Johnson's debut novel about privileged high schoolers from a wealthy suburb of San Francisco. The story centers around eight high school kids and a new English teacher who tries to connect with them.

It has been three years since the suicide of their eighth grade classmate, Tristan Bloch, and while they have moved on, each is saddled by complex feelings of guilt. Abigail is a super achiever, Ryan a heartthrob baseball player. Emma is driven to dance, Nick is an unscrupulous moneymaker, and Elisabeth is a stunning beauty. Dave must meet his parents’ expectations and Damon has landed in rehab. And the biggest burden of grief falls on Callie, who reinvents and loses herself in a numbing transformation.

While these may sound like typical advantaged and spoiled teenagers, Johnson does a terrific job developing her characters and defining their painful adolescence, showing that money cannot fix feelings, families or relationships. Johnson also points to the superficial and damaging effects of social media and its often destructive role in friendships. She gives the reader a sometimes shocking look into the secret lives of teenagers.

This was a good read, very current and reflected not only the affluent society in which it was set but society today in general. It highlighted the pitfalls of growing up in today's photographed, posted, insta-d, snapped, recorded life- nothing is secret, personal, private- everybody knows everything and it's not always positive. This book is upsetting in parts and quite eerie too. My children are just young and the thought that what this teacher's students went through is terrifying but unfortunately too often true.

Please note that this book is not for me - I have read the book, However I had to DNF and because i do not like to give negative reviews I will not review this book fully - there is no specific reason for not liking this book. I found it a struggle to read and did not enjoy trying to force myself to read this book.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused and thank you for the opportunity to read this book

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth is the best contemporary novel I've read in quite some time. With comparisons to Everything I Never Told You, I was in and, fortunately, not disappointed. The book follows 8th grade middle school students through their senior years, breaking the book up into sections by grade. This illustrates how the events we go through shape the person we become and never truly leave us. We get many perspectives throughout the story including many students and a teacher. The result is a though-provoking, unforgettable read.

Set in an American High School outside of San Francisco this book is a linked set of stories covering the lives and loves of the teachers and students. Cally Broderick has a sick mother and when she receives a love letter from another student she panics and makes it public. Cyberbullying causes the boy to commit suicide and Cally is wracked with guilt. Miss Nicholl is new to the school and very young, her attempts to support her students may well cross a line but the relationship between a married colleague and another student certainly does.

I devoured this book, partly because it is short and an easy read but mainly because it is so readable. The characters bounce off the page and the themes are universal. The stress of being a high school student and the pressures of adolescence are graphically illustrated but without overt detail. One imagines the sort of films that one student is making, the hedonistic drug-taking and partying are outlined but with the need for voyeurism. the book is assured and mature despite the subject material.

Its a good if frustrating read about a group of differing high school students in the years following a horrible tragedy. Generally easy to read, and moves along at a decent place. while it can be frustrtaing hopping from one narrator to another and never revisiting former storytellers - that can work out great if the narrators who pick up the story offer a different take on events that builds a deeper picture. And also answer most of the questions, implicity or explicitly, you have been left with. Neither really happens here, so the whole is disjointed and ultimately rather shallow, and turns a 4 star review to a 3 star one

This book made me angry, sad, hopeful and proud by turns. It tells the story of a group of high school students as they make their way through their junior year, with all of the tumult that entails. Each chapter focuses on a different student with interstitial chapters focusing on a newly qualified English teacher and this structure allows the author to really get beneath the skin of her characters. We see how other people see them interspersed with how they see themselves. We find out some of the motives for behaviour that at times, seems completely abhorrent and yet in the next moment, we see the vulnerability of the people involved. There is a thread that runs throughout the novel and each chapter contributes to it in some way, creating a detailed and all-encompassing 'year in the life of'' tale that will have you shouting, horrified, crying and laughing. This is a remarkably good book that I think anyone who remembers the horror of high school should read, to maybe get a different perspective of some of the people who inhabit the institution.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Being a teenager is not easy, as I remember so well. Interesting characters, I kept hoping that they would do things differently, making other choices, but it surprised me as well... a splendid book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth is, apparently, high school. Well yes I can get behind that notion and in this novel, Lindsey Lee Johnson takes a snapshot view of one class of kids making their way through and the teachers that inform and shape them. Or not. Because the other thing is, teaching as as a vocation can be easily drowned out by realities.

The book starts with an emotive event that then tracks and follows the characters through their coming of age. We see various people at various points including Molly, the new and still naive teacher, various students including the clever guy who hides his intelligence, the girl who reinvents herself after the initial happening and others - the group dynamics changing and evolving over the course of the tale until they all find a balance, of sorts, after another hugely impacting event.

The writing is coolly immersive, the author digs into the heads of her characters, creating a cleverly addictive narrative that flows out end to end - that balance that we end up with is precarious at best - happy endings, the soul food of a comfortable read are not promised nor in all cases delivered, the reader can speculate on where these characters ultimately end up.

For a debut this is impressive - a little rough around the edges but cleverly done - with that in mind my rating is reflective and I really look forward to what this author brings us next.

I'd heard mixed things about this book but was determined to go in with an open mind and i'm glad i did. This was a very good read. Schools are always a great setting for a story and this really shows the darker side. I'm so glad i never had to deal with the people in this story.

Ahhhhh the halcyon days of school... An idyll of learning and self-improvement.... Who am I trying to kid. School is like a Gladiators obstacle course - ridiculously tough to navigate, and with the constant threat of disaster. That said, if you can successfully navigate your way through and survive all the obstacles - success is yours!
Lindsey Lee Johnson's debut novel is an assured first novel, filled with richly drawn characters with whom the reader can fall in love/hate relationships. From the teacher trying to be too cool and "down with the kids" to the kids themselves - bullying, dating, sleeping around, drinking, pushing themselves too hard... all life is here. Clear a good chunk of time if you are planning on starting this excellent read, as once you start you won't want to stop, as it hurtles towards its denouement. Highly recommended.

I've had my eye on this since I first heard of it: a book set in the edgy space of high-school adolescence but written for adults. Sadly, though, after a powerful start this tails off - the characters are flat (the hippie girl, the try-hard Chinese boy, the disruptive, the golden boy gone bad) and even sub-plots of teachers behaving (very) badly feel like filler rather than the real thing.

Part of the problem is that there's too much going on with each section feeling more like a short story than a part of an organic whole - only short stories without a beginning, middle and end. The narratives ends up stretching themselves too thinly and we never really feel that any of the characters or the plots is dealt with in any detail - some of them have been the subject of whole books so this kind of thin, panoramic approach dulls down the storytelling potential.

There are possibilities here at the intersections of adolescence and social media, but this book ends up shying away from really engaging with them. A missed opportunity overall.

This is an exceptionally perceptive story about adolescent youngsters in a school in San Fransisco. The author shows an amazing ability to get into the minds and aspirations,hang ups and emotions of the age group. The story is compelling and very well written. They are in the main privileged youngsters and that is part of their problems. The book could be very emotional for readers who have teenagers of their own or who relate from their own youths to the emotional waves of that time.