Self-proclaimed nobody CG Silverman sees her move to an upscale new school as her chance to be somebody different. Her devil-may-care attitude attracts the in-clique, and before CG realizes it, a routine game of truth or dare launches her to iconic status.While this rebel image helps secure CG’s newfound popularity, it also propels her through a maze of unprecedented chaos, with each new lie and every dare opening doors that, in most cases, were better off left shut. CG is on a collision course with disaster. Will she be able to keep up the façade? Or will the whole world find out she’s a fraud?
Moving home and being taken notice of by the most popular girl in her new school, CG takes the opportunity to reinvent herself and soon becomes one of the "Four Tops". Her three new friends - Alona, Grace and Sammi - are not only popular but also rich. A few made up tales and an inability to afford the clothes the other girls are wearing, CG gets herself the position as the rebel of the group. She wears, does and says whatever she likes. She starts an online relationship with her English teacher under the alter-ego of Fiji, she's secretly making out with Alona's older brother and also telling other people that he's her boyfriend ... the list goes on. Basically, this is a story about how a few little seemingly innocent lies can escalate and end up causing a who lot of trouble. CG adds lie upon lie to try and get out of the mess but she just keeps sinking deeper.
The best way I can describe It Started With a Dare
is 'laugh-out-loud funny'. It's very much like Mean Girls (omg! I love that movie!) in that the popular girls are so mockingly stereotypical - and of course there's the new girl who isn't the obvious addition to the group thing. The story is narrated by CG so we also get to see her thoughts on everything which redeems her a little bit. A lot of the time she knows she shouldn't be doing what she is but she doesn't know how to get out of it without getting in a whole lot of trouble and/or loosing her new friends. There's also a few sections that are written as emails and IMs which works really well in this book. In fact one of my favourite bits is a Myspace blog post that CG writes logged in as Grace.Although it's hard to actually like some of the characters in this book they are brilliantly written and although superficial in their personalities, there's underlying depth there with teenage insecurities that most people will identify with in some way.
It Started With a Dare is essentially a fun, quick and easy read that will amuse and entertain.
Author's website: www.lindsayfaithrech.com
