The Fine Art of Truth or Dare

by Melissa Jensen

[Joséphine]

So the cover has a quote from Robin Palmer that states, "Funny and sweet, just like first love ought to be." I kinda wonder if we read the same book. There was no part where I laughed because I thought something was funny. I didn't smile. I didn't even smirk. Also, if that really is how first love is supposed to be, then that is really sad.

Expectations aside thanks to the book cover, the book in itself wasn't terrible. There were a couple of ideas I liked. I liked that Ella pursued art to the point that she wanted to find out more about her favourite artist. I liked her friends Sadie and Frankie. Their group dynamic was balanced and did reflect one of three best friends who were there for each other while being individuals too. I particularly liked Frankie who could be very snarky but had a soft side too. He was an in your face kinda guy but Melissa Jensen managed to not make him seem way too much over the top.

Ella was obsessed with Edward Willing but had her reasons for liking his art. Since the plot aimed at realism, I would've very much preferred if she would've admitted from the outset that her conversations with him were imaginary. Or he should've been a ghost version of Edward. Would've been cliche but it would've made ploughing through pages and pages about a person who didn't matter to anyone else a little less laborious. She does abandon her obsession for a while to focus on Alex instead but the relationship between the two of them didn't help suck me into the book any further than whatever happened before Alex became central to the plot.

For something that I thought should've been a fairly easy read, I thought the plot was unnecessarily long. The constant emphasis on stating truth in the manner of "Truth: Insert a supposedly truthful statement." also made reading for me a somewhat stilted affair. To some degree I only read from cover to cover because in principle I try to finish books I start, unless I cannot stop cringing. I didn't cringe a lot while reading but neither did I derive much enjoyment. Would've given 2.5 stars if I could but since I can't and don't think it deserves 3, I'm giving 2 stars for this.