The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis

The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis

Release Date - Feb 23, 2021

Publisher Website - Harper Collins
Publisher Social Media - Twitter/Facebook/SavvyReader/Frenzy

Pages - 370 pages
My Rating - 4/5

**received for an honest review from the publisher**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

Welcome to Amontillado, Ohio, where your last name is worth more than money, and secrets can be kept… for a price.

Tress Montor knows that her family used to mean something—until she didn’t have a family anymore. When her parents disappeared seven years ago while driving her best friend home, Tress lost everything. She might still be a Montor, but the entire town shuns her now that she lives with her drunken, one-eyed grandfather at what locals refer to as the “White Trash Zoo,” – a wild animal attraction featuring a zebra, a chimpanzee, and a panther, among other things.

Felicity Turnado has it all – looks, money, and a secret that she’s kept hidden. She knows that one misstep could send her tumbling from the top of the social ladder, and she’s worked hard to make everyone forget that she was with the Montors the night they disappeared. Felicity has buried what she knows so deeply that she can’t even remember what it is… only that she can’t look at Tress without having a panic attack.

But she’ll have to.

Tress has a plan. A Halloween costume party at an abandoned house provides the ideal situation for Tress to pry the truth from Felicity – brick by brick – as she slowly seals her former best friend into a coal chute. With a drunken party above them, and a loose panther on the prowl, Tress will have her answers – or settle for revenge.

In the first book of this duology, award-winning author Mindy McGinnis draws inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe and masterfully delivers a dark, propulsive mystery in alternating points of view that unravels a friendship... forevermore.

The Initial Insult kicks off a duology that is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado. It offers a twisted tale of revenge that ends up being quite the page turner.

I have a mixed track record with Mindy McGinnis' books. I have been impressed with her writing style in all of them but some have not quite worked plot wise for me. This one turned out to really work for me. There is something about the tone and the deliberate way the story comes together that worked for me.

I have not read The Cask of Amontillado so I cannot comment on the inspiration element and if it works. The basics of that story does carry over in that one character is encasing their former friend turned frenemy inside a brick wall (in essence burying them alive). This aspect is taunt and provides palpable anxiety as each layer is added. This menacing tone and atmosphere shapes thr novel. It is a novel of revenge and secrets and that only adds to its allure.

Tress is a volatile hot mess. She is unapologetic about everything and hell bent on finding out what happened the night her parents disappeared. She is absolutely going to bring out different reactions in people but I feel that the reader at least understands her motivations. We may not agree with her actions but can understand why she would want to burn everything down. Her anger feeds the tone of the story and makes them work together.

Felicity is just as interesting as Tress is. She is kind of a counter balance to Tress and their characters work off each other. She is hiding her own secrets and has her own issues going on and it makes for a really interesting dynamic between the two girls. I feel you need two headstrong characters for this story to work and the author definitely succeeded. 

Communication, and lack thereof, is a huge part of this story. If Tress and Felicity were different characters and actually talked to each other so much could be cleared up. It makes the tension feel a little more taunt because the reader knows how different things could have been. Thr mystery of what happened to Tress' parents is certainly interesting but it is the dynamic between the girls that is the heartbeat of this story.

The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger while also feeling very satisfying. Things ramp up in the end so you are left wanting to pick up the next book immediately. It manages to close out the first half of the story while keeping you hooked for the second half.

I recommend this one if you like dark, atmospheric stories filled with interesting characters. It is an wildly twisted tale that highlights the one saying of digging two graves if you set out in the path of revenge.