Dare Me (Abbott) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Fiction has not been kind to cheerleaders. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that future writers are more likely to be found scowling on the bleachers than doing back handsprings across the gymnasium floor. But now Megan Abbott has put her spirit fingers to the task of writing the Great American Cheerleader Novel, and—stop scowling—it's spectacular…Dare Me…is subversive stuff. It's Heathers meets Fight Club good. Abbott pulls it all off with a fresh, nervy voice, and a plot brimming with the jealousy and betrayal you'd expect from a bunch of teenage girls.
Chelsea Cain - New York Times Book Review


Megan Abbott's chilling new novel...turns the frothy world of high-school cheerleading into something truly menacing.
Wall Street Journal


Three cheers for Megan Abbbott's Dare Me... Its take on the culture of young women is chilling and knowing.... If you think all this is working up, "Glee"-like, to a final cheerleading contest, or to a sports-novel-type ending, you are very wrong.
Newsweek


Make no mistake, this is no pulpy teenage tale: It's a very grown-up look at youth culture and how bad behavior can sometimes be redeemed by a couple of good decisions.
O Magazine


Haunting...If cheerleaders scared you in highschool, you'll finish...Dare Me convinced you were right.”
People


What's exciting about Dare Me is how it makes that traditionally masculine genre [noir] feel distinctly female. It feels groundbreaking when Abbott takes noir conventions — loss of innocence, paranoia, the manipulative sexuality of newly independent women — and suggests that they're rooted in high school, deep in the hearts of all-American girls.
Entertainment Weekly


Mesmerizing...one of the most deftly plotted noir crime novels I've read in a long time. The requisite twists and turns subtly embedded within Abbott's characters' motivations...are the sign of a truly accomplished plotter.”
Independent (UK)


Edgar Award-winner Abbott dives into a gut-churning tale of revenge, power, desire, and friendship in the insular world of high school cheerleading.... [W]hen a new coach flippantly removes Beth from power and takes Abby as her confidante, Beth turns vengeful....  Abbott’s writing in her sixth novel is deliciously slick and dark, matching her characters’ threatening circumstances, and the plot is tight and intense, building a world in which even the perky flip of a cheerleader’s skirt holds menace. “There’s something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls,” one character says. Indeed.
Publishers Weekly


Abbott has a keen sense for the beauty, danger, and vulnerability of teenage girls; her spare, elegant prose cuts straight to the heart of the high school pecking order and brings the girls' world to life. Recommended for readers who enjoy dramatic stories about female relationships; it may also appeal to mature young adult readers. —Amy Hoseth, Colorado State Univ. Lib., Fort Collins
Library Journal


(Starred review.) This terrific novel, Abbott takes a plot that seems torn from the headlines and transforms it into Shakespearean tragedy... This is cheerleading as blood sport, Bring It On meets Fight Club—just try putting it down.
Booklist


Edgar winner Abbott again delivers an unsettling look at the inner life of adolescent girls in the guise of a crime story. The setting is an unnamed, frighteningly familiar town that could be found anywhere in contemporary America. Narrator Addy has been lifelong best friend to Beth, now the powerful captain of Sutton Grove High School's cheerleading squad. The cheerleaders are popular mean girls, and Beth is the meanest and most popular. Then a new coach, young and pretty Colette French, arrives. She immediately asserts her authority.... A battle of wills ensues between Coach and Beth.... [T]he question of who is emotional victim versus who is predator becomes murkier and more disturbing than any detective puzzle. Compelling, claustrophobic and slightly creepy in a can't-put-it-down way.
Kirkus Reviews