Release Date: September 2010
Published By: Graphia
Pages: 312
Goodreads Rating: 3.17 stars
Review: When CG Silverman moves to a new upscale neighborhood, she sees an opportunity to reinvent herself as a reckless, devil-may-care girl, and swiftly attracts the attention of the most popular girls in school. Her rebel image helps her social status, but with each lie, she finds herself buried in increasing chaos. She's on a collision course headed for disaster, terrified that the entire world will find out about her deception and realize who she really is - nobody. But maybe even CG doesn't know her true self.
IT STARTED WITH A DARE is your classic teen girl coming-of-age novel, complete with catty cliques, popularity games more dangerous than navigating a jungle of beasts, and, of course, the ubiquitous "Truth or Dare". Although many elements were familiar and perhaps a bit tired, this novel does stand out to some extent because of CG's strong and witty voice that shone straight through the pages.
As I said, this was a coming-of-age story, and in this case, that meant CG spent much of the novel pretending to be someone she wasn't. However, because of that, I felt like I never got to really know the true CG - I just saw her pretending to be someone else by making up lies and doing things she wouldn't ordinarily do. I wanted to get a greater sense of who she was before she moved, because that would have made the romance aspect of the ending that much greater.
Speaking of the ending, I was a little disappointed with it. I like happy endings as much as the next person, but this one felt somewhat unbelievable given how quickly (minor spoiler alert) Alex forgave her. It was just too convenient for my tastes, and I think I would have preferred an ending that was more ambiguous, perhaps, because I couldn't see him forgiving her so easily. (end spoiler alert)
Despite my quibbles with the ending and CG's true persona, I had a great time reading IT STARTED WITH A DARE. Even though it contained many too-familiar elements and didn't have an entirely unique storyline, this fast-paced novel was filled with humor and made for a read that both was fun and had a great lesson to take away. Fans of high school popularity and coming of age novels should definitely pick up this book.
3 stars
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