Review: Nerve - Jeanne Ryan

Where I got it: ARC from publisher for review
Rating: 4 stars  
Cover Rating: 3.5 stars (It's pretty crazy. I wish there was at least one other color though. )
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: September 13, 2012
Publisher: Dial Books
Page Count: 294 p.
Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

A game of truth or dare when the only thing you can pick is dare.
Vee just wants to do something different. She wants to change herself from the quite behind-the-scenes girl, to someone who gets noticed. She wants to be the one that guys fall for. To accomplish this she signs up to do some dares with NERVE. A broadcasted dare game that people all of the country play. The perks are huge. Things you've always wanted by couldn't get on your own. It's pretty easy, make a fool out of yourself in public and then you win prizes. Seems easy enough at first, but the dares quickly get harder and harder for Vee to face completing. Surprisingly though, Vee manages to get through dares and make it to the final round. There though, with the other contestants things get too deep. Some of these people will do anything to win and how far is NERVE willing to push them for a good show? Vee has to quickly find out who she can trust and how she can escape the dares...alive.

So, I had not heard anything about this book when I recieved it in the mail. The cover doesn't really reveal much about the novel either, but the tag line "To survive this game, choosing dare is the only option" certainly had me intrigued. The book starts off a bit randomly, but I was interested from the first page. Then we meet Vee. She starts off as this quiet girl who hides in the shadow of her best friend. It was incredible to see her transformation throughout the novel. It was infuriating to see her not notice the boy who was clearly in love with her though. That's alright though because at least we have another guy for her to fall for. This wasn't a love triangle though, so...YAY!

The game itself is completely crazy, and the people who run it are intense. They know every little thing about you and it's kind of creepy. On top of that, there are Watchers who record your every move for the dares. This is an incredibly neat concept, but also so weird.

This books was completely awesome though and kept you guessing what was around the next corner. I wonder if there might be a sequel to this somewhere in the future, because there are certainly things that could be in a second book. This one was great on it's own though. If you haven't heard much about this one, let me tell you it's worth the read. Pick it up as soon as you can.

First Line:
"It took three days of waiting, but at four a.m. on a Sunday, the street in front of her home finally emptied of all Watchers."

Favorite Line:
"The game has ruined my life and now it wants to soothe my feelings by sounding like some twinkly music from heaven?"