‘Dare Me’ Author Megan Abbott Takes Mommyish Inside The Terrifying World Of Teenage Girls
Megan Abbott‘s new novel Dare Me is one of the most riveting and chilling fiction books I’ve read in years. It tells the story of a tribe of intensely competitive cheerleaders, spray-tanned, master cleanse-addicted, vicious and ruthless under their bouncing blonde ponytails and their reek of bubblegum breath and snarky status Facebook updates. Beth Cassidy, the captain of the cheer team, and Addy Hanlon, her fiercely loyal lieutenant, rule the school and the squad unchallenged. Then a new cheerleading coach arrives who tests them physically, mentally and emotionally, wrecking havoc on the girls allegiances to each other. When the young and charismatic Coach French is questioned by the police about a shocking suicide, Addy must unravel the mystery as the cheer season heads to its final performance.
An unflinching look at the secret world of teenage girls, I found myself unable to stop reading, delving into this universe of teen warriors and seeing not only myself in them, but every girl who experienced the dark underbelly of high school and who made it out alive. Megan Abbott shares with us how the idea for Dare Me came about, and how exactly she knows so much about teenage girls.
How did the idea for Dare Me come about?
In my last novel, The End of Everything there’s a character who’s a serious high school field hockey player. I started watching high school girls play and was so struck by their intensity on the field. Their aggression but also this wild abandon. That sent me into an exploration of girl’s sports, which led me to cheerleading, the most dangerous of all. Watching today’s squads, which are so much more athletic and competitive than in my day, I was fascinated by the girls’ willingness to not only push themselves but to take dramatic risks. I started thinking about it as this exciting terrain to explore female friendship, power, ambition.
You write girls really brilliantly and unapologetically. Were you just drawing from your own experiences as a teen or eavesdropping on teen girls at the mall ?
I did trawl the online cheerleading forums and message boards quite a bit, but mostly to get a sense of how the girls viewed their sport. Most of the rest came from my observations of teen girls I know along with a great deal from my experiences at that age. Once I began sifting through the ashes of my own girlhood, all these memories of the twisty, occasionally treacherous way teen girl friendships operate came rushing back. The way friendship at that age can feel like a love affair””filled with excitement and betrayal. So intense, so fraught, and in many ways doomed.
What were you like in high school?
I was the editor-of-school-newspaper type. I think I went to one pep rally my freshman year and never thereafter. I spent most of my time in high school itching to get out, to get to college. So it’s ironic (or fitting?) that I keep writing about that age!
I found Coach French to be a very sympathetic character in a lot of regards. She just seemed like she had sort of this arrested development and maybe longed to belong to a tribe in a sense. While reading I almost created her backstory as a woman who peaked during high school and was reliving aspects of that via her squad. As a woman who is past high school, we’re you able to relate to her while creating her character in any way?
I’m so glad you found her sympathetic. I definitely do too. I’ve had many female friends who married very young and later found they missed a time in their life of just being independent, maybe a little wild. I also think it must be so intoxicating for her to have all those young girls in her thrall. Such a powerful position for someone so young, who maybe feels neglected or taken for granted everyplace else. And it’s always interested me, that mentor role. And, in the case of cheerleading coaches, they are frequently only 10 years older than their girls. They can so easily feel like almost peers. It’s a charged dynamic.
Another prevalent theme in your book is this sense of ferocious protectiveness amongst them, even though the girls are truly awful ( mainly Beth). Would you consider Dare Me a feminist novel?
It’s funny””I’m a feminist in my ”real life,” but I don’t consciously think in those terms when I write fiction. The protectiveness of the girls, however, was so important to me. And I definitely wanted Beth, who is so troubled in so many ways, to have that fierce loyalty, an admirable quality. It’s a viper’s nest in many ways””these girls pitched in sharp competition, not just for squad power but for Coach’s attention, and Beth’s””but beneath all that, there are these deep undercurrents of genuine feeling among the key female characters. Which raises the stakes even higher.
Even though you don’t have teen girls under your roof, after reading the book I’ve decided you know all the secrets and tricks to them. As a woman, how do you view teen girls and how do we raise them to be strong, smart, confident humans?
Boy, I admire mothers of teen girls more than can say! It is such a perilous time and my own memory of bad choices made at that age still stir in me. But I owe my parents immensely for the atmosphere they created in our house. They always made me feel that I was not just important and valuable but also interesting. They always wanted to know what I thought about things””not just every day things, but books, movies, TV shows, current events. It sounds simple, but it made me feel like I counted. It gave me self-respect.
(Photo: Amazon.com)
