Book Review: It Started With a Dare by Lindsay Faith Rech

It Started With a Dare
by Lindsay Faith Rech
Non-series

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN-10: 0-547-23558-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-23558-5
Publication Date: September, 2010
List Price: $8.99

Review: Imagine being a nobody in high school whose been given a second chance. Would you try to become someone? Or would you sick with the status quo? CG Silverman decides to shake things up a bit in It Started With a Dare by Lindsay Faith Rech when her family moves from Philadelphia to the suburbs. CG takes this move to the upper class suburbs as her chance to finally be somebody - at all costs.

CG's family moves into Beaubridge during her sophomore year in high school. It doesn't take long for CG to figure out who the "Queen Bee" is at the high school. But what shocks CG the most is that Alona and her posse actually walk over to her, the girl from "the other side of the tracks," and start up a conversation. CG sees them in their height-of-fashion outfit and observes her "grunge" look and realizes that in mere hours, she's made it big. "The reining duchess of teen suburbia - the impossibly stunning Alona Spelton" is talking to her, a nobody! CG creates, on the spot, an entirely new persona - the "bad girl" from the city. Before long she's tight with the "in" crowd and digging herself deeper and deeper into her life of lies. Along the way, CG lies to nearly everyone she knows. But, when the lies come crashing down - will she be able to handle going from the "top" to "nonexistent?" Rech's light-hearted tale of high school is a must read for any girl who ever wanted to be somebody else.

It Started With a Dare is an absolutely entertaining and thought-provoking book. Rech incorporates real high school issues such as friends, relationships, parents, and identity and puts them all into a story that will keep you reading through the night. CG has in her a little bit of every high school girl. She is insecure yet confident, wants to be herself yet craves the clique, needs love but unsure of where to find it. She goes from being a loner to being a trend-setting icon to barely existing. It's every girl's dream and nightmare all wrapped in one. But, Rech doesn't let the tone ever get too heavy. She fills the pages with light and entertaining prose. When CG is trying to figure out why one of the "alpha" girls, Grace, is angry with her, the "Queen Bee", Alona, concludes Grace is jealous. "'You really think she's jealous?' I whisper to Alona. She gives me the affirmative nod. 'Totes.' That's Alona speak for 'totally.' Why save the rainforest, the whales, or the world when you can devote your time to saving syllables?" Grace always has a wry comment that will elicit a chuckle. She's smart and one of a kind. It Started With a Dare is a teen must-read!

Review written by Margo Nauert (6th grade teacher).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of It Started With a Dare for this review.

Have you read It Started With a Dare? How would you rate it?