* A California Book Award Finalist - First Fiction *
* A Barnes & Noble Discover Pick *
* An American Booksellers Association Indie Next Pick *
* People Magazine's Book of the Week *
* A LibraryReads 'Top Ten' Pick *
* A Publishers Weekly Book of the Week *
* A Book of the Month Club Pick *
* A San Francisco Chronicle & Northern California Indie Bestseller *
"[An] alarming, compelling and coolly funny debut novel ... Ms. Johnson's characters are unpredictable, contradictory and many things at once, which make them particularly satisfying... For its compassion, its ability to see the humanity inside even the most apparently hopeless person and the shimmering intelligence of its prose, TMDPOE reminded me a bit of Rick Moody's great 1994 novel, The Ice Storm... heartbreaking." -Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
"Extraordinary ... Impossibly funny and achingly sad, Johnson's novel makes you remember every humiliation you suffered while in school, and every terrifyingly bad decision ... In this wise, dangerous, and, yes, occasionally cruel debut, Johnson cracks open adolescent angst with adult sensibility and sensitivity." -Caroline Leavitt, San Francisco Chronicle
"Entrancing ... convincingly captures the varied inner lives of children... I read this book in one, long sitting." -Trine Tsouderos, Chicago Tribune
"Johnson proves herself a master of the coming-of-age story, weaving each teen's penetrating self-evaluation with how they see each other and Molly's judgment of them all. With a fearless compassion, Johnson artfully unwraps who these people truly are, as well as whom they claim to be." -Sharon Steel, Boston Globe
“In Johnson’s excellent debut, her sharp storytelling conveys an authentic sense of the perils of adolescence … Johnson allows these dramas to unfold through various shifting perspectives … She keeps the action brisk and deepens readers’ investment ... Readers may find themselves so swept up in this enthralling novel that they finish it in a single sitting.” -Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"The characters ... affected me in a way I can't remember feeling since binge-watching all five seasons of Friday Night Lights ... You'll walk away feeling like you could revisit hallway drama armed with bulletproof perspective." -Elisabeth Egan, Glamour
"[An] engrossing, multilayered drama." -Cosmopolitan
"A quality read that's also an unputdownable quickie ... a high-wired high school drama." -Elle
"Not since The Breakfast Club has there been a narrative so insightful about the secret lives of high schoolers." -Refinery29
"Gripping ... each chapter offers a vignette into a more complicated interior life." -GQ
“In sharp and assured prose, roving between characters, Lindsey Lee Johnson plumbs the terrifying depths of a half-dozen ultra-privileged California high school kids. I read it in two chilling gulps. It's a phenomenal first book, a compassionate Less Than Zero for the digital age.” -Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See
"A fascinating, often comic, and ultimately heartbreaking read... reminds us just how moving a teen drama can be." -Amy Brady, Dallas Morning News
“An astonishing debut novel, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth plunges the reader into the fraught power dynamics between (and among) high school teachers and students with both nuance and fearlessness. With a stunning constellation of characters’ voices and a fiercely compelling story, it's impossible to put down, or to forget.” -Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me and Dare Me
“In her superb first novel, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth, Lindsey Lee Johnson deftly illuminates a certain strain of privileged American adolescence and the existential minefield these kids are forced to navigate. Elegantly constructed and beautifully written, it reads like Jane Austen for this anxious era.” -Seth Greenland, author of I Regret Everything and The Angry Buddhist
"The intersection of power, fear, desire, and pain is what makes Lindsey Lee Johnson's debut novel so extraordinary... With gorgeous prose and masterful insight, Johnson renders these teens ... with enormous heart and careful precision." -Sarah Weinman, Selecting Judge, BOTM Club
"An unmissable read for parents of adolescents, as well as those considering entering the minefield of teaching." -Seattle Book Mama
“Lindsey Lee Johnson’s gripping debut novel leads us into the moral freefall of a group of privileged Marin County students following a dark incident in their mutual pasts. Beautifully inhabited and written in a supple, confident prose, Ms. Johnson’s novel of adolescent violence and vulnerability is a knockout.” -Janet Fitch, author of Paint It Black and White Oleander
"Stunning ... An eye-opener." -People (Book of the Week)
“The Most Dangerous Place on Earth is a deftly composed mosaic of adolescence in the modern age, frightening and compelling in its honesty. . . . A terrific debut, and one that I didn’t want to put down.” -Julia Pierpont, author of Among the Ten Thousand Things
"Sharp, sarcastic and wise, Johnson's satire also displays unexpected kindness in its devotion to showing the struggles motivating the teenagers' behavior ... An Up the Down Staircase for the era of free-range versus helicopter parenting, TMDPOE reminds adults that adolescence is an exquisitely troubled country unto itself." -Jaclyn Fulwood, Shelf Awareness
"What's exciting ... is the way Johnson manages to find the individuality in each figure within this class of traditional high school archtypes... The book works as both a series of psychological portraits and as a social portrait." -Constance Grady, Vox
"Intensifies the perils of adolescence in the same vein as Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep." -San Francisco Magazine
"If only we had had the wisdom back in high school, to see behind the facades of the kids who intimidated us, fascinated us, irritated us, and disgusted us--and to understand how the ways we collided with each other and with life would play out for us. Johnson's literary superpower is to plunge us into such a school and make us feel it all again as if we are there--only this time with all of the wisdom we lacked previously." -Nina Barrett, LibraryReads
"[A] chilling portrait of growing up in the digital age ... un-put-downable." -PureWow
"Engrossing." -InStyle
"Johnson's polished debut puts a human face to the details of today's daily headlines of teen life." -Library Journal (starred review)
"A testament to Johnson's outsized talent ... the reader remains totally absorbed... Wow." -Paul LaRosa, New York Journal of Books