This slow, concentrated reforming of her identity makes her giddy. When Addy, along with the other cheerleaders, is invited into Coach’s beautiful suburban home to drink and carouse, she revels in their newfound intimacy. Beth may give her love and a sense of place, and curly-haired runner Jordy Brennan may give her a brief thrill, but Coach can give her herself. This unspoken promise takes root in Addy, flowering with every sweaty-limbed back tuck. She will be exalted and invulnerable:ĭid she look at us that first week and see past the glossed hair and shiny legs, our glittered brow bones and girl bravado? See past all that to everything beneath, all our miseries, the way we all hated ourselves but much more everyone else? Could she see past all of that to something else, something quivering and real, something poised to be transformed, turned out, made? See that she could make us, stick her hands in our glitter-gritted insides and build us into magnificent teen gladiators? Putting her body through its paces, turning it into a hard lean impermeable muscle, will grant her transformation. Temporarily freed from the strictures of being Beth’s lieutenant, Addy embraces Coach French’s relentless pushing.

But it’s still her team her hold over tight circle of power is loosening, and Addy - her Addy - is in thrall to Coach French.įor Addy, winning Coach’s trust and affection becomes an all-consuming goal. Not that she’d bat an eyelash if the entire squad puked up all their vital organs. Coach French browbeats the squad into shape, critically eyeing their waistlines and blithely encouraging one girl to indulge her bulimia. Her opening power play is to toss out Beth’s lazy, uninspired “booty shaking” routines in favor of physically punishing maneuvers. While their previous coach may have been cowed by Beth’s air of authority, French won’t be so easily swayed. But the introduction of a new cheer coach, Colette French, throws the entire dynamic into chaos. Addy has long been Beth’s best friend and faithful second-in-command. Locking on like a homing missile, Beth has a flair for pinpointing her competitors’ (and allies’) deepest fears - and the savage ambition to go for the jugular.īut while Beth may be our enfant terrible, it is sixteen-year-old cheerleader Addy Hanlon who is our entree into Abbott’s suburban noir. Maybe it’s that girls like Beth, a cheerleading captain and five-foot-one dream-crusher, learn to turn the vibrating fury of their insecurities outward.

These not-yet-women who still have curfews and require hall passes - what is it that makes them so goddamned scary? Running through all of these characters is the way they draw upon our dark fascination with the perceived power of teenage girls. Rose McGowan in the equally forgettable Jawbreaker.īeth Cassidy, one of the primary antagonists in Megan Abbott’s Dare Me, could easily be added to this list. Megan Fox in the muddled Jennifer’s Body.

Dare me the book