Ari Reviews: Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

A red moleskine left on a shelf in a bustling book shop.
Dash picks it up and discovers clues inside - and follows them.

And that begins the back-and-forth passing of the strange red notebook.

Two people are involved.

A girl, who awaits just the right guy to accept the dares.

And the boy, drawn in by the unusual tasks, wondering who this girl is.

But of course, passing it back-and-forth with various clues and instructions?

It isn't that easy.

He-yo! Welcome to Ari Reviews and good afternoon to you all! It's been a while indeed since I've done a book review (for me, at least). Judging by the picture above, yes, I'll be reviewing Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, which was written by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. 

Backtracking for a bit, I recall buying this book while I was out with my friends (Giselle and Kloe), and then forgetting I had even bought it. So last May, I finally told myself to get up and read this thing - and here I am now, making a review about it!

The Read More is going to be there in case you want to venture on. I won't be putting any major spoilers and whatnot, so it's safe for you to go in. You know, just in case you don't want to be spoiled unlike my aunt who found out about the Red Wedding before she even watched it. 

Behold, another book collaboration! After reading Levithan's previous works, I decided to give this book a go. Prior to that, I hadn't even heard of Rachel Cohn, so I hoped that through reading this book, I'd gain another potential favorite author.

Before I tell the highlights, let me be honest for a bit.

The reason why I forgot I had this book in the first place?

I had just finished reading The Catastrophic History of You and Me, and as recovery, I thought, why not lift my spirits with a happy book? So I got it, flopped on my bed and started reading. The book starts with the boy's point of view (written by Levithan) and then goes to the girl's (written by Cohn), and it develops a pattern from there. 

Boy, girl, boy, girl. Simple, right? But that's not the reason.

The reason was because when chapter two came up...I found myself. Well.

Bored. There, I said it. 

Alright, so maybe I'm being terribly biased, seeing as I'm more familiar with Levithan's style of writing than I am with Cohn's. But I don't know, folks. I found chapter one okay, interesting, and when two came up...it's like my brain refused to process anything. 

That disheartened me, leading to the forgetting that I had the book.

But as I said, I pushed myself the following month to actually read it, and so I did. 

And I found out I was wrong. 

I feel rather bad that I didn't like Lily that much, though.

So to sum it up, here's what I think.

A bit slow at the beginning, but eventually leads on and pulls you in. The continuous and somewhat frustrating 'passing of the notebook' plot develops into something better as much more than mere instructions and riddles are poured into the notebook's pages. Dreams, lives, and even secrets are told, with Dash and Lily eventually learning about each other from page to page. They'll make you cheer them on, and the ending maybe a little hanging, but is still as sweet as the hot chocolate you sip on a cool Christmas Day. 

I recommend this book to new fans of Levithan and Cohn, to those who want to have a taste of something new. Romance-lovers should also pick up this book, and though it may seem a bit tedious in the beginning, don't let that stop you from venturing on.