Review - Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares

A Review of Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

By Leena Normington

“We’d made it to third base, but got stuck there. Like we knew the catcher would tag us if we tried to head home.” p59

I was hoping to provide you, as is customary, with some whimsical polaroid-hazed high definition photographs of the lovely physical copy of this book – but unfortunately this was one of the first books I read digitally. Subsiquently you’re tumblr saturated eyes will have to be appeased by some heavily edited pictures of my (now considered ‘retro’ – what an insanity) Kindle Keyboard.

I took up reading this book because I wanted a break. A break from Dickens, a break from Feminist Theory, a break from Judith Butler (who, while lovely, is a little exhausting to sit in the presence of for too long). And a break is what I got.

It was the Christmas holidays which, I must hasten to add, is the PERFECT time of year to be reading this. If you want a season-themed read for winter that isn’t sickening, this is your shebang. Inoffensive, gentle and punchy, this little string of events and flirtations (laced with a few poignant reflections) is just what I was in the mood for. Sometimes its nice to not worry about ships sinking, nations falling or characters dying in the workhouse. This was a plain old will-they-won’t-they YA, and I loved every second. It could easily have been something to roll your eyes at – had the characters not been so wonderfully witty.

“I was attempting to write the story of my life. It wasn’t so much about plot. I was much more about character.” p.198

The premise is a lovely one to explain to someone fast; girl leaves notebook full of dares hiding on her favourite bookshelf in a New York bookshop. Boy finds notebook, they leave messages for each other all over the city and have a kind of tag-your-it paper romance, for a long time do not meeting face to face. That description is almost always met with a ‘nawwww-that-sounds-nice’ face. Which it is! Lily is a very spunky Mia from THE PRINCESS DIARIES kind of narrator (the books, not the film), while Dash is one of those tormented-by-his-own-intelligence kind of nice-guy who has a few dumb-but-loveable friends he is faithful to. He’s also ridiculously cynical. Yes, it has something of the John Green about it, but it also has a charm that is quite unique too. I will definitely be picking up other books by this duo next time I’m in the need of a break.

Its a light hearted read for those who like YA and two-person narrations, where the stakes are low but the intrigue is high.

“It was one of those moments when you feel the future so much that it humbles the present.” p.122