Dare Me: A Novel

Mutually assured destruction

The secret history by Donna Tarrt due to the intensity of the relationships; the adult/ teen interplay & the dark undercurrent. Several of the Nicci French novels have similar themes of the perils of self/ other confusion.

The reader delivered the teenage voice with credibility & maimtained my interest in some of the details of Cheering, not a subject matter which initially engaged me.

Addy remains memorable for prevailing in the midst of the self destruction of Beth, Will & Coach. Beth was right, Addy was always the strong one.

For the first couple of chapters, i thought i had erred in buying a YA listen but after that this 50 something year old was fully engaged with the characters & their motivations while a vivid mind movie of their athletic feats was running throughout.The author managed to evoke memories of my own high school humiliations & gratitude that those memories now have the benefit of life experience.

You can't help but compare this to a cheerleader movie. Except that what made "Bring it on" one of those movies that was so bad, it was good, was the humor in it. Well, take some similarly vain and self involved teenagers, throw in a little mystery and take out all the humor, plus add a sprinkling of sexually confused teen angst - and voila! You got "Dare me"
It's not that it was bad exactly, it was just hard to get involved and care about the characters. Half the time you want to smack some sense in to them while groaning in exasperation, and the other half they are just boring cardboard cutouts who do predictably stupid things.
I suppose it will do as a summer read for the beach, but lack of substance was a turn-off for me.

As other reviewers have noted, this is a poignant coming-of-age novel. Also there are elements of mystery and suspense. It should appeal to readers of all ages, especially YA readers. I recommend it highly.

The book also provokes questions about people who are already grown-up. Where are the adults in the lives of Addy, Beth and their Cheer Squad? Why are young girls assuming (correctly) that they can get in their cars at all hours and not be in trouble with, not even be missed by, their parents. Is Coach Colette ever concerned about the very real, potentially life threatening, danger in some of the routines she allows these kids to train for? Sharing alcohol and cigarettes with her students is not appropriate, but involving her student in her extramarital affair is totally unacceptable. Coach needs an adult in her life.

Abbott reminds us that beneath the bravado, the trash talk, the sexual experimentation, there is usually a fragile child trying to make it through some tough years. What is left when both the parents and the in loco parentis are missing.

The writing and the narration are excellent. The cover is extraordinary.

Ok, I'll admit I just came off a 3 book Gillian Flynn jag and if you've read her you know how intense and well written her novels are; so I may be judging this book by to high a standard. Overall I would say that only about a quarter of the book really held my interest. Maybe had I been a cheerleader I would have enjoyed this more. The ending was a complete disappointment. Narrator did a good job.

Choppy, hard to follow. Waste of a credit. Very strange book. The reader was very good!

A valley girl with no brain cells might like this book. I was so annoyed I stoped listening to it.

It was a story about basicly nothing. I guess i'm to old for the story line.

It fit the book, the reader did well.

No

I picked up this book because I saw that one of my favorite mystery authors, Gyllian Flynn, recommended it. Parts of it felt too YA for me even though I enjoy a good YA novel. Other parts were like, "whoa! this is for kids?" The character development was pretty good in a lot of ways. But the rest of it just didn't pull together for me. Almost like a trashy teen novel trying to pretend it is something more meaningful.

This is a story of a mentally sick and hateful girl trying to control others including the other girls on their cheerleading squad.. Despicable language and attitudes. I found no redeeming value even in the protagonist who did not have the character to stop the tragedy to follow. I would not waste my time.

This book is definitely for the YA crowd. Good story and well written for teens. If you want to remember the intensity of every little incident in high school, this book captures those feelings perfectly. I would give it to my teen cousins and nieces, but if you're over 21, I would not recommend it.

I will listen to Dare Me again. This is a multi-layered story and I am still thinking about it and coming up with new insights.

It gave me chills