Book Review: Dare Me – Megan Abbott
[image error] Beth and me wedged tight, jeaned legs pressed against each other. The sound of our own breathing. Before we all stopped believing a tornado, or anything, could touch us, ever. Addy Hanlon and Beth Cassidy are tough, inseparable, invincible. No pair more charismatic or sophisticated. No pair more dangerous. But with the fall term, their new coach arrives and things begin to change. She has plans for the cheer squad: all sleek poise and cool command, the girls are soon entirely in her thrall. Faster, harder, higher, thinner, the stakes raised, their world contracting, they compete to risk – everything. She, meantime, has been crossing a line of her own. From the brilliant author of The End of Everything, Dare Me is a searing novel about the allure of adulthood and the dark heart of adolescence: the fierce bonds between girls, their bitter rivalries, and their power to transform one another.
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Review: Dare Me
Schools are not always the easiest of places. Whether teachers and parents like it or not there are often hierarchies that develop in each school year. In Megan Abbott’s Dare Me we focus on a group of cheerleaders who have such a hierarchy in place but the foundations are ruptured by the arrival of a new Coach.
The novel is told from the point of view of Addy Hanlon who is the best friend and trusted lieutenant of Beth Cassidy, the Captain of the cheerleaders who dictates what the others do. Addy and Beth are both feared with Beth in particular being manipulative. When Coach Colette French joins the school and takes charge of the cheerleaders things begin to change. The Coach is unmoved by Beth’s top standing and gives precedence to the other girls, inviting the cheerleaders to her home for late night drinking and training. The Coach has big ambitions for the cheerleaders but in pushing Beth to the periphery of the group she sets in motion a series of events in which Addy is caught in the middle.
Addy and Beth have been friends for years and though Addy is somewhat reserved at times she never seems to question Beth in the beginning. The other girls go along with Beth’s instructions, afraid to stand up to her. This idyll for Beth is disrupted by the arrival of the new Coach. Colette French is extremely passionate about cheerleading, so much so that you would think she had walked right out of high school and started training the girls immediately. Truth be told, the Coach is married with a child but all is not well at home. Her passion is in cheerleading and she pushes the girls very hard, building their strength and fitness, and teaching them some difficult formations and techniques. She has no time for Beth’s self-proclaimed position at the top of the hierarchy. When Coach challenges and defeats Beth, the other girls begin flocking to her and the Coach takes a particular liking to Addy who she trusts.
Beth is not one to suffer defeat for long though. The deposed Captain is soon conspiring to regain her position and when she and Addy uncover a dark secret about Coach she believes she has the weapons to unleash a psychological war. As an important match looms, the girls are hard at practice but their training is disrupted by a suicide in the town, a suicide which leads to the police questioning Coach. Beth is delighted but Addy, who is in the middle of the war between her best friend and the Coach, has mixed loyalties now. In becoming close to both Beth and later Coach, Addy finds herself very deep in the shocking events that unfold.
Dare Me is a very well written novel with two memorable characters in Beth and Coach. Addy was okay as the narrator but she doesn’t have the strength to stand up to the mind games and manipulation of Beth. Coach is an intriguing character, so easily defeating Beth when she first arrives but she is not without her own faults and weaknesses. How she becomes linked to a suicide makes for an absorbing story.
Dare Me is a tense psychological thriller set around the competitive world of cheerleading. Although our narrator Addy isn’t the strongest of characters the book more than makes up for things with Beth and Coach who are very well conveyed here.
Verdict: 4/5
(Book source: reviewer received a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review)
Book Review: Dare Me – Megan Abbott | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
