Hysteria

by MS Megan Miranda

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

I’m not normally a reader of thrillers, but this one sounded really good! Unfortunately, I should have stuck with gut and passed on it. First, the blurb is a little misleading. We don’t know what Mallory doesn’t remember everything from the night she killed her boyfriend. We get bits and pieces of the story throughout the book, but it isn’t until the end when Mallory mentions that she’s remembered something new. Also, her past does indeed follow her to the new school, since someone there does know what she did and why she had to transfer, and they know her from the past. So that blurb isn’t totally accurate.

One of my first problems with Hysteria was that the writing felt very repetitive. Almost every chapter or tense scene ends with some variation of “And then I was running” or “I ran away.” Mallory was always running from something, all the time. She’d go to class, overhear something on the way to her dorm, pop some sleeping pills, think she sees something and runs away. Lather, rinse, repeat. It got boring fast.

My other problem was why she was sent to a boarding school in the first place. It seems like a strange decision for parents to send their teenager away after she’s been through something terrible. Out of sight, out of mind? Definitely. Mallory does not do well at the new school at all, so clearly it was a bad decision.

As for the mystery aspect, I was intrigued. Is Mallory suffering from hysteria, or did someone really follow her to her new school? Or is Brian haunting her and leaving bruises on her shoulder? I was surprised by the answer to these, but once it was revealed I still had questions. I can’t say what those questions are without spoiling anything though. Then there’s the whole murdered student plot. Of course, Mallory is the number one suspect, but who else could have done it? I didn’t figure this one out either, but the big reveal was really lame. I still don’t understand what the motive was, and the whole thing felt incomplete. What happened to the murderer(s) at the end?

In the end, this one left me with more questions, instead of resolving everything. I am just really bothered by the lack of reason or motive behind the murder and other crimes committed, which kept me from enjoying this one.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.