Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

“The raw, ugly, mottled things you fear about yourself in your most private moments – what happens when someone says them aloud to you?  The feeling like your skin slipped from your body, showing everything, red and veined.”

As teens, Kit and Diane were bonded by ambition; working hard to attain a scholarship offered by a renowned scientist. Just as they’re about to reach the pinnacle of academic success, Diane spills a secret that tears Kit’s life apart.

Years pass and Kit has worked hard to put the past behind her and create the life she’s always dreamed of. But all that changes when Diane weaves herself into Kit’s life once more. Knowing their past, can Kit and Diane co-exist or is the damage of the past truly irreparable?

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

It’s no secret around these parts that I’m a big fan of Mighty Megan. She truly has some of the more memorable and beautifully tragic prose around – some of the best I’ve read since Chandler, which makes each new release a cause for celebration. Taking nothing away from her prior novels, I think Give Me Your Hand is her best work to date.

What I value the most as a reader above all else is pacing. With Give Me Your Hand, Megan makes it clear from the outset that she’s going to make you wait. By jumping backward and forward in time through alternating chapters, Megan is able to develop her characters both before and after the secret is revealed, which heightened the anticipation. This drove me crazy (in a good way)!. I had a very hard time putting it down through its brisk three hundred and fifty pages.

Megan has shown in the past through her novels Dare Me, You Will Know Me, The End of Everything and The Fever, that she excels by taking the captivating elements of noir and injecting them into an unfamiliar setting – adolescent girls in suburbia. Give Me Your Hand is no exception. While she still lingers around the halls of a high school in the earlier years of Kit & Diane’s friendship, she then shifts the setting to a research lab in the present day giving her ample room to expand Kit & Diane’s world as well as showcasing a unique backdrop for a white-knuckle thriller.

Give Me Your Hand is an absolutely enthralling read that gripped me from beginning to end. If I read a more riveting novel in 2018, I would be shocked. It’s that good.

Expected publication date – July 17th, 2018
Pre-Order through Amazon US / Amazon Canada