Girl on the Brink

By: Christina Hoag

Narrated by: Angela Masi

"An engrossing tale of a dangerous teen romance" --Kirkus Reviews Best of YA-Suspense magazine

"Gripping." "Scarily accurate." "Unputdownable." "Powerful." "Beautiful & shocking."

He was perfect. At first. The summer before senior year, 17-year-old Chloe starts an internship at a local newspaper. While on assignment, she meets Kieran, a quirky aspiring actor. Chloe is smitten with Kieran's charisma and his ability to soothe her soul, torn over her parents' impending divorce. As their bond deepens, Kieran becomes smothering and flies into terrifying rages.

He confides in Chloe that he suffered a traumatic childhood, and Chloe is moved to help him. If only he could be healed, she thinks, their relationship would be perfect. Her efforts backfire. Kieran becomes violent. Chloe breaks up with him, but Kieran pursues her relentlessly. Chloe must make the heartrending choice between saving herself or saving Kieran, until his mission of remorse turns into a quest for revenge.

©2016 Christina Hoag (P)2022 Christina Hoag

Critic reviews

"An engrossing tale of a dangerous teen romance." (Kirkus Reviews)

Best of YA-Suspense magazine

Awesome! It only needed one thing.

What a fun experience this was. I'm brand new to this author and narrator. The narrator bugged me a little bit in the beginning, but for whatever reason, soon she grew on me and I began to adore the sound of her voice, all young and sounding exactly like I imagine our protagonist does.

The story is written in present tense, which serves the feeling of immediacy, yes, but because of that, it lacked one thing - a likeable boyfriend from the outset.

The trouble is, that because the book's tagline AND the first line of its summary copy reads: "He was perfect. At first." And because the summary goes on to tell the whole plot of the book, we already know from the minute we meet Kieran that he's going to turn into our story's villain. Thus, we see right through him. I didn't like him from the outset and it bothered me that our smart young heroine did. --combined with the present tense narration-- you can see how I was reduced to live football game yellings of "That's a red flag!" and "You little jerk, that's uncool and kind of creepy too."

But it's a YA and a really good one at that. And a warning story on what might happen if you neglect your parenting duties and then their other parent does too. She's smart but none of this would have happened if her family had been paying attention. (Although, don't get me wrong, the author did a great job of creating organic reasons why everything happens the way it does. It's not contrived, it felt real.)

I don't like that boyfriend enough to read it again, but I did enjoy the ride and my dive into Chloe's mind. She's cool, you'll like her.

Informative and interesting

Girl on the Brink is a fantastic and shocking story. Chloe thinks she's found the perfect boyfriend, don’t we all though? So when Kieran shows her his true nature Chloe tries to help him because of his past. I really liked Chloe a lot. But Kieran is intense, he's suffocating and he's jealous. He uses his concern and affection to show Chloe that he's such a good and loving boyfriend, while she's the one with shortcomings. Ms Hoag has perfectly captured how abusive relationships start and how the victim is being trained to think and act in a certain way.

Girl on the Brink is impressive and very well written. Christina Hoag has made her story gripping and filled with emotion. Hoag breaks down all the signs of abuse. I loved the way she intertwines information with a great story and she's writing about warning signals in an informative and interesting way. Girl on the Brink is a story about an incredibly important topic and the writing is amazing.

The narrator was great too. She took this story and gave it feelings and really added to it.

Heartwrenching, but very well done

I really enjoyed this. it was difficult to listen to at times because the content made me so sad and it was difficult to see the stages of abuse laid out, but it was done in a realistic and honest way. I feel the book is an important read for teens.

The narration was well done, I noticed a few areas where there was an edited in chunk possibly done in a different studio because the quality was a bit different but no outright flubs and the narrator's voice sounded the right age.

I recieved this audiobook for free in exchange for my honest review.

Girl on the Brink

Christina Hoag pulled me in with Girl on the Brink. This book is honest in its depictions of a teenager in a manipulative relationship. The relationship through innocent eyes is seen one way, while others can see the full picture. The author did a great job in conveying the story. Angela Rose Masi was great bringing emotions. I fully enjoyed this listen.

Feelings

I was so pulled in my this book. Though I have never gone through anything like this myself, I had a friend who did. It is really heartbreaking. I could feel her feelings. The way everything got turned around to where it made her out to be the problem instead of the victim. I am so glad I listened to this book. it was amazing. The narrator did a wonderful job!

Great book!

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. I think it gives a very sharply observed account of how far and fast a relationship can go downhill. A cautionary tale.

intense

I didn't really know what I was getting into with this book. but wow, it was good. it's crazy how it slowly escalates. I will be looking for more books by Christina Hoag.

Tough listen

I knew the subject matter dealt with abusive relationships but I still found this a tough listen. I found myself saying "No, don't do that" a lot. This is a well-written story and should be mandatory reading for all high school girls. There are definitely some life-lessons.

What I like most about the story is that it shows you how easily you can fall for an abuser and how difficult it is to tell you are being abused. The sequences were well-written. And scary.

The narrator was a great choice. You can feel the main character, Chloe's, innocence at the beginning of the book and her growth at the end. This was a tough listen but one I will make sure my daughter reads/listens to.

Review

Such a wonderful and well written book! I love this Author! We read anything she writes

Girl on the Brink

Chloe is having a hard time at home so when she meets Kieran who is older and puts some things in to perspective. She trusts him, and things are great until they aren’t. Its interesting to see how fast it can change without you seeing or realizing that your almost dependent on that person.

And they were so young. I wasn’t a fan of Kieran’s from the get go and I went in completely blind other than the blurb. I found him to be very manipulative she justifies some of his behavior I think because she wants attention and he gives it to her. And that can be a hard trap to get out of.
He wanted her all to himself, he never wanted to meet or hang out with her friends. Huge red flags but when you’re a teenager and life at home isn’t easy you turn to whoever will give you what you need.

It was a good lesson book.

I love the voice of Marian, Chloe’s boss at the paper. The narrator did a good job bringing depth to these characters.