User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
E-ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. PROS: • Short chapters. They gave me the impression, and I am inclined to think that is more than an impression, that I was reading at a super speed, even though the book is over 400 pages. And just for the next times, the short chapters thing is a big ON for me! Also, it helped a lot at the mystery!
• Structure of the chapters. As I have said at the previous point, they helped me read faster, BUT! The more important thing here, is how clever are built these short chapters! The author did an extremely great job by giving a handful of crumbles in each and every one of them, helping the plot twist to be mind-blowing!
• Slow-burning thriller. I am not a fan of this kind of thrillers, and books in general, but this one kept me on edge. It made me more curious about every bit that it gave me and had me wanting more and more.
• It made me cry! No need to say more here.
• Two timelines. Going back and forth between timelines accentuated the plot twist, giving it more power over me.
• Well defined characters. I loved the way that the author made a strong image for every character, even for those ones that appeared briefly.
CONS: • Not even one. And I have tried to find at least one, trust me!
OVERALL THOUGHTS: • In my opinion, this is an amazing "whodunit" slow-burning thriller. I had my questions answered. I tried to guess the whos, whats, hows, and whys and failed. I had an amazing time reading this, and I am pretty sure when I say that this is in my top 10 reads of this year! Top 10 thrillers FOR SURE! I can't wait to read more books from this author since this one put it on my list with my favorite authors!
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Rating: really liked it
Book Reviewed on www.whisperingstories.com
1989 – Ten-year-old’s Jonie and Bella enjoyed playing the game ‘Knock, Knock, Ginger’ (we called it knock-a-door-run). The girls dare each other to knock on the doors of the residents of Mapledon. One house neither of the girls wanted to knock on was Billy ‘Creepy’ Cawley’s bungalow, however, if you have been dared to do it, you must!
July 1989, Jonie Hayes went missing. Despite no physical evidence and no body ever being found, Billy ‘Creepy’ Cawley was convicted of her murder and sentenced to thirty years in prison after her friend testified that she had seen Jonie getting into Billy’s pick-up truck.
July 2019 – Billy has just been released from prison and he’s looking for revenge. Anna (Bella) hasn’t been back to Mapledon in over twenty-years but when her mother calls distressed that someone has nailed a dolls head to her front door, Anna returns to the place she swore she would never step foot in again.
Freelance Journalist Lizzie heads to Mapledon to cover the story of Billy’s release, but she may be there under false pretences.
What started as an innocent game thirty-years-ago has everyone on tenterhooks waiting for what will happen next.
I Dare You is a psychological thriller that truly plays with your mind. The book is told in the third person and from the points of view of Anna, Lizzie, and the events in 1989. The book is filled with twists and turns and a few red-herrings too.
The chapters are short which seems to heighten the tension and kept me on edge. I especially loved the chapters set in 1989 as they helped to bring the story together. I also found myself trying to figure out what Lizzie’s connection to Mapledon and the murder case was.
This is the first book I have read by Sam Carrington and I can tell you that the writing is superb. The way that she describes a scene has you perfectly able to visualise what is happening and she painted the village of Mapledon as this weird, strange town where secrets were behind every door.
The conclusion was satisfying and I was left feeling that all my questions had been answered. It might not have been a big climactic ending but it fitted the story perfectly.
This is a book that kept me hooked to the pages and rushing through it, so much so that I finished it in two days. I wanted to find out the truth and I wanted to find out who Billy was going to start his revenge with.
Rating: really liked it
My first read by Carrington and by no means my last. Each time I thought I had the answer, my “suspect compass” swivelled again. Unpredictable, surprising and with plenty of twists and turns, this book had copious amounts of suspense. With over 100 chapters, the pace was quick and the intensity did not lessen at all during this read. A great mystery!
The narrative is divided into present day and 30 years previous. We have perspectives from Lizzie and Anna (present day), coupled with a third person narrative back in 1989. However, what I found exciting was the way that Carrington structured the flashbacks. Rather than reporting on events leading up to the shocking crime, it is not in chronological order. Instead, the majority of the flashbacks lead further and further into the past. We are presented with events in the reverse order, meaning you are actively putting together the occurrences leading up to the fateful day. This was so brilliantly different that it heightened by overall enjoyment of the story. I liked this touch because it felt so unique and it meant that I had more detective work to do. Indeed, this certainly influenced how I interpreted the events, but it also meant that we were like the lead characters in discovering the truth about what really happened.
The lead characters are mostly female, reflecting their dominance in the sleepy village of Mapledon. I could easily imagine this small village and how news travels fast: everyone knows each other’s business. However, this is horrifically juxtaposed with the disappearance of the child and the real truth about what happened. Carrington builds the suspense because, whilst the village seem to know one another, they do not present the real facade. It reminded me of a famous Lady Macbeth quote – “look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent underneath it”.
The chapters are incredibly short. Some may argue that this makes the plot rather “choppy” because the chapters keep switching before any major revelations are revealed. True, the chapters mostly conclude on a dramatic moment, but this simply forced me to not put the book down! I had to carry on reading, to find out what happened next to the characters. Of course, the next chapter would switch to a different protagonist so, before I knew it, another twenty minutes had passed of immersive reading. There are worse ways to spend your time!
I loved this story. The mystery and suspense was thrilling and I could not predict the final truth. It was surprising and engaging and I fully intend to read more of Carrington’s books next year – it would be wrong not to.
With thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Sam Carrington's books but I am pleased I took the plunge as I thoroughly enjoyed I Dare You. Billy Cawley is the local misfit in the small village of Mapledon and the children in the area used to love to subject him to the game Knock Knock Ginger by banging on his front door constantly and calling him Creepy Cawley. July arrives and the summer heralds the beginning of longer days in which the kids can play outside longer. It's 1989 but when ten-year-old Jonie Hayes vanishes the summer serenity comes to an abrupt end and the village residents immediately point the finger at Billy despite there being no evidence to implicate him and the young girl's body had not been found. Nevertheless, he was found guilty and sentenced to thirty years in prison. Now he has just been released and is looking for revenge against those he feels wrongfully dubbed him a child killer whilst knowing what really happened. They know he will seek vengeance.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable thriller which played with my psyche somewhat. It makes me upset that people would judge another as evil merely for not appreciating the same things they do or for keeping to themselves and I know this is fiction but make no bones about it this happens in reality too sadly. It is a compulsive, well written and utterly riveting piece of writing and I loved every second of it; trying to work it out and put all of the puzzle pieces together. It's a quick, fun and entertaining read and incredibly easy to get into. The switches in timeline and perspectives are done seamlessly and leave no room for confusion and the twists and turns come on fast and strong in the latter half of the book. The small village mentality was depicted perfectly with lots of gossiping, secrets and the unremitting need to keep up appearances. Many thanks to Avon for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
Sam Carrington's book always grab you and tell a fantastic story. I Dare You was no different and I really enjoying it. It is a twisty story that was not at all predictable. It was clear that the accused was not the guilty party but it was not obvious who the real criminal was. I was not even close when I read those final few chapters. It did take me a little while to get my head around what was happening, but once I figured it all. out I was really intrigued.
30 years ago a young girl disappeared in a small village called Mapledon. The local creepy man, Billy Crawley was arrested and sent to prison. Now 30 years later he has been released. Anna was a key witness in his arrest and returns home for the first time since she left. Her mother is in pieces and terrified that Billy is going to come back to town. Reporter Lizzie also arrives in Mapledon to get the story of the released man. But it is clear that there is more to her interest than just a story. Told from multiple points of view and both timelines, we learn about what really happened that night and who was involved.
Thanks to Netgalley and Avon Books UK for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.
Rating: really liked it
1989: Two ten year old schoolgirls play a prank. But it goes horribly wrong. One of the girls is now missing. She was seen getting into the local weirdos truck.she was never seen again. Her body was never found. Bill Crawley was gi en a thirty year prison sentence.
Present day: Bill Crawley has been released on licence. The local villagers wonder if he will have the gall to show face and return to the house that has been empty for the past thirty years. Anna hasn't been back to her family,y home for twenty years. Lizzie, who is a freelance journalist has not been back for thirty years. Anna returns because she got a frightening call from her mother, Muriel. Someone is purposely scaring her.
The story goes back and forth from 1989 to the present day. The narrative is told from several points of view. Anna and Lizzie are the main characters who search for clues to find the truth behind what had happened thirty years ago. It's full of twist and turns. The dual timelines are weaved together seamlessly when we find out the truth at the end of this book. Was Bill Crawley innocent of his crimes? You will need to read the book to find out.
I would like to thank NetGalley, Avon Books UK and the author Sam Carrington for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
This book was lent to me by my daughter who rated it very highly so, I was very interested to see what it was like. I wasn’t disappointed it was creepy at times and very tense.
Although I guessed the ending it didn’t spoil it for me at all. I haven’t read any of this author’s books before but, I will be looking out for the others in time.
Rating: really liked it
Who’s the killer? What’s their motive? And what everybody’s hiding and why?So many questions and the answers turned out to be far more
intriguing than I anticipated!
The story is told from
various perspectives and as it
alternates between timelines, we get to uncover the many facets of the
well-developed characters.
Moreover, in the middle, I felt the plot did
drag on a little and most of the twists were somewhat
predictable but still
thought-provoking.
Infused with
twists, turns, and a lot of secrets, this
gripping mystery is definitely
worth a read!I would like to thank the Publishers, NetGalley, and the Author for sending me a copy of this book.
You can check out my reviews on my blog❣️.
Rating: really liked it
Can a secret hidden for 30 years cause havoc even today?
Yes! Yes! Yes! Especially if author Sam Carrington had written it. A brilliant book, the best way to start the new year.
2 girls played a Knock, knock game on a man ostracized by the entire village until one came back and the other was lost forever. The man was charged with murder and sent to prison. But he was released now, and secrets had to be revealed.
Wow! The blurb and the premise of the story pulled me in. The author played on my curiosity, page after page, until I knew nothing but the story. The outside world disappeared for me. The chapters were short and snappy giving me clues to the mystery. The dual timeliness too added to the delicious mystery that this story was.
The suspense built up progressively as the author’s writing tightened the screws on the prose with her powerful imagery. That kept me completely hypnotized until the final reveal which knocked me out completely. I got a hint of the finale, but nothing could deter me from being enthralled by this story.
A perfect book for the new year. I loved it!!
Rating: really liked it
I received a free e-copy of I Dare You by Sam Carrington from NetGalley for my honest review.
Thirty years ago, the kids of Mapledon would play a game where they would torment the village outcast, Billy Crawley. One day while playing this game, a girl disappeared. Billy was convicted of her murder even though her body was never found.
Now, Thirty years later, Billy Cawley has been released from prison and some weird things are happening.
Rating: really liked it
What a firecracker of a thriller Sam Carrington his written with her new novel, I Dare You; it's creepy, fast-paced and bursting to the brim with secrets. The characters are so well developed that I detested some and felt complete empathy for others. The whole story is so multi-layered it's like peeling an onion with a secret at its core that will bring tears to the eyes of one of the characters.
I got so angry with the characters when I was reading I Dare You because the children of Mapledon are obsessed with playing Knock, Knock, Ginger on the Cawley house. The children's obsession with the creepy Cawley house reminded me of the spooky Radley Place in To Kill a Mockingbird. What even makes a house creepy? Why do children feel drawn to something that scares them so much? In the case of I Dare You, the children have picked up on the bullying of Bill Cawley by their parents. There's more than one bad apple in Mapledon and they don't want Bill Cawley in their poisonous village. The women of the village get together like witches around a cauldron to hatch a plan to get rid of Bill Cawley once and for all. The lengths they are prepared to go to oust him from their midst is quite shocking and it really ignited my fury at the complete injustice of it all.
The children's game goes badly wrong one day when one little girl doesn't return home and no body is found. On the 30th anniversary of Jonie Hayes' disappearance, two women return to the village they once called home; Anna returns after a disturbing phone call from her mother that provides the creepy element of the story but journalist Lizzie's return is a little more mysterious as she hides her true identity whilst asking questions about the past, providing an abundance of intrigue and suspense. I don't want to say anything more about the plot as to do so would spoil the peeling of the onion for other readers. Suffice to say, Sam Carrington keeps the reader on their toes as each layer unravels to reveal even more deeply buried layers underneath.
More gripping than a strip of velco, you won't be able to put down I Dare You until all its secrets are revealed. It's a blistering, suspenseful thriller that got under my skin and made me so furious but I loved every page of it.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
Rating: really liked it
Sam Carrington's style is not necessarily one that I would usually relish in other authors and while her previous one
"The Missing Wife" was rather slow burning but it packed a punch by the end, I was still a little dubious going in with this one. I need not have feared...
I DARE YOU was five star brilliant!!
I generally do not enjoy slow burn thrillers. I would rather they reel me in from the first page and get to the point to keep that ride going. However, despite being a slow build in her writing style, Carrington still manages to do all that - reel me in from the beginning, dropping little snippets through to keep me interested whilst building up to the inevitable climax. And what a climax it was!!!
1989: Two 10 year old girls, Jonie and Bella, are playing the childhood game "Knock Knock Ginger" (which here in Australia we call "Knock and Run") on the local weirdo of Mapledon village they cruelly call "Creepy Cawley". They aren't the only ones to play. In fact, the entire village children at one time or another are playing the same game, knocking on the same door, playing their childish pranks on the same man over and over again.
Until one day...the prank goes horribly wrong. The two girls go out to play and only one returns. She was last seen getting into Creepy Cawley's truck and never seen again. Her body was never found and the village was never the same again.
Billy Cawley, the subject of these games and pranks, was never going to fit in with the "Stepford wives" village of Mapledon and when his wife died, it only got worse. He became a recluse, seen as the local misfit. The local kids tormented him relentlessly. Even his young daughter Eliza was deemed weird with her perverse pleasure of dismembering her dolls.
The local village women banded together to rid Mapledon of the Cawleys. So sure were they that Billy was abusing his 8 year old daughter Eliza, that they called in social services and had her removed from his care. And then Jonie went missing. And all eyes turned to Creepy Cawley... He pleaded guilty to abducting and murdering Jonie Hayes and was given a 30 year prison sentence.
2019: In the thirty years since the tragedy that shook the village, Mapledon hasn't changed. There are secrets that have been buried for far too long, simmering beneath the surface, whispered behind closed doors...if at all. But now people are on edge. Because Billy Cawley is out on licence and the village of Mapledon awaits to see if he has the audacity to return to his home that has sat empty since his arrest 30 years ago.
The gossip that had tongues a-wagging 30 years ago is once again alive and well as villagers question what's to come. Will Billy Cawley return and exact revenge on those he deemed responsible for putting him away? Will he disclose the whereabouts of Jonie's body so her mother Tina can at last have some closure? The village is filled with anxiety, fear and even guilt.
It's been twenty years since Anna left the toxic atmosphere that was Mapledon. But now, at the request of her mother Muriel, she returns home. Someone has been tormenting Muriel, leaving dismembered doll parts nailed to her door with frightening messages alluding to the fact that Muriel knows something. Within a couple of days, her mother's erratic behaviour leads Anna to believe that she is in fact keeping secrets. So Anna endeavours to search for the truth.
Lizzie is a journalist married to Dom. Upon receiving a letter notifying her of Billy Cawley's release, she decides to return to Mapledon to seek out answers to her childhood. Although she knows she had lived in the village a long time ago, she has no real memories of that time but hopes upon her return they will begin to come back to her. But her journey is also one of truth. And it isn't long before she discovers that Mapledon isn't keen on sharing the truth with outsiders.
Anna and Lizzie team up in their search for answers, each wary of the other and wondering whether they can really trust the other. When each woman's true identity is revealed, both women are shocked while at the same time realisation dawning as to the sense it all actually makes. They both begin to question each other's motives while at the same time Anna questions her mother's role in it all.
One thing is abundantly clear...Mapledon has a toxic undercurrent simmering below its surface, reminding Anna why she escape the clutches of the poisonous village two decades ago.
But Mapledon is also a village that will stop at nothing to protect its own. Anything to protect its children. So many secrets, so many lies, so much manipulation and deceit. The truth is somewhere in between.
And Anna and Lizzie will stop at nothing to reveal it...whatever the cost.
WOW! If I had one word to describe
I DARE YOU, it would be that. It starts out as one thing and ends as something not too far removed while at the same time being completely different. The toxicity in that village was so noxious I'm surprised anyone could breathe!
Told from several perspectives back and forth from 1989 to the present day,
I DARE YOU is very easy to follow. The dual timelines are woven together seamlessly with a tension that is palpable throughout. Anna and Lizzie are the main narrators that bring us to the penultimate climax...and what a climax it is!! It just keeps on giving...and just when you think you have all the answers there is still even more to come. Normally the tension builds to a climax that is over within a chapter...this one kept going and going and going with many more reveals.
A slow burner initially,
I DARE YOU does pull you in from the beginning and I think it's the short snappy chapters that keep the story moving at a steady pace despite its slow build. Sam Carrington has a way of weaving her stories like that in such a way it doesn't feel as if you are reading a slow burner. The twists are misleading, enlightening and confusing all at once as the pressure builds.
While the overall theme appears to be how far will you go to protect your children and yourselves,
I DARE YOU is rife with manipulation, lies and secrets that would suffocate any normal person should they happen upon Mapledon. How can a village steeped in so much poison find peace? And when the truth is revealed, what then? Can all those involved move on and find their own peace? Will justice be served? I'm not sure justice was served in the end, but it left you pondering what may or may not happen. As well as the mystery of who? I have my suspicions...but who knows? It was a bit of a loose end leading us to an unknown conclusion. I guess it was subjective to the reader.
The question that remains...was Billy Cawley guilty or innocent? You will need to read the book to find out! I dare you...you won't be sorry!
I would like to thank
#SamCarrington,
#NetGalley and
#AvonUK for an ARC of
#IDareYou in exchange for an honest review.
This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.
Rating: really liked it
I’m a huge fan of this author as I always find her books to be very enjoyable, gripping thrillers and I Dare You was no exception.
Firstly the author does a really good job of setting the scene for this story with the small village mentality vividly described so I felt like I was actually there watching everything unfold. From the first time we visit the village the reader gets the feeling that there’s something strange about it and this leads to a general feeling of unease throughout the book. The villagers love to gossip and their almost desperate need to keep up appearances made it difficult for some people to fit in. I felt this added to some of the intrigue as you weren’t sure what people were actually like.
I actually felt very sorry for Billy Crawley who is picked on by the village children just because he is difficult. He reminded me a bit of Boo Radley from To Kill A Mockingbird, maybe because the children play a similar game with him. I found it interesting to learn more about him and found myself wondering what he was going to do to get his revenge which made me want to keep reading.
Overall I thought this was a gripping, entertaining read which I really enjoyed. I was drawn into the book from the first chapter and found it very hard to put down as I needed to know what had happened. The story is told from two different timelines and this is done very well, with the reader never getting confused between them. There are lots of twists that kept me guessing and the end was brilliant and completely blew me away as it wasn’t at all what I had guessed.
Huge thanks to Sabah from Avon for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Avon for my copy of this book via Netgalley.
Rating: really liked it
This was a really solid psychological thriller
I really enjoyed this book because it incorporated some of my favourite thriller tropes. 1. Being set in a small town and 2. Something bad happening, in this case a girl going missing and someone 30 years later trying to find the truth
I thought it was really well written, and I liked the fact it was told from mutiple perspectives and timelines but was never confusing
However, I did feel that this book was slightly too long and the middle did drag a bit
But the ending, the pace really did pick up and I did not see the sending coming. There was plenty of twists and turns throughout with some pretty big ones towards the end, which I loved
This also had some really creepy elements which I loved too!
I really enjoyed this thriller overall and I definitely think it's one a lot of people will enjoy
TW: child abuse and pedophilia
Rating: really liked it
Such a fantastic and gripping read! I definitely recommend
