealing with the blood on her hands from that and she’s still getting bullied.  Everyone that is bullying her, knows what she did and yet, they’re still bullying her.  What’s wrong with this picture?  You can bet your damn bottom dollar that if I knew that someone killed another person, in self defense or not…I would not be making fun of them, making things hard for them or anything.  Unless, I wanted her to kill me too so why weren’t these kids afraid of Mallory?

It didn’t make sense to me.

I would think that it would be hard for Mallory to deal with this and the author did a really good job with making me feel Mallory’s pain and her issues but the whole thing with the kids and the bullying and the framing, I just couldn’t understand why they’d pick on someone who killed someone else.

Aside from the bullying, this book was interesting.  It was really slow to pick up but before I knew what was what, I was invested in the story and even though I wasn’t completely satisfied with the way that things turned out (the whole thing with Dylan at the end gave me a total WTF moment) but still, I’m not sorry that I read this book.  It was an enjoyable read and while it wasn’t perfect, it was still enjoyable.  I enjoyed the romance between Reid and Mallory and the friendship between Colleen and Mallory.  Those two are what friends are supposed to be like.  Ride or die.  That was those two and yeah, I liked this one.

…and that’s your scoop!