Truth or Dare Review

How far is too far when it comes to the people you love? Claire Casey hates being the centre of attention. But if it means getting Sef Malik to notice her, it’s a risk she’s happy to take. Sef is prepared to do anything to help his recently disabled brother. But this means putting Claire’s love – and life – on the line. Because when you’re willing to risk everything, what is there left to lose?

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I had never heard of Non Pratt or this book before I got it in my May Illumicrate box. The synopsis of the book doesn’t really give too much away about the story, which made it look really mysterious to me. The story follows Claire and Sef as they try to raise money for Sef’s recently disabled brother, Kam. Prior to this, Claire and Sef had never spoken to one another. That’s all I’m going to say about the plot of the book, because it does really help going into this one not knowing much about what happens!

All I knew about this book was that it was told from two perspectives, and to read the other point of view, the book had to be flipped upside down. This concept was pretty interesting to me as I’d never read a book written in this way before, and it definitely makes the aspect of dual point of views more exciting. This meant that you could read the book however you wanted; one perspective at a time, alternating between characters chapters or reading half a perspective and then changing. I stuck to one perspective at a time, starting with Claire’s and then moving on to Sef’s, and their point of views overlapped really nicely. There was some repetition but it was nice to read a certain scene from the other characters perspective as you understand what was going on in their heads at that time.

It was very interesting to read from both of these characters points of view. Both their lives are very complex, and they each deal with a variety of issues; Sef is struggling to come to terms with his brothers accident and feels somewhat responsible for it, whilst Claire is stuck in the middle of her friends arguing and also has to deal with sexual harassment from one of her classmates. I thought the way that Non Pratt had decided to tackle these issues within the novel was really unique, because she focused upon the usage of social media and how much that consumes our lives. It made it so easy to relate to society and issues such as cyber-bullying, especially with how quickly things can be posted online and how easy it is for things to go viral. It really made me think about the internet and how it can simultaneously be a wonderful place but also a very scary environment which is reflected by Sef and Claire’s experiences in the book.

It’s pretty clear from the synopsis that this book is just as much about the romance between Sef and Claire as it is about their individual journeys. I really feel like the novel would have been a lot better if there hadn’t been a developing relationship between these two. With both characters having so much going on in their personal lives, it seems like their personal issues were used as an excuse for beginning this relationship. Although both characters were able to offer each other comfort and support, whilst allowing each other to overcome some of their fears, I wish this had been through a friendship rather than a romantic relationship. I loved both characters individually and was able to empathise with both of their situations, but I’m not too sure if I loved them together.

Like every book, there were a few aspects that I didn’t particularly enjoy that much – but there were so many things that I loved! Overall, this book really surprised me and I found myself unable to put the book down. It’s made me want to look into some of Non Pratt’s other novels as I really liked her writing style and the topics that she covered.

Have you read Truth or Dare? What did you think of the novel?