Common Sense Media Review
By Lucinda Dyer
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Dark and violent story of friendship, loss, and revenge.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
As THE INITIAL INSULT begins, Tress is living with her alcoholic grandfather at what the town has labeled the "White Trash Zoo." Her grandfather keeps exotic animals, including a black panther, and pays far more attention to them than his granddaughter. Tress sometimes goes to school hungry, dirty, and smelling of the animals, and she dresses in whatever she can afford from Goodwill. Now a senior in high school, she came to live with her grandfather seven years ago after the mysterious disappearance of her parents. They'd left to drive her best friend Felicity home and were never seen again. Felicity was found wandering alone later that night, but has always denied remembering anything at all about what happened. Once as close as sisters, the girls grow increasingly apart as Felicity's life remains one of privilege and Tress is trapped in a life of poverty. As flashback chapters to sixth and seventh grade and 9th, 10th, and 11th grade years reveal, Felicity's offers of help (clothes and money) over the years have been rejected by an angry Tress. Now, Felicity helps Tress out in the only way she'll accept: by buying drugs from her. Then, at a drunken party, Tress chains Felicity to a wall in the cellar and tells her if she won't reveal the truth about what happened to her parents, she'll brick her up behind a wall and leave her to die.
Is It Any Good?
This is a story that's relentlessly tragic and intense, a page turner of a psychological thriller so dark it's almost inky black. Readers familiar with Edgar Allen Poe may recognize that The Initial Insult pays homage to his classic horror short story, "The Cask of Amontillado."
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the destructive desire for revenge shown in The Initial Insult. Are there ever circumstances where revenge is justified?
Teens at a party get a boy drunk, humiliate him, and post it online. How do you think being drunk affects behavior or good judgment?
Have you ever had a disagreement or misunderstanding with a friend that was so serious you stopped speaking? Was that friendship ever mended?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Mystery
- Topics : Friendship , School ( High School )
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Katherine Tegen Books
- Publication date : February 23, 2021
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 14 - 18
- Number of pages : 370
- Available on : Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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