I really like Megan Abbott. This book wasn't the strongest for me, but there were still so many things about the story that I enjoyed. I particularly appreciate how she is able to weave timely issues into her narratives, especially topics that are important to women. This isn't your typical "man does horrible thing to woman" and someone hunts him down. I'll always look forward to a new Abbott publication.

I've loved everything Megan Abbott has published and this is no exception.

Since high school, Kit has worked hard to forge her career in science. Unfortunately, when Kit has the opportunity to work on a new research grant, her old high school friend/rival Diane threatens to take it all away.

I've never worked in a lab or had any inclination to read about them, but this plot kept me riveted. Also, the interpersonal dynamic between the two main characters (and their parents) is expanded through alternating "then" and "now" chapters.

Highly recommend.

Fans of Megan Abbott, Give Me Your Hand will NOT disappoint. It follows similar tropes to her other stories, and the writing style is similar, but the story will hook you in and not let you go until you are through.

Kit Owens has her eyes on the prize - a coveted spot on a research team with the potential to make her career as a scientist. Nothing else matters, and nothing can stop her focus - until Diane Fleming enters her lab. And suddenly Kit's reminded of the secret that uprooted their friendship so long ago, that threatens to destroy everything Kit has worked for. Suspenseful, complex, and dark, Give Me Your Hand offers readers a slowly unfolding story through past and present that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Characters are flawed and intriguing, and the storyline keeps you guessing until the very end. Highly recommended.

I liked this book but I can't say that I loved it. Probably the same with her earlier book, You Will Know Me.

The story was good but what I would say was better is how she writes women, women relationships, and women's reproductive issues! I would almost call this a feminist book but that would be a stretch. The paragraph that stuck with me the most is [SPOILER] when after Diane and Kit are chosen for the new team, Kit mentions that if it were the guys chosen, they'd whoop and holler and brag that they "won." But since the women were chosen, they graciously accepted their "win" because of the notion that they were chosen only because they were women. That's current day life.

Dark and mysterious. One of Abbott's best yet. Her writing is seductive and evocative, her characters fascinating and believable. This was an absorbing and compelling read. Can't wait to see what Abbott does next.

Megan Abbott's Give Me Your Hand is a story about two complex and flawed female characters told in Kit Carson's POV. The story alternates between 12 years ago, and the present. 12 years ago, Kit was a fairly smart student who stumbled her way through high school, while also working part time at the local burger joint since it is only her and her mother. Over summer, Kit met a girl by the name of Diane Fleming and they seem to hit it off remarkably well. Months later, Diane arrives for their Senior year. Diane sees something in Kit that Kit failed to see in herself; passion and untapped ambition.

She pushes Kit like she's never been pushed before. Kit goes from a girl who is smart, to a girl who challenges herself to apply for a much coveted Severin Scholarship to work alongside Dr Lena Severin, a genius in the area of PMS. The scholarship would mean so much for Kit since it would pay all of her tuition, her room and board, plus stipend. Then one day, Diane tells Kit the worst secret that anyone has ever told her. Kit's conclusion becomes that Diane is a horrible person. Diane & Kits relationship cools, and they end up going their separate ways. To be fair, Kit also told a secret to Diane when they were at summer camp.

12 years later, Kit is working as a research scientist for Severin Labs which has received an NIH grant to study *PMDD. Kit believes her goals are finally within her grasp. Then the shocking news that Diane Fleming has been hired by Dr. Severin. Diane and Kit will be vying for the same position working under a brilliant scientist whom they both idolize. Dr. Severin is once again front and center of a major grant that will change the lives of women who most doctors refuse to believe or understand. Can Kit and Diane resolve their past issues, or will Diane's presence push Kit over the edge?

From the first moment we meet Diane, she is a lock box filled with secrets. She comes from a well off but dysfunctional family. She is sent to alternately live with her father and mother then her grandfather. Diane is brilliant, strange, and extraordinary. But, for Kit, she is an unwanted distraction that she no longer needs in her life. For both women, they have each excelled through the years. One of the things Diane states is, "Remember, you don't have a self until you have a secret." For Diane, her secret revealed destroyed a friendship. Will her return into Kit's life destroy Kit's hopes and dreams?

Abbott is really good at getting into the minds of females and ripping out their deepest, darkest feelings, and motivations. We often associate the worst things a person can do to men, but forget that women are often much more cunning when getting away with murder, or stabbing someone in the back. Women often go through depths and lengths that men can't touch to get what we want. Even when it comes to friendships, or job offers, or wearing the same dress and then going on Twitter or Facebook and shaming our once best friend. I appreciated that Abbott drives her story towards the sciences. More young women need to apply for these positions. Yes, it is still a male dominated world, but a great majority of women are now graduating from college and the future looks bright.

*By the way, PMDD is a real disorder and I encourage you to go online and see for yourselves. Women who suffer from consistently severe mood swings during their menstrual periods are now being diagnosed with mental illness. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), sometimes referred to as 'PMS on steroids', is formally recognized in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Set in a research lab, the first person narrator, Kit, tells her story through a series of flashbacks to the near and more remote past. This is a story about secrets, but also a story about control, influence, and uncontrollable urges and rage. This is also very much a women's story: Kit is haunted by her past friendship with the cool Diane. Her own mother has passed away, and Diane is estranged from her own mother--her father is dead, and under strange circumstances. Both women want a spot in a prestigious study (of PMDD) with the women who has inspired both their careers in science. But things go terribly awry, when Diane reappears in Kit's life. and her lab.

This is a thriller, but I feel that the lab setting, as well as the study the main players are involved in, are fascinating and informative. I love the way Abbott studies the minds of both Kit and Diane, and all the other female characters too. We all keep secrets. Some are more serious and sad than others. This is a very timely book. It will be a great book group read, too.

I appreciated the science aspect of this novel. The characters had depth, and the antagonist, with tendencies towards cruelty was beautifully fleshed out. A fun thriller. You

Twelve years ago when both girls were seniors in high school, Diane Fleming tells Kit Owens a secret about something terrible she had done. Years later, Kit is working in a lab studying a severe form of PMS. Kit is shocked when Diane is hired to work in the same lab. In high school, Kit and Diane brought out the best in each other but what will happen now, since Kit knows a secret about Diane when she was at her worst.

This story is told in the first person, narrated by Kit, and alternates between the past and present. The most interesting part of the book is the fact that friendship and then the secret forever changes things between the two girls and in their lives. The book is fast-paced, tense, and suspenseful. There were times I was afraid of what would happen next, especially in the present scenes. As the story goes on, some things get confusing and somewhat over the top. However, things become more clear-cut when surprising truths are revealed giving the reader more information about the two women. I liked the ending of the book and think this was a great summer read that fans of Mary Kubica would enjoy.

I received this book from NetGalley through the courtesy of Little, Brown and Company. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

I'm at 42%. I'm saying this one got the best of me. DNF



Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

4 Stars.

Kit and Diane met while in High School and became fast friends. As fellow runners, they drove each other to become better. When Diane transferred to Kit’s school during their Senior year, their friendship continued and both excelled in school and in running, until one day when Diane divulged a terrible secret to Kit. One which destroyed their friendship and which Kit was sworn to keep forever.

Years later, Kit is a Research Scientist in a lab, working for her idol, Dr. Severin. Kit’s goals are finally within her grasp and then Diane walks in - she is the new member of the team and from that point forward everything goes boom. If Kit thought her relationship with Diane was complicated before, she was wrong.

In Give Me Your Hand, Megan Abbott creates an interesting story with characters whose lives are quite complicated and whose stories draw you in. Unfortunately for me, there was just a little something missing here.. perhaps it was an intensity - that I had come to expect from Ms. Abbott’s prior novels, which left me wanting more. Regardless, this was an easy, enjoyable read and it held my interest throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley, Little Brown and Company and Megan Abbott for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 7.21.18.

Megan Abbott is one of my go-to authors for intense summer reads…generally about demented high school girls (The Fever and You Will Know Me are my favorites). She’s kept her streak alive with Give Me Your Hand…her most grown-up novel yet. This story is set in the world of science and Abbott’s writing makes the lab, the competition for limited positions on important studies, and the researchers’ dedication seem like the pressure cauldron of an Olympic Trials (similar to how Michael Ruhlman wrote about the Culinary Institute of America in The Making of a Chef). The players are intriguing: the enigmatic legend who seems almost non-human (Dr. Severin), the star researcher who is possibly unstable (Diane), the flirty and slightly reckless researcher (Alex), and the obedient worker bee (Kit). I guessed some of the twists, but not nearly all of them, and each twist revealed deeper layers to one of the characters. Ultimately, this is a story of two women locked in competition…and how a secret that gets told can tear apart both the secret-teller and the person she tells. Grab this one if you like dark and twisty with some substance…and I’ll be adding it to my 2018 Summer Reading Guide!

I really enjoyed this read! I thought it had great character development and kept me interested the whole time! Will be recommending to customers!

Best thriller I've read this year! There is something about the way in which Megan Abbott immediately immerses you into these specialized worlds in which her books are set that sucks you in! So good. This one was such a fast read and a true page turner, perfect for summer. I now know I really need to go read all of Megan Abbott's backlist because she writes unlike anyone else. Also, in case you didn't know, she has some movies / tv coming out based on her work!

Give Me Your Hand came out earlier this week on July 17, 2018, you can purchase HERE! I also LOVED Megan's last release, You Will Know Me, and you can read my review HERE.

What if it were always like this, I wonder. A whole life like this, with cars that always run and never make a sound, a life with savings accounts and heavy glass bottles of Italian water and organic milk in the glass-doored fridge, a life where there are family homes with spare rooms and tablecloths on long rollers, and Christmases in family cabins and always-new computers and the latest quantitative software and an aunt who knows the head of the Pharma Therapeutics Research unit at Pfizer and a college friend who edits the Journal of Biological Chemistry . . .
. . . and waking up mornings with a smile pressed into a pillowcase, spiderweb-soft, because he's there and his ceiling has never leaked once and the Journal of Biological Chemistry would be happy to accept the article and meanwhile, a French-press plunger gently plunges in the kitchen and then he's right there, palm to mattress, grinning and saying, By the way, while you were sleeping, Dr. Severin called and she would love to take you to La Belle Vie for pate and rose and to talk about your future.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Little Brown & Company, and Megan Abbott for the opportunity to read her latest book - another 4.5 star winner!

This psychological thriller takes you in the minds of two women in alternating chapters of Then and Now. Then is when the two girls first met in high school. Both Kit and Diane were smart students, coming from different backgrounds. When Diane came as a new student, she saw a like soul in Kit and challenged her to do her best to win a scholarship. Things took a different turn when Diane confessed a secret to Kit which would bind the two girls together yet break the friendship apart. In the Now, we find the women grown and working under their idol in a laboratory where they are competing for a coveted spot on a new team. The secret that connected the two women comes out again and threatens to destroy them both.

This was a great read complete with interesting twists. Highly recommended!

I'll begin this review by saying I've been a fan of Megan Abbott for years and "Give Me Your Hand" is one of her best works yet.

I was fully engaged in the story. I was always waiting for something bad to happen to the main character, Kit, or some of the other supporting characters. Eventually, things do happen and the story continues to ramp up with suspense. The climax of the story happens and I did not see it going in the direction that it did.

Such a fantastic read from Megan Abbott, I highly recommend this one. Can't wait for more stories from her in the future. Read it now!

I was talking to a friend about this book recently, when I was about a quarter of the way through. He said he thought it was her best book yet. I didn't disagree at the time but wholeheartedly concur now.

I haven't read everything she's written (just The Fever, Dare Me, You Will Know Me and now this one) but this is an actual breathtaking novel. 

Megan Abbott has started writing about teenage girls, but her stories aren't at all sweetness and light. Her closest YA equivalent is Courtney Summers, and that's one of the highest compliments I can give. This book is dark and there are no heroes (with the possible exception of Kit's mom). Everyone is basically at least morally gray and many of them are actual villains. 

You won't be able to put this book down, but be warned: it will stay with you.

Highly recommended.

My Thoughts: When Kit Owens met Diane Fleming at the start of her senior year of high school, Kit was a bright student, already at the top of her class, but a little lost, no real direction. Diane’s ease with her own brilliance helped Kit to feel the same. The two shared a love of science and chemistry and competed for the same prestigious scholarship. But, even before that scholarship was awarded their friendship had fatally faltered. Twelve years later, Kit is again in competition with Diane. This time for the chance to be part of a research study that will ultimately make one of their careers, and Kit is terrified. Terrified of Diane.

“I guess I always knew, in some subterranean way, Diane and I would end up back together.
We are bound, ankle to ankle, a monstrous three-legged race.
Accidental accomplices. Wary conspirators.

Give Me Your Hand moves between chapters titled “Now” and “Then,” alternately telling the stories, the secrets of Kit and Diane in the past and the present. I loved this back and forth technique with the then chapters slowly answering the question that arose in the now chapters. Abbott does a remarkable job of dropping hints, propelling her readers forward. Over and over, I succumbed to “just one more chapter.”

“Diane,” I said, what is it? I paused. “Did someone do something to you? Did someone hurt you?”
I would regret saying this, asking this, more than anything else in my whole cramped life.”

See! I don’t read a lot of suspense/thriller novels, but have heard so many great things about Megan Abbot that I knew it was time to give her a try. Give Me Your Hand was the perfect place to start. While it had a few moments of unbelievability and choices that didn’t fully add up (as many books in this genre do) those in no way hampered my enjoyment of Give Me Your Hand. If you’re on the hunt for a fun, summer read, look no further! Grade: B+

Note: I received a copy of this book from Little, Brown and Company (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review. Thank you!

"...maybe it'll pull me from the hold, more than a decade old, of the seventeen-year-old girl standing in that far corner of my head, the one glaring at me, needy, full of thunder and consequence."

Once again, Megan Abbott has written a diamond-cut masterpiece of a novel. She can always be counted on for unsettling prose and mysterious characters. Her stories are like finding a rare, lost painting: it's absolutely stunning, and you are afraid to touch it or even look at it too hard for fear it will fall to pieces. Like her last novel, 2016's You Will Know Me, this one takes much of the "familiar" Megan Abbott territory--a teenage protagonist suddenly and unexpectedly finding herself caught up in something much larger than herself--and deftly extends it into an enigmatic and dangerous landscape of adult perspectives and concerns. Abbott's work reminds us that many of us who swim in the waters of careers, mortgages, and deadlines are often as singularly unhinged and out of our depth as the protagonists of YA novels. Perhaps her work will continue to help expose the unfounded and inane nature of dismissing YA literature out-of-hand...though this novel is rightly marketed as an adult novel.

All "larger picture" considerations aside, this book gave me everything I've come to expect and adore from Megan Abbott: a secret-filled and secret-fueled plot that manages to be dense without alienating the reader, deep and complex characters, and prose that steals your breath without calling attention to itself. Abbott is incandescent; reading her novels is like watching a forest fire rage and feeling pretty sure that you are somehow responsible.