Website
Blog
How I got it:
For a Blog Tour
Pages: 304
Publisher: Dial Books (Penguin)Pages: 304
Genre: Young Adult / Thriller
First Published: September 13 2012
The GIST (From Goodreads):
A high-stakes online game of dares turns deadly
When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. At first it's exhilarating--Vee and Ian's fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they're directed to a secret location with five other players for the Grand Prize round. Suddenly they're playing all or nothing, with their lives on the line. Just how far will Vee go before she loses NERVE?
Debut author Jeanne Ryan delivers an un-putdownable suspense thriller.
OPINION:
The game NERVE involves feats of cunning, bravery and brass-balls. Basically, it’s a game of Double Dare that earns the contestants prizes –strangely specific prizes as if the people behind NERVE are watching them. The main character, Vee, is an all around goodie-goodie. Stuck in the shadow of her best friend, Vee never has the chance to shine herself. When NERVE hosts open casting –pick a dare and perform it to get on the show—Vee decides to take the risk to show up her friend and impress a crush. The dares escalate when NERVE starts offering Vee prizes she can't say no to. She thinks, Hey why the heck not? Just one more dare…
Well, of course, it’s never one more dare. Along the way, Vee gets paired up with super hot Ian who seems protective and nice but she’s not all too sure of his intentions. Ian is a pretty intriguing character and I really liked his interactions with Vee. Vee was a bit of a flip-flopper when it came to personality. One second she was a loyal friend, the next she was selling those friends out for shoes. This is actually a very accurate depiction of a teenager (haha, not kidding though.) If you are looking for a fast-paced, kind of creepy thrill ride then NERVE is the one for you. The book was really easy and quick to read. I enjoyed it on a shallow level.
However, it just wasn’t as creepy as I wanted it to be. I wanted the dares to be like holy crap! I would never do that. Alas, they were only mildly scary. I feel like the fear factor could have really been upped throughout the whole book by making the dares raise the stakes for the contestants. They have to do personally scary stuff but I wanted it to be a things will never be the same if I do this to my friend type of thing. Instead it was, oh she’ll forgive me when she finds out this is a game. I wanted it to be juicier.
The biggest problem I had with this book occurred after I had read the entire thing. There is a prologue at the beginning of the book that basically deflates all of the tension in the last dare because it gives away vital information from after the contest is over. The “prologue” though it’s really an epilogue doesn’t really get explained either which was frustrating.
OVERALL
A junior version of SAW, NERVE didn't have the creepy factor I hoped it would. However, it was fun to read and I couldn't put it down. -- 6.5 out of 10.a Rafflecopter giveaway
Follow the rest of the tour at :
