Author: Megan Abbott
ISBN: 9781509855711
RRP: $29.99
Publication Date: 31 July 2018
Publisher: Picador – Pan Macmillan
Copy: Courtesy of the Publisher
Give Me Your Hand is the first book that I have read by Megan Abbott and it was certainly a mind-game read. I enjoyed the story right from the beginning, I found it intense but not gripping.
There is a lot to love about Give Me Your Hand, the suspense is well written and we have a dual timeline bringing the events of the past together with what’s going on now. It’s a slow and steady unfolding that kept me guessing.
Give Me Your Hand is set in a research lab where the sought after Dr Severin has won funding to study PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder. It’s a debilitating condition affecting 3-8% of menstruating women, a super severe form of PMS. Spots on the research team are limited and everyone in the lab wants to be chosen.
Kit is the only woman in the lab and she has worked hard to get to where she is, she feels she deserves the spot on the research team and that she must have an edge being the only woman.
This is a dual timeline story with a Then and Now that slowly come together to paint us a complete picture. Now, Kit is a driven young woman building a career in the sciences. Then, Kit was your average teen; until Diane Fleming started at her school and the two started spending time together.
Kit and Diane were close for much of their senior year but haven’t seen each other yet. They had an unusual friendship and when a huge secret was shared everything exploded. Their friendship was over but the drive that was been born for a scholarship spot with Dr Severin remained strong, it was something they had both been working towards.
Their lives moved in different directions until Diane walked into the lab in the days before the research team was announced and it brings back all of the high school angst Kit thought she had buried.
The mystery and suspense in this one certainly kept me guessing and all of the threads were deftly woven into a taut storyline that showed these people were connected and tied together in ways they didn’t necessarily realise. I am pretty sure some of the players knew exactly where all the connections were but it certainly wasn’t common knowledge. I was fascinated watching it all unfold and ticking off the connections and the history that had been hidden.
Another fascinating aspect was the lab politics and the nastiness hidden beneath the surface. People who worked together long days, every day, for years and always got on pretty well; as soon as they are in direct competition for very few sought after spots the claws start to come out. Just how far will they go to get what it is they want?
Abbott has planted a couple of deft twists that kept me guessing in this psychological thriller that expertly explored the depths of the mind while giving us a little taste of the research into PMDD. I had never heard of the disorder and I have to admit that it sounds like something that could have been cooked up by a savvy defence team. On finishing the book I did a superficial google search to discover that it is a real disorder and it is attracting attention for research to begin to understand, and hopefully manage the debilitating condition. Abbott shows how it could be twisted into a great defence but it is still a very real condition that deserves recognition and research.
Give Me Your Hand is a book that I enjoyed a lot, it kept me guessing and it had some very well placed twists that ensured I couldn’t put all the pieces together. Then when I started to put together a picture of the connections you start to make assumptions and then discover that isn’t necessarily the case either.
Interesting and thought provoking I would recommend this to readers with a love of the psychological side of the suspense, and not adverse to some gore. This was my first by Abbott but it wont’ be the last.
Megan Abbott can be found on Facebook and MeganAbbott.com.
Give Me Your Hand is published by Pan Macmillan and is available now through Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
Thanks to Pan Macmillan 20 of our Beauty and Lace Club Members will be reading Give Me Your Hand so please be aware that there may be spoilers in the comments below.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
‘Give me your hand’ is a fantastic fast paced thriller and I enjoyed every minute of it.
It centres around lab technician Kit, an overachiever from humble beginnings who’s dream is to be chosen as a member of an elite grant team working under the formidable Dr Severin.
There’s just one thing hanging over Kit, the secret she holds from her high school pal/rival Dianne. Dianne was a strange, emotionally detached girl who was similar to Kit in many ways (both champion cross country runners, high achievers and great at chemistry).
Kit hasn’t seen or heard from Dianne in years, until she turns up in Dr Severin’s lab and begins vying for one of the coveted grant team positions.
The book is set up in a ‘Now’ & ‘Then’ type scenario, making it easy to distinguish the present from the high school days.
When something bad happens in the lab, will Dianne once again force Kit to keep a secret, or will the truth, all of it, finally come out?
Megan Abbott has done a great job of creating troubled, interesting characters and keeping the momentum going throughout this whole book, while staying true to the technical side of the story with the chemistry lab and everything it entails.
Highly recommend this book, I loved every minute of it!
Give Me Your Hand goes back and forth between the past and present. A continuing storyline about PMS and menstruation means it will likely appeal more to females. The prose is very vague and it’s hard to get to know any of the characters. It’s all a bit foggy. This just adds to the spookiness of the story. A little bit slow at times and intense at others, in the end it all gets wrapped up in a neat little bow.
Thanks to Pan McMillan and Beauty and Lace for the chance to read my first novel by Megan Abbott.
This book took me a few chapters to really get into. I’m not sure what it was about the beginning but once I got into it I really enjoyed it!
The book alternates between present and past tense and is a story of friendship bound by secrets. I enjoyed the strong female characters and their dynamics. This isn’t a cushy lovely friendship story but more a friendship of necessity, bound by secrets and horrors that keep you guessing and some that don’t present themself to the very end. I felt the whole book had a sense of dread about it, you knew there was something big going on, there was more to the initial story and it kept you turning the page.
I look forward to reading more from Megan Abbott!
Give me Your Hand is an interesting delivered Thriller buy his author. Initially at first a slow delivery, but the pace speeds up as the story unravels. The author has delivered us intrigue and mystery within the pages. Giving us spurts of the past and now present we see the rilvary of sorts , and a friendship only adhered by secrets, but as the story goes forth , mystery builds within. It certainly has us wandering ..
I didn’t find it a wow factor thriller, it took over half way to get the rhythm flowing story wise. But would recommend to those liking intrigue within there stories with a different story line to boot. The lab factor and aspects behind it unique .
The characters are like able enough, but did find the connection with Kit and Dianne that compelling,
Thank you for selecting me to read give Me Your Hand written by Megan Abbott
This is the 1st book I have read from this author
Kit and Diane are the main characters in this book , the girls both love to run and both love science they push each other to the limit in school to get great marks
Diane yells Kit a terrible secret ( no spoilers ) that will rock their friendship
The girls / women meet up again later in life and are going to work together on a scientific project
This is the part of the book where things get interesting ( no spoilers )
The book is written in the past and present but is easy to follow
A very enjoyable book
This was my first Meg Abbott book and I am definitely keen to ready more by her. I was drawn into the book quickly and the topic of PMDD really interested me.
Kit and Diane are friends at school till a secret is shared which changes their friendship. I liked the flow between the current time and also the past time. Megan Abbott managed to do some interesting side stories which I enjoyed and a great twist at the end. I also love a good twist that I don’t see coming so that was awesome.
Unfortunately I didn’t like or relate to any of the characters, so that spoiled it a little for me. But overall I enjoyed reading it and recommend.
Thanks to Pan McMillan and Beauty and Lace for the chance to read this novel
Thanks so much to Beauty and Lace and PanMacmillian another exciting read. 3 1/2 out of 5 from me. I was a little unsure at the start of this as it felt a little unfamilar, starting in the lab, and reseach in some ways, but with very familar workplace interplays at other times. There is the intro with the flash back to the two girls Kit and Diane growing up from different backgrounds thrown together at school with the love of running and after Diane’s Dad dies and financial circumstances change.. Some of the awkwardness of Kit striving in science and only having an incidental outside life, that certainly was something with which I could emphatise with, as well as seeing the effortlessly stylish Diane grow up compared to somewhat awkward Kit ( I felt closer to Kit that Diane) .The ultracompetitive world of the lab and fiting for places and grants is brought alive on the page as the story develops in the now and as we try to find out what it was Diane told Kit she did as a child. When Diane is poached to work at the same lab Kit and Diane again are back together, bringing to mind those things Diane has told Kit, that Kit very much wants to forget (no spoilers). What about Diane and lab leader Severin? The story leads you to expect the reasons and facts to be one way, and some of those are true but actually you do really want to know if you are right! An interesting story and well developed, characters, that was most enjoyable.
Can you give me some questions I can ask my new book club about Give Me Your Hand? This is our first gathering and I want to have some questions to start the convo.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace for giving me the opportunity to read and review this gripping book.
I very much enjoyed this read which has twists and turns right to the end of the book.
I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys thrillers and will be on the look out for other Megan Abbott books to read.
This is the first book I have read by Megan Abbott.
It took me a while to really get into the story, as it is written in the Then & Now time periods, so jumps around abit. Not something I would normally read but in saying that once I got 1/2 way through the book I started to wonder what was behind the friendship between Kit & Diane.
The last few chapters where the story started to unfold kept me captivated & wanting to know what would happen next.
thank you