Dare Me

Fun, easy, twisted read about the lives of teen cheerleaders. Some girls just have too much time on their hands, and they can be really manipulative and mean. Some surprises and edgy at times. Not a spectacular story, but not a completely light read. Dark but not too dark. Honestly, not spectacular, but enjoyable summer read.

The characters in the book are very well developed which is what caused the book to be entertaining but somewhat disturbing. I didn't find a single likable personality in the entire story -- everyone had a flawed character in one way or the other. Very cynical. I'd still recommend it though as a good diversionary read.

I think this book is so gr8 about cheerleaders leading to a darkside & Megan Abbott did a amazing job writing that novel,it's like bring it on meets fight club & It was good that I got kindle version of Dare me @ a low price before it went back 2 the regular price :)

Blah. There wasn't anything particularly great about this book. It was an ok story idea, but I just didn't care a lick about the characters. If I wouldn't have forked over $$ for the book, I wouldn't have finished it. There was definately something missing. I wouldn't recommend it.

Blah. There wasn't anything particularly great about this book. It was an ok story idea, but I just didn't care a lick about the characters. If I wouldn't have forked over $$ for the book, I wouldn't have finished it. There was definately something missing. I wouldn't recommend it.

Blasted through this book but not because it was anything nearing good, but because I could not believe how unbelievably bad it was. The phrase "swollen dewlaps" was used by what was supposed to be a vapid high school sophomore. I've never experienced a more laughable narrative, and to say the plot was sluggish would be doing it a favor. I've never read Megan Abbott before, and am shocked (and not in a good way) by the poor quality of this writing as her books came highly recommended from a good source. Based on this book, the buck stops here for me.

This book was intriguing to start. Most women can identify with something similar to the exclusivity of cheerleading. Something you aspired to and never got or a mysterious clique you wondered about. The characters were well drawn if you know anything about how teenaged girls think and sound. As the book progressed, though, they become increasingly deparaved and scary. The developing relationship with their coach got totally unrealistic, all dialogue became unbelievable and it just turned me away. Started out well but author tried too hard to be outrageous.

My problems with this book are the following.
1: The language used for texting highly unrealistic in regards to interactions and are to varied lingo wise for them to make sense. EX: going from using "u" for you and then just using you in the next text line less than 20 words flabbergasts me considering that Abott describes the phones as smartphones, which should have auto-fill/spell check for them.
2: The Climax of the story happens mid-way through the book, and the second half honestly could of been done in half if not less than the length used. This makes the second half of the book a slow painful read.
3: The charterers themselves tend to have poor character development and make them meet their essential function only without creating questioning. EX: Beth throughout the novel truly never develops character wise beyond control freak.

Overall I didn't enjoy this novel, but will conceded some merits it had. This novel was interesting as a concept and could of made a stronger read, if there weren't the execution issues listed above (personal view in perception). My issues with it are a byproduct of more personal feelings of poor character development, painfully extended resolution, and the inconsistency of characters that was present through all the text exchanges.

When I purchased this novel in 2012, I stopped reading it after about 75 pages thinking, "This is ridiculous". Recently I forced myself to start over hoping I missed something. I still think the whole character line is difficult to believe and therefore, difficult to get into. The review states: provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl. To imply that these girls are all-American girls is preposterous. With the anti-bullying, tolerance/acceptance movements across this country and with the nationwide focus on eating disorders and adolescent health and safety, it is not believable that these girls as a group in a public school were allowed to behave in such a manner. Additionally, the behavior of the faculty is not believable at all. The coach smoking in her office in 2012? I can't think of one public building except a casino in which smoking has been allowed for YEARS. Does anyone think a high school administration would allow this? The relationship between the coach and the girls is totally unbelievable right from the start. Certainly there are instances of inappropriate faculty/faculty or faculty/student relationships in real life. I get it. However, a faculty member repeatedly having a whole squad of cheerleaders over to her house serving wine and drinking with them and then having them sleep over? Really? And her husband coming home and finding this while his 4 year old daughter is sleeping and doing nothing. Again...REALLY? And finally, I do understand that not all parents are involved with their kids and not all supervise their teenagers (I have two teenagers of my own). However, I had to keep asking myself, WHERE ARE THESE GIRLS' PARENTS?! I could not believe for one second that this behavior could go on in the volume that this book portrays. It is simply not believable. Fiction is fiction but it has to have some element of being real if your'e writing about real characters in real time. When I read Science Fiction or books like the Harry Potter series, I know going into them that the story is not supposed to be based in reality. A good author of such books make them believable. This story is supposed to be about real teenagers in a public high school and none of it is believable. The suicide vs murder plot makes for great reading and has been accomplished by many authors. However, this plot buried in a totally unbelievable setting is not good reading. In fact, much of it annoys me. I am almost finished with the book and I can't wait for it to be over. I am forcing myself to finish it just because I paid for it. If you're looking for a good suicide/murder plot, there are plenty of others to choose from. If you are looking for a good story about the dark side of teenagers, again, there are plenty of others to choose from. I do not recommend this book.

Wow, this book was absolutely horrible. I couldn't wait just to finish it. The dialogue was terrible, difficult to follow. I didn't care for all the cheerleading routine descriptions. The main characters were Beth and Addy (story told through Addy), however i didn't care for either of them. Story was hard to follow, Coach was unrealistic (really what Coach hangs with her Cheeleaders, drinking etc.) I do not recommend this book at all!

Poorly written. Choppy. Headache -inducing writing voice. I couldn't finish it. The premise falls in on itself. Way too much cheer-related technical jargon, and even as a former cheerleader, I quickly lost interest.

I bought this based on reviews - I didn't realize that it was a shallow, teen-age groupie type book. I was looking for a good mystery, not where all the characters bully and belittle each other, everyone is a "bitch" or worse. I prefer more adult books - would not recommend if you are looking for a good read with any content or plot worth spending time on.

I immediately fell in love with Megan Abbott’s “Dare Me,” a story of a cheer squad and their captain, twisted with murder and mystery. It’s an understatement to say it sucks you in from page one. I couldn’t put it down (and I get bored easily), and stayed up all night to finish it.

The story is told by Addy, second in command to her mighty cheer captain Beth. Their relationship is complicated, and Beth is a strong leader and ultimate bully. Addy has loved Beth since they were in PeeWee cheer together, and she sees beyond Beth’s brash exterior.

Beth leans back on the long bench, extending one Aruba-tanned leg, examining it.
“Personally, I am sick of every one of you,” she continues, eyes on perpetual roll. “Sick of everything and everybody.”
Beth touches these things inside us sometimes. Inside me. It is one of her gifts, deeply misunderstood by others. It sounds like she’s being mean, but she’s not. Sick, sick, sick. It’s something you feel constantly, the thing you fight off all the time. The knot of hot boredom lodged behind your eyes, so thick and grievous you want to bang your head into the wall, knock it loose.

When their cheer team gets a new, young captain, Beth is furious, her leadership stripped away, the adoration transferring to Coach Colette. Although Addy knows Beth will do almost anything to stay on top, she has no idea just how far she’ll go.

An illicit affair between married Colette and a widowed Army recruiter, an unexpected friendship between Colette and Addy, Beth’s jealousy, secrets between Addy and Beth, a murder, and an answer Addy never expected. This is an amazing, twisty, dark story that keeps your guessing.

Abbott’s writing is poetic. There are passages I’ll quote again and again.

At his apartment, everything feels different. It’s been that way lately. The feeling that it’s all too much, and even scary, the way he holds her hard enough to hurt, talking the whole time about how she is all that keeps him from the way he feels, which is like his heart is pumping water and drowning him to death.

I give this book FIVE STARS. It’s a fast read, beautifully written, and a unique story. It’s great for young adults as well as women of all ages.

This book is fantastic. Sure, it's probably not for everyone. If you're just looking at it as a mystery to be solved, as some reviewers are, it's not for you. But if you are, or can clearly remember what it's like to be, a teenaged girl wrapped up in too close friendships or near-idol worship of someone older, this will mean something to you. It will speak to you. These aren't things that are talked about. These aren't things that books are written about, that movies are made about, with rare exceptions. When you're a teenager, the scope of your world is so limited. What's happening inside of it is always life or death. That isn't a judgment. It's just how it is. And when you get even ten years further into your life, the world gets bigger and those problems change, sometimes shrink (sometimes falsely), and your sights shift. This book is about both of those worlds, and what happens when they intersect. The lack of understanding between the two, and the desperate need to pretend that understanding is there. It's a story about how someone can be so controlled and yet wield so much control without even knowing it. It's a wonderful book. A wonderful book.

I don't want to just address complaints I've seen, because everyone can make up their own mind, but the one I do want to comment on is reviewers who say Beth is unbelievable. The things she does, the way she speaks. We're in a world where we're so influenced by media on the daily. If you think that doesn't influence teens to take things to extremes, to overdramatize speech, to practice it in a way to where everything has a double meaning -- well, I haven't been a teenager since 2007, but I knew Beths. We all tried to be Beths, in our own ways. She doesn't ring false to me at all. Sometimes, as adults drifting through the every day, it can be hard to remember that pain can bring out the eloquence in so many people, especially when we want it to.

This book received many positive, and really exuberant reviews when released. Considering the positive notices were coming from mainstream literary critics and not just YA reviewers made me think this might be something special. Then, when there were comparisons to "Heathers" and "Mean Girls" made, I figured I should pick it up.

Let's get down to the main reason why this novel fails, and it quite the slog to get through: The first-person narration simply does not work. Our main character is non-ditsy but still rather shallow teenager cheerleader. However, the actual prose of the books reads like, well, what it is: a pretentious, very adult woman with an intelligence higher than her character's who is unable or unwilling to dial down her own voice in order to inhabit her character and make this thing sound like something that would actually pore forth from the protagonist's brain.

Honestly, the pretentiousness of this thing is taxing (and I'm a huge fan of David Foster Wallace, who many others would say that about. Abbott dwarfs DFW in pretentiousness). Abbott seems to be going for quasi-profundity when she ends chapters or paragraphs with oblique, short, minimalist sentences. Sadly, those sentences are not profound. She seems to expect the audience to do the heavy-lifting and be blown away, but that's not going to happen because her main character never feels like a real person.

Also, the plot is a bore. Our protagonist becomes enamored by a new cheerleading coach who is something of a drill sergeant type, and the protagonist's best friend, who is either a psychopath or has BPD, is jealous. Later on there's revelations of adultery and suicide and either rape or a false accusation of rape....boilerplate "drama" of the type you'd see in a bad Lifetime TV Movie, with all the depth of one too. Having sex and profanity in an ostensibly YA novel doesn't make you daring or exciting, per se. You have to also give people characters that feel real and a story we care to read.

Abbot fails at creating an authentic character, fails at crafting an interesting plot, and her prose is pseudo-Minimalist pretentious garbage. I'd give it 1.5 stars if the store allowed that, only because it doesn't deserve the absolute lowest rating. I've read worse, but this book irked me with its dullness and the author's inflated sense of herself.

Goodreads Description- Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls -- until the young new coach arrives.

Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl" -- both with the team and with Addy herself.

Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death -- and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.

The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as "total authority and an almost desperate intensity," provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.

Abbott's books are usually tense and uncomfortable tackling difficult subject matter. In Dare Me, the cast of characters are high school cheerleaders who are portrayed as mean, catty girls who are competitive against each other and only want to be the top "bitches". Then along comes the new Coach who deconstructs the teams "societial construct" by getting rid of the team captain, Beth, and lieutenant, Addy, to have every member of the team be equals. Well...meanest of the mean girls Beth, isn't going to take this lying down and does everything she can to take down the coach, and with her the entire team. However, Coach has her own problems. She has problems in her marriage and is having an affair with one of the ROTC coordinators but she also does other strange things like invite the team over for "practice" that also involves drinking, smoking, and just plain inappropriate behavior between a coach her team. All and all, the mood of the book is just uncomfortable.

When things go horribly awry, Beth is determined to ruin Coach and Addy, who has been drawn into the mess by the coach herself, knows firsthand some of the details, wants to protects Coach and to protect herself. Along the way, Addy also sees that Beth is seriously an evil girl and will step on anyone until she gets her way.

Once secrets are revealed about both Beth and Coach, Addy realizes she has been used by both parties and has had enough. The reader can decide and judge Addy's actions about if they were justified or not but, like I said, the whole book is uncomfortable to read because everyone is acting out in strange and immoral ways.

This isn't the best book that I have read by Abbott but it is written in her trademark moody style. Many readers say in their ratings that they are turned off by her writing and I can completely understand why. Her books are heavy and aren't about light and happy subjects. She tackles some ugly societal issues and she deals with them in a real way. 4 stars for Dare Me.

In Dare Me, Megan Abbott reveals the nasty side of teenage girls and how far they will go to keep their clique hierarchies in check. This book focuses on a cheerleading squad, but for anyone who’s in or has ever been in high school, girl cliques can be a minefield to navigate. Ms. Abbott tells the story of two best friends, the unspoken love and animosity between them, and the underbelly of growing up girl in a teenage world filled with desperation, desire, and obsession.

Beth is the head cheerleader and Addy is not only her right hand girl, she’s also her best friend. Best rules with an iron fist, and Addy takes pleasure in both participation and observation of the pain Beth causes others. Then, a new cheer coach is appointed who is young and quick to dethrone Beth from the top of the pyramid. Suddenly, the world doesn’t make sense and Beth will stop at nothing to get back what she’s lost. The question is will Addy stand by and watch or will she pick up where Beth left off?

The new cheer coach introduces Addy and the team to life beyond the high school walls they are used to – and Beth cannot compete. Everything Beth has is ripped away in one fell swoop, leaving her desperate and more conniving than ever.

Addy’s fascination with the new coach and what “real” life is like leads her down a dangerous road full of deceit, affairs and a questionable suicide. Will she find the answers she craves? How far will Beth go to get back the life Coach stole from her? Will Addy survive the fallout? Grab your copy of Dare Me to find out!

Megan Abbott provides a suspenseful, voyeuristic look into the lives of teenage girls and how much they are willing to risk when life as they know it is taken away. Teenage girls behaving badly never looked so good!

Dare Me was a powerful book with gritty characters living dark lives. The first quarter of the book was a bit slow, but it gained speed as we got to know Coach and stopped focusing on the tedium of the normal lives the squad led before Coach revealed herself. The story really begins when we get to the mystery. There may be spoilers below: I love the relationship that Addy has with Beth. I think Abbott sculpted an exact replica of tortured highschool students who don’t know how to forgive and forget. Addy got bored of Beth’s attitude and moved on to Coach. When the truth starts coming out near the end of the book, Beth is proved to be the only one who is really true to her, but it’s too late. They’ve hurt each other too much to forgive. There’s so much pain in this book. If it weren’t for the shelter of highschool, it may have been too hard to push through it all. Because the book is set in highschool, the characters were seen as being somewhat dramatic and the book was able to end the way it did. Everyone just moved on. The adults got their consequences and (most of) the kids went back to cheer. One of my favorite things about this book was Abbott’s ability to generate tension just out of view. There’s one scene where the girls are all practicing cheer like normal, but something is a little off. It’s nothing the girls say but how they say it (it's as if they aren’t talking about cheer at all). It’s done subtly, but it’s so well done, you can’t help but feel the tension. Aside from the first 25% of the book, I thought it was quite the page-turner. I really enjoyed it.

And I thought my high school years were tough. DARE ME is a lovely, brutal antidote to the saccharine nonsense of all those BRING IT ON movies. In fact, I’m afraid Hollywood will bastardize this and turn it into a cheerful (musical) about self-empowerment. Which it is not. This is a psychological novel that centers on the insular world of high school cheerleading and that happens to include a murder mystery. A new cheerleading coach comes into town like Clint Eastwood in HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and everything changes for two young women. Told in a vivid, insightful prose style, this is a engaging portrait of one aspect of the horrors of U.S. teenage life.

I try to always look for positive, encouraging books about female best friends ships. However, I am also completley fascinated by and perplexed by the teenage psyche darker side esp.so in teenage girls So of course I was instantly drawn to this book's title Dare Me. And I knew it would be about as the book jacket says the raw passions of girlhood, and an unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Okay fine. I was not prepared for or expecting ... the unbeliavable level of hatred, scorn,and cruelty between these girls who are supposed to be teammates to eah other. But what brought this to an intolerable level of cruelty and almost in my view negligance was the bringing in of that horrid coach! Are you kidding me? Correct me if im mistaken but isnt a coach's job for a cheerleading team or any team all about encouraging, and fostering and teaching respect, team building skills, and trust?? I understand that its also about competion as well, but there is such thing as healthy competion? This coach to me was almost Sadistic! Yes, i get a coach needs to keep pushing, and be if needed a strict leader. But I draw the line there. Colette did not let these girls eat normaly and had them starve, and constantly throwing up,extreme worrying, with the inhumane diets they were on. These girls esp.poor Emily and poor Tacy were straight up terrified and scared of thier coach and what she was doing to them. I def. saw her more as an unfeeling,indifferent, insensitive dictator , rather than a coach. The way too extreme and just merciless way she trained and rode these fragile girls made me want to kill Colette. After all we are just talking about teenage children and their still growing bodies, and thier body's limitations. How can this treatment be allowed? Where was the school health nurse, giuidence counselor ,parent or anyone involved? I might be a bit radical but there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that what Colette was doing was almost showing criminal negligence . None of the boys coaches do this ? Do they? Starve their players with a steady diet of cabbage broth, and diet drinks! An eating disorder clinic would of tried to fire Colette. Im sorry, but I just can't stress this enough that its a no brainer these girls should naturally be eating their three square meals like normal. As for those life endangering ever higher and more deadly stunts Colette forced and coerced the two girls to perform i also justi found it reprehensible and again yes criminally negligent. This is off the subject but I campaigned once for pubic schools to ban these kind of extreme and very dangerous cheerleading stunts.Also I could not find anything even the two main characters to like in this whole book. I pretty much hated reading this damn book. It was far too mean spirited, and the girls and their coach demonstrated no mercy,and cruelty with one another on an everyday basis. There was barely not one kind or even friendly word, no laughing just hatred with themselves and each other. And the end was far too vague to get anything from it. So selfish Addy finally becomes a leader and I guess betrays her best friend Beth? ( and not just being captain but w the bracelet,etc) I also will not reccommend this book to anyone i like. Lastly, I object to how blanket statement the reviews are: provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all- American girl. Bullcrap! Obviusly not all girls are dark or have dark hearts.

The description talk about a death and a cheer coach who is somehow involved. I chose to read/listen to this book because it sounded like it would be interesting/easy to listen to. It was not. Literally nothing happened until midway through the book. And I only kept listening at that point to finish it through because I had started. If you like nonsense high school drama this is for you, but I couldn't stand the narrator/cheer leader point of view. It was very juvenile, which I suppose I should have expected since it is technically "YA." Overall this was boring, and very easy to guess

Another stunning journey into the mind of adolescent girlhood from the author of the wonderful The End of Everything.

When a new coach arrives to lead the cheerleading team, she will prove to be the catalyst for a dangerous reassessment and realignment of friendships that have lasted for years. The story is told in the first-person by Addy and we see her loyalties to her oldest friend Beth being tested by Addy's new friendship with the young Coach. Manipulated by both Beth and Coach, Addy struggles to keep faith with both as their mutual antipathy and jealousy starts a chain of events that will take them all to some very dark places.

As in The End of Everything, Abbott seems able to get to the very heart of the adolescent mind, showing both the toughness and vulnerabilities of girls on the edge of the transition to adulthood. In this book the girls are a little older, about 17, and so have a better understanding of adult relationships, but are still young enough for their female friendships to be the most important aspects of their lives. As Addy sees how Coach inspires the team, she at first feels a little hero-worship, but as she is willingly dragged deeper into Coach's life, the balance between them subtly alters so that sometimes Addy seems like the stronger of the two. Beth, the admired and feared leader, the manipulator, is at the dark heart of the book and is one of those characters who will stay in the memory long after the book is finished.

Abbott's use of language is innovative, imaginative and often poetic. Throughout the book, she uses the physicality and danger of the cheer stunts to heighten the sense of tension and fear at the heart of the story. Not knowing much about cheerleading (being a Brit), I found watching some of the stunts on youtube gave me a real sense of the risks, commitment and reliance on the team that Abbott weaves through the book. She describes wonderfully what the girls are prepared to put themselves through for a coveted place on the team - the physical pain and endurance, the extreme dieting to stay light enough to 'fly'.

An enthralling read, dark and fascinating. Highly recommended.

NB This book was provided for review by the store Vine UK.

This book was reviewed in of the pop culture/entertainment last summer and I wanted to read it immediately. It came out around the same time as Gone Girl, which I loved, and seemed to promise the same kind of dark and twisty feel. I am also a sucker for any book involving cheerleader, especially evil ones.

The story is narrated by Addy, the second in command of a mediocre cheer squad. The reader follows Addy as the quad gains a new coach, someone much younger and more ambitious, in every way, from their previous coach, and their whole world turns upside down. Coach French creates competition in the squad and changes the dynamics by selecting Addy as her favorite and pitting everyone against the original captain, Beth, who doesn't take lightly to this. As the squad turns into an unrecognizable animal of sorts, there's an interesting plot twist involving suicide and infidelity and lots of secret keeping.

In some ways, this story was perfection. It was a really realistic portrayal of how some mean girls think, how they rise and fall from the social ladder, and what lengths they will go to when they want to change positions or get attention. Addy's inner monologue is raw and gritty and at times very disturbing. Beth's behavior is even more disturbing. Coach French, though the adult, is just an older version of the girls, selfishly goading and encouraging them down the slippery slope. The way Abbott has written the story is very slick and strange and sometimes magical. I found myself smiling and grimacing in equal parts while reading this.

In other ways, this is also a very unrealistic and sort of "evil fairy tale" version of what happens in high schools. Kids are mean, they gossip, they back stab, they do all kinds of horrible things to each other. I know this, I work with them every day. But, they are also good and vulnerable and still children as well as adults, and Abbott's picture doesn't include that. I wish she had shown us both sides of the coin. As it is written, all of the characters are unlikeable and dark and creepy and seemingly beyond help - cartoon versions of the truth.

In the end, I didn't feel I could give this book a rating - the 3 stars above is just arbitrary. It was a really interesting and thought-provoking read and I marveled at Abbott's word choice many times, wondering how she came up with her sentences, her descriptions. She's very gifted. I didn't like it though - I feel like I might be a bad person if I say I liked this one for some reason. Worth checking out, just consider yourself warned.

I have read reviews likening this book to "Heathers."
OK. I see the parallel in the "elite" as it pertains to the cheerleaders, but they only bully amongst themselves and they are definitely not the debutantes of yore so...what else?

The book was good.
It had all the elements it needed to push it into dark, but noir? Really?
It was lacking there.
Pulp?
Hmmm...not so much.
This character driven story was pretty predictable.
What made it tolerable was the relationship between Addy and Beth, but everything else was just kind of strung together.
I would have liked to have read more about some of the ancillary characters and their struggles with self-concept.
Addy's struggle was so transparent and broadcast (as were the plot twists for the most part), but rather than be transparent because the character was vapid Abbot made the character brooding and frankly unbelievable.
I could not find myself truly feeling this "Addy" as a real person. She was more of a 'glom' of various personas that it seemed Abbot wanted to convey and they just did not all fit into that one little cheerleader. Here and there Abbott throws in words that just don't fit the speaker or the tone. Actually, I think that may be part of my problem with this book. It never found its tone.

Some of the communications between Beth and Addy were fun. There were a few lines, particularly from Beth, that were quite good. I recall one off the top of my head, "I never saw a fox eat a rabbit before. How did she taste?" (something akin to that anyway) That stuck in my head. That 'bit' (no pun intended), so where was this bite throughout the rest of the novel?

This was not a bad book by any means, it is just that I had such high hopes for it and was let down.
All the reviews I have read were glowing, but I could not find the heart of darkness here.
The angst was contrived as was the ending for the most part.
Two solid stars as it was a decent read, but nowhere near as dark or ugly as I had hoped.

In "Dare Me," Megan Abbott takes a hypnotic trip into the dark world of, yes, high school cheerleading. Anyone reading this will think twice before allowing their daughter to even look at a pom pom.

Addy Hanlon and Beth Cassidy are BFFs, but their relationship is somewhat complex, and I mean complex as in twisted, vengeful, secretive, and sadistic. We learn how nuanced their friendship is only in the last pages, but at "Dare Me's" onset, Beth and Addy are rough riding the other members of their high school cheer squad. Their coach has taken a back seat and Beth, the team captain, is calling the shots with Addy as her trusted LT..her wingman, her enforcer. The team has settled into a distinct pecking order with Beth as alpha female. Enter New Coach, and the apple cart is sent flying. In short order Beth's leadership role is usurped as their new leader demands perfection from the squad. She's intent on taking them to new heights, literally, and proceeds to whip them into shape as competitive cheerleaders. Extreme dieting, purging, over-the-top workouts and parties at Coach's house become the rule of the day. As Addy falls under Coach's influence Beth becomes increasingly vitriolic and intent on bringing down the new leader. When she discovers a chink in Coach's armor Beth goes into overdrive and the results are catastrophic.

This is a real 'heart of darkness' take on high school. If you crossed 'Girls Gone Wild' with 'Bring It On' you'd end up with "Dare Me's" main characters, who were basically the unlikeable products of fractured families. Abbott is great at throwing the curveballs and plot twists and I was never bored with this book: repelled, yes, but never bored.

1. Why cheerleading? It gave the author the chance to throw around some technical terms, although they are rarely explained, and provided an excuse to introduce Colette French, but the activity (I refuse to call it a sport) itself was a distraction. I didn't care about these stuck-up children or their bitchy, bratty intrigue, and French's character, intended to be a fragile combination of inscrutability, military precision and human frailty, was wooden and unattractive. The nonstop "cheerleading is a metaphor for life" moments were mind-numbing after the first three.

2. Why the pointless revelation of sex between Beth and Addy? Sexual tension positively throbs through this book--between Will and Coach, between Coach and Addy, and among all of the cheerleaders. None of it is resolved. Even the eventual disclosure that Matt killed Will seems less about sex than a tired attempt to shock things up a bit. While the discovery of the actual location of the bracelet is well-done and surprising, the idea that Addy conveniently forgot that she was given the bracelet by the ONLY GIRL SHE HAD SEX WITH strains, and ultimately snaps credulity. It would have been a far, far better mystery and book if it had been Beth whom Prine overheard having sex with Will, and if it had been Beth who killed Will, framing Coach.

3. May we have a moratorium on strained, wordy, hyphenated adjectives? They are irritating because they stop the action while the mind tries to picture precisely what the description has just described. Pat Conroy is one of the few authors who can carry that off well. Ms. Abbott's attempts are just annoying.

This is not another book about high school mean girls, with their snarky little comments about the "other" kids.

Welcome to the world of Dare Me: A Novel. All I can say is, thank GOD it's a novel, because these characters are certainly drawn well enough to jump out of the pages. And, quite frankly, I'm really afraid of some of them. Is that new cheerleading coach an adult, or one of the girls? Is she one of those pathetic souls who never moved beyond high school -- her glory days?

What about the head cheerleader who has been dethroned by the new coach? She certainly hasn't gone away...

This was a story that took me quite by surprise, and I'm surprised that it hasn't already been made into a movie, because I could just about imagine it on the big screen while I was reading.

Enough said -- go out and buy Dare Me: A Novel!!

Dare Me is a (slightly horrifying) look into the seedy underbelly of American high school cheerleading. It's not just competitive, it's cut throat and brutal. Books like this are hard for me. On one hand, Dare Me is an incredibly well written book. Megan Abbott knows how to write, no doubt about it. And reading Dare Me is like watching a car wreck happen in slow motion. You know from the first chapter that things are not going to end well. I was cringing through most of the book. And that made for an extremely compelling read. But on the other hand, I have a hard time with characters that I don't like. There are no redeeming characters in this book. Everyone is kind of awful. They are mean, petty, and willing to take down everyone in their path. Mean Girls on steroids. I just kind of hated spending time with these girls who are borderline psychopaths. I wanted to run far away from them. So I don't know how to feel about this book. Ultimately, I'm going with my gut reaction and giving it three stars.

Wow! there is nothing scarier than 2 Queen Bee women duking it out to stay on top! This page turner,is about 2 high school cheerleaders and lifelong frenemies , and their relationship with the new coach in town. Coach is perfect, tough, eating disorder encouraging, and a "crush" for many of the girls on the squad. Most of the girls become her sheep, and do everything she says, despite her actions and comments being evil and wrong. Beth, the former captain of the squad and alpha girl, is relieved of her duties by Coach, and Coach uses Beth's friend Addy, who is completely smitten,as her pawn. Addy is used to playing this role with Beth-Beth is NOT pleased-let the conniving, lying, evil games begin! The stakes get higher and higher, which keeps the reader glued to the book. Along the way, the reader also learns a lot about Cheer culture, and will probably recognize or perhaps relive the drama that is high school girls! If you liked Gone Girl (see my review) you will devour this book, which is also very well written.

I found this book fascinating, I couldn't put the book down wanting to know how it ended. I was a little surprised at the end, but much appreciated. The author did an excellent job at leaving hints for the reader to follow the storylines. Ironically, I thought this book would make a great movie as long as whomever played Beth will have their work cut out for them. A dark novel indeed and readers must pay attention to the subleties some of the characters say. This book made me think more about what the characters were trying to say to one another. Of course, if this book was a glimpse into what cheer leading is like and how some girls are treated, it is eye opening.