21 Dares

by J.C. Gatlin

What happens when a party game turns deadly?

For her 21st birthday, Abbie Reed’s friends throw her a surprise party and plan an outrageous game of 21 Dares. The rules are simple: Abbie must follow each dare to the letter as they pop-up on her phone--each one sent as a text message from a secret guest. Starting off funny, if not a little humiliating, the dares send Abbie and her friends across her college campus and through downtown Tampa. But the closer they get to the mystery man behind the text messages, the more deadly the dares become.

Harboring a vendetta against Abbie, the mysterious guest won't stop until she pays. Now, it’s up to Abbie to figure out who he is and what he wants, before her 21st birthday becomes her last.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult, Fiction, Horror, Suspense, Mystery Thriller

260 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 10, 2016

About the author

JC Gatlin is a Mystery-Suspense Author hailing from Tampa, Florida. His last book, H_NGM_N: Murder is the Word, was published by Milford House Press in 2019 and won Gold in Mystery and Crime Fiction in the Florida Royal Palm Literary Awards. His next book, Darkness Hides, is releasing in 2021.

Reviews

[Bren fall in love with the sea. · Rating 2 out of 5]

“revenge can succeed only when an offender understands the reason for the act of vengeance.”
― J.C. Gatlin, 21 Dares


21 Dares. a book I'd looked forward to. I was really let down by this one.

I do not know even where to begin. Abbie had something tragic happen to her in childhood. Now. all these years later, she is about to turn 21. Her friends throw her a party with a twist. She will be texted 21 dares and at the end of the 21st dare, a special guest to the party will be waiting for her.

I loved the premise. And I also loved the stunning book cover. And I wanted so much to like this book. But I didn't. There are several reasons for that.

I will begin with Abbie's therapist who was one of the most annoying characters I've ever read about. His desperate attempts to sound cool and hip resulted in Prose that was pretty hard to read. This character nearly gave me a headache. I really did not like him and I cannot imagine a real therapist speaking like that anyway.

Beyond that though, the book was YA to the point where I had to say to myself, why am I reading this. Like I said the premise..fantastic. Amazing. But the way it was carried off not so much.

Then there is the fact that most of the dares concerned the three B'S. (Bars, booze and boys). I had imagined this book as something like Christopher Pike meets Stephen King. Not at all. And I was not scared. I was bored. When I began to skim, I felt bad but I already knew..no way was this book for me.

I guess I'd recommend it to people who like books that, as other reviewers have mentioned, read like slasher movies that don't make any sense. It was one of my biggest let downs of the year. I like myself a scary book every now and again but this book was so not for me.

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may have been unduly generous giving this book two stars, but at least i didn't get mad at myself for reading it. This book reads like a bad teenage slasher movie, which is essentially what it is. A girl is turning 21 and her friends surprise her with a party where she is to complete 21 dares before the night is over. What could go wrong? Everything. And most of it is very predictable. I suppose this was written for a young adult audience and i'm just old and crotchety, but i'm afraid this is just another book that goes in the forget about it bin.

[Grace Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, entertaining read. I enjoyed the pace of the book and I loved the suspenseful, creepy bits as much as I loved the funny moments. I could imagine this as a horror movie and I think many will enjoy the ride. Abbie Reed was a great character and I was with her all the way. The ending was unpredictable, which is great, but it seemed to switch gears too quickly and some of the suspense leaked out a bit. That said, it's an awesome read with lots of creepy moments and laugh-out-loud (hashtag #LOL) moments. Great stuff!

[Sherry Fundin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to let the story take me where it wanted me to go…down the path of twisted fantasy…because I didn’t like most of the characters and I didn’t think she would play the game, but who knows what peer pressure would lead us to do as she plays to solve the mystery of the surprise guest and face the danger that awaits her, all while the suspense throughout kept me reading…knowing it was coming…making me wonder, when…

fundinmental

[Aly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate to say this but this book was not very good. It never really held my attention. I would give this author a try again sometime because "we can't always hit it out the the park". But this book was disappointing.

[Sheila Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and suspenseful. I enjoyed the concept behind the idea of the game and how it twisted into something more sinister.

[Shreemanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do you define 'friends'? ~ The ones who always have our back...

Abigail Reed, known as Abbie unofficially, is trying to live her life away from her dad in Tampa, where her childhood home was. She has moved in 2 months ago and is all alone except for Clem, her cat, and her occasionally speaking to her, her roommate Susan.

The story begins two days ago Abbie's 21st birthday. She felt that someone is following her- a person in tan trench coat and a brown hat by the end of the day.

Next day she suddenly gets a lunch invitation from her childhood summer time - spending friend McKenzie and meets her boyfriend cum fiancee Rocky Stern.

Abbie is haunted by a unfateful night which took her motherly figure like sister Heather away from her life forever.

Abbie finally turns 21 and her friends throw her a surprise party and a weird game of "21-dares".At the end of the 21st dare, Abbie would meet a surprise guest who would be texting her and her friends the dares.

Though it was funny at the beginning it changed into something drastic as the night rolled by
Constantly followed by someone added the eerieness to the already serious environment.


Who is behind all these? Will Abbie be able to survive her 21st birthday? What were the 21 dares? Will she, being Buffy ,met her Scoogie gang?


To know the answers you need to read the book.


The narration, the plot and the ending were nicely woven. The title was something that caught my eyes and I don't repent after read this book.



I dare you to...



Go grab your copy now..

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

21 Dares is a suspense and thriller novel that follows an girl named Abbie who suffers from a traumatic event that happened in her childhood.The story starts as Abbie,a five year waking up in the middle of the night to a home intrusion.After she braving a few glances over the banister,she ran to her sister's room and both of them tried to hide from this terrible man.But they were unsuccessful in doing so and Abbie's sister was brutally murdered that night,leaving her mentally scared for life.



Years go by,Abbie is now far away from home studying in a different place.She does not have friends or does go outside.She spends most her free time reading tons of books and watching the re-runs of Buffy with her cat,Clem. This worries her therapist who then advises Abbie to break out of her shell and go out and make some friends.



Then just a day before her 21st birthday,she encounters an old chidlhood friend who introduces her to her shady fiance.The reason i call Rocky(that's his name) shady is because even though they met at Abbie's therapist, he outright denies it and is even stubborn about it.As if this was bad enough,a mysterious man in trnchcoat and hat seems to stalking her.We even get to see his short entries about Abbie's whereabouts.



Everything goes down the hill on birthday.Her roommate and some of the folks who organized a surprise party also devised this crazy games of 21 dares. Abbie was dared top complete all the 21 dares in order meet a person she was very fond of.



What started as silly dares soon turned out to be a deathly game of freakish nightmare and horror. Abbie must complete all the dares if she does not to lose anyone one dear to her.

[Emmie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Packed with suspense and so utterly gripping. This book grabbed me and would not let me go. It tantalizes with possible suspects, but never gives the game away. I was completely caught unawares by the ending.

But I have to admit that there were things that grated. I'm not going to compile a laundry list of all the errors and irritations. Suffice to say the book needed a good editing and a bit of polishing with regards to the characters.

I cannot wait to read other books by this author!

[Manjri Gopalan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting, nail-biting thriller. Though I did not like the writing style much, but the plot of the story was interesting enough to hold my attention.

[Silver Screen Videos · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the new suspense thriller 21 Dares by J.C. Gatlin, a young woman plays a "truth or dare" game in which she tries to fulfill an increasingly dangerous and scary series of challenges texted to her on her cell phone. Fortunately, the book ends before she receives the 22nd dare, one that no one could possibly accomplish: reading the entire book without rolling one's eyes up at the ceiling in disgust at one of the many ridiculous plot contrivances or moronic characters in the book.

The heroine of 21 Dares is Abbie Reed, a college student whose life was upended at age five, in the book's first few pages, when a masked nutcase broke into her home and murdered her older sister right in front of her eyes. Not surprisingly, Abbie has spent years recovering, and, even after she's gone off to college in Tampa, she is still in therapy. She's now on the eve of her 21st birthday, an occasion that gives her roommate and a couple of friends an opportunity to try to get her out of her shell by throwing her a party, complete with the aforementioned challenge.

Despite the fact that Abbie thinks she has been followed around campus by a shadowy stalker the last few days, she reluctantly agrees to play the game (much the same as Emma Roberts did in the recent movie Nerve). The challenges at first take her and her friends out for a night of carousing at a local bar, as she tries to drink shooters without any hands and talk a bald man into letting her kiss his head for good luck. Eventually, however, the tone of the dares changes, becoming more sinister and involving having Abbie go to a dark secluded building in the middle of the night.

Now if, in reading this review, you thought that the idea of a woman who has a mysterious stalker following her going off to a potential ambush location isn’t the smartest of ideas, you’ll be dismayed to learn that not only does Abbie do that, but that it’s far from the dumbest thing that various characters in the book will do before it’s over (here’s a hint, if you’re facing someone you suspect is a dangerous psycho, after disarming him, you don’t toss his weapon two feet away and then turn your back on him while you’re trying to reason with him). And the characters do so for the sole reason that, if they didn’t, the book would come to a rather abrupt and anticlimactic end. For, despite the fact that author Gatlin has created a rather elaborate (and actually somewhat clever) scenario for his book, he wasn’t clever enough to figure out how to end it plausibly or to do so without leaving a number of howlingly large plot holes along the way.

Of course, almost every thriller has elements that are implausible. In a well-written thriller, however, readers get swept up in the book’s flow, or they find the story so interesting that they either don’t catch or aren’t bothered by the plot’s flaws. In 21 Dares, however, nearly every ridiculous aspect of the plot gnawed at me while I was still trying to finish the book. Nor is that the only thing that gnawed at me. I confess that I’m not privy to the inner workings of the mind of a 21-year-old female college student, but Abbie, based on what she says and does in the earlier parts of the book, is especially annoying. She (or author Gatlin) is preoccupied with the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and envisions many of her actions as they relate to the show. Worse, she keeps going back and forth about continuing playing the game. In the overlong middle third of 21 Dares, which follows Abbie and friends bar hopping, she has a conversation on almost every page that goes pretty much “I’m quitting.” “Please don’t” “OK, I won’t.”

The flaws I’ve mentioned in the book are particularly frustrating because the author has a good bit of talent yet makes way, way too many wrong turns here. In those sequences in which he’s sharply focused on the story, the writing can be compelling, such as much of the description of the final showdown between Abbie and the villain. And the book’s central premise stood out enough from the host of generic thriller synopses I read on Amazon that I decided to pick up the book on that basis. But 21 Dares ultimately proved an annoying experience and a bit of a chore to finish. These dares shouldn’t have been accepted.

[Paula Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

21 years ago Abbi Reed was born and had a wonderful family, 15 years ago that family was taken away from her when her house was broken into and her older sister killed. From that day, she turned into a shell of himself and became known as Clinton Reed from Abbi. Now 15 years later, Abbi is at college and living her life as she should. Though she is attending therapy and doesn't have any close friends, she prefers to curl up and watch her favorite TV Show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For the past few months, Abbi has felt that she is being followed but what happens when she can't prove it? During one of her therapy sessions, her doctor suggests she goes out and mingles, and we read as a girl from Abbi's past comes to light, and soon Abbi has a small group of friends. Near the end of the book, Abbi is turning 21, and her newfound friends have put together a list of 21 dares for Abbi to complete. The game and dares start out innocent but what will happen when the game is taken over by someone who doesn't want to play by the rules? What will happen when the dares start to become deadly and soon turn into live or die ultimatums? Has the killer from Abbi's childhood come back to finish the job or has someone new decided to play on Abbi's childhood fears and Anxiety in this new and improved deadly game of 21 Dares? Will Abbi live to see the end of her 21st birthday or will this be her last one to celebrate?
Overall, 21 Dares by J.C Gaitlin was a good suspenseful read, but I felt near the ending a bit let-down as it had an amazing build-up and then when I got to the last chapter and discovered who the killer was and the reasoning behind everything, I was like really - that's it?

[Patricia Romero · Rating 4 out of 5]

2 months into college, Abbie Reed is about to turn 21. Not expecting a big deal as she really has no friends unless you call her cat, Clem, a friend, which she does. Her roommate is older and although they share an apartment, they haven't made any attempts to get to know each other.

Daily calls from her father, going to classes and seeing a very odd shrink 2 days a week is pretty much all she's doing.

Until the day she notices someone following her. Every day. Every where. When her shrink suggests she use her birthday as an opportunity to be more social, she isn't interested in the least. The day before her birthday, she receives a call from a girl she knew back home. When McKenzie would come to visit her Grandmother, she and Abbie would spend time together, but Abbie does not consider her a friend. Abbie and her father live with her Grandparents, having moved from Tampa after a traumatic event.

The title 21 Dares, relates to the game that McKenzie and Abbie's roommate, Susan have set up. But why would someone she barely knows throw her this bizarre birthday party and game. She receives the dares by text and as the night goes on it becomes obvious that this is not a game for one of the participants. It is revenge. Sick and twisted, revenge. But for what? And finally she will come face to face with the mysterious man following her. But can she believe him?

I liked the premise of the story, if some of the characters were a bit lacking in personality and we didn't know much about any of them except Abbie.

[Dominique [plantypageturner] · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first few chapters of this caught my attention right away. Sadly, that was short lived. The dares were stupid and the text bubbles got on my nerves. And holy crap, has the author heard of editing? There were numerous spelling errors, words missing, people speaking in scenes when the author said they were missing. The amount of short and very abrupt 1-3 word sentences was ridiculous! I kept reading just because I wanted to see how it ended and found myself skimming the last 40% of the book.

[Shubhi Nigam · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When it rains..." "Look for rainbows."
"And when it's dark?" "Look for stars."
Good story. Nicely written. Liked the peaceful ending "They had her back."

[Kristy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is awful. It is very poorly written, and the story line, well, it's just plain dumb. No girl would be as stupid as the main character was.

[Linda Gartin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story. I loved the characters.

Just when you think that you figured it out, a new twits comes up. Great ending. Komodo. Would make a great movie.

[Sluserfive · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mining

Minimising in n j j j j j j j j j f j f jf. Jf. Jf. Jf jf vif vif vif vif vif vif vif vif vif vif vif vif vf vif vif vif vif vif vif vif vif vif vif v

[Eddie Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

It started out slow, I stopped read and had to come back to finish.

I'm glad I did, it was a great story. I did know who the killer was before the end but still never guessed.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story

I would have given it 5 stars of it had a better ending. It didn't tell you if her roommate survived or what her injuries were.

[Madhuri · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lovely premise gone wasted. Complete snooze fest.

[Jessica Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some books capture you right from the first page, draw you in, and make it impossible to put them down before you're done. This book is unfortunately not one of those.

Setting aside the obvious issues with spelling and grammar throughout the book, the plot is messy at best and the writing isn't very strong. The entire story is told, not shown, which is a pet peeve of mine. Don't tell me how someone looks; show it to me. The characters were all flat as well.

One thing that really bothered me was that Abbie always called her dad Clinton Reed. There was one section late in the book that tried to explain it, but I don't think it succeeded. Plus, because it was so late in the book, it leaves readers wondering, "What is wrong with this girl? Why does she keep calling her dad Clinton Reed? Why does she always have to say everyone's first and last names?" throughout the entire thing.

But on top of that, the entirety of the story read like a bad movie. Cue the cliche of the creeper in the trench coat and the hat pulled over his eyes. Cue the cliche of the weird girl who's obsessed with some TV character and has zero social skills but somehow miraculously saves the day. Cue the crazy guy who's trying to avenge his crazy older brother. I'm sorry, but the break-in and murder of Abbie's sister happened over a picture and some blueprints? The blueprints were hardly explained anyways. Then you have McKenzie, who is a totally unbelievable character and so self-absorbed that you don't even really care when she dies. None of the characters, including Abbie, are likable at all. Also, the concept of movement in this book is so off. In one fell swoop, the killer manages to step forward, slash the professor's neck with a box cutter, and kill him? This same killer, later, is able to pull the box cutter from his stomach and continue on his rampage? When he's smashing Abbie's head into the ground, he's pushed back by two characters throwing cinderblocks at him. I'm sorry, but do you know how heavy cinderblocks are?? Also, why would you throw cinderblocks at someone who is basically kneeling above your friend? They're going to fall and smash her in the head!

I just wasn't a fan of the writing, of the plot, or really of much about this book.

[Bear Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5, because while I think this book has a lot of flaws, there is potential and a decent final act.

If you enjoy cheesy B horror movies, well, 21 Dares is a free and quick read. I found myself VERY OFTEN annoyed while reading, and I believe this book could have used another round or two of editing, and possibly a sensitivity editor (as there's a stereotypical Hispanic cleaning lady who runs away from "the fuzz"). The characters are all either bland or unlikable, which is what slasher fans usually want, but I'm hesitant to compare it to the slasher genre. Yes, there is a masked killer who slits people's throats, but it reads as more of a thriller than a horror, but has the staples of a cheesy slasher movie (cardboard characters, Dark Secret Past™, painful dialogue) minus innovative kills.

Onward to the characters! There's Allie, our shy and friendless heroine with a dark past. McKenzie, a very vain and annoying redhead. Her fiancé Rocky, who solely talks about a pyramid company called Vitamin Ritamin. Susan, a shitty roommate who kind of grows on you. Josh, the dReAmY campus security guard who tells dad jokes. Lindsey and Lindsay, twins who are just kinda there. Dharma, who shares Allie's affection for Buffy. And finally, Dr. M, Allie's therapist who speaks entirely in HiP tEeN sLaNg and has a hairy big toe.

Yes. It's mentioned several times.

While I do love the concept of "dares done dark", it's rarely ever done well. I don't believe 21 Dares executes that successfully, but I will say that the final showdown between Allie and the (honestly predictable) killer was interesting enough that I found myself invested in that particular scene.

If you read the synopsis of the book, prepare for the first forty percent of the novel to not have anything to do with the twenty-one dares, and for things to not get even remotely dark for awhile.

And I mean...I didn't stop reading it.

[Falguni Jain · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hooked to the novel from the very first page. The idea of 21 dares for 21st birthday of Abbie Reed seemed interesting. A stalker, therapist with a tattoo Abbie had seen years ago, a friend appearing after years, all helped in creating a suspenseful plot. It had a great amount of spookiness and ghouliness with unpredictable twists. The twists kept me guessing forever.

 But there were too many references of cartoon characters and TV shows which made the story irritating. Repetitive use of some words like Abbie Reed calling her father by name, Buffy, ghouls, unicorn necklace etc. fills up half of the novel. Constant promotion of Vitamin Ritamin by Rocky was intolerable. There were too many grammatical errors as well.

For the sake of making the climax unpredictable the author took to a really unsatisfying ending. The context of the climax was unclear and more than that unrealistic. It seemed a forceful ending without enough reasoning for what happened and why. Some characters shows up out of nowhere without any explanation.


I won't recommend this novel.

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first chapter was great but after that I felt the book died and I didn't like it. I felt like the author gave too much unintended chapters to a character I really didn't like. But the more I read the book the more I understood why he was developing the character. There is a reason why the character was so sheltered and weird. By the time her so called friends got her to do each dare for her 21st birthday I couldn't put the book down. I wanted to know what the last dare was and I wanted to know who was behind the text. LET ME TELL YOU, you won't guess who it is at the end. I was totally not expecting that character. My heart was racing the closer she got to the 21st dare, and how she couldn't find out who was sending the text . Also one thing that drove me crazy was how she called her dad 'Clinton Reed'. I was afraid I wasn't going to get the answer as to why she did that but lucky the author revealed why.

[Judi King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute

Silly and fun, a great vacation read or before you go to sleep book. I wouldn't call this a book club choice but enjoyed it for the light read that it is. Characters are very simple and you don't really fall in love with anyone. Lots of bodies, a few turns, a little twist and a cute ending. No emotional investment required and no gore or need to keep the lights on either. Glad I found this to take along on my trip. Best part is that it was easy to put down to go off on excursions and then easy to rejoin the story at the end of the day without having to go back to remember what happened fifty pages back!

[Sharon Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the concept of this book a lot even though it was not quite what I was expecting. I thought this was going to be a college students fun gone wrong kind of story but it was not quite that at all. The main character, Abbie, is venturing out to college for the first time leaving a very sheltered world following the murder of her sister as a child. She has no friends and a lot of therapy. I wish the other characters in the story had been fleshed out more and the relationships between them and Abbie had been shown to change. I did like that the entire concept of 21 dares connected back to Abbie's past trauma. The book is more murder mystery/thriller than I expected.

[Bobbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thriller which starts with a home invasion in which a person was killed but the younger sister survived, and then the suspense mounts from there. I don't want to give too much away but it all comes to a head on the main character's 21st birthday. For her 21st birthday, her friends get her to play a game of "21 Dares" in which she must do a task for each dare she takes. Each one gets more risky. Check it out for a good read. I want to read more of Gatlin's books. Warning however some of it is graphic violence.

[Lirisha Tuladhar · Rating 3 out of 5]

And the book that sent my spines rattling off in the errie of night.. It was a bad idea really to read it at night.. The start was a murder.. the end was a murder.. the middle was all what next is coming thrill..
Though the actual plot was a bit not - so strong- plot- to -kill -someone.. Yet the entire way the story smoothed out with the dares... was daring readers to read ahead and get the chills...
Perhaps it wouldnt have been so scary if read in the day.. but certainly recommended book if you want to stay awake looking around for some sounds all night..

[Libby · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't waste your money, even if it's free

I admire authors who get their work out there and I don't like leaving a bad review for a book but this one has no redeeming qualities. Don't even get me started on the technical problems. Grammar, punctuation, lots of words broken up with a '-', birth-day, canned-ham...even a cheap editor would have helped. At first, the story struck me as YA, but the plot made no sense, in my-opinion. The protagonist faces her demons, but only an idiot would do the things she does. I'm really being mean here but the book just annoyed me. Sorry, JC.