Rating: 5/10Standalone
Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Contemporary
Publication Date: July 1, 2014
Reccommended for fans of Pretty Little Liars & The Lying Game
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Page Count: 288 (according to Amazon)
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC
Goodreads ~ Barnes & Nobles ~ Amazon
Synopsis: Two jumped off the pier that night...but only one came back alive
Bryn did everything with her best friend Erica. So when someone dared Erica to jump off the pier one night at Harding Beach, Bryn was right by her side. But when Bryn made it back to the surface, Erica was nowhere to be found. Bryn tries to make a fresh start by burying her memories of that awful night. But when a Twitter post from "EricaNShaw" pops up on her feed and a chilling voice mail appears on her phone, she realizes that someone isn't ready to let go of the past...
Disclaimer: I recieved this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
My Intial Thoughts; This book.... how do I begin to describe this book. As some of you may know from Twitter, I am currently going through a bit of a reading slump. I could get into why I am in that reading slump *cough* the last 10 months of school *cough* and the fact that I am just tired of effort. Being on vacation hasn't helped either with this reading slump because of all the excitement that makes it feel like the world is coming to a standstill when I pick up a book to read. Anyway, my point is that my opinions about "The Dare" are different because of this reading slump, but unlike make of my fellow book bloggers, or readers in general, I feel like the book was better because of this reading slump.
I have to admit that I almost gave this a 2 star rating, or lower, but my reading slump really affected my opinions. I just had waaaay top many problems with the characters, romance, ending, writing style, mystery.... basically almost every technical aspect of the novel.
Characters & Narration 3/10: You know those books where you would imagine the narrator's voice as monotone and boring? Well that's how I imagined Brynna. I just wasn't feeling her voice, and most certainly didn't have a feel for who she was as a character. The way Bryn narrated events could be compared to the difference between hearing about something via text message versus actually being there and experiencing it. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT EVENTS. I felt like I was just being relayed a story instead of experiencing everything as if I was Brynna.
Premise 9/10: The premise is what truly drew me into the book, and triggered my click happy self on Netgalley. I live in a house with a mother who is addicted to murder mysteries, and this just seemed like a refreshing novel that might turn out to be an insane page turner. What I did not notice until I started "The Dare" was how similar is was to PLL/ TLG (see more on that below) which also would have helped me make the decision to click the "Request" button since it had been a long time since I had read a book like that.
Romance 3/10: Okay... so there was romance in this book. That's all you can pretty much say. I dislike Brynna's love interest -Teddy- because he just seemed one dimensional. I had no feel for him and if he cared about her. The other fact was that Bryn was closer to her friend Evan than Teddy. I totally shipped Brynna and Teddy together, and then we found out he was gay, which is absolutely fine with me, but I believe a poor choice on the author' part in relevation the dynamics and chemistry between Bryn and Evan.
Pacing 7.5/10: Let's just put it this way - I was in need of a page turning mystery that would hook me in and keep me hooked. Period. And I am happy to say that's what I got. So if you were perusing B&N, which I know we all do (don't you dare lie to me), and in the need of a light mystery, buy "The Dare." I read almost the entire book while in a doctor's office waiting for my aunt. It was just - READ. TOUCH SCREEN. REPEAT. And then I got to the end, which made hardly any sense to me for that matter.
Similarities to Other Novels: You might have noticed the "Recommended for fans of Pretty Little Liars & The Lying Game" up there. The reason I put that is because I have read both novels, and think that "The Dare" is reminiscent of them. Minus the multiple teenage girls as MCs. Other than that, the three books were extremely similar. There was that whole "mysterious death of best friend, maybe murder" appeal as well as the "mysterious girl's death being drugged up from the past by none other than that mysterious girl presumed to me dead" and "the MC's life is promptly ruined because of all of this." As you can see, a lot of similarities.
Ending 5/10: One word: FRUSTRATION. I don't want to spoil anything, but, THAT's FREAKING IT? I was expecting something bigger or something MORE and THIS is what Hannah Jayne gives me? I admit that I didn't see it coming, but I felt there was no connection between it and previous events.
Conclusion: While I had many problems with the technical aspects of the novel, it was a quick fun read
, reminiscent of Pretty Little Liars, that woke me from a reading slump.
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