Vee has always been behind the scenes. Whether it be the costume and makeup artist for her school’s plays or the shadow to her best friend, Sydney, Vee is comfortable away from the spotlight. Vee decides to play Nerve, the game of dares, but she isn’t sure if she’s cut out for it. But Nerve knows exactly how to keep her playing, tempting her with amazing prizes, the shoes she wanted, a hot partner, and much much more. Her partner, Ian, gives her the courage that she needs to keep going but the game is slowly getting deadlier and deadlier. How far will Vee go to win those prizes? Is she willing to put her own life at risk to win everything that her heart has desired?
Let me start by saying, I watched the movie before I read the book. Actually when I watched the movie I had no idea that there was a book. A couple weeks ago, I was browsing in the library when Nerve caught my eye. So I picked it up and decided to give it a shot.
The first thing that you are probably wondering is: was the book better than the movie? Yes and no. I feel like the book was better in the dares were given to Vee. The action and intensity of these dares was much better than the ones in the movie. Also the game had better structure or at least made more sense in the book than it did in the movie. The incentives to playing the game were much better in the book too. In general I would say that the book flushed out the details of the game much better than the movie was able to. On the flip side of this, the movie had a much better ending to the story. The reason that I did not like the ending to this book is because I feel like books that have a lot of action and are high in intensity should have a definite conclusion. There should be a sense of victory (for the heroes) and defeat (for the villains). This book did not deliver on that expectation. The ending was sort of floaty and abstract, in a life continues to suck but we got out kind of way. I mean I can understand why Jeanne Ryan wrote the ending as she did but I was not satisfied with it. The ending of the movie was much more conclusive and I liked that.
Another thing that can happen when you watch a movie prior to reading the book is your inability to visualize the characters as anyone other than the actors who played them. Thankfully, this did not happen to me as the Vee that I remembered from the movie and the Vee in this book were wildly different. I'm glad though because I wasn't constantly thinking of Emma Roberts while reading this book. The same thing goes Ian. When I visualized Ian while reading I never thought of Dave Franco.
Other than those two big things that can happen when you watch a movie prior to reading a book, there isn't much I can say about this book. Nerve started off a little slow but managed to pick up the pace and turn into a gripping story. The characters were well-written but nothing about them stood out to me, in a positive or negative way. If I had to describe them I'd say that they were average characters. This unfortunately includes the main characters which is not a good sign. But the fact that the characters were not memorable or highly special in any way, did not take away from my experience of reading this book.
Other than that, I liked this book for the action not for the ending. I liked the movie for the ending, not for the action. I am going to give Nerve 3 stars because the action in the book was great however the ending did satisfy me. I will say that I believe even if I had not watched the movie prior to reading the book, I would still be unhappy at the way that the book ended as I am not a fan of endings that refuse to take a side, where there is no definite conclusion. Now to finally answer the question that I'm sure you're asking yourself: Should I watch the movie or read the book? I can't believe that I am actually about to say this but, watch the movie. Apart from the fact that the details of the game are more flushed out in the book, the book does not have any features that will edge out the movie in this race. So watch the movie (added bonus of seeing Dave Franco :P), or if you want to read the book then watch the movie. I'm gonna go re-watch the movie, now that I've read the book!
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