The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis is a dark tale of a friendship gone wrong. Seven years ago Tress Montor’s parents were driving her friend, Felicity Turnado home. Only Felicity was found, cold and shivering, left on the side of the road. Tress’ parents had disappeared. Years later, Tress, now an outcast living with her one-eyed grandfather, has a plan. A plan to find out exactly what happened that fateful night. And nothing will stop her from finding the truth– but just how far will she go? Felicity has it all. Looks, popularity, and money. She’s buried her memories of that night so deep within her even she has no recollection of what happened. But soon, she may have no choice but to dredge up those dark memories. At a Halloween costume party in an abandoned house, Tress plans to pry the truth from Felicity, brick by brick as she slowly seals her old friend into a coal chute. As a drunken party rages above them and a loose panther prowls through the house, Felicity will have to remember what happened that night, years ago, or die at the hands of her former best friend. Told from Tress and Felicity’s perspectives (and a panther), this book is a page turner and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

As Felicity and Tress talk, bringing up old memories, Mindy McGinnis does a great job of creating suspense, as Felicity’s fate is constantly hanging in the air throughout the book. Many parts of the book is told through flashbacks where their complicated relationship is further explored. In the flashbacks we can see that both girls are conflicted and suffer from issues. Felicity is shown to have survivor’s guilt, as well as guilt for distancing herself from Tress (though her mother influenced her to do so). Tress is shunned by the town, and has only the animals in the zoo her grandfather runs to keep her company. Her grandfather is harsh and does not seem to be the best parental figure. Back in the present, Felicity keeps on trying to convince Tress to let her go, and that she doesn’t know what happened to her parents. Tress is unconvinced and certain Felicity is lying.

Though while all this is taking place, there are many other events happening at the same time, making the plot seem all over the place at times. Above them, a party rages on, full of drunken and passed out teenagers. Tress’ cousin, Ribbit, is bullied throughout the book. It is explained that when he’s drunk he tends to do whatever is asked of him. As a result he is humiliated and bullied by the majority of the crowd, and all of this is live streamed as well. Tress is aware of this and though she cares for Ribbit she doesn’t stop it. She knows that if the party is distracted by Ribbit, then no one will search for Felicity. This reveals a more twisted side to Tress, one that shows her priorities and the extent she is willing to go for answers. I felt like Ribbit’s bullying was unnecessary to include, especially with the amount of details it is described with. In addition, there’s also a panther on the loose in the house, the one from her grandfather’s zoo. There’s also a mysterious flu going around, and it is said that some of the passed out teenagers look sick but this isn’t explored further and is sort of just left hanging. All of this culminates into making the book feel like a peculiar fever dream. In my opinion these events distracted us from the main plot, which is Tress looking for answers about what happened to her parents. And to top it off, it ends with a cliffhanger.

My opinion on the ending…

The ending is a jaw-dropper. Felicity has a seizure and blacks out. Tress has a change of heart and attempts to get her out, but with her own injuries in the way, she is unable to. Tress assumes Felicity has died and decides to finish the job, numb with grief for her former friend. She seals Felicity into the coal chute and leaves. However it’s revealed that Felicity is still alive, now trapped in the coal chute with no way of getting out. The abandoned house is scheduled for demolition, ensuring that no one will find Felicity until it is too late. While this book was hard to get through, I am interested whether Felicity survives or not. Also, after all this, it is still not revealed what happened to Tress’ parents and despite Tress’ attempts, not much is revealed about that night except that Tress’ dad was cheating on her mom. It felt somewhat frustrating to read page after page and still know almost nothing new about what happened that night. Hopefully the second book will provide answers.

This was a suspenseful read, at times confusing given all the things happening in the book. Though it is an interesting concept. I’m looking forward to the read the second book in this duology, which is yet to be released.

3/5 Stars