I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this fab novel as a member of the Pan Macmillan reading group. Unfortunately due to ill health I couldn't make the meet up and discussion, which I was very disappointed about particularly as I loved the last meet up. So I thought I'd write a blog piece and share my views on it.
I have to admit I had actually already downloaded the novel onto my kindle prior to the lovely Jodie sending me my copy. I loved Megan Abbott's last novel "The End of Everything" for its evocative picture of teenage girls' friendships in a small town in a sleepy summer (with shades of "The Virgin Suicides" - another favourite). So I was really looking forward to this novel.
I felt like "Dare Me" took Megan Abbott into a different league. The story of hyper competitive cheerleaders and their warped relationship with their coach also has elements of a crime novel. It's a pageturner with a cracking plot, based both on a horrible crime and on the relationship between Addy, our narrator, Beth, her frenemy and Coach, who plays all the girls against each other both in cheerleading and for her affections.
Megan Abbott is so sharp on what makes girls tick. The cheer squad hate Beth and want to be her, all long limbs and insouciant control; Addy is jealous of Coach and longs for her approval. Coach pulls the girls close to compensate for the shallowness in her own life and keeps them at arm's length to preserve her mystique. No one really likes anyone else but they can't stop thinking about them.
The girls are forever on their phones tapping out messages of love and hate. They're always connected and can never escape attention. So although the girls can be loathsome, you pity them and (for adult readers) breathe a sigh of relief that you're too old for all that. I'm not actually sure teenage girls would like this novel: it may be too sharp and probing. Could they share the adult reader's pity for Beth?
A classy and chilling crime novel; a dark and compelling psychological thriller; an empathetic and ultimately sympathetic portrait of teenage girls. Definitely comes highly recommended.
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