Review: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

A red moleskin journal, tucked between rows of book of your favorite author in your favorite bookstore. It’s just natural that it will perk your interest, right? And if the book is a list of dares… it’s even more natural to do whatever it tells you to do.

It’s Christmastime in NYC, and maybe there is nothing Dash hates more than Christmas. To quote him, Christmas is, ‘the most detestable time of the year. The moo-like crowds, the endless visits from hapless relatives, the ersatz cheer, the joyless attempts at joyfulness—my natural aversion to human contact could only intensify in this context’. On the other side, we have Lily, who loves Christmastime gazillion times more than Dash. Lily loves everything about Christmas, so much that she even organizes her own caroling society. And yeah, she’s also called Third-Verse Lily by the carolers because she’s the only one who remembers past the second verse of any Christmas song.

Through the series of dares, Dash and Lily begin to get to know each other. It’s a scavenger hunt. No one knows what they will discover in the end of the hunt. Meeting the other through the journal is like magic, but what if… what if the ending is not-so-magical? Will the magic break when they finally meet in person?

To begin with, I love this book. It’s such a cute read, definitely one of my favorite contemporaries. There’s something so thrilling about scavenger hunt, and the idea of meeting someone-meant-to-be along the way is sooooo exciting. I love the characters in this book as well, each of them is easy to identify with in some ways.

Although I liked both Lily and Dash’s voices, I found myself liking Dash’s voice a notch higher. He’s such a cynical person with geeky streak, but it’s lovely that he can be a romantic as well. Lily is a person I wouldn’t mind to get along with. She’s the type of person that would bring smile on your face even on your darkest days. She has such upbeat personality, and I think they are perfect for each other. Snarky Dash and eager Lily.

This is a fun and light reading, but the story is very relatable. Love has never been explained that easy. The less we know about someone, the more we think that maybe that person is the one in our head. We carry on living that there is someone out there, someone who is the one and we know that the instant we meet. They guy/girl in our mind. If that doesn’t work out, then the person is not the one. But I guess we’ve already known deep inside. The universe doesn’t decide what is right or wrong. We do.

Recommended for any fan of sweet and fun contemporary, Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares is one of my favorite read-in-one-sit books. It’s cute, it’s fun… it’s addictive.

”Game over,” you say, and I don’t know which I take more exception to—the fact that you say that it’s over, or the fact that you say it’s a game. It’s only over when one of us keeps the notebook for good. It’s only a game if there is an absence of meaning. And we’ve already gone too far for that.

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I rate this book:

Four cups of tea. Amazing! Love the book, it’s simply awesome. I love the tea flavor!  A strong recommendation.

PS: I MISSSSEEEEDDD YOU GUYS A LOT! Hopefully you guys missed me too hehe. c: