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A review by xabbeylongx
I Dare You by Sam Carrington
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Spoilers Ahead:
I'm not going to lie to you, I wasn't sure what I was expecting from this book, and I can guarantee I had no clue where it was going throughout most of it.
The book is a multiple POV book, but it's mostly just a dual POV. We follow Anna as she travels back to her home town to see her mum, after not having been there for 30 years. Her mother has been receiving threatening doll parts attached to her door, so she goes back to try and deduce what's happening with her. Whereas Lizzie knows someone who has recently, after 30 years, been released from prison, and so she goes back to hers and Anna's home town, and she tries to find him.
I feel like there should be some context as to something traumatic that happened to the small village all those years ago. The man in question who was released from prison happened to be William 'Creepy' Cawley. He was accused of TW abusing his daughter, as he looked different from them all and his daughter would act very very weird around others. Kids often liked to taunt him, by playing Ding Dong Ditch on his door. One day, two girls are playing the game, and one of the girls goes missing soon after. With an eye witness stating that she saw Cawley put the girl into his van, he's arrested. The girl still remains out there someone, though no one knows where.
It turns out that Anna, who used to go by Bella, moved out of the village so she could try and forget the event, because she was the other girl, the one who escaped from Cawley. Lizzie also has a secret too, and that Cawley is that Cawley is her father. She went looking for him to find closure, and when she crosses paths with Anna, she thinks that there might be more to the mystery that is the girl's disappearance. Unfortunately, Lizzie is a journalist and so isn't trusted at the best of times, and when her true identity comes out, they find it hard to trust each other. However, they both have the same wish, and that is to find out what really happened, because they both seem to think Cawley has been framed.
As they start looking into it, they find out that might be closer to the truth than they originally thought. Lizzie finally meets up with her father, and she doesn't know whether to trust him or not, but when she hears his story, she knows that he must be telling the truth.
Turns out, most of the town was somehow involved in the murder - unfortunately, she was murdered. We go through how most of the town helped to cover it up and frame Cawley, and then we find out that Anna's dad, who disappeared years ago after he 'split up' with Anna's mum, is behind it. But then, we find out that actually he was just hiding the murder, he didn't actually commit it. The real killer is actually Anna, but when she was a child and went by Bella. She was tired of her friend bullying her and pushing her to do things she wasn't interested in doing, and they had a fight, but Bella eventually won. Unfortunately, she fought too hard, and her friend ended up dying. Upon finding out, her parents buried her and falsified a story, sending Cawley to prison. He doesn't want them to pay for it now, but he wants the village to know the truth, and for the girl to be uncovered, which she then is. Closure found.
Honestly, I was really enjoying this book. I thought the idea of the doll's heads at the start was really eerie, and I was enjoying reading about that. There was a lot of suspense, a lot of plot twists, and it was quite an interesting read. However, there's a few things that make it a little bit difficult for me to give it a higher rating.
For example, I think there was maybe, perhaps, one plot twist too many. Upon finding out the killer might have been Anna's dad, who wasn't even mentioned much in the story, made it a little anticlimactic. And when we got to finding out it was Anna, we thought we'd already had the big reveal so it wasn't as impactful as it could have been. Plus, the reveal itself and the idea was a little lacklustre, and, as I said, it really took away the consistent pacing of the book before it. It's a shame, because I had a few ideas as to who I thought it would be (I wasn't correct in the end) and I was really excited for the reveal, but it was just a bit tainted by it. Too complicated, too many false reveals, it felt very much like a 'boy who cried wolf' type of scenario.
Also, I wasn't really a fan of the characters. I can't quite put my finger on the reason why, but I wasn't a fan of Anna or Lizzie. I suppose Lizzie, towards the end, did start to get a bit more interesting, but as characters go, I wasn't feeling as connected as I could have been. Again, I don't have a specific reason for this, it's just how I felt.
Anyway, I wasn't as impressed as I had hoped to be, but I do like the suspense throughout, and I did like some of the horror aspects of it.
I'm not going to lie to you, I wasn't sure what I was expecting from this book, and I can guarantee I had no clue where it was going throughout most of it.
The book is a multiple POV book, but it's mostly just a dual POV. We follow Anna as she travels back to her home town to see her mum, after not having been there for 30 years. Her mother has been receiving threatening doll parts attached to her door, so she goes back to try and deduce what's happening with her. Whereas Lizzie knows someone who has recently, after 30 years, been released from prison, and so she goes back to hers and Anna's home town, and she tries to find him.
I feel like there should be some context as to something traumatic that happened to the small village all those years ago. The man in question who was released from prison happened to be William 'Creepy' Cawley. He was accused of TW abusing his daughter, as he looked different from them all and his daughter would act very very weird around others. Kids often liked to taunt him, by playing Ding Dong Ditch on his door. One day, two girls are playing the game, and one of the girls goes missing soon after. With an eye witness stating that she saw Cawley put the girl into his van, he's arrested. The girl still remains out there someone, though no one knows where.
It turns out that Anna, who used to go by Bella, moved out of the village so she could try and forget the event, because she was the other girl, the one who escaped from Cawley. Lizzie also has a secret too, and that Cawley is that Cawley is her father. She went looking for him to find closure, and when she crosses paths with Anna, she thinks that there might be more to the mystery that is the girl's disappearance. Unfortunately, Lizzie is a journalist and so isn't trusted at the best of times, and when her true identity comes out, they find it hard to trust each other. However, they both have the same wish, and that is to find out what really happened, because they both seem to think Cawley has been framed.
As they start looking into it, they find out that might be closer to the truth than they originally thought. Lizzie finally meets up with her father, and she doesn't know whether to trust him or not, but when she hears his story, she knows that he must be telling the truth.
Turns out, most of the town was somehow involved in the murder - unfortunately, she was murdered. We go through how most of the town helped to cover it up and frame Cawley, and then we find out that Anna's dad, who disappeared years ago after he 'split up' with Anna's mum, is behind it. But then, we find out that actually he was just hiding the murder, he didn't actually commit it. The real killer is actually Anna, but when she was a child and went by Bella. She was tired of her friend bullying her and pushing her to do things she wasn't interested in doing, and they had a fight, but Bella eventually won. Unfortunately, she fought too hard, and her friend ended up dying. Upon finding out, her parents buried her and falsified a story, sending Cawley to prison. He doesn't want them to pay for it now, but he wants the village to know the truth, and for the girl to be uncovered, which she then is. Closure found.
Honestly, I was really enjoying this book. I thought the idea of the doll's heads at the start was really eerie, and I was enjoying reading about that. There was a lot of suspense, a lot of plot twists, and it was quite an interesting read. However, there's a few things that make it a little bit difficult for me to give it a higher rating.
For example, I think there was maybe, perhaps, one plot twist too many. Upon finding out the killer might have been Anna's dad, who wasn't even mentioned much in the story, made it a little anticlimactic. And when we got to finding out it was Anna, we thought we'd already had the big reveal so it wasn't as impactful as it could have been. Plus, the reveal itself and the idea was a little lacklustre, and, as I said, it really took away the consistent pacing of the book before it. It's a shame, because I had a few ideas as to who I thought it would be (I wasn't correct in the end) and I was really excited for the reveal, but it was just a bit tainted by it. Too complicated, too many false reveals, it felt very much like a 'boy who cried wolf' type of scenario.
Also, I wasn't really a fan of the characters. I can't quite put my finger on the reason why, but I wasn't a fan of Anna or Lizzie. I suppose Lizzie, towards the end, did start to get a bit more interesting, but as characters go, I wasn't feeling as connected as I could have been. Again, I don't have a specific reason for this, it's just how I felt.
Anyway, I wasn't as impressed as I had hoped to be, but I do like the suspense throughout, and I did like some of the horror aspects of it.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Murder