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Title: Dare Me
Author: Megan Abbott
Date finished: 2/5/15
Genre: Weird thriller? Maybe YA?
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books
Publication Date: July 31, 2012
Pages in book: 290
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Blurb from the cover:
Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy’s best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they’re seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls — until the young new coach arrives.
Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach’s golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as “top girl” — both with the team and with Addy herself.
Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death — and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.
The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as “total authority and an almost desperate intensity,” provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.
My rating: 2.75 stars out of a scale of 5
My review: This book will count towards my “Bookish Bingo” reading challenge, marking off the “Forgotten Friday” square. The Forgotten Friday category is from the Bookish Bingo site, they read books that were published over a year ago that they never got around to reading. You can see their post on the book here.
Honestly, this book was weird. I read through the posting on the Bookish Bingo site and I have to agree with Lyn when she said “F*** this book.” I felt like I was lost through the whole book, the story line was scattered and the plot twists didn’t really make any sense and nothing was connected. Around halfway through the story I did become interested in the outcome. There were parts of the book that made me like the overall story, in kind of a train wreck sort of way. You know, you know you shouldn’t look and that what’s going on shouldn’t be “interesting” but you can’t seem to look away. The relationships in this book (all of them) were extremely screwed up and unhealthy. There was not one healthy relationship in the entire book. How awful is that. Addy and Beth’s relationship (though way more screwed up) did remind me a tiny bit of Rachel and Darcy’s relationship from Something Borrowed.
I did find certain pieces of this book interesting. Like how the girls in the cheerleading squad became almost like women warriors. The book was dark and kind of scary and scrapes at you in a way. Beth should probably be under some kind of psych evaluation.
If you’re interested, the Reading Guide for this book can be found here. Reading these questions made me like the book a little more because I could see more where the author was trying to go with the story line of the book.
The bottom line: I don’t think I would recommend this book. I was riveted by the middle but overall I can’t in good conscience say I liked the book. It might make a good book for a book club accompanied with the reading guide though.
Author website: http://www.meganabbott.com/
Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dare-Me-Novel-Megan-Abbott/dp/0316097772/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1423177442&sr=8-1
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