ARC Review: IT STARTED WITH A DARE

Important Information:
Title: IT STARTED WITH A DARE
By: Lindsay Faith Rech
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group
Genre: Young Adult


The Rundown:
Fifteen-year-old CG Silverman is a nobody. But a middle-of-the-school-year move is her chance to go from zero to hero, and she takes full advantage, reinventing herself from the tired old Cynthia Gene to the daring, rebel-without-a-cause CG.


In no time, she's shedding her nobody skin and surfing through the treacherous waters of popularity. But in order to make herself into that cool girl that everyone looks up to, CG has to stretch the truth a little...well, okay a lot. What begins as a few harmless little fibs quickly grow into the tallest of tales, and CG just can't seem to stop herself.


Now, she's got more balls in the air than she can juggle, what with a cyberspace affair with her hot English teacher, constant contact with her best friend's hunky older brother, and not to mention continuing to push the envelope to maintain her rebel status. All her little white lies keep piling up, and keeping track of them is tricky at best. The only question now is: Can she keep everything in the air, or will her life crash down around her?


My Thoughts:
This was a book that I read in one sitting. The main character just jumped off the page and did a little dance for me. Within the first few paragraphs, I knew that CG was the kind of girl that I wanted to be friends with. She was smart, sassy, and funny as hell. Her journey through the shark-infested waters that is high school and going from nobody to social queen back down to lower-than-scum Toilet Girl was wildly entertaining. I laughed. I cried (well, okay not cried, but I did sniff a little). I also shook my fist at her and yelled, "What are you thinking, girl?!?"

That said, the end of the book as a little preachy to me. I mean I know that CG is a good kid and she knows right from wrong. I also know that she knows how bad she messed up, but when her world has crashed down around her and her parents find out what exactly has been going on in their daughter's life, I feel like that conversation is how a parent would like it go, not how it actually would go. And even the way CG thinks about it all at the end felt very after-school-special to me. I, for one, do enjoy seeing the character grow and learning from her mistakes, but in this instance it seemed a little over-done. Just my opinion, though.


All in all, this book was quite entertaining, and even with my objections to the "lesson learned" part, I would recommend this anyone looking for a fun, fast read.