"A Danger to Herself and Others" by Alyssa Sheinmel

Trigger Warning: Mental Health Issues, Eating Disorders, Mentions of Suicide

💬: To Hannah, the decision to have her institutionalized was wrong. What happened to her best friend Agnes was an accident. Nobody was meant to get hurt. And as soon as the doctors realize that she isn't a danger to herself and others, she'll go home to start her senior year of high school. Those college essays aren't going to write themselves, after all! Until then, she plans to get on the good side of Dr. Lightfoot, her personal psychiatrist, and to get out of her dull, boring room as much as possible. As time goes on, Hannah notices new things about the institution. Girls with eating disorders eat at a special table in the cafe (if you're allowed to go there). Somebody always supervises the showers (if you're allowed to take one). Talking circles are with people who go through the same experiences as you (if you're allowed to be there). Going outside is allowed (if you have permission, of course). The more time she spends at the institution, Hannah wonders what she has to do to get those privileges and spend time with some of the girls there. Seriously. This whole "alone" thing is getting real old. 

Just as the isolation becomes unbearable, Hannah meets Lucy. 

Lucy becomes Hannah's new roommate and a replacement of her former best friend. Though Lucy seems just as troubled as Hannah, she helps Hannah confront the harsh truths that wait for her outside the doors of her small room in the institution. 

❤: What I loved most about this book was the author's ability to make you feel a wide range of emotions toward a single character, specifically Hannah. Hannah has a drastic change throughout the novel, going from a narcissistic, egotistical and privileged girl (this is honestly one of the biggest examples of an unreliable narrator I've ever seen) to someone you could sympathize with and possibly relate to. Hannah's change throughout the novel is so genuine that it's impossible to not love her by the end of the story. At first, she narrates her story as if she lives a perfect life and is proud of all the terrible things she has done. By the end, she knows that her life isn't as perfect as she thought and that she was going to have to work to make herself a better person. And I LOVE when characters go through major changes like that. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a story of transformation, someone who can handle dark elements (as listed above) and someone who enjoys a whole bunch of twists in their stories.