Dare Me (Abbott) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to get a discussion started for Dare Me:

1. Talk about Addy, the narrator. How would you describe her? Is she merely a "tool" of Beth or Coach—pliable and submissive? Or is she someone with a will of her own who simply wants to avoid confrontation?

2. Talk about Beth. What kind of character is she? What happened at summer camp with Addy, Beth and Jaycee? What was going on?

3. Describe the relationship between Addy and Beth. What connects them—what draws the two together and holds them together despite set backs and fights. Who is the needy one in the relationship? Did the dynamics (or how you understood the dynamics) between the two change over the course of the story? Comment on the sexual element between them. Does  it shock you...or do you understand it?

4. What was your experience during high school with cheerleaders? Were you a cheerleader? What was the status of cheerleaders in your school? Did you envy them...dismiss them, resent them...like them...or were they not even on your radar?

5. A follow-up to Question 4: The girls in Dare Me are exclusive, mean, and arrogant. At the same time, they're extremely committed, highly disciplined and willing to subject themselves to pain. Do you find them admirable...despicable...or something in between?

6. A follow-up to Questions 4 and 5: Has your attitude toward cheerleading changed after reading Dare Me? Do you consider cheerleading a sport...or performance art? Should it be an Olympic sport?

7. How does author Megan Abbott use cheerleading and their formations, especially the pyramid, as a symbol for adolescent relationships?

8. What do you think of Coach? How did your understanding of her change throughout the novel...or did it? What do you think of her relationship with Addy? Is their friendship appropriate? What draws Addy to Coach? Does Coach use Addy?

9. What is the nature of Coach's personal life? What about her marriage to Matt French? What kind of a mother is she? Is she unhappy, astonishingly selfish...or what? What do we know of her background?

10. Talk about the whole culture of cheerleading. Is it healthy...unhealty...a combination of the two? What do you find disturbing—as well as admirable—about cheerleading? Does the cheerleading culture refelct teen culture in general?

11. Why does Beth do what she does at the end?

12. What do you think of the ending of the novel? Addy now stands before the young, future cheerleaders. What do you think of her message to the younger girls? Has she become Beth? Or is she the New and Improved Beth?

13. How do you view cheerleading performance? Is it too dangerous? Or is it no different than the dangers boys face who play football?

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