The Dare by Hannah JaynePublished by: Sourcebooks Fire on July 1, 2014
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Pages: 304
Source: NetGalley
Book Details
Rating: ★★★½
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...
The Dare was some spooky ass shit.
The whole time, I felt SO BAD for Bryn! I certainly didn’t approve of her actions (drinking, drugs), but I felt like I could at least sort of understand them. What happened was truly tragic and I imagine if I were in her place, I would have felt just as horrible! I mean, imagine.. you convince someone to jump off a pier, and she never surfaces.. THE GUILT! That’s definitely enough to consume you.
I was constantly trying to figure out if The Dare would follow the same pattern as Shutter Island. In Shutter Island everyone is telling Leo that he’s actually a bit nuts, but he maintains that someone is out to get him. By the end, I was convinced that surely someone actually was out to get him because calling Leo crazy would just be the easy way out at that point. But actually… he was crazy. Then suddenly I hated the movie because that was the easy/lame/expected answer. So expected that I actually expected it NOT to be the case, because surely no one would do something that expected.
So throughout reading The Dare, I was really struggling with how it would end. Clearly either Bryn is crazy or someone is trying to psych her out. View Spoiler »
I did enjoy Bryn’s downward spiral. You can really see her unravel at the end and it gets to be REALLY insane. Like, hot damn. Was that girl bat-shit crazy? Or was there someone even crazier out there doing this to her?
I think I only have two complaints. One was that there weren’t many breadcrumbs. By the end, I still didn’t know who it was. I had one faint suspicion, but it wasn’t concrete. Some may think that’s a good thing—to be totally surprised—but I got a little impatient after a while. I felt like there were SO many questions and I wasn’t even getting any hints.
My second complaint is really much of a complaint but more of a comment. I was able to put this book down at about 60% (I started it on an airplane) then not pick it up for about a month (because I went to BEA and decided to start reading those books). I guess all I’m trying to say is that if this were a 5 star read, I wouldn’t have even been able to put it down! But I was able to, and I think that just means the book could have been better. It wasn’t un-put-downable. Although, maybe it did become a little un-put-downable towards the end when I was like OHMYGOD PLEASE TELL ME THERE’S SOMEONE BEHIND THIS PSYCHO CRAZINESS SO I CAN PULL SOME KARMA KUNG FU ON HIS/HER ASS.
The Verdict
I had almost requested this one but I was afraid it was going to be lame, so it’s good to hear that it was actually pretty good. 🙂
It was definitely good! It could have been a bit better, I suppose, but I certainly wouldn’t call it “lame”. 🙂
I would read this book. Doesn’t sound like the greatest suspense read, but it sure sounds good. Thanks for the honest review.
Yeah it could have been a bit better, but it was still very good. If you’re in the mood for something weird and a little creepy, this is a good one to pick up.
Even the title looks intriguing! I like your reference to Shutter Island; such a creepy film.
Yeah I love not knowing if someone is being totally insane or if someone is actually out to get them!
Is this book being sold in stores?
It should be. 🙂