Nerve by Jeanne Ryan

Once again I find myself procrastinating with my school work, or in this case actually physically getting off my lazy butt and driving to class. I have no motivation to attend an English class where my latest assignment was to write a cause and effect essay about The Hunger Games. Please someone explain to me how that assignment had anything to do with English? I get that it was a book and all, but why should I be writing about a twenty first century novel/movie? Shouldn't I be learning about classics like Moll Flanders or Hamlet?

On my great journey of procrastination I have decided to write to all of you who actually did find this blog. The book I have chosen for today is...

   Nerve by Jeanne Ryan

Nerve takes place in a contemporary Seattle (REPRESENT!) where the best entertainment is a live Web game titled Nerve. High school student Vee is a sheltered child since an unfortunate incident a few months earlier. Though she is under lock and key with her parents she decides to take place in a preliminary round of Nerve. She was unaware that the dare she completed would send her through to the live rounds. Vee must then decide how far she wants to go in this contest. Because the farther a contestant goes, the greater the prize, but also the more dangerous and deadly the dare.

The farther you get into this book, the more creepy it gets. I don't get creeped out easily by movies or "scary stories" at Halloween time, but reading this book in broad daylight in the middle of spring caused shivers down my spine and goosebumps on my arm. It was insanely creepy. How creepy you may ask? Well the company that was running Nerve seemed to know everything about everyone in their competition. They knew their contestants deepest fears, darkest secrets, dreams and aspiration, and they also somehow had a way to know what each contestant was thinking. Very creepy. Oh and the ending is the creepiest part but I wont give anything away in case you decide to read it ;)

Other than the general creepiness of this novel, it was incredibly well written. Debut author Jeanne Ryan made Vee into a completely real teenager who wanted nothing more than to finish the game alive.  I found myself rooting for her throughout the whole book. The plot itself is amazing as well which is what drew me to the book in the first place. Truth or Dare but without the truth part. Its kind of brilliant. Also the dare with the celibacy meeting is worth reading this book for. I laughed so hard my mother thought I was on drugs, oops.

I definitely recommend this book to readers who like sci-fi or dystopic fiction. There is also a slight mystery to the book that comes in questions like "Who runs Nerve?" and "What happened to Vee?" that you have to riddle out, or wait in agony to let the story unfold the answers. There is also a part of me that is really hoping that there will be a sequel. So far it has been announced as a stand alone novel but the ending leaves room for a sequel if the author (or fans) truly wanted one.

So if you find yourself not being able to put down books like The Hunger Games or Divergent than you will thoroughly enjoy this novel.

Oh, and since there seems to be people actually reading this, if there are any books you want me to review or you want to read them but you're not sure if they're worth your time, leave the title and the author is the comment section and I will see what I can do :)

-Shawnee Smith