monstersinspace 's review for:

The Dare by Natasha Preston

1.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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 I got this as a skip the line book from my library and was looking for a young adult fiction as a pallet cleanser. What I got was a convoluted story that seems to change directions randomly near the end, I swear the author thought of a different ending 3 minutes before the book was done and said screw it and slammed it in there like no one would notice how little sense any of it made. 

Marley spends the ENTIRE book lamenting the murder her and her friends covered up. Galloping in every day on her high horse to talk as loudly and as often as she can about said murder and how bad it made her feel. So much so that her friends some what rightfully want to take her out as a weak link, which is wrong sure, but the time for guilty consciences and doing the right thing passes when you move and hide the body. 

Then in her scheme to pin it all on her friends, she finds out that the grandson was drugging the man they killed, and I guess just letting him loose in hopes someone would hit him? You’re probably like, oh good she would not shut up about how bad she felt surly with this new information she’ll work to have him arrested too? NO! She was actually lying the ENTIRE book, I guess, it isn’t actually clear if it was a lie or if she just thought the grandson was hot enough to forgo her morals or what. Because this 180 of personality happens in the last 2 mins of the story, and I don’t know if it's just me but lying is not a plot point or a twist its lazy writing. 

Also, I was hoping she wouldn’t end up with the rich jerk in the end but randomly reveling that she framed him for attempted murder and arson at some point in the story, all because he was stuck up and stopped being her friend in middle school is insane. Like if she said she did it because he should have his life ruined for a change that would be one thing, but she literally says she did it because he dropped her as a friend.