Horror Book of the Week— The Dare by Natasha Preston

 Natasha Preston's latest novel The Dare will make you wary of accepting dares.

The Dare was released in May 2024 and is on the bestsellers list for Teen & Young Adult Mystery Books as well as Teens and Young Adult Thrillers and Suspense.

The book has since the found praise from readers who loved the author's writing style and stories. They also enjoyed the fast pace and plot twists.

There were some readers who found the book to have several grammatical mistakes and found the book to be heavy on tropes. Some even found the book to be a little repetitive.

Quick Book Review of THE DARE based on sample

The books starts of with Marley's POV. She talks about the Wilder brothers and how they were in charge of the senior pranks. She shares some animosity with one of them, Rhett, who used to be her best friend once upon a time.

Marley has her own friend group now: Luce and her boyfriend Jesse, and Atlas, Marley's boyfriend.

The Wilder brothers are known to make up the worst pranks that could actually get people into trouble and damage their careers.

The four plan a prank on the principal using glitter balloons. Later, Rhett sends a text to all the seniors to come to a place for instructions.

For some reason, all of the students blindly obey and arrive.

Marley and her friends are given a task to steal a gold watch from an elderly man's house. The four are off to perform the prank.

According to the premise, things are not going to go according to plan and there are going to be deadly consequences.

The story has an interesting blurb but the book itself has nothing new to offer.

The writing doesn't hold your interest and the opening does little to ignite a compulsion to continue reading.

The characters are stereotypical. We have the popular girl with the perfect boyfriend and perfect friends. Her thoughts do not get you to relate with her much less sympathise with her.

In fact, you may not like any of the characters in the beginning.

Hopefully that changes later in the book. 

So far, the sample shows unoriginal ideas stringed together with no hint of mystery or intrigue.

To Read or Not to Read

The Dare did not have an impressive sample. It was missing a lot of things, primarily good and interesting characterizations. 
The writing could have used some polishing as well, and the plot should have become more interesting by the third chapter at least.

Unfortunately, I will give The Dare a miss. Even if you Dare me to read it.

Check out the book on Amazon