I dare you: a "Dash & Lily's Book of Dares" review
I've always visualized books as I've read them. I think I first heard the term during an elementary school class hosted by the librarian, but I was doing it long before that talk. The text of a book just translates into very strong images in my head scene by scene, and then characters follow, and then voices follow, and it's like I have a movie playing in my head.
Rachel Cohn and David Levithan are no strangers to having their novels become films. Their two collaborations prior to this 2010 one, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, were adapted and starred some pretty big names at their respective releases (Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, and Victoria Justice, oh my), and Levithan's novel Every Day even had time in the theater. The first title did moderately well, while the others received more lukewarm reception. However, I picked up this title because of the prior movie buzz and my brother, who said this felt like it could make a really good film. Intrigued, I decided to give it a try in both physical and audiobook formats.
What I got was a sweet wintertime rom-com. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares is very much a stereotypical YA contemporary, but there's charm to be found in the vivid voices of our protagonists and the wacky shenanigans they get into. It's an entertaining ride despite its pitfalls. Although the book's plot isn't dated, the way the characters are written and a lot of the references and jokes are; they date this eight-year-old book to the point where it somewhat does feel like a relic from another time, not to mention that some of the humor is not appropriate in a 2019 context whatsoever. Even the cartoon-like pretension of the characters' veneer feels off, and they end up sounding like middle school students pretending to be sixteen years old. But at the end of the day, this book is charming and entertaining in a way that makes a reader feel good, and sometimes, that's all that's necessary.
Dash hates the holidays, and a Grinch-level assessment just wouldn't do it. He absolutely detests them with every fiber of his being thanks to his parents divorcing when he was young and the hope that them getting back together was what Santa was going to put under the tree. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and now Dash is the pea coat-wearing prickly sixteen-year-old who would rather make sure he's alone this holiday season. But during his typical stop at famous New York City bookstore Strand, he finds a misplaced red notebook among the shelves. To his surprise, it was put there for a reason. After completing a dare of looking through various wacky titles to create a question to answer, the game begins. Since Dash doesn't have anything better to do, what does he have to lose?
The one responsible for the notebook is Lily, but it's actually her older brother who should be thanked. Inspired by From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler-style adventures their great-aunt took them on, Lily's brother Langston thinks she needs a change of pace from her Christmas-loving and devoted daughter routine, and while Lily is a little nervous at first, she's happy to oblige as the dares continue. Soon Dash and Lily are doing the wildest things across New York City, from sitting on Santa's lap to going to a club in the middle of the night. Their friends get involved (as do crushes and exes), and soon it seems like Dash and Lily may be falling in love. But can two people who are only communicating via journal really connect in the big snow-cloaked land of NYC? Maybe fate is actually on their sides after all.
The first thing of note about this novel were Dash and Lily's voices as protagonists. Yes, they were pretentious and used lots of big words that I don't think teenagers would use. But their personalities reminded me of younger kids projecting the characteristics of their older siblings onto themselves, hoping to find anything that sticks. A lot of Lily's wide-eyed optimism was mired by her whining about her older brother not spending enough time with her and her parents treating her like a child. With that kind of attitude, I found her very childish. Dash was the broody and moody hipster that felt like something talked about in a magazine but personified to the nth degree. Yet they still had their moments of realism, and I could imagine people like them in real life. If Lily's toddler-reminiscent anger had been toned down alongside Dash's grandiose vocabulary, I think they would've seemed more like teenagers. But then again, this book came out in 2010, and times have changed in the publishing industry since then.
Another section I'd like to point out relates to when this was published. I was absolutely surprised by how dated this was almost nine years later. I completely forgot how much pop culture and even writing has the power to change. I don't think a Latin-American character talking in Spanish (with an accent in the audiobook) so the authors can advertise his ethnicity, a drag queen labeled as a "she-man", or a white and black police officer called Officer Black and Officer White would fly in today's society. I additionally mentioned before how I felt that some of Dash and Lily's traits were very similar to those of people I'd see in middle grade books. Perhaps this is due to YA's younger target audience on average at that time, because I've read some really deep-cutting young adult novels from before this decade. Still, this would be really easy to fix in a movie adaptation if it was written (although I will forever remain horrified that "she-man" made it into the manuscript without David Levithan, an openly gay author, calling it out).
However, I really enjoyed the plot of this novel. Dash and Lily's adventures throughout NYC were charming and hilarious, and I loved how the story led its way through some of the city's most popular places. I would assume some of the content here, much like with some of the humor, has dated since, but unlike those bits of comedy, the sightseeing felt current and believable. One review I found on Goodreads pointed out how the dares Dash and Lily give each other aren't really dares; instead, they're just tasks that don't particularly make the heart race. But the word-searching, Santa lap-sitting, and Muppet-making were really fun and made me smile. Also, Lily accomplished gaining more courage to open up to the world around her, which was the whole point of the notebook in the first place. Dash, on the other hand, learned to quiet down and appreciate those around him in his life. That was really nice too.
If there was a part of the plot that didn't work, it was when Dash and Lily finally crossed paths at the worst time. Both of them retreat and resign themselves to the fact that they'll never be able to meet outside the notebook; their entire world was built there, after all. But how they go about reacting to this felt strange to me: following leaving one of her shoes at a club, Lily pursues a boy who was once her sworn enemy in elementary school that became a crush; meanwhile, Dash visits his ex-girlfriend. I didn't like the secondary love interest angle, particularly Dash's, as it was clear his ex had moved on while he was more in love with her outside the context of the relationship than he had been inside (oof). Besides, Dash and Lily were a really cute couple. Why get in the way of that?
On a brighter note, though, I really enjoyed the ensemble cast. Cohn and Levithan created a vibrant set of great characters. They did feel like something out of a cartoon at first, but they were so vivid and entertaining that I couldn't fault that. Dash's best friend, Boomer, a boy Lily compares to an excitable dog, Lily's goofy older brother Langston and his boyfriend when he wasn't written problematically, and the gay Jewish couple were my favorites. But everyone felt realistic and like people you'd see in real life, and that was appreciated among sometimes strained dialogue. Plus there was a lot of queer representation, which is major!
All in all, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares is a cute book despite its problems. Cohn and Levithan seem to be a great team when it comes to writing adorable romantic comedies that have their charm and wit, and if adapted right, this would make an awesome movie (which I feel very inspired to write). However, it's rather dated when it comes to some of its jokes, and its cast may not read quite as realistic at first. But once some time is spent among its pages, curled up with a cup of hot chocolate and a blanket as snow is falling outside, it might click. You may enjoy this most around the holidays, so reserve space for this book on your shelf.