User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I want to congratulate the author for her realistic, objective approach to multiple mental illnesses young people carry on their shoulders bravely and her amazing characters whose names and tragic stories are already imprinted on my heart!
Those girls’ though fights, struggles to adjust in the real life, their pure pains, challenges they face shook me to my core.
Starting from grief, chronic depression, self-harm, eating disorders, loss of speech, trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder), alcoholism, drug addiction to PMS, we’re introduced so many different types of mental illness categories and those young hearts who are trying to survive as they have no idea how to deal with their pain.
Moira Dreyfuss just lost her best and only friend who got beaten by cancer. Her grief hold her back to live her life. She left her classes, giving up her college applications, fighting incessantly with her parents, having problems with her mother.
She thinks she can never please her so she’s punished by being sent to a boarding school for the troubled girls located in Maine but it is actually and literally a gothic castle in the middle of nowhere. And ironically Dr. Prince the highness of castle in charge of the place.
She reluctantly flies to Maine, welcomed by Randy ( later she finds out he’s Dr. Prince’s son, homeschooled, lived in the very same castle with them), driven to the place, accompanied to her dark, cold, isolated room without any plugs to charge her phone.
The place already gives her chills with its disturbing and isolated vibes, makes her thing she’s going to be prisoner and her parents punish her for not being the daughter they dreamed of.
Then she meets 11 other girls who suffer from different inner demons by showing different
ways to handle them.
ELEANOR- her roommate, finding her relief by cutting herself
MEI-pulling her hair because she doesn’t want to be defined by her beauty. She’s more than that.
VIRGINIA- suffering from ADHD. She has hard times to concentrate and be the daughter her parents want.
GREY- just like her name she sees everything grey, suffering from chronic depression
ALICE- cannot be happy about her appearance, fighting with anorexia.
RYAN- wants to keep her special treasure by suffering from kleptomania.
RAINA- stopped talking after witnessing something so tragic and she never feels safe to come clean.
REVA- she cannot stay at the same place for a long time. She’s at flight risk. She cannot restrain her uncontrollable instinct of running away.
BETH- her sports injuries resulted with drug addiction.
HALSEY- her desire to get approval of her inner circle pushed her to be an alcoholic.
CASSANDRA-having problems with authorities, she cannot be told what she’s going to do.
Those girls are also the MCs of the book. We read all of them’s back stories. We easily empathize with them, understanding their compelling fight, aching for their heartbreaks, suffer, sadness, despair.
Moira thinks the castle is a prison and Dr. Prince keeps his own secrets. He’s not reliable. He cannot cure her. She doesn’t need to be healed. She deals with guilt feelings about Nathan’s -her only best friend’s death.
Then one night she realizes the lock of her room window is broken and as she climbs down and walk around the castle, she discovers another castle at the south side belongs to the boys. But that castle is not dark, bleak, cold like the place they stayed. The boys seem like happy, dancing, cheering. They don’t look like they’re troubled ones as like the girls she connects at the north side.
What was the mystery behind the two castles?
And why Dr. Prince’s son Randy didn’t stay with the boys at the castle?
This is emotional, poignant, heartbreaking but also thought provoking, well written book with memorable characters and presents great psychological approach to those brave fighter/ survivor girls!
I enjoyed the conclusion. It’s about mental state, families, grief, true love, resentments, forgiveness, second chances.
It’s truly one of the best works of the author.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for sharing this incredible arc with me in exchange my honest opinions.
Rating: really liked it
Not what I expected!
I picked this one out because it sounded a bit different and it turned out it really was. The main character was a seventeen year old girl from Manhattan, New York named Moira Dreyfuss. Moira recently lost her best friend Nathan to Cancer and has been acting out, skipping meals and school, the last straw was a tattoo on her arm. So her parents send her to The Castle School (for Troubled Girls).
Nathan was Moira’s only real friend and they were true best friends. They did everything together. Moira always got the feeling that she was a disappointment to her parents and was often at Nathan’s place rather than her own. She liked his parents and they treated her as a family member. During Nathan’s long bout with Cancer, Moira would often skip school to stay with him in the hospital and after he died, she didn’t feel like going back even after what her parents considered a timely mourning period.
The Castle school is actually in a real Castle in the wilderness of Maine and it is cold, dreary and they take away her phone and laptop. There are no clocks, no electronic devices and the rules are very strict. They don’t have fires burning in the rooms for warmth and the girls are always cold. They see Dr. Prince (a.k.a. The Prince) every other day for therapy and Moira also meets his son, Bertrand (a.k.a. Randy). Randy lives in the castle but isn’t allowed to have much interaction with the girls.
The school is a joke, Moira thinks it is pretty ironic that her parents sent her away for skipping school and this school is pretty much non-existent. She also thinks a lot of things about their situation is really strange and starts to wonder if it is all some elaborate psychological experiment that The Prince is doing on behavior or something like that.
Moira notices the bars on her windows are loose and along with her roommate, leaves during the night to investigate music they have been hearing late at night. They find a very similar Castle nearby with boys which is run by Maura Prince (wife or sister of The Prince). However, the boys have much more freedom and Moira can’t figure out what is going on.
As the story goes along, each of the girls Moira is with in the castle has a chapter with their own POV which goes on to show a bit about their life prior to getting sent to the castle and what was the primary reason for them being sent to the castle. They range from OCD to addiction and just about everything in between.
The story was a bit slow, but good and the ending is fabulous. There were quite a few mysteries and I found myself wondering along the way why Moira didn’t come right out and ask about some of these things. But I guess I can see why she didn’t. In some cases the questions were too intrusive and not really any of her business and in others, the questions would give away the fact that she knows about the other Castle and its inhabitants. So like in most books, we just have to wait for Moira to find out more. I just really liked the story and how it all turned out. Mysteries are rarely revealed like in this book. It was a breath of fresh air.
I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
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Rating: really liked it
Moira Dreyfuss is skipping school, skipping meals, and can only communicate in either tense silent stretches or a raised and furious voice. A fake ID and a very real tattoo are the final straws for her parents and The Castle School brochures start arriving not long after.
The castle boarding school is set upon an isolated stretch of Maine coastline and is perpetually permeated with chill and misty air. It is the perfect setting for every Gothic novel ever written and is now home to twelve 'troubled girls'. What plagues each of them differs but they are united in their struggles from grief, unhappiness, loneliness, and never feeling like they quite fit in in the outer world.
I'll never not be intrigued by an isolated academic setting, but I grew to appreciate the focus on mental illness just as much as the chilling (in every sense of the word!) setting. These twelve brave and resilient individuals were created with differing and diagnosed mental illnesses and addictions. Sheinmel portrayed their struggle with both authenticity and sensitivity and I highly appreciated the insight garnered into each of them.
Both the pain and suffering, the relapses into past habits, the coping mechanisms deployed, and the stories behind each were focused on, leading this to be a far more emotional novel than I was anticipating. Each girl immediately had me empathising with their struggle whilst loving their individual personalities and my interest swayed from boarding school drama to the rawness and honesty they all exhibited. I may have only been introduced to them mere pages before, but this author's writing had them immediately entering my heart and had me earnestly wishing the best for each of them.
I received a copy for this book in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the author, Alyssa B. Sheinmel, and the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, for this opportunity.
Rating: really liked it
i hate to be the one to ruin the party by being the only one to rate this one star, but i'm not gonna beat around the bush: this was not good in my opinion.
i really wanted to like this book. it has lots of mental health representation which is
so important, but despite there being some good things about it, i just didn't like how this story handled it and, well, where this should've been a very emotional story, i felt
nothing. no tears for me this time.
something i did appreciate was the way this book didn't treat mental illnesses like they were a taboo. that's really important because it shouldn't be a taboo at all, of course! the thing for me is, though, that the characters were written as if they
were their mental illness. yes, i wanted a story about mental health, but i didn't sign up for characters whose only characteristics had to do with their illness.
their entire story, their entire
being...it all revolved around the same thing. it was as if they were just walking illnesses to be honest. i guess there were just too many characters for the characters to be well developed, but that doesn’t take away my frustration.
this book really tried and i don't think the author had any bad intentions by this, but for me? it just didn't sit right with me and i expected a lot more in other areas of the story too. i will not go into detail with that because, well, to be really honest, there's not much to say except for the obvious fact that i'm disappointed.
so yeah, that's that? i feel like i'm being too harsh because this has
raving reviews, but it's just how i felt. i literally had the nicest chat with the author though (before i read her book and decided i didn't like it...) which you can read here! let's hope she won't find this review because i'll actually
cry...
thank you to the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review! this did not affect my opinions in any way.blog | bookstagram | more
Rating: really liked it
"We can't keep the people we love alive by putting our own lives on hold. In fact, we can't put our lives on hold at all. Time marches on, even when we don't want it to."The Castle School (for Troubled Girls) follows Moira, after her parents have decided to send her to a boarding school specialising in therapy and recovery from mental illnesses. But the school has an air of mystery to it, and the more she learns about it, the more things seem odd to Moira. After having no contact with the outside world- Moira discovers another school across the woods that houses only boys.
This synopsis makes it sound like the book will be a thriller, or at very least a mystery. But the overarching themes were of
grief, recovery and friendship. I think these misplaced expectations made my experience a little tainted- mostly because I would have preferred the story if it followed a bit more of the thriller/mystery path. I spent the first half to three quarters of the book questioning
everything, was the school a cult? a crazy medical experiment? a hallucination? but things were much less sinister than I was assuming. This isn't intended to spoil the story- but rather prevent you from spoiling it for yourself. If I had known going in that this wasn't a thriller, I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more.
That being said, I still
really liked this book. Its exploration of mental health was nuanced and didn't resort to stereotypes- as I have come to expect from Alyssa Sheinmel. One of my favourite aspects of the story were the short chapters telling the backstories of some of the other girls interspersed throughout. Everything from kleptomania, anorexia, OCD, selective mutism and drug addiction addressed, and more. The sheer amount of issues might seem overly ambitious for such as short novel, but I thought they were each given an appropriate amount of time and not glossed over. It take me a while to sort out who each of the girls were, but that was bound to happen in a book with such a large cast.
I can't help but be a little disappointed in this book because the summary sounds
so good. I adore boarding school stories, found family tropes and the twelve dancing princesses (with which this book has some slight parallels). Unfortunately, my misplaced expectations brought down my enjoyment a little- but I would still
without a doubt recommend it. The writing was good, characters nuanced and plot intriguing. It could have done with a little more development, but overall it was an engaging and important book.
★★★☆☆.75
Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for this ARCRelease Date: 2 March 2021
Rating: really liked it
This wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it's still a very good book. I assumed The Castle School (for troubled girls) would be a thriller, but it's really more serious contemporary fiction about mental health with a slight mystery element.
Moira has been acting out since the death of her best friend and getting a tattoo is the last straw for her Jewish parents. They announce they are sending her to a boarding school where she and the other girls will get therapy and a chance to heal. But things seem strange to Moira, they have little to no contact with the outside world, and then they discover another school through the woods where there are only boys. (See why it sounded like a thriller?)
But there's really not that much tension or mystery. Instead this follows the journey of a girl grieving and in pain, alongside other girls with their own struggles. It gently tackles issues of mental health and trauma, offering not only the external, diagnosed perspective but also the internal one and complicated reasons for things. I thought it was a really beautiful book about pain and healing and overcoming your own biases. Note that there is semi-graphic material dealing with a variety of issues involving different girls including depression, self-harm, disordered eating, addiction, grief, pulling out hair (I know there's a term for this, but don't recall it), running away from home, and cancer. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Rating: really liked it
Huh. This was not what I was expecting... but it was really good? But really not what I was expecting. This was initially marketed as a thriller, and there are light mystery/suspense threads in the first half, but really this is a character driven YA contemporary--I kept thinking of Girl, Interrupted. I typically don't read these sorts of books, and I'm not mad about it... but regardless readers would be best served going in specifically knowing this is not really a mystery/suspense book. Those threads are LIGHT.
That said, those threads were intriguing in the first half, and I do like how it built light suspense as Moira landed at the Castle School and learned the lay of the land. Her distrust of things and poking around to solve the mystery of the school keep mt turning pages. Then by the time it because clear that the real purpose of the book was, I was so emotionally connected to the characters that I didn't mind.
This is essentially a book about grief, and human connection/imperfection. The grief stuff hit hard; I definitely cried. Generally highly recommend this as a YA contemporary centered on grief/messy relationships especially between parent and child, and pushing through our own barriers we set for ourselves. The cast was full of characters I really cared about, and cared what happened to. The romance was slow burn and not the most important aspect of the book, but was still nicely done.
This is the second book by Sheinmel I've read and once again I felt in the hands of a highly competent writer weaving a complex emotional story. She's excellent at character depth, and in particular clinical environments--her last one was also set at a facility, though that was in-patient and fully a suspense novel, whereas this is a more loosely structured school and as said this is a more straightforward contemporary. There is a wide and varied depiction of primarily young women with mental health concerns, and largely it seemed like a good depiction--I know good mental health rep is sorely needed.
So overall, hearty recommendation to fans of YA contemporary especially who love a little intrigue, a little romance, and some really good, complex character emotions/development.
That said, I do think this warrants one particular content/trigger warning (maybe two), and I believe I gave the same one for her last book. There were times in this book where I really wasn't sure about some of the depictions of or references to ED, and to be safe I would recommend anyone with a serious ED not read this. I believe, given the repetition of references to ED/characters with ED and knowledge of in-patient treatment that it may be likely the author has personal experiences here, and thus I don't want to police said depiction especially should it come from a personal place HOWEVER there was one particular scene featuring the character at the school who is in recovery that raised my eyebrows. She is shown participating in a very specific behavior and the MC questions what she is doing, and someone else explains "oh Alice does X because Y"--and it was a VERY SPECIFIC thing I hadn't heard of, and I imagine it must be something that some anorexic people do when in the thrall of their disorder. Essentially: I LEARNED something and I was like "oh no I did NOT need to know that"--I'm ok (b/c my issues don't tend in this direction) but this could literally give someone a pro-tip for their ED? That's where I'm wary--that a reader could take away a "tip" from this book that further disordered eating behaviors. Also Alice's journey is left very open ended which is realistic but further reinforces that I'm simply not sure if this is the best book for anyone with an active ED or who is in the early stages of recovery.
Similarly, I am not familiar enough with cutting and that community to speak with any authority, but I'll give the content warning that a major character is a cutter and it plays into aspects of the plot/subplots in a meaningful way. I would leave it to readers with more experience/expertise to say whether it was well-handled.
Rating: really liked it
omg I want to read this! I LOVE dark boarding school stories
Rating: really liked it
Let me start this review with a small warning: This book was entirely different from what I had expected it to be. I was in a mystery mood, and even more in a boarding school mystery mood, and I found this book on Netgalley. I was quite happy when I got the e-mail that my request was accepted and that I could start reading. However, this is NOT a mystery. It's something much better, hence my rating, but it might not be much better for everyone.
As a certified therapist this book touched me at my core. Quite often therapy and therapists in general are not being portrayed positively in media, especially not in media that targets young adults. However, in this book we finally get to see what a good therapist can accomplish. Or, maybe better phrased, how a good therapist can help their client to accomplish a lot. And yes, therapy hurts and it's not always fun, but if it's done well it works and it helps and it changes lives for the better.
And Moira, the heroine of this story, does need some nudges in the right direction and a hand helping her find her way back to life again. I don't want to spoil anything in this review of course, but Moira's journey is one of the most touching I've ever read. I think it portrays mourning and the complexity and difficulty of it in a brilliant way. We spend most of the book in Moira's head and not only do we discover her past with her, but we also get a glimpse of the future waiting for her after this adventure.
Although none of the girls are at this school without reason, this book really portrays them as girls. Not once does Sheinmel turn any of them into stereotypes, not once does she forget that these are people. In between Moira's journey we get a brief chapter on how each of the girls ended here, in this place. And all of those stories seemed real and respectful. All those twelve girls are just examples of how one can slowly lose oneself (and the ones you care about) and how it can happen to anyone.
If you're looking for a mystery or thriller, this is surely not your book. However, if you're looking for a touching read (I cried. A lot.) that really handles complex issues teenagers might deal with in a respectful and realistic way, this book is what you want and need.
Rating: really liked it
I will save everyone the trouble and just tell you now that there IS NO MYSTERY.
This is NOT a mystery or thriller. It's not a dark psychological contemporary.
It is just a contemporary YA novel about grief.
I spent this entire damn book waiting for a twist or a mystery and didn't get it. I think I would have liked the book more if I hadn't been mislead with the cover (the red ink just screams BLOOD!) & the blurb.
Rating: really liked it
Recently Moria's best friend Nathan died and ever since then she has been living life in a trance and heading down a downwards spiral as in her mind since Nathan isn't here to enjoy life, then why should she as to her it feels like everything she does in life including making new friends is a betrayal to Nathan. Her parents are at their wit's end and have decided to send her to a boarding school called "The Castle School " Each semester the school picks 12 girls that they think they can help from all walks of life but each of them, their parents are at their wit's end. At the school, Moira will soon adjust to the way of life, and one night she hears music and along with her roommate Eleanor who is in for self-harm, they discover a school just like there but for 12 boys. This Castle School though seems like a happier and freerer version than their one but soon they will learn that things are not always as they seem. If you are looking for an edgy read that has a heavy focus on Mental Health and other issues then check out The Castle School (For Troubled Girls) by Alyssa Sheinmel. I love these books as I am a big fan of edgy fiction as I have always found Mental Health books fascinating and this was the second book I have read from Alyssa Sheinmel that has featured Mental Health issues. One of the diseases that was mentioned in this book - trichotillomania ( obsessive hair pulling) touched me on a personal level as I suffered from this from aged 7 - 11 years old. It got so bad for me that I didn't even know I was doing it and I would wake up and have clumps of hair on my pillow in the morning, during this too when I was 7+, I went through a stage where I told my parents that I didn't want to live anymore - so Mei's issues I could fully understand and recognize.
Rating: really liked it
I'm confused as to why this one hasn't been added yet. I can't wait to have my grubby hands grab a copy! 💕
Rating: really liked it
Not my cup of tea. Alas, the author's repetitive writing style slowed the action for me. The author "belabored the point" for just about each and every thought, action or idea in this story. She took one premise and stretched it out like bread dough. She presented all the variations of the one idea in the same paragraph. Aha: see what I did? I used a similar writing style to show you exactly what irked me about this novel.
The author has some interesting ideas about grief and about Moira's inability to accept or come to terms with the loss of her best friend Nathan. All that bottled up and misdirected anger!
Great writing: all the variations on the same theme were often impressive - but maybe she should have saved some them for another book on a similar subject? I'm giving this one a 3 out of 5.
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
I received a pre-publication copy of this book from Netgalley.
This book was stunningly good.
Moira is being sent away. Her parents are sending her to The Castle School. Moira has never heard of it, but her parents have a glossy brochure to show her. They've also made certain that she's escorted to the airport by rather burly guards. They know that she won't want to go. Moira knows that whatever this school is, it's a punishment for getting a tattoo. When she finally lands at the airport in Maine, a van from the school is waiting for her. The side of the van clearly reads The Castle School. Barely visible, in painted-over shadow letters, is the phrase "for Troubled Girls." The Castle School is not a reform school, but it's also clearly not a place where anyone
wants to go.
Moira is the last of the 12 students admitted that semester. Each girl is there for a different reason. The book shares brief chapters from the point of view of each of the other students, allowing readers to see the story that brought them to the school. One is an addict, one is an alcoholic. One has trichotillomania, although it is never given that name. (Trichotillomania is a compulsive behavior disorder where individuals pluck their hair. I had it as a young teen, although it was never diagnosed. Seeing it in a book was a remarkable sensation, as I have
never seen a book treat this disorder with any sensitivity, and this book does. I wish I had had a book like this when I was young.)
Her first night at the school, Moira hears music in the distance. Her second night, she realizes the lock on her window has busted, and the third night she climbs down. Moira and her roommate discover that there's
another Castle School nearby, this one for boys. They are invited inside, and it's completely different from their school. At the girls' school, it's cold and barren-feeling. The girls have a bedtime. Here, there's a fire in the fireplace, and the boys keep late hours. A boy invites Moira to dance, and it's only here that she can finally relax. Soon, the rest of the girls are joining Moira, heading out to dance every night at the boy's school.
Each of the girls has been sent to the Castle School for a reason, and the dancing is not helping them. In fact, it may be making their problems worse still . . .
There's a great deal going on this book, and all of it is wonderful. The fairy tale echoes, the mystery of Moira's story, the mystery of the school . . . it's all very compelling. I started reading and didn't really stop until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. In some ways, it reminded me of one of my favorite books from my childhood, Life Without Friends by Ellen Emerson White. In that book, Beverly is recovering from recent traumatic events. Part of her path to healing is through regular conversations with a therapist that helps her talk about those events. Dr. Prince, the therapist in charge of The Castle School, reminded me of Beverly's therapist at times, although they had slightly different methods. (I can't imagine Dr. Prince offering Moira a cigarette, for instance. Ah, the 1980s were a different world.)
I don't know if this book will stick with contemporary readers the way that Ellen Emerson White's book stuck with me. I rather hope it does.
Rating: really liked it
This book was not what I was expecting at all. I assumed based on the blurb that this was a thriller/mystery. But The Castle School (for troubled girls) was much more than that. I only put this here so people can know what they’re reading. I would hate to see bad reviews because someone was expecting a thriller.
Moira Dreyfus has been acting out since the death of her best friend. Her parents decide to send her to a boarding school where she can get therapy and start to heal.
This book was deep. I really enjoy books that touch on mental health, the author did a great job of showing different mental health issues. It’s so important for YA readers to read books like this one.
I sped through this one, I found myself so invested in all the girls from the school.
This is a story about grief, loss, friendship, and more. If you’re searching for a book with lots of mental illness rep, this is definitely the book for you.
Super grateful to Sourcebookss Fire and Netgalley for the eARC of this book.
