Mapledon and the people in it are a bit sick and twisted so I Dare You is right up my street. This is a well-written, original thriller with fantastic characterisation. Anna and Lizzie are the best characters, both haunted by the past. Anna is haunted by the fact her testimony as a ten-year-old put a man in prison and it seems someone is now targeting her family. Lizzie is haunted by a childhood believing her Dad was a monster who abused her and she was lucky to be taken into care and escape him but she has started to question if he is capable of killing a child. I Dare You has a lot of twists, turns and misdirection and is exactly the kind of thriller I love to read. I loved the way the book is structured with chapters moving back and forth in time and altering between Anna and Lizzie. The book lost one star simply because I saw some of the truth Anna and Lizzie uncovered coming from a mile away so the revelations in the final chapters weren’t as surprising as they could have been. Still, this is a great read.

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.

This story had me gripped from the very beginning. I could see straight away that something awful was going to happen to one of the children and I was almost breathless with anticipation. I loved the way the author used the flashbacks to take the reader to the day of the child's disappearance and then at intervals to the preceding days. I found that this gave me a really good sense of the feeling of the village people towards a family who didn't fit into their perfect mould. The book delivered some stunning twists but I also found parts of it poignant to the extent that I was quite tearful. This is another future bestseller from an author who really knows how to keep the suspense alive.

Review posted on Goodreads and Amazon

Wow, were do I begin? Carrington was masterful in the way they wove the past and present together. The book was told from a few different perspectives and they bounced around from the past to the present, each time giving you a tiny glimpse into what really happened to Jonie.

I found myself unable to tear myself away from this book. I was horrified at how this small village banded together to try and have an outsider blamed for the disappearance of a girl. He was a bad man after all...or was he? With ever single reveal you began to wonder who was truly innocent and who wasn't. The only reason that this book didn't get 5 stars was because the final reveal felt a little dragged out. Just when everything seemed to be coming together it just seemed to keep going and going.

The ending was satisfying, but it was the way that everything was revealed that was the most shocking. This book gave nothing away until it was ready to. It made sure that it gave you enough information to hook you, but not enough to give everything away. Would I read other books by Carrington? Absolutely!

I'm  a huge fan of Sam Carrington’s writing and I Dare You is no different. From the very beginning, it is easy to see that there are lots of secrets between the characters and I loved reading this novel trying to unpick them all. I enjoyed the way that Carrington gradually increased the tension as the novel progressed to give us a finale that had me on the edge of my seat.

The village of Mapledon sounds like a place I really wouldn’t want to live! Sam Carrington has done an amazing job of creating a really claustrophobic environment that made me feel uncomfortable in places. I didn’t find any of the residents particularly likeable, but the dynamic between them all made the novel really tick.

The chapters are short and snappy which makes I Dare You very fast paced. I also enjoyed the chapters that took the reader back to 1989 and the aftermath of Jonie’s disappearance as this built up the intrigue even more.

I thought I knew where I Dare You was going  but there is one final twist that left me really surprised!

It’s been thirty years since Anna and Jonie were daring each other to knock on the door of the local oddball, Bill Cawley’s house and run away. Which means it has been thirty years since Jonie disappeared – and there is still no body. Now Bill is being released from his prison term, and although Anna hasn’t been back to Mapledon in years, strange occurrences, and a terrified phone call from her mother, have left her no choice but to return.
Because there is more to Jonie’s disappearence than meets the eye, and Anna isn’t the only one struggling to get to the bottom of it. As the intimidating events continue, she meets Lizzie, a journalist with links to the area who is asking questions of her own. Can the two discover the truth about what happened to Jonie, before it’s too late?
You know that a book is going to be a goodie when it arrives in the post with a disembodied doll’s arm with it. A slightly unsettling start to the day, sure, but you know that you’re going to love the book. And love it I did!
I’m a newbie to Sam Carrington’s writing but I already know this won’t be the last of her books I read. I’m a big fan of psychological thrillers, but I Dare You was a different level! I was hooked to the book, finishing it within a few hours. The short chapters had me thinking “just one more” and suddenly it was the middle of the night!
The characters in this book are fascinating. Setting it in a small village where everyone knows everyone – and knows all their personal business – gave the story a really exciting, claustrophobic edge. It felt like there were always eyes on every character, giving this a really creepy feeling as you never knew who exactly it was that was watching…
There are layers upon layers of tension – tension between Anna and her mother, Anna and the villagers, and most intriguingly, between Anna and the other ‘newcomer’ to Mapledon, Lizzie. The story is told through multiple perspectives and with flashbacks to the events of Jonie’s disappearance in 1989. I personally love novels with multiple perspectives in general, but I thought it was used to brilliant effect with both Anna and Lizzie’s voices being heard throughout. It made their inability to trust each other fully a central part of the plot.
Every single character seemed to be harbouring their own secrets, and the fact none of them seemed completely innocent made me feel on edge in the best possible way! Every time I thought I’d settled on someone being reliable, there was another cliffhanger chapter-ending that put me back on high alert.
The levels of suspense are unreal in this novel, and the writing and pacing were perfectly pitched. There are so many plotlines that fold around each other, and every chapter felt like peeling a layer off of an onion. No one in Mapledon comes out of this tale with their hands clean, and it was fascinating to see how complex and tightly-woven the story was, while also being filled with half-truths and complete fabrications.
In a nutshell, I’m in awe of Sam Carrington for coming up with this hugely suspenseful, shivers-up-the-back-of-your-neck creepy, and massively entertaining novel. It’s incredibly clever and has so many twists your head will be spinning – but you’ll have loved every second!

I have read, reviewed and loved each and every book that Sam Carrington has released to date. I heard a whisper that Sam had another book due for release called 'I Dare You' and of course I knew that I just had to get a copy to read as soon as I could. Well the wait is temporarily over because the book was released in e-book format on 29th November 2019 and in paperback format on 12th December 2019. 'I Dare You' is one stonkingly good read, which I thoroughly enjoyed but more about that in a bit.
I can honestly say that I neither liked or took to the character of Anna at all. There was just something about her that set little alarm bells ringing for me. It soon emerges that Anna left her home village to escape from something that happened a while ago. At first I wondered if the memories were so traumatic that she had to leave her home village to save her sanity, then I wondered if she was running from the fact that she had been the perpetrator of the incident that happened a while ago and then I wondered if the relationship between Anna and her mother was that strained that Anna had no alternative but to leave. I did also wonder if Anna was embarrassed by her home village, her circumstances and by her upbringing and leaving gave her the opportunity she needed to reinvent herself. Anna does seem extremely reluctant to visit her mother and she certainly does not like the idea of visiting her mother all that often. Or it could be a case of all of the aforementioned reasons. So there were a few red flags popping up for me. Anna seems very secretive, very manipulative, very deceptive and not particularly trustworthy. What happened that led to Anna leaving her home village? Why is she so reluctant to go back home? Is there a twist to the tale? Well for the answers to all those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
As soon as I began to read, I just knew that this was one book that I would be unable to put down. I just had to keep reading to see if my suspicions were correct or if I had the wrong end of the stick entirely. The pages turned over at a furious pace as I worked my way through the book. I would pick up the book only intending to read a couple of chapters and to fill in a spare five minutes but I would still be sat there over an hour later, having read way more than a dozen chapters. I couldn't bear to be parted from the book. The book wasn't exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me. I didn't want to miss a single second of the story nor did I want to break the hold that the book had developed over me. I reached the end of the book far quicker than I had wanted to. I was enjoying the book so much that I just didn't want it to end.
'I Dare You' is very well written but then I find that to be the case with all of Sam's books. She certainly knows how to draw you into the story from very early on and she keeps your attention throughout the story. Usually I have the attention span of a gnat and I am easily distracted but not in this case. I was gripped by the story and on the edge of my seat throughout. There were several twists throughout the story. Some of the twists I was expecting and others that I didn't expect. The unexpected twists and turns left me feeling as though I had been punched in the gut and they knocked the stuffing out of me. The story is written with a dual timeline. Some chapters are written from the point of view of Anna and a mysterious woman called Lizzie, whilst other chapters deal with the events of 30 years ago. The two timelines do interlink really well and the story flows seamlessly as a result.
In short, Sam Carrington has done it again and she has written one seriously, stonkingly brilliant book. I loved it and I would recommend this book and her books to other readers. I will definitely be reading more of Sam's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Interesting story which goes to show just how easily you can be set up if someone really wants to. No clues to really give away what happens and believable characters which I always think is important. Quite a slow unraveling storyline but one which is well worth a read.

Young children have been playing knock and run away games for generations and for the most part it's just meant as a harmless prank but in I Dare You, the cruel singling out of one particular villager for an almost constant barrage of Knock Knock Ginger dares resulted in tragedy when one of the youngsters, ten-year-old Jonie disappeared one day. Her body was never found but the man they nicknamed Creepy Cawley was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Thirty years later, Billy Cawley is released from prison and understandably, the village of Mapledon can talk of little else. Mapledon is one of those small places where not much seems to ever change; however, rather than imbuing the place with a charming sense of nostalgia, the overwhelming impression of the village is one of claustrophobia and oppression. It is a village in decline, with most of the younger generation moving away as soon as they are able but now two such women are inexorably drawn back there following the news that Cawley is out. Anna returns to her mother's house after a disturbing message is left pinned to her front door. It's clear that Anna and her mum don't have a close relationship but that doesn't fully explain why Anna has avoided returning to her childhood home for so long. Meanwhile, Lizzy is also back but at first it's not so obvious why she is there as she doesn't seem to remember much about the village.
The dual time frame of the novel takes readers back and forth between the present day and the events of 1989 around the time that Jonie went missing. She isn't a very pleasant child and is obviously a rather domineering ringleader amongst her group of friends but there is still a sad air of foreboding in the chapters featuring a young girl seemingly on the brink of her teenage years. Jonie isn't the only person to treat Billy badly and it gradually becomes evident that even the adults were perhaps guilty of shunning a bereaved and struggling young man. He was considered an outsider in a village where those with the loudest voices and most stringent opinions forced people to close ranks. Despite the terrible crime he was found guilty of, I couldn't help but feel some sympathy for him. Thirty years later and it seems like not much has changed but as Anna and Lizzie begin to look into what happened, they begin to uncover dark secrets which have been kept hidden for decades but who knows what and who can be trusted when somebody is leaving a series of macabre messages for Anna and her mum, Muriel.
The shadow of such a horrific event is bound to hang over a small place like Mapledon and the ripples of the tragedy continue to affect the families who lived there despite the passage of time. Several of the characters are forced to examine their memories of the time with the switching narrative providing extra hints as to what may have really happened. Sam Carrington cleverly implants seeds of doubt about several of those shocked by Cawley's release and what his freedom seems to have instigated.
The short chapters and pacy writing ensured I couldn't resist reading "just a little more" of this compelling mystery. There is a really sinister undertone to I Dare You and I was prepared to believe the worst about almost anybody, which inevitably meant I had some of my suspicions confirmed. However, I was still consistently surprised by the twists and turns and thought the linking of the past to the present was handled beautifully with an intriguing look at how the characters behaviour appears to change during the intervening years. The moment where the truth is finally revealed is a fantastically tense scene featuring a number of characters in a scene worthy of an Agatha Christie book. I Dare You is a creepy psychological thriller with superb characterisation and a terrific sense of place. I thoroughly enjoyed 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.

What a fantastic ready. had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, the puzzle came together in this book very well. Had a great ending. this is the first book I read by this author but it will not be the last. Loved it!!!

A twisty plot, an emotive subject, and so many lies and secrets in this village, some of which are dark and dangerous. The disappearance of a village girl in 1989, motivates the village against the one reclusive person, who the children love to taunt. He is the character of urban myths and an easy scapegoat for the murder of the girl, even though the evidence is more circumstantial than factual. Thirty years ago forensic science was far less sophisticated, than now, and all this contributed to Billy’s conviction.

The suspense builds with every chapter, the clues are there, but there is never quite enough before you’re cleverly moved onto another point of view or timeline. The characters are complex but believable, and the plot is slow to give up its secrets but rewarding when it does.

A poignant, tense thriller that draws you into this noir tale, full of suspense and sinister secrets.

I received a copy of this book from Avon Books UK via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

What happens when an innocent man is released from prison after 30 years? That he will want revenge of course; but in a small village where everyones seem to know everything who could possibly had killed a little girl and kept it hidden for so many years? You’ll have to start reading “I Dare You” if you want to know all the answers!
This had been a twisted and deep story, to put you in perspective on how much damage a simple thought could do, even if you are trying to help, a “simple” bad seed could break anyone’s life. But let’s not anticipate the facts, the story is about Anna and Lizzie, their childhood changed after the disappearing of a little girl, they didn’t know each other in the past, but now they will join forces to discover the truth. Anna hasn’t returned to Mapledon for a long time but now her mother needs her, someone is trying to scare her and she is afraid of what they could discover. But Anna can not understand the strange fear that is making her mother to stay at home and being afraid of her own shadow, surely the strange body parts that are appearing at their door is a joke from some kids… or not?
Lizzie is a journalist that wants to report how Mapledon is doing after the release of Bill “Creepy” Cawley, but she has some secrets of her own too and a very personal reason to discover what happened so long ago. Now she just have to find the truth!
This is not only a psychological thriller, it is an insight of how much damage can a simple lie do to an entire community, all the lives that could affect and how much can change their path. I was surprised on how the story is told and how invested the reader become with the characters since the beginning, like being part of the story. Family and community seem to be together in this book, so anything that is being said will affect you much deeper than you ever thought.
There are some twists, some you could feel them before, some totally unexpected, but this doesn’t make the story less relevant or addictive. Because in the end, the “whom” didn’t matter more than the why and the what now? Because, in the end, these are people and the truth will change their lives forever.
So, “I Dare You” is the book if you need if you don’t want to sleep this Christmas or the perfect excuse to stay all days at home! Ready to dig in?

What a roller-coaster ride! I was quickly gripped by this exhilarating thriller and found myself reading fervently, desperate for answers about what happened to ten-year-old Jonie Hayes, how the narrators were connected to it all, and what secrets the residents of Mapledon were hiding.

The story is told in dual timelines and is narrated by two women - Anna and Lizzie. We soon learn that both women lived in Mapledon as children but left for very different reasons: Anna because of bad memories of her childhood friend’s murder and feeling stifled, and Lizzie because she was taken and put into care for unkown reasons. They both have unanswered questions about what happened thirty years ago and have been affected by the legacy of Billy ‘Creepy’ Crawley and the murder of Jonie. As they look deeper it is clear that nothing is as it seems and are forced to question everything they thought they knew as they unearth secrets they were never meant to find...

This was the second book I’ve read by this author and I was every bit as captivated as when I read The Missing Wife, cementing her place on my must-read authors list. The thing I liked about her writing in this book was how she told the flashbacks to 1989 in reverse chronological order up until the highly anticipated big reveal. This slowly revealed clues to the reader while increasing the tension and slowly revealed the roles everyone played in the tragic events.

Anna and Lizzie were both unreliable protagonists by their own admission. They were children thirty years ago and it is their fuzzy recollection of events that leads them to finally search for the truth. Anna’s relationship with her mother Muriel is fraught and she’s hasn’t been back to Mapledon once since she left. It seems with every day more cracks appear in their relationship and Anna is increasingly sure her mother has lied and hidden the truth from her about what had happened that summer. I definitely had my feelings about Muriel’s character coloured by Anna and only ever saw her as a busybody that was lying to her daughter. I was sure she was entrenched in what happened and felt like screaming at her to just tell her daughter what she knew. Lizzie was a character I had a lot of empathy for but I was torn about how much of the truth I wanted her to discover, especially as it seemed she had the most she could lose by the revelations. All of the characters in this book are fractured and troubled and I often wondered if they would be torn apart even more by the truth rather than healed by it.

I Dare You is a tense, twisty, jaw-dropping thriller about childhood friendships, small town politics, secrets and murder. I guessed some of the twists early on but so much was a mystery to me as we approached the end. The author cleverly wove the clues together until the full picture emerged and rendered me speechless. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves psychological thrillers and can’t wait to see what she writes next.

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I Dare You centres around the childish prank of knock knock ginger, a game where you knock on someone’s door and run away without being seen or caught. The unlucky ‘victim’ of this game is Billy Cawley, forever an outsider in the small village of Mapledon. With his wife dead and a daughter who is equally ostracised for being strange, this is a tale of a tight knit community that doesn’t welcome strangers, about how malicious gossip can spread like wildfire thanks to the small minded inhabitants who ‘run’ the village and how the past can come back to haunt you.
When Cawley’s daughter is taken into care, believed to be the victim of his abuse, the disappearance of Jonie, Anna’s best friend, is quickly blamed on Billy and it doesn’t take long for this man to be incarcerated for the crime.
Fast forward thirty years later and Mapledon is still experiencing the after effects of such a heinous crime. Someone it would seem wants revenge and/or justice and this time it’s Muriel, Anna’s mother who is the target. Was the wrong man found guilty and if so, in the pursuit of truth are there possibly some deeply buried secrets that the villagers are going to find unpalatable. Should they stay buried?????
With a narrative that switches between past and present, the story is told from the perspective of the key players at the time. The themes explored in this novel are many; abuse, injustice,the nature of friendship, the difficulty of being an outsider in a close knit community and how far people will go to keep the truth buried and protect their loved ones.
Well written and engaging from the start I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and definitely recommend. Whilst some of the twists are relatively easy to guess, the final one is a devastating blow that I didn’t expect.
I must say the characters on the whole aren’t likeable, although Tina deserves sympathy as the mother of Jonie as does Lizzie for reasons I can’t divulge for fear of spoiling the read. Distrust of each other is evident and Muriel is unwelcoming to say the least. She is a strong character though, even in her declining years. No wonder Anna has stayed away!! I would hate to live in a community like this where everyone knows your business and being different makes you stick out like a sore thumb. The author has captured this perfectly. How easy it is to tarnish someone’s character through idle and malicious gossip underpins the whole narrative, cleverly obscuring the truth.
I didn’t find this ‘an edge of your seat’ read but overall this is a great psychological thriller and I will definitely seek out other titles by this author.
Thanks as always to the author and publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: As I am doing this on a more regular basis. I received a copy of this book free of charge for an honest review to be made public.


This, is a tale of two stories. Separated by thirty years. Child and adult. Running alongside each other. The style that it was written in, gave you very short chapters, with each differing by the said thirty years. It may have been better, for some length to have been adopted, giving slightly more detail. Unfortunately, it seemed to be more skittish than having an air of continuity.


However, that being said. It was an enjoyable read. With the plot and the characters within, being shaped well.


On the basis of the above -


Rating: 3.8 / 5.0


Status: Comleted

(Also posted on my GR account!)

3.5 stars rounded up!

I Dare You presented layers and layers of twist and served a solid story.

It told a story about Anna and Lizzie who went back to their village and confronting the demon that ruined both of their past. However, the said demon might be closer to them than what they initially thought of.

What I like: short. chapters. Nuff said lol. I have an attention span of a goldfish, so these sort chapters worked very well for me. The twists, the characters, all blended quite well.

What I don't like: almost nothing? Except that there's nothing really out of ordinary from the book.

I Dare You is a decent mystery with unlikable characters. The story flowed well and the storyline was interesting.

I love this genre, but this book didn't have as much suspense as I'd hoped/expected. It was just okay.The dialogue was a bit awkward at times. I also just didn't get as invested in the characters as I'd hoped. That made it feel more like I was listening to a story instead of being a part of it. I liked the different time periods, but some plot points didn't seem very realistic or well thought out. The pace was too slow for me to really stay engaged and enjoy this one.

Great mystery with loads of twists and turns. The story has great character development and a great story. I really enjoyed it and recommend it for anyone