Review: Truth or Dare

Truth or Dare (Truth or Dare #1) by Jacqueline Green
Release Date ~ May 14, 2013
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN13: 9780316220361
ARC received from HBG Canada for review

Goodreads Synopsis:
When a simple round of truth or dare spins out of control, three girls find it’s no longer a party game. It’s do or die.
It all started on a whim: the game was a way for Tenley Reed to reclaim her popularity, a chance for perfect Caitlin “Angel” Thomas to prove she’s more than her Harvard application. Loner Sydney Morgan wasn’t even there; she was hiding behind her camera like usual. But when all three start receiving mysterious dares long after the party has ended, they’re forced to play along—or risk exposing their darkest secrets.
How far will Tenley, Caitlin and Sydney go to keep the truth from surfacing? And who’s behind this twisted game?
Set against the backdrop of Echo Bay, an isolated beach town haunted by misfortune, Truth or Dare is a highly charged debut that will keep readers in suspense from beginning to end.

The description for Truth or Dare immediately brought to mind Pretty Little Liars, of which I used to be a big fan. I love books with a compelling mystery; the more dangerous that mystery is, the better!

Truth or Dare didn't deliver that mystery I hoped for; bland characters and a slow-moving story made it difficult for the book to hold my attention.

1.  Caitlin's character and struggles:
   
   Caitlin was easily the most interesting character to me. She was the easiest to relate to, and I thought Jacqueline Green did a great job bringing up some issues with respect to Caitlin's character that are uncommon in YA books, such as her struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. I wish that had been covered a little bit  more in the book, because it was a great chance to really address a character trying to handle these difficulties. 

One of the biggest problems for me is I truly didn't like any of the other characters. Tenley seemed far too pretentious, Sydney came across as entirely hypocritical, and I found no redeeming qualities in Guinness. I can appreciate that flawed characters are realistic and an important part of fiction; however, if I struggle to appreciate nearly any of the characters in a book, it makes it that much harder for me to root for them or invest myself in the story. 

For a mystery book, I was anticipating more thrills and suspense. The girls seemed to be entirely focused on their own personal issues (which made the most sense for Caitlin's character) and fixated on mundane details in their lives when something bigger (and scarier) was going on. 

Mostly I felt that the story has been done before, multiple times even. There wasn't much of anything original about Truth or Dare, and it ended up being largely forgettable.