The Dare - John Boyne.. Book Review

So another book read and dusted. Roaming the library I did not know where to start when looking for my next book review. Should I go for another autobiography or should I force myself on to read a novel, Hank Moody style, the main character in hit series, Californication.

Without hesitation, I found myself reading a novel this time around. A John Boyne novel called The Dare. The Irish author who has six novels under his name, including worldwide bestseller The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which was also made into a feature film.

Danny Delaney the main character in The Dare, whose summer vacation has just kicked off, is looking for a troublesome free school holiday where he could just read his David Copperfield book, play football and ride his bike with next-door neighbour and friend, Luke Kennedy. 

 

With shock, I read seven chapters of this book in a day, meaning I was finding it hard to put down for some reason. Either way, John Boyne tells the story from the Twelve-year-old boy’s point of view. His holidays change from the second his mother walks through the front door, after him and his father were tormented watching the hours tick by and no sign of his mother was in reach.

Luke, who portrays the spoilt child but comes off a little stingy at times towards his mother and her boyfriend Benjamin Benson, has to tackle the fact that his father does not want him to visit.

As catchy as it may sound, The Dare is not about Irish teen’s daring one another to do mischievous things, or atleast that’s what I thought when grabbing the book and fleeing the library. It is the dare that started Danny’s horrible summer holidays.

From the dare, it unfolded so many emotions within his family especially his mother. His brother Pete, who he is most fond of, is travelling Europe with his university friends. Danny tries to find out more of what really happens and meets a girl, Sarah who he has a little innocent crush on as well. Eventually things become tense and Danny finds it hard to get grip of things and packs up his belongings and does the unthinkable, by running away from home. 

It was hard to keep track at times because the novel did have this jumping effect, where it became tedious and then out of nowhere something new is unfolded.You can’t hide the fact that it is a good read and it was very attention-grabbing from the get go.