Megan Abbott

This has got the feel of a Hammett or other golden age hard-boiled/noir author, but it was written in the early 2000s. I figured the storyline to be set in the early 1960s. This book takes the old formula & turns it on its side: here we have two women who are working for the mob (casinos), running numbers, doing pick-ups & drops, etc. One is the older pro with an excellent reputation & connections who brings our young, ambitious protagonist into the fold to teach her the ropes. Instead of a show more dame who derails things, this time it's a gambling addict dude that our protagonist falls (in lust) for. If you're looking for a twist on a noir with a golden age feel, along with all the cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, violence (!), lust, & greed that are the backbone of the genre, check this one out. show less

Jessa raved about Abbott ages ago, and I've been meaning to read her ever since. Reading articles on her new book, The Fever, brought my simmering interest to a full boil. And I'm not the only one. Karen kidnapped me for a bookstore run and we both bought a copy of it. And we both devoured it.

The phrase that comes to mind (and I'm sure I read it somewhere) is cheerleader noir. It's dark, it's brooding. There are a lot of people making not particularly good choices with motivations often show more murky even to themselves. But there is a lot of girlness that Abbott gets and writes so well. I was never a cheerleader or in any sport past junior high, but I have had moments here and there where my body felt strong and it did just what I wanted to be able to taste the power of that in her writing. And let's face it. I've spent most my life as the lieutenant, the second-in-command to a more charismatic, forceful girl, though certainly never to one as troubled as Beth. I've felt that loyalty that gets tired, being sucked into parties or situations you think are a bad idea, done the penance for getting too close to another person or activity she doesn't approve of.

Abbott captures all that. In a story that's well paced, with high stakes, always pulling your forward, teasing you with another piece of the puzzle, into the gathering gloom. Smart, tense, impossible to put down. show less

I loved Dare Me for its darkness and its portrayal of the seedy underbelly of teenage life. This book - about what happens when Lizzie's best friend Evie disappears while walking home from school - touches on many of the same themes but was more disquieting because of the ways in which the two main female characters repeatedly put themselves in danger without really understanding the stakes. Lizzie is the last person to have seen Evie before her disappearance and throughout the book, she show more remembers things that hint at the truth behind Evie's disappearance and then later, the identity of her abductor. For a long time, it wasn't clear to me whether the reader was meant to believe Lizzie genuinely remembered things or whether she was making things up in part because she enjoyed the attention. There were a lot of uncomfortable, queasy-making relationships in this book, especially involving Evie's father, who all the teenage girls have something of a crush on, which added another delicious layer of ambiguity to the story. Not as good as Dare Me, but still an enjoyable, twisted diversion. show less

Megan Abbott takes the Mean Girls trope to extremes in her novel Dare Me, about a team of high school Cheerleaders who revel in their sense of entitlement and perceived immortality. Addy Hanlon is the sixteen-year-old narrator who identifies herself as the “lieutenant” to her best friend and Team Captain, Beth. Even as she kowtows and follows Beth’s every command, Addy recognizes how cruel and ruthless her idol can be. The alpha-beta balance of their relationship is threatened however, show more when the squad comes under the leadership of a new coach. Colette French is not about to be dazzled or overtaken by Beth. Coach French is also a domineering force with a magnetic personality that upsets the team’s hierarchy and engenders loyalty and adoration from the girls, including Addy. Beth is so furious with this competition for Addy’s affection that she embarks on a campaign to sabotage the interloper at any cost. That includes implicating the coach in the suspicious death of a young Guardsman recruiter working at the school. It is also possible, however, that Beth’s theory is correct- that their Coach is as guilty as she would like her to be. Addy is torn between the two possessive women, the focus of their power struggle and a pawn susceptible to their deceit. In this novel, all of Abbot’s female characters are depicted as either rapacious and cruel or passive and vulnerable. Still, the women fare better than the men, who are mostly shadows in the background- all apparently weak and completely clueless. The themes of domination/submission are omnipresent, with no representation of a healthy relationship in any form. Still, Dare Me is a well-written and gripping read, with some decent (if implausible) plot twists. Wicked fun if a reader likes their thrillers dark and does not require likeable characters to root for. show less