I received Dare Me and my thoughts are below - a five star exhilarating and chilling read!
As someone who knows nothing of the cheerleading world that seems so intrinsic to American high schools, and the surrounding teenage angst that it gives rise to, I confess to approaching this novel preparing to be well and truly underwhelmed. Woe betide others who enter so casually, for Dare Me is a fascinating, claustrophobic and highly compelling insight into the intense world of burgeoning adolescents girls and the very dark depths that it can plumb. Uncomfortable and truly shocking, Dare Me, is also impossible to put down and evokes a ‘last man standing’ edginess that will leave the reader squirming in their seat for the accuracy of the all too aware teenagers taking the measure of each other and vying for the upper hand. That they do all of this whilst doe-eyed, but oh so knowingly aware, is chilling. Dare Me opens with the introduction of a new coach to Sutton Grove High School’s exacting cheerleading squad, which soon disturbs the presiding status quo and sets in motion a chain of events which takes this novel deep into noir territory. Icily aloof, Coach French, is also young and pretty with an attitude that shows scorn for the petty exploits that fill her charges lives. Unruffled and indifferent to their clamouring advances and girl crushes as they compete for her attention and approval she rocks the ruling order of power. Narrator, sixteen-year-old Addy Hanlon, has occupied her position as trusted lieutenant to best friend, team captain and queen bee of the cheer team, Beth Cassidy, since they first met. An incident which left a cloud over the previous summers cheerleading camp has left an air of tension between the two girls and enlightened Addy to Beth’s capacity for revenge and forewarned of the dangers of those attempting to usurp her position of invincibility. Beth is mean, intimidating and manipulative and her one-liners cut like a knife. If Beth wants to make a girls life hell, she can and her attitude seems to be along the lines of, “if I can’t be happy, then I won’t be unhappy alone”.
In Coach French, Beth meets a challenge. As their iron wills clash when the captain status is removed from Beth the ensuing tit for tat response ups the ante and the prospect of defeat for one party bringing a potentially devastating fall. Using the others as pawn is their game, the two recreate the essence of chest pounding pugilists locked in war, by playing them off against each other, working them over and undermining their places on the squad. After whetting the girls appetite with her steely exterior, the invitation to Coach’s house seems a tantalising reward for their wide eyed adoration. Singling Addy out to as the chosen one, taking her into her confidence and letting her into her world, Addy falls hook, line and sinker for her overtures. These girls are, in the crudest terms, gagging to be the apple of Coach’s eye. As Addy finds her with divided loyalties, delicately balancing bullying Beth with her fascination with Coach she soon finds herself uniquely placed to experience the car crash resolution that will end all of their seasons.
The characterisation is quite exceptional, most notably Addy, who adds a powerful background commentary and whose asides alongside the unfolding events reveal so much more about the pressures and dynamics between intense young girls who discover the irresistible highs and dangers that can come from being a critical part of a competitive team. Even down to the secondary cast, from the ground bound, Emily who vocalises the physical dangers right through to Tacy Slaussen, a pigeon who is given an unexpected taste of the highs of being queen bee, Megan Abbott never puts a foot wrong.
The power of this novel is the toe curling quality of Abbott’s accuracy in portraying these young girls, both their actions and words. It is breathtakingly convincing, and all disguised by the facades and guises that hide teenage girls insecurities. Competition is fierce, and Abbott’s matter of fact prose captures the blasé air that the so called “cheerlebrities” seem to exude, all behind a wealth of their own private fears. The turning point occurs when Beth gains precious leverage over Coach, specifically her close links to a National Guard recruiter and his suspicious suicide. It is at this point that the mystery element of this novel comes into play, but it is all heavily overshadowed by the subtle and sinister psychology behind each incremental development. As Addy finds herself pitted between scurrilous liar and arch-manipulator, Beth and Coach, a woman who seems to talk in riddles since the incident, she is caught in the fallout and as pressure builds into the week of the final game, Addy realises that if she wants the truth she will need to enter into very dangerous territory. And the very dark truth is nowhere near as simple as the reader expects. A fascinating insight into the world of competition, the pursuit of the perfect body, prescription drugs, purging, glitter, spray tan and the bruising danger that comes with life as a cheerleader.
A marvellous novel and a truly uncomfortable read and I look forward to discovering more of Megan Abbott’s writing.