The Dare

by Hannah Jayne

[Leah]

Last year I read and enjoyed Hannah Jayne's Sourcebooks debut Truly, Madly, Deadly, it was one of my first tastes of a young adult thriller and I was very impressed! So when I spotted The Dare up for request on Netgalley, I requested it and was very pleased to be accepted! It sounds just as thrilling, just as spooky as Truly, Madly, Deadly, and I actually think The Dare was even spookier, because I truly had no idea what was happening to Brynna - she goes through such a lot, and she's recovering from all sorts of addictions that you're never entirely sure if she's reliable as a character, or not, and whether everything she's experiencing is reality or in her head.

I very rarely read books with characters I don't feel I can trust - how can you enjoy a novel if you're aren't entirely sure the character isn't crazy? I feel really bad for wondering it, but there was just a part of me through the entire time I was reading The Dare that was concerned Brynna had just completely lost her grip in reality - and it's proven, time and time again, that she simply MUST be going crazy, because whenever an incident occurs - seeing Erica going into a coffee shop, hearing voice mails that aren't possible, almost drowning in a pool when there's no one there holding you under, I felt a lot of suspicion about Brynna. I was wary of her, never sure what was going to happen next, much like her parents, and it was strange to feel that way about a character, but it was also hugely interesting, because it made me question her and her motives and everything that happens.

I liked how The Dare threw suspicion over everyone, because although I did question Brynna, I was also curious who could be doing it because I hoped I was wrong and I hoped it was someone doing it to her, rather than it being of her own imaginings. It wasn't helped by the fact Brynna didn't tell a SOUL about the Tweets, weird movements, phone calls, etc, she was quite secretive when it came down to it and it just threw her under more suspicion. The flashbacks to the night of the dare were really great, I very much enjoyed unfurling Brynna's story and to see what happened to Erica, and there was a lot right with the book, but unfortunately there were also some issues. The book lags quite a bit - it has theses moments of heart-pounding tension, followed by dress shopping, or nonsense that I really wasn't interested in. I wanted the tension to ride through the entire novel, keeping me hooked, but I was a bit bored at times. There's hints all isn't well with Brynna's insta-friends at her new school, and I never really got the whole Teddy/Brynna thing - they were almost incidental extras and they weren't explored as well as they should have been - why did Darcy give off creepy vibes? Why was Teddy literally EVERYWHERE? Weird.

I thought The Dare lost out with the ending. It had this really great scene, that rolled into a few other scenes and then it just ended. No explanations, no recriminations, no apologies, nothing. It just ended with some nonsense of friends always being there for each other, which I didn't take in the greatest of ways because it felt like who said it was having a dig at Brynna about Erica. I probably would have amended that last line. And I certainly would have thrown in an Epilogue, to see what had happened a few weeks or so down the line. I hate open endings, I don't think they work and this is another to add to the "didn't work/open ending's suck" column. Everything leading up to that was interesting, and mostly kept me reading. It wasn't as spectacular as I would have liked, but it was a solid enough novel and I can't wait to see what Hannah Jayne writes next, she's an interesting author and The Dare was a twisty, enjoyable read.