Wednesday, July 16, 2014

The Dare by Hannah Jayne

Brynna put her best friend Erica up to a dare- the dare was to jump off a pier at night... they both did it, but only one of them came back.

Since the tragedy, Brynna has been spiraling out of control.  Her parents have moved her to a new town for a fresh start, but her old life seems to have followed her here.  Or maybe it's a ghost that's followed her because suddenly Erica seems to everywhere.  Brynna becomes consumed with guilt and fear, convinced that either someone is after her or she's really just going crazy.











I think I am done with YA Mystery/Thrillers for a while.  This was another miss for me.  I  initially liked the idea of this girl feeling guilt over her friend dying, but so many other factors made me not love this book.  It was a very junior high R.L.Stine/Christopher Pike thriller-type book.  Which I gotta say in junior high I was obsessed with those books, but now I need a little something more.

The friends in this book are one of the biggest issues I had.  So the first day (actually the first second) that Brynna steps into her new school, a guy immediately notices her and decides he's going to introduce her to his group of friends.  Yes this is a book and I can suspend some disbelief, but for serious?  Would that ever happen?  And then within seconds of meeting the group, one of the guys at the table is set up to be the love interest.... blah!!!  The thing about these "friends" is that they were SO nebby.  They just met Brynna and they're all "Why didn't you tell us about this"  and "How dare you keep this or that from us".  Ummm hello??  She JUST met you.  I wanted Brynna to tell them to back the hell off.  And Evan was all pry, pry, pry... tell me your secrets.  Once again, she JUST met you, she doesn't have to tell you anything asshole.

Throughout the book there was this steady flow of the main character being super scared and freaked out, thinking she was crazy, and then immediately feeling better or "normal" once she got around Teddy (the love interest) or one of her new friends.  I got sick of the same pattern over and over.  And I got sick of Brynna not ever sticking up for herself.  Everyone was constantly accusing her of everything and she would basically just take it.

Then there was the "big reveal"... which I thought it was pretty obvious who it was and why.  But just in case I didn't, this was the classic "I'm going to tell you what I did and why I did it and what I'm going to do next" villain scene.  Why do movies and books always do this at the end of who-dun-it's?  What criminal in the real world is going to spell everything out to the victim in the end?

I wanted more from this book than just a generic thriller that I will forget about in a few weeks.  Unfortunately, that's what I got.  I think this book would have been MUCH better as a Lifetime Movie.  As a book, it was just meh.

OVERALL: A YA Mystery/Thriller that fell short for me.  I was expecting a hot beach read, but it didn't quite get there for me.  It was very blah and juvenile, but I think it would be great for younger (middle grade) readers.

This Book Contains:
  • The beach
  • California
  • Family problems
  • A water phobia
  • Homecoming
  • Death
  • Addiction issues
  • Visits with a psychiatrist
  • A group of annoying friends

Add it to your To-Read List!!

My Rating:







How I got this book: Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcefire Books for allowing me to read and honestly review this book.
Date Published: 7/1/2014


2 comments:

  1. I actually picked this one up and put it back down really fast. I just couldn't get into it, I may try to read it again sometime since it was a review book but I just don't know...

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    Replies
    1. Yeah I don't recommend you picking it back up. The beginning is the best part and it really just gets jr-high thriller-ish after that.

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