Our guest today: Megan Abbott
Why we love her: We love, love, LOVE the way she tells a story!
Her latest: Dare Me
The Scoop: Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls -- until the young new coach arrives.
Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl" -- both with the team and with Addy herself.
Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death -- and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.
The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power.
Our thoughts: We loved this one-it's edgy and fun!
Giveaway: FIVE copies! Leave a comment and we'll choose a winner on August 19th after 6pm PST. Good luck!
Fun Fact: Smarty-pants alert: Megan has a PHD in English!
Where to read more about Megan: Her website, Facebook and Twitter.
CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...MEGAN ABBOTT'S 5 THINGS I'D TELL THE TEEN ME
1. Weird is good. It’s not only okay that you get lost in biographies of Zelda Fitzgerald, can recite every line of Double Indemnity, and even kind of think your parents are great—it’s a really good thing. Later, you’ll be glad for all those odd corners of life, history, culture you burrowed yourself into. They’ll matter to you always.
2. Just because he has a guitar, doesn’t mean he’s Paul Westerberg. Also, just because he appears aloof doesn’t mean he’s tortured. Just because he can’t show up at school doesn’t mean he’s off in some dive bar, composing songs just for you. And most of all, just because he’s charming and smart and loves J.D. Salinger, doesn’t mean he hung the moon, or that he knows what he’s doing any more than you do. That said, all these boys will teach you things too. And you’ll write about them, in on way or another, for the rest of your life.
3. You’ll never remember that disappointing A minus in Physics. Except you will. Which is why you also won’t read book reviews for the rest of your life, even the really good ones. But you should try to let all that matter less.
4. There will be many, many great men out there in the larger world who really, really like smart women. In fact, there will be so many great men out there, you will feel dizzy with opportunities and wonder where these men (boys) were when you were sixteen.
5. The high school cafeteria will prepare you for life. It may feel awful, tenuous, complicated and perilous before you hit sixteen, when you get more comfortable in your skin, but even so, those harrowing experiences in the cafeteria, navigating cliques, dealing with power machinations to rival the Age of Caesar—they will toughen you, smarten you up. Because the rest of life is just like that, except you’ll be the stronger for it. (And you won’t have to eat the chili dogs.)
Thanks Megan! xoxo, L&L