Jeanne Ryan

Representation: Side Asian character
Trigger warnings: Sexual harassment, gun violence
Note that I bought this book and now I own it.
Read this review for context.

5/10, I picked this up a few months back and after that, I forgot about it for a while until I read this and I felt very very underwhelmed by this since I couldn't enjoy any aspect of this and if there weren't so many issues it could've been a much better read than it was and by the way there's a movie now and it might be better. Where do I begin? It starts with the main character Venus or Vee for short but I only knew her full name towards the very end of the book, that being said she after some consideration decides to partake in this new game or challenge thing that's been sweeping the world at the time called NERVE, hence the title and immediately I felt like I've seen this one before which doesn't help this in any way. The dares seem innocent at first when Vee meets this other major character called Ian whose last name I don't even know and already I was put off by how, let's just say risqué those challenges were and it was difficult for me to push through them, the characters didn't improve the book either since most of them weren't fleshed out except one, which I'll get to later. Soon enough Vee does enough dares for Ian to invite her into a special room with more darers like her and I realised before her that something didn't feel right about NERVE but she didn't, maybe it was to demonstrate her naïveté, I don't know. The last few pages of the book, well they were a sight to see. I just couldn't believe what was going on and the pacing just sped up from there, there was a gun violence scene, Vee escaped realising what I knew earlier and the ending was just left in the air. Wow. Arguably one of the most frustrating ways to finish a story.… (meer)