Dare Me

5

Dare Me takes the reader into the world of cheerleading as portrayed by author Megan Abbott. Her peek at this girlie world reveals a dark underneath of backstabbing, obsessive, bulimic, over-exercised, athletic bitchery. Addy has always been Beth’s best friend and no one knows Beth like Addy. So the reader knows everyone should watch out when Addy is terrified as a new coach comes along and usurps Beth’s leadership role.

It took me a few chapters to settle into this book, as it is written entirely from Addy’s inner viewpoint and at first seemed to be quite fragmented. Having a lot of trust in this author, I kept going and was rewarded with a story that kept me on the edge of my seat. You knew right from the first that something bad show more was coming, the author slowly built the tension and showed us how far Beth was willing to go. Beth was a very interesting character, damaged, brittle, and having no empathy at all, this is a teen to beware of. In fact, it was difficult to have much sympathy for any of the characters which in no way lessened the impact of the book. Expecting one thing, the author continually surprised me with how the story developed.

Dare Me was, for me, a great read and I continue to be a fan of Megan Abbott. I realize that cheerleaders are not the shallow, vindictive creatures that this book would have you believe, but by stripping the glitter away and revealing the shallow, empty world underneath, the author was able to deliver a first class story of murder, revenge and obsession. show less

The school cheerleading team has a new coach. Colette French is slim and glamorous, and she quickly sets out to take charge and establish her authority over the new team, much to the annoyance of team captain Beth.

Dare Me is narrated from the viewpoint of Beth’s team-mate and best friend Addy, and turns out to be an intensely scary and disturbing story of bullying and much, much worse.

This is not a novel for readers who need to like the characters. Even Addy comes across as someone worryingly used to accepting manipulation, whether from Beth or Coach. It is a compelling portrayal of how far the characters will go in pursuit of their obsessions, for example, Coach pushing the girls in the cheerleading team further into anorexia. Junk show more food is derided but drinking and smoking seems to be fine – the issue is thinness not health.

Suspenseful, scary and truly chilling, Dare Me is an excellent and thought-provoking read.

I received a copy for review through the Amazon Vine programme, and posted this review there on 10 June 2014. show less

Megan Abbott had me with the first book of hers that I read, Queenpin. Her books are tightly plotted novels about crime and darkness. Her early books are classic hard-boiled stories set in the thirties and forties, while her newer offerings are modern noir, but they share strong female protagonists and a writing style that doesn't waste a single word. Dare Me is set in the world of high school cheerleading, told from the point of view of a girl who describes herself as the best friend of the captain of the squad, a girl used to getting her way and who has a strong destructive streak. When the school hires a new coach for the cheerleading team, one who demands more from the girls than popularity and hip-popping dances, tensions arise. show more

This is much more than a story of cheerleaders gone bad. Abbott likes to look at the shiny surface of things, but she's then compelled to look at the dark places underneath and she's not afraid to show the reader everything. Cheerleaders are easy to mock or dismiss, but Abbott understands the motivations and emotions that cause a girl to work as hard as a competitive cheerleader does to excel, while also examining the place these girls have in high school social circles.

I prefer Abbott's old school noir to her novels with contemporary settings, but any book by Abbott is a reason to silence the cell phone and leave the laundry where it is for an evening. show less

Addy is a member of the coveted cheerleading squad at her high school. Her friend Beth, bossy and arrogant, is the self-proclaimed leader & captain of the squad. But Addy has always been a loyal friend, even when they were younger. When a young new cheerleading coach is hired, loyalties are tested and boundaries are pushed. A power struggle erupts between Beth and Coach French. Then someone dies, an apparent suicide. But was it really? And who knows more than they're letting on?

Megan Abbott definitely knows how to write stories about cruel teenage girls and unlikable characters. I found the girls in this novel particularly evil and beastly. Yet I had to keep reading. This was a decent plot and there was enough uncertainty that I was show more never quite sure who the ultimate bad guy/girl was, mostly because all the characters had the potential to be that person. I did have trouble with the lack of parent and family engagement in this novel. Parental figures were pretty much non-existent, and a lot of what was happening here seemed ultimately unrealistic and farfetched. But like I said, I kept reading because I wanted to know how this story was ultimately going to be resolved. Though there were certainly flaws in this novel, I do think maybe I enjoyed this one more than any of Abbott's other novels (this is my 4th). Having a teenage daughter of my own in this age group, some of the things in this novel unsettled me a bit. I can always count on some teenage drama in my own house, but fortunately, nothing nearly as extreme as what was happening in this novel. 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 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 show more 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 this book in so many different ways; the ways the girls were described as "untouchable" as cheerleaders (who doesn't think that in the microcosm of high school) and the wonderfully descriptive writing of Abbott--such as the "squall of a blow dryer" ---sounds so much better than "after I blow dried my hair", don'tcha think?

Loved the way her teen characters talked to each other.

Loved the way Beth was so intense and changeable.

Loved the plot and how I never saw the ending coming.

If I had read this in high school, I would have yearned to be like these girl, so cool, so alive...so dangerous and full of mayhem.